Rfotofolio is pleased to share the work of Amber Dietz.
Would you please tell us about yourself?
My name is Amber Dietz. I’m a photo-based artist and educator in Detroit, Michigan. I am the founder of Detroit Tintype, a tintype studio and workshop space located on Detroit’s East side. Along with my own artistic practice, I teach as a Professional Photography Faculty in the Digital Media Arts Department at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor.
As an artist, I am drawn to photography for its balance of scientific precision and visual creative expression. My practice focuses on historical and alternative photographic processes, with a particular emphasis on silver-based techniques such as gelatin silver printing, wet plate collodion, and platinum/palladium printing. For years, I’ve explored modern approaches to these historic methods, fascinated by how chemistry shapes the final image. More recently, I’ve been using these processes to explore the passage of time.
My camera of choice is an 8×10 Century Universal Folmer Graflex.
Who has had an influence on your creative process?
I’m inspired by photographers who combine found imagery with their own original photographs. Cindy Sherman’s most recent portrait series has also influenced me. I saw her exhibition when it opened in NYC last year and fell in love. This particular body of work uses new photographs she’s taken and photographs from her archive to make self-portraits. Her ability to construct identity and character continues to push me to think about how I build meaning within my own work.
What draws you to the wet plate collodion process?
I’m drawn to the wet plate collodion process because each plate, whether a tintype, glass
negative, or ambrotype, is truly one-of-a-kind. It isn’t a copy or a duplicate; it’s a singular object created in the very moment the subject or place was before the camera. In that way, the photograph becomes an artifact, a physical trace of a shared time and space. While the process can feel ‘instant’, it demands a deliberate pace, slowing down, being present, and making each decision with intention.
Please tell us about an image (not your own) that has stayed with you over time.
I’m not sure there’s a single image that has stayed with me over time, but I’m consistently drawn to 19th-century photographs from the early days of the medium, especially those that feel less formal and more experimental. I love seeing how people engaged with photography as a new technology, often with curiosity and playfulness. From William Mumler’s spirit photographs to early tintypes capturing friends in candid, unguarded moments, these images reveal both the wonder of the process and the human impulse to explore its possibilities.
What part of image‑making do you find the most rewarding?
While I love holding the finished plate in my hands, one of the most rewarding moments is
looking through the ground glass and composing the image. In that quiet, upside-down world, every small adjustment, shifting the camera a fraction or tilting the lens ever so slightly, can transform the final photograph. It’s a meditative part of the process where intention and intuition meet and sometimes, I think I could get stuck there for days and not even make the final photograph.
How do you work through times when nothing seems to work?
I remind myself that challenges are part of the learning process and will ultimately make me a better artist. Last year, while traveling, I faced baffling issues despite guidance from seasoned wet plate practitioners. After stepping away for a few days, I discovered the problem: unfamiliar, dim lighting conditions due to very bad rainy weather had led to severe underexposure and overdevelopment. Through troubleshooting and recreating the scenario, I found the cause. Now I can take that information with me moving forward in my practice.
What tools have you found essential in the making of your work?
Beyond the essentials like a camera, tripod, light source, chemicals, and a functioning
darkroom, the most essential tool for me is time. Even though the wet plate collodion process can be seen as an ‘instant’ photograph, the process takes time, planning takes time, and I’ve learned to give myself time to just think about the process and what I want to achieve.
Is there something in photography that you would like to try in the future?
I’d like to learn the Daguerreotype process. Not sure that I’ll become a full-fledged
Daguerreotypist, but I’d like to make a Daguerreotype in the future.
How does your art affect the way you see the world?
Working in slow, material-intensive processes teaches me to notice texture, light, and the
impermanence of moments. My practice has taught me to pause, to see beyond the visual
surface, and to value presence over perfection. It has also deepened my interactions with
people. Whether I’m making portraits for someone who wants an original tintype or answering questions from curious passersby while I’m working in the field, the process naturally invites conversation, connection, and shared curiosity.
What’s on the Horizon?
This summer I created a number of glass negatives for printing-out processes, and over the
next few months I plan to focus on making albumen prints from them. I also intend to japan my own plates for the wet plate process. In addition, I have events and tintype pop-ups scheduled, offering people the chance to sit for their own one-of-a-kind tintype portraits.
Thank you Amber,to learn more about the work of Amber Dietz please visit her site by clicking on her name.
