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Photographer Uses 166-Year-Old Technique To Shoot Kids, And The Result Is Haunting
Spanish artist Jacqueline Roberts swims against the tide, reviving 19th-century photography techniques in the digital era. Jacqueline's photography art mostly revolves around the psychological and emotional transition from childhood to adolescence, and the technique she uses further intensifies the eerily change, making the haunting photos look like something you'd find in your darkest dreams.
Wet plate photography (also known as the collodion process), is said to have been invented in 1851, almost simultaneously, by Frederick Scott Archer and Gustave Le Gray. Although the process required a portable darkroom, it combined desirable qualities of the calotype process (enabling an unlimited number of prints from a single negative) and the daguerreotype (creating a sharpness and clarity that could not be achieved with paper negatives). The technique quickly became really popular and was used for portraiture, landscape work, architecture, and other types of photography.
"For me, wet-plate children photography is a fascinating process on so many levels," Roberts told Film's not Dead. "From preparing the chemistry, cutting the glass, flooding the plate, developing and fixing to finally holding in my hands the beautiful photos. I love the ceremonial aspect of it, as much as the craft involved."
The self-taught artist often chooses kids as the subjects for her black and white photos but for other photo ideas and reasons than the majority of photographers. "I disagree with the common perception that sees children as 'cute-innocent- creatures'. I find this notion condescending and manipulative. What I love about them is their rawness, their fresh unawareness, their uncompromising ability to be as they are."
Probably the best result of Jacqueline's work is her brilliant book called Nebula.
More info: jacquelineroberts.com | Facebook | Instagram
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#1
Lynn Daley 8 years ago
Love how the left side of the face (and the freckles there) stand out so sharply from the rest of the portrait underscoring her clear eyed gaze and beauty.
Craig Weis 8 years ago
Wau~! She has to be a redhead. And she is drop dead gorgeous. Redheads are like kryptonite to men. Red-head-p...071a79.jpg 
Craig Weis 8 years ago
Wau~! she has to be a redhead and is drop dead gorgeous. redheads is like kryptonite to men. Red-head-p...ebe6ba.jpg 
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#2
lindsayaotter 8 years ago
Loving the eerie feel of the edges of the picture and then boom! That face those freckles! Amazing!!
Vesna Brnić 8 years ago
With that face expression it would be haunting no matter the technique.
#3
Melody Lanzatella 8 years ago
Piercing dark eyes and freckles. What an incredible and unique combination!
#4
Kim Lorton 8 years ago
Girls on the edge of becoming young women! Innocence and just the edge of restlessness.
#5
Lynn DeBeal 8 years ago
Conceptually beautiful, but also sexualizes the girl by her position, her dress being pulled up and undergarment showing. While the boys are a totally different tember. Longer pants. I think it has become so much the norm in this day and age most of us don't recognize it.
Sarah Blanche Brinsfield 8 years ago
She looks to have shorts on. Everyone has their own take.
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Sara L. 8 years ago
I feel like you're reaching. I'm betting she lets her subjects be as they are with only little direction, photographing the reality of the scene. I see nothing more than children that are bored on a hot summer day. It conveys innocence and the length of days to a youth, to me.
Amaranthim Talon 8 years ago
It's beautiful. And for those seeing sexual specters everywhere- as Freud supposedly said, "Sometimes a stick is just a stick." Stop injecting agendas into every damn thing people-
#6
Larissa McDonald 8 years ago
There is no such thing as a Native American princess. That is an American concept, we don't have royalty in tribes.
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#7
Evelyn Morgan 8 years ago
That's what I was thinking. You got it right on.
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lindsayaotter 8 years ago
I love the softness of the photo. You can really see the swirls on the plate.
Charles Laster 8 years ago
Now this one looks like one of the creepier kid ghosts in Japanese horror.
#8
#9
Kim Lorton 8 years ago
Her eyes look like she's seen too much of what is awful in this world, and sad. Very sad.
#10
Mermadic American 8 years ago
Does anyone else see the eyes..? There are like 3 or 4 just floating in the black.
