Surf Portraits of an Artist
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The Duke never went to New England.. In fact, he never went north of New York City. But starting May 16, Massachusetts will get a taste of the vintage style with a modern twist, when SurfLand -- the first solo museum exhibition of photographer Joni Sternbach – opens at Salem’s Peabody Essex Museum, presenting more than 40 portraits of surfers of shot in ‘tintype’ a 19th-century technique little changed since its invention.
Tintype is a wet-plate technique where chemicals are hand-applied, exposed and developed before the plate dries. The chemistry is slow, requiring utter stillness on behalf of the subject for two or three seconds. Only the waves move evocatively around their ankles, giving the images an otherworldly quality. At the place where sea and sand meet, Sternbach’s subjects stand like ocean creatures briefly alighted on land before slipping back into the surf. Captured on the shores of San Diego, Santa Cruz, and Montauk, New York, the combination of historic process and contemporary subject is a dynamic one, yielding direct, timeless, one-of-a-kind images of individuals standing on the verge of sea and land.
“Surfers came and found me,” says Sternbach, who discovered that her wooden, 19th-century-style view camera and portable darkroom on the beach attracted a range of subjects, young and old, beginner and pro.
The combination of contemporary and historic extends to the presentation of SurfLand images accompanied by a selection of PEM tintypes from the 1860s through the 1890s, including portraits of Civil War soldiers and members of the Wampanoag tribe.
“I’m thrilled that the Peabody Essex Museum will introduce its new photography program with a debut of this powerful body of work,” said PEM Curator of Photography, Phillip Prodger. “Through Joni Sternbach’s lens, relationships between surfers, their boards and the landscape are shown with a primal grace.”
Surfland will stay on display at the Peabody Essex Museum through October 9. Click here for more info.
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