Featured Wierd photos

The guy is on the reverse of a thin sheet of mica, painted black behind him, a piece of scrap paper behind that, Japanned steel behind that.

The woman is barely visible. She appears to be directly on the surface of the japanned steel. She has a texture like crackled old paint.

 

Is there a question?? HIS outfit sure looks weird!!!!

 

I had never run across a photo on mica before. Not finding much on the googles.

The back plates appear to have the same illegible stamp on them. Probably same photographer but different processes.

 

Terry, found this site http://www.freestylephoto.biz/the-lure-of-collodion-ambrotypes
that at least mentions (slightly) the use of mica in ambrotypes - mentioned in the next bit of text after the 3 horizontal pics that has the banjo.....

 

I'd swear I've seen him. Has that photo been on here before?

 

No. But I got the same deja vu when I saw it too.

Most of the blurriness is in the original

 

Could he be wearing a zouave uniform ?

 

He appears to be wearing a smock-frock.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smock-frock

Debora

 

I'm finding some sources that indicate that the printing on mica was mostly done during the 1850s. (Although some more modern photographers have probably done it, too.)

Encyclopedia from 2013:
https://books.google.com/books?id=g...AQgqMAI#v=onepage&q=ambrotype on mica&f=false

From 1865:
https://books.google.com/books?id=7...AQgsMAM#v=onepage&q=ambrotype on mica&f=false

This was from 1899 and refers to the process being used in the 1860s:
https://books.google.com/books?id=h...AEIOzAF#v=onepage&q=ambrotype on mica&f=false

An 1877 mention of the use of mica, mentioning reasons it was not ideal for photography:
https://books.google.com/books?id=s...AQ6AEIMzAF#v=onepage&q=collodion mica&f=false

 

The photo of the woman sounds like a tintype (called during the period either a ferrotype or a melainotype). Sometimes the emulsion cracks and that is why you see the texture that way. The cracking and the darkness of the image make that one a bit less desirable to collectors than some other tintypes would be.

 

The collodion used for the woman's photo is quite different looking than all other tintypes I've seen. I can't say whether it's a difference in its makeup or the fixing process. She had a lot of buildup on the inside of the covering glass that probably came from the photo.

 

Strange! I know that the old glass can do something that some collectors call "weeping" and that is not a good thing. I'm not sure if that is the same as what you saw, though. I usually hear of it happening with daguerreotypes.

Something I just thought of... is the glass touching the surface of the photo? It does not appear to be, from your picture above. And it should not be touching. It should be above the mat. Sometimes people have taken them apart in the past and put them back together incorrectly. I recently had somebody fix that problem with a daguerreotype. The glass was touching the image. Although I sometimes take these apart myself I didn't want to mess with it because it was a dag and their surfaces are extremely delicate and easily scratched.

 

I found an article from the George Eastman House about the glass deterioration. From what you have said it doesn't sound like that is what is happening to yours, but am including just in case.

http://notesonphotographs.org/index.php?title=Glass_Deterioration

 

That one had the matte between the image and the glass. The matte is stuck to the edge of the image. The filth was only in the cutout of the matte.

The mica one was directly behind the glass but the image on the mica is on the backside.