Ronja Rövardotter 8 years ago
Exactly :-D am scrolling and thinking wow this one is beautiful...another beautiful...very nice...and suddenly wait WHAT? :-D most of these pictures are really really nice but this one is...well, i think i don't understand this one :-D
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#11
Evelyn Morgan 8 years ago
A haunting photo. He looks like he could be Mowgli from "The Jungle Book"
#12
#13
Vesna Brnić 8 years ago
"Give me back my chocolate ice cream or I'll shoot you with laser beam coming out from my eyes"
Afriði Hassan 8 years ago
at first look i thought this was the picture of the italian lady. reference: obsessed artist bring color in black and white pictures
#14
Veronica Kouwenhoven 8 years ago
Why would a child with bare upper body be sexualized? Only in the eyes of those who have a warped view of sexuality, perhaps. We are born naked, remember?
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#15
David Peters 8 years ago
This double exposure is hands down the most stirring in the collection. Beautifully done.
Kim Lorton 8 years ago
Sameness, at leaving behind childhood. Like the saying of we must all grow up, and leave behind childish things... and this child, isn't ready. I'm not sure the quote is verbatim, but that's a part of it!
#16
pikachu 8 years ago
Even if this child is a girl, at the age the child is, who freaking cares, no-one should care what someone you don't know and probably never
pikachu 8 years ago
All the comments are sexist around here! Sorry couldn't continue my replies
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Penni Hayes 8 years ago
Would this image be more acceptable if the child were male? (& @ this age, are we sure of the child's gender?)
Sara L. 8 years ago
I came to ask just this question because I'm fairly certain this is a boy.
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Jamie Bryant 8 years ago
Not exactly a pose while she seems to be under dressed for a female her age.
Mary Tonningsen 8 years ago
I think this child is very pretty, but androgynous. A boy is my best guess. But what does it matter?
#17
Kim Lorton 8 years ago
Seen too much as a child, and the eyes are already aged beyond his years..
#18
#19
Coti Luttrell 8 years ago
I remember photos like this of my mom and her older sisters playing outside in the summers.
#20
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#24
Philip Baptie 8 years ago
When one says "too sexualised" one sexualises. Just admire art for being art.
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Katt Taylor 8 years ago
Interesting, I saw it more as them being wrapped in imagination and dreams. Kim you seem to be having some negative thoughts about these images, perhaps you are projecting about something that has affected you more personally?
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What do you think ?
Daria B 8 years ago
"Photographer Shoots Kids Using..." That title will give me nightmares too. O_o (joke)
Wezbie 8 years ago
I think 'dreamy' may be more appropriate than 'nightmarish'. I love how this style gives a flowing movement to the images. Something you rarely see in modern photography. Too much of it looks set up and still for the perfect photo. These are, of course, set up too, but the feel of it isn't as superficial and you just get lost in them
Blue Cicada 8 years ago
Asserting that the eyes are photoshopped displays an ignorance of classic photography techniques. Study antique photos, find similar images.
Leah Forgy 8 years ago
These would be less haunting or sad like or creepy if any of the subjects were smiling. Just sayin'.
Blue Cicada 8 years ago
Smiling for photos was not "appropriate" in the original era of this photo technology.
Load More Replies... Janice Foster 8 years ago
Why on earth would these give me nightmares?! What an odd thing to say....
Daria B 8 years ago
"Photographer Shoots Kids Using..." That title will give me nightmares too. O_o (joke)
Wezbie 8 years ago
I think 'dreamy' may be more appropriate than 'nightmarish'. I love how this style gives a flowing movement to the images. Something you rarely see in modern photography. Too much of it looks set up and still for the perfect photo. These are, of course, set up too, but the feel of it isn't as superficial and you just get lost in them
Blue Cicada 8 years ago
Asserting that the eyes are photoshopped displays an ignorance of classic photography techniques. Study antique photos, find similar images.
Leah Forgy 8 years ago
These would be less haunting or sad like or creepy if any of the subjects were smiling. Just sayin'.
Blue Cicada 8 years ago
Smiling for photos was not "appropriate" in the original era of this photo technology.
Load More Replies... Janice Foster 8 years ago
Why on earth would these give me nightmares?! What an odd thing to say....
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