Local Artist Spotlight: Mel’s Alternative Images
Mel with her camera in front of Mel’s Alternative Images (Photo by Timothy Harriman)
Timothy’s column, Local Artist Spotlight, shows the ‘why’ behind a local artist and their space. Timothy takes readers into the artist's studio to explore their process.
Located on Chapline Street in Wheeling's Centre Market is a small 10 foot by 20 foot photography studio. It is the “home base” of Melody Rae Petras’ artistic passion – specifically analog photography. Melody works with film, VHS, and tintypes.
“I like film and analog because it feels real, the bare bones of photography,” Melody said. “Modern photography is so easy with a digital camera. You can take thousands of pictures and remove the bad shots. I like to know how things work, how to control the moment and make something beautiful that is unique and one of a kind. There is beauty everywhere and I like capturing that. I want to be around beautiful things and remember beautiful things, and I hope that other people will remember them too.”
“I've always been interested in photography, ever since I was a little girl. I kind of loved it more than I loved music. I used to be inspired by the National Geographic magazines that my parents would get. I'd never seen anything like it before and I knew that this is true photography.”
When I asked what advice she has for those interested in learning analog photography, Melody said “I would suggest getting an old school camera where it has all of the dials and you can change things on it. It's completely manual. That way you can learn how to shoot photography and how to control the photo itself.”
“You don't really need to go to school for a lot of things, you can just start doing them and make the mistakes and learn. It takes some money and effort, but it's going to take way less money and way less effort if you just practice and teach yourself instead of going to school.”
“I learned everything off of YouTube and books from the library and some other people that I've run into. There is a network of people that will help you online as well. I have to give a shout out to Joseph Wyman, who is another tintype artist from Pittsburgh.”
Next I asked about tintypes and how they are different from what we know as modern photography.
Melody explained that “it slows down basically what we know as photography today, one picture can take up to 15 to 20 minutes to take from start to finish. It starts with an aluminum plate. They used to do it on glass before they moved to tintypes. I have various chemicals that I use. I put collodion on the plate, and I get an even coating that acts as a sticky substance. Then it goes into a silver bath tank so that the silver has something to stick to, and with this method I'm creating film.”
“The plate is put into the back of my large format camera. I take the shot. The shot is instant because I use a strobe light. Then I develop it in the dark room, that turns it into a negative, and people get to see the negative change from a negative to a positive. That is one singular image, it cannot be copied, it can't be duplicated.”
“If you want, I can make scans and do prints, but you can never copy that exact image to its perfect likeness again onto another tintype.”
Melody can also preserve memories on VHS, converting them to computer files. She is available to film weddings and events and can set up her tintype photo booth anywhere it is wanted. If you’re interested in having a tintype photo taken, you can schedule with Melody at melsaltimages.com.
