Photographer winding back the hands of time

Photographer winding back the hands of time Last fall, he spent a week around and about Harpers Ferry, W. He illustrated an article written by Tony Horwitz, author of the classic "Confederates in the Attic" and the new book "Midnight Rising," on John Brown's raid. , and Antietam, Md. , shooting wet plate for the June/July issue of National Geographic Traveler. But he's not one-dimensional. But like his tutor, Szabo admires the rustic life style of the past. And if you want to see him get fired up, dial back the clock to 1861 and talk with him about Carleton Watkins. ". 19th-CENTURY INSPIRATION Szabo stumbled upon Wat-kins' work on a lunch break when he walked across the street in Washington to the National Gallery of Art, and discovered an exhibit about the 19th-century phenom. Szabo was smitten. Szabo has created mammoth-plate (18- by 22-inch) images of natural landmarks such as Cathedral Rock that look just like 19th-century originals. Szabo documented the 200 re-enactors along the historic route (bit. He volunteered, Hodge recalls. "From that moment on, I have had the good fortune to be associated with one of the nicest, most talented, intelligent, good-hearted folks around," he says. Will Dunniway of Corona, Calif. "He is, in my opinion, the very best historical photographer of our time-every bit as good, if not better than his hero Carleton Watkins," Dunniway says. Don't believe him. And when National Geographic devoted most of a 2005 issue to Civil War battlefield preservation a few years ago, Szabo shot the cover image, a powerful portrait of a bearded re-enactor. "There are a lot of people who get more exposure, but Bob is a true artisan. " (See on. com/ghostscw for slideshow. But while Szabo, 60, is proud of his work, he doesn't brag. Even his website's title, The Wet Plate Collodion Photography of Robert Szabo, is straightforward. In camp, he sleeps on a wood-and-canvas cot. Re-enactor Rob Hodge of Northern Virginia, the main character in Tony Horwitz's nonfiction book "Confederates in the Attic," credits Szabo with much of the success of his 1998 Chancellorsville Preservation March, which raised nearly $40,000 to help preserve the 99-acre McLaw's Wedge along State Route 3, now part of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. "His wet-plate photo obsession is an interesting blend of art, science and history that does well to evoke emotion from the black-and-white images. Working in the field, as he did this month at the Battle of Harris Farm re-enactment in Spotsylvania County, Szabo pours collodion-a flammable solution of cellulose nitrate-onto a glass plate, tilting the excess back into the bottle. Having already composed the image with his camera, he immerses the plate into silver nitrate, loads it into a plate holder and into the camera, then exposes, develops and fixes the plate. The process was discovered in 1851 by Frederick Scott Archer, an Englishman, producing some of photography's first top quality duplicates, or negatives. Szabo's methods and gear-a wooden view camera, a wooden wet-plate holder and a wooden tripod-are largely the same as used by photo pioneers Carleton Watkins, Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner and Timothy O'Sullivan. A RIGOROUS CRAFT Nearly 150 years later, Szabo walks in his predecessors' footsteps and shares some of their hardships. " That experience, and the realization that he needed to do something different to stay committed to "the Civil War stuff," convinced him to try emulating Coffey. "Within a couple of months, I went to John's farm in upstate New York, took a one-day lesson and sold my musket, my uniform," Szabo remembers. "I thought it really, really looked period. ' There was a big long Union line, with smoke coming up behind the troops. And I was in it!" he recalls. Szabo" and "Tintypes," on the sides of his 18- by 18-foot canvas studio. When the Jack Daniels distillery in Lynchburg, Tenn. Szabo's interest was sparked by a photograph of a troop formation that Coffer took during the 135th anniversary event for the Battle of Antietam, at which Szabo was a re-enactor. "I was just, 'Oh my gosh. Similarly, Steve Wilson of Kansas City describes Szabo as "a caring person," noting that he hosts, at his own expense, one of the few websites for wet-plate photographers. "He's a rare person who deserves much, much more recognition than he's received," Wilson says. Coffer specializes in tintypes, the type of inexpensive portraiture popular with soldiers during the Civil War. Szabo makes digital scans of some of his tintypes and keeps a gallery of his work on his iPhone, his 24 hours a day 7 days a week link to the world. com, for history buffs. An iPad version of the piece is planned, with more images and audio of Szabo talking about the wet-plate process. Photographer winding back the hands of time Trade News selected by Local Linkup on 02/06/2012