Sean Hawkey was fed up with sitting at a computer to process his photos. He wondered, in an age when there are hundreds of millions of digital cameras out there, how could he be different? That got him thinking about the history of photography, which in turn led him to learning the wet plate process.
“I like the idea of leaving the computer behind and producing a photo without any digital technology at all,” he said. “I found it very satisfying to go back and look at the craft of producing photographs.”
Then he took it one step further. Like a 19th century explorer, he packed up five crates of gear, including 40-odd pounds of plates, and trekked to a Peruvian gold and silver mine, where he set up a mobile darkroom and used silver nitrate from the mining process to make portraits of the miners. It’s a meta, artisanal move, one that resulted in exquisite images under conditions that left little margin for error.
The idea, as Mr. Hawkey refined it, was to highlight the work being done at the Sotrami mine, part of the Fairtrade Foundation’s network, which supports fair wages and safe working conditions. The mine, he said, had made great progress in worker rights and had abolished child labor.
Before he traveled there, he first had to teach himself the process, as well as gather various pieces of gear.
“You can’t just go to a shop and buy it all,” said Mr. Hawkey, who lives in Brighton, England. “You need items from all over the world. I got a lens that dates to 1867 from France, and a large wooden camera with bellows from the Ukraine.”
He then practiced in Brighton, learning the delicate steps to using wet plates, from preparing the emulsion, quickly making the exposure and then processing it on the spot. The slightest mistake, in chemistry or temperature, would send him back to square one.
Once in Peru, Mr. Hawkey found some more basic logistical issues. It took two weeks to liberate his chemicals from customs. Then he had to haul everything to the mining camp, mostly by pickup. He set up a studio at the mouth of the mine, a sight that the locals found both fascinating and hilarious.
“I was in bed one night when I heard a knock on my door,” he said. “There were four policemen there. I knew there were security issues because the mine produces gold and silver. One of the policemen said: ‘We hear you are doing photos of the miners. Can you take some of us, too?’ So, I did.”
For someone who yearned to get away from the instant gratification of digital, Mr. Hawkey found the wet plate process was just the thing. Although he took his own reagents, he was able to make his emulsion using silver nitrate from the mine’s own laboratory. Processing the plate presented other challenges, as he raced the clock. To slow the developer, he improvised a way to stop including and fogging: He mixed in a cola drink.
“I used Inca Kola, straight,” he said. “I was so happy. People thought it was hilarious that I was using Inca Kola to help develop.”
Exposures were long — we’re talking film with an ISO of 1 — but that worked in Mr. Hawkey’s favor.
“What I like about this slow photography is people can’t sustain any vanity or a practiced pose, since it takes 15 seconds for an exposure,” he said. “You get a deeper, more insightful photo of a person’s character. They’re quite soulful.”
The subjects’ faces attest to their lives, with furrows and wrinkles that underscore decades of toil. Some of them had started as children (although the Sotrami mine no longer uses under-age labor), and it shows.
“They have fantastic faces,” Mr. Hawkey said. “The mine makes you old. They go up and down 400-meter ladders carrying 50-kilo sacks on their backs.”
One of his portraits has already been selected for the Royal Photographic Society’s biennial. And later this year, the work will be shown in London in support of the efforts of the Fairtrade Foundation.
“There is a big campaign where they are trying to get people to buy only fair trade rings,” Mr. Hawkey said. “Marriage is a sacrament, and you don’t want to begin that using something produced by people who work in conditions of slavery and exploitation. You want it to be produced by people who have a chance in life.”
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