Second Lives Project : Ambrotypes of Avatars

Sowa Mai Ambrotype by Susan E. Evans

Would you like to participate in an art project? Please send me a screen shot of your avatar(s) with their name, world or game and location “inworld.” I plan on making an ambrotype from the images as part of my project Second Lives. (Susan E. Evans)


Jimmy Branagh Ambrotype by Susan E. Evans


◦ What is needed: Full screen captures! Don't crop them as Susan will need to crop the images to fit the glass plates. If you crop them yourself she risks running out of image to cover the plate.


◦ How: Classic portrait style. Head shots, torso shots or full body shots are good. Don't send action captures. Static poses are best.


◦ When choosing your color palette, keep in mind that yellow hues will turn out black and fine white details will not show up if much of the image is light.


◦ Avatars in all virtual worlds welcome. This is an ongoing project. There is no deadline.


◦ Send your uncropped image and info (avatar name, world or game, and location inworld) to:
evans(at)oakland(dot)com


Dekka Raymaker Ambrotype by Susan E. Evans

The ambrotype (from Greek ambrotos, "immortal") or amphitype is a photograph that creates a positive image on a sheet of glass using the wet plate collodion process. (Wikipedia)

We live in a time where more people are using the digital frontier to entertain, escape and connect. It used to be that the ambrotypist would travel the frontier in their wagons and photograph those living on the fringes of civilization. Nearly 160 years later, I travel the new frontier of online communities, photographing those paving the way. While the inhabitants of these non-physical communities and games do not go there physically, they are often able to manipulate and control their online incarnation: creating an abject presence of themselves. This project creates both a tangibility and history to the 'lives' of these inhabitants who, by design, do not know or have either. The ambrotype images make a tangible manifestation of the intangible persona while simultaneously showing the death of that moment.


-- Susan E. Evans (more)

Here's a great look at the hands-on process of wet plate photography as practiced by fine art photographer Sally Mann:



To see more ambrotypes of avatars made by Susan E. Evans look here