Meet Eric Retterbush | Tintype Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Eric Retterbush and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Eric, what is the most important factor behind your success?

“Someday, I will be great” A simple open ended sentence from a journal some 20 years ago. I don’t know what I was envisioning I would be “great” at on that particular day. But I have come up with thousands of different things to try to be great at since then. I still believe I will be great at something, just as I did that day. Whether that be becoming a professional sports athlete or making a great grilled cheese sandwich for your loving partner. Greatness, I have found, comes in all forms. And it need not be that one day I will be actually be great at something, only that I believe I will be and strive everyday towards that goal.

I practice one of the earliest forms of photography that creates a photograph that is anything but perfect. When striving after greatness, it perhaps is a bit easier when you their is no way of creating a perfect photo! I create tintypes or ambrotypes, metal or glass images made with pure silver. My photos are a hardened silver reflection of the world as seen through my 170 year old lenses. And like a reflection in a pond with the slightest bit of wind, they are slightly less perfect than real life. Dust falls onto my still wet plate and creates small comet like structures in the image. Swirls and waves from chemicals flowing back and forth create textures upon hardening of the photo. My fingerprint remains from transferring the plate from one area to the other disturbing the image below. In short, I make flawed work. But their can certainly be a success in our flaws. The success of any one plate can be found in the mantra of my hands-on process and the purposeful execution of the details. I am not saying I can’t make a unsuccessful photo, I make plenty! But when it all comes together is rarely of my own doing, it is the flaws that compliment the desired subject matter creating a wonderful medley of motive and serendipity.

that has since turned into a daily mantra. I knew I would be great then, and I still do believe I will, I just didn’t know what I would be great in and perhaps still do not! This could play out a thousand different ways, from professional soccer player, to travel adventure guide, to making the perfect grilled cheese.

This plays out a thousand different ways, In truth it doesn’t matter what form my greatness comes to fruition in. It is simply that I both believe I will achieve greatness

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I have been described as a mad scientist, an alchemist, and a magician with my photography. They are all partly true. It all starts with the chemistry and I put a lot of effort into the unique recipes for the multiple chemicals I use to create these wonderful silver plates. Secondly, this process requires a good amount of technique which only comes with practice, many years of practice. Next, one must understand light or more specifically, light that this process uses which unfortunately isn’t the same wavelengths that we humans can see. Lastly, like most successful photographers, one must be able to have a keen artistic eye and the means of finding and then using equipment often only found in antique stores to accomplish the unique visions of the artist. If everything goes well, the resulting silver image on a metal plate is astoundingly sharp in resolution with plenty of character playfully decorating the edges. It is as tactile and as beautifully unique as an original painting.

As you can imagine, this process is not an easy one. The most seasoned experts are continuously humbled by the many hundreds of ways to make a mistake. This makes that perfect image even more elusive and beyond an obsession for the likes of those willing to chase it. I am not proud of much from my first few hundred or even thousands of plates. Certainly a handful were nostalgic in character, but were heavy on luck and light on skill. But it was in those plates, I was unraveling the mystery of the chemical dreaminess I was capable of. And each failure left a teaching point for my next plate. I often say, my greatest plate will be my next one.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
In addition to my photo career, I am a seasoned tour guide of the southwest and beyond. Flagstaff Arizona has been home since 2008. It all starts downtown with Flagstaff. Great nightlife, an underrated art scene and plenty of great culinary options. Some of my favorites spots are Firecreek Coffee, The Tourist Home and Red Curry. In all honesty I could name 20 more that I frequent regularly. It’s always been hard to stand out in the art scene in Flagstaff with so many great creators in our community. The Coconino Center for the Arts, MOCAF and The Art Loft are a few that come to mind but don’t forget about all the great Native American artists in addition to many fine art photographers and southwest painters littering the galleries in town.

For the more adventurous Flagstaff packs a punch for a lot of outdoor sports, Mt. Elden trail systems mountain biking is a rocky paradise. The San Francisco Peaks hold backpacking gems in the summer and backcountry skiing bliss in the winter. Or if climbing is your jam, Flagstaff holds strong especially in the bouldering spots. For a more leisurely day, we have plenty of space in the forest for walking your dog, hanging out with kids in what is one of the a largest Ponderosa pine forests anywhere.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
The type of photography that I practice may be new to us in 2022 but this was the main form of photography 170 years ago. I always joke that if I was a tintype photographer from 1870, I would be run out of the building for how dirty my work is. Where as we love and embrace the imperfections, these photographers created nearly flawless plates that still stand today as the golden standard we in this field chase after. I would love to thank the Wet Plate Collodion pioneers all over the world from then and now. As well as Fredrick Scott Archer who invented this process in 1851.

Website: www.ericretterbush.com

Instagram: @EricRetterbush

Image Credits
Shelby (Individual) Abby and Will (couple) Eric (Self portrait) Jeremy and Sela (Father and Daughter)