Photographs made the way no one else makes them.
Tintype · Platinum & palladium · Gilded vellum — five decades of hand-made imagery, taught and made in New Mexico.
Three ways to make an image no one else can.
Alternative process photography — where chemistry, hand-work and chance meet. Nothing here is mass-produced.
Wet-plate, poured by hand
A direct positive on metal, shot while the plate is still wet. No negative, no reprint — a single, unrepeatable image.
See the tintypes →
Precious metal, sun-developed
Hand-coated and printed in daylight — a matte, tonal print with an archival life measured in centuries.
See the platinum prints →
Pigment and gold, together
My invention, re-invented here: pigment on translucent vellum, gilded with Dutch gold leaf from the reverse. Luminous, archival, unmistakable.
See gilded vellum →Photographs that glow from within.
Hand-gilded vellum botanicals in limited editions — every size an edition of 20, signed and numbered.
In two weeks, they made this.
I sent kits and full course access to photographers across New Mexico and beyond — most had never gilded a thing. Two weeks later, their prints were in juried competitions and selling.
“The process expanded my artistic practice in ways I didn’t expect.”
“Within two weeks, I had work accepted into a juried competition.”
“I’ve already sold pieces. The enthusiasm is real — I want to try this on everything.”
Five decades. Three processes. One teacher.
I studied at RIT and have spent more than fifty years behind the camera. Today I split my time between my New Mexico studio — just outside Albuquerque — and teaching photographers how to make images the slow, hand-made way.
- ★ Invented the Gilded Vellum process
- ★ One of the few masters teaching tintype and platinum/palladium
- ★ Decades of commercial work in New York and Philadelphia before going fine art
Commission one. Or learn to make one.
Commission a portrait
A tintype or platinum portrait, made by hand in the studio — one-of-one, and yours alone.
Book a session →Learn the process
The online Gilded Vellum Course, and in-person workshops in tintype and platinum & palladium — taught step by step.
Browse workshops →Get first notice of workshops and new work.
Join the list →Studio in Rio Rancho, New Mexico — just outside Albuquerque · kevin@blackinc.net · 505-410-5072