Viva Brighton Issue #28 June 2015

photography
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Sean Hawkey
Old-method portrait photographer
Photography as we know it is almost 200 years old,
and whilst the technology has changed, the concepts
behind image making have remained largely the same.
Documenting and storytelling is still at the heart of
taking photos, even with the introduction of megapixels
and Instagram. Amongst all this there are a handful of
photographers working in the old ways. So, in keeping
with this month’s theme of ‘vintage’, Miniclick speaks to
one such photographer.
The process that you work with dates back
to 1851... It uses chemistry to make metal plates
light sensitive with silver nitrate. You end up with
a photo that’s silver on metal, known as a tintype.
We still have tintypes from 150 years ago, and the
plates I produce will easily last that long. I don’t
believe that my digital images will last that long.
How does this process change the way you
interact with your subjects? The chemistry
is slow; the exposures are normally around ten
seconds. It’s not easy for people to sit still that
long, so I hold the back of their head with a special
brace. My shutter is a hat that I take off the lens
and I time the exposure with an old stopwatch. A
ten-second exposure records as much of a person
as a ten-second video, and though it’s a still, you
can see that in the image. The results are soulful,
intense, revealing portraits. You can’t sustain the
sort of vain expressions that people often do with
selfies, I think that’s a good thing. The image you
get is reversed, it’s what you see in the mirror,
there’s no negative, it’s taken straight onto the
plate and because the chemicals are only sensitive
to warm light and UV - not the light spectrum we
see with our eyes - the picture is never what we
see normally, so it’s always slightly surprising. It’s a
unique look, and often has imperfections. I think
everyone finds imperfection much more interesting
than perfection. Unless you’re Swiss.
Tell us a bit about your visit to Peru. I took my
kit to silver mines in Peru last year and spent a few
days underground taking portraits of miners, and
for the photographic chemistry I used the silver
they mined. I can take about one image every 15
minutes, but the images are developed on the spot,
so the miners saw their portraits emerge from the
chemicals, and they loved it.
You’ve travelled a lot in your time. Do you
still feel the same enthusiasm when you’re
photographing in Brighton? I’ve worked in over
50 countries but I was born and bred in Brighton.
Photographing people in Brighton means a lot to
me (the photos shown over the following pages
are all of Brighton people), and I think it means
more to me because I’ve travelled so much. It’s a
study of where I’m from, and, in a way, who I am.
Jim Stephenson of Miniclick, miniclick.co.uk
www.hawkey.co.uk
Portrait of Sean by Peter Høvring
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