Jody Ake creates portraits, nudes, still lifes and landscape images using the wet collodion process, an historic photographic technique which involves using a large format camera and glass plates.
Invented in 1851, the method entails coating a glass plate with collodion and exposing the plate while it is still wet. The end result are ambrotypes, appearing on glass
in the form of a negative until backed by black velvet, thus rendering the positive image.
Ake is one of a handful of contemporary artists who have revived this photographic method, hand-mixing all of the necessary chemicals for each and every exposure.
He holds a MFA from the University of Oregon and a BFA from the College of Santa Fe.
He currently lives and works in Portland, Oregon.
