Who We Are
Silver Hand is a mobile photographic studio offering on-site tintype and Polaroid portraits.
Part portrait studio, part traveling darkroom, Silver Hand brings professional lighting and hands-on photographic processes to events, gatherings, and unexpected places.
The project takes inspiration from the itinerant photographers of the 19th century, who traveled from town to town offering their services and making portraits wherever they went. We carry that spirit forward, adapting the traveling studio to the present day.
Our aim is simple: to make thoughtful, handmade photographs and share the experience of creating them with more people.
FAQs
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Tintypes are a 19th century photographic process - one of the earliest forms of photography. A metal plate is sensitized with silver nitrate, loaded into a camera, and exposed.
Each plate produces one image, so no two plates are the same.
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A metal plate in sensitized with a light sensitive silver. Then it’s loaded into the camera, our model (you) will sit for a portrait, we expose the plate then in the darkroom develop and fix it. From start to finish the process takes about 15-20 minutes. Leaving you with a handmade portrait on metal.
Tintypes are archival and are often family heirlooms that are passed down through generations.
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Wear anything you’d like! Some people want to dress in vintage clothes to mimic the early portraits taken in this process. Your every day clothes are also a great choice to represent yourself and your taste. No matter your stylistic choice, keep in mind your image will be mirrored - so text will be reversed.
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Silver stained hands is a telltale sign of a tintype photographer.
It’s common for tintype artists to get silver nitrate on their hands when coating a plate, resulting in hands stained with silver.