10 Modern Tintype Photographers You Should Follow on Instagram

After recently buying 200 tintypes from the deep archives of estate sales, eBay, and Etsy auctions, I became transfixed by seeking out if there was still anyone making imagery using this 160-year-old process. I found a wide range of Instagram accounts ranging from those just starting out to those with thousands of followers. These are the top 10 tintype photographers that stood out with their compelling visuals and dedication to keeping this lost art alive.

Serge Romanov

Serge Romanov has reinvented tintypes from a foregone thought of the past to a modern masterpiece; his technical lighting skills give his tintypes a strong commercial edge compared to the soft, naturally lit tintypes you usually envision, with themes ranging from dark, sexual vixens to good vs. evil in his heroism series. Featuring alluring female muses encapsulating everything on the spectrum from angelic innocence to enchantresses with bondage fashions, Sergero is a hidden gem among tintype photographers with a relatively smaller following, but with an all-star portfolio.

Joni Sternbach

Over the past decade, Joni Sternbach, a fine art photographer living in Brooklyn, NY, has traveled around the world to create one-of-a-kind tintype portraits of contemporary surfers using the nineteenth century wet plate collodion process. In her stunning new monograph, Surf Site, Tin Type, Sternbach gathers the worldwide surfer community together in a series of fascinating portraits that celebrate surfing as a sport and way of life. Her portraits evoke a sense of ambiguity and timeless mystery.

Wow Productions

One of the newest members of the Instagram tintype community (barely two months old) is Wow Productions. Created and founded by Marco Chow, Wow Productions is a Hong Kong-based production house specializing in fashion and advertising. WOW Productions has a huge client list for its digital side of photography, but recently started up an Instagram page showcasing stunning fashion portraits. I'm sure they will continue to provide stellar content for us shortly.

Giles Clement

Josh Wool

Tintypes by Horst

Jan Grarup

Grarup has created compelling imagery over the course of his 25-year career photographing with many of history’s defining human rights and conflict issues. His tintype work takes a more fine art approach with deep contrasts, unveiling a stronger emotion and story from within his subjects.

Kari Orvik Tintype Studio

Kari has incorporated the wet plate collodion process into her photography for the last ten years, operating an entirely tintype focus business model. She was also a part of the San Francisco fan favorite, Photobooth, as a tintype photographer for two years of its operation. The part of the process Kari enjoys most aside from being able to create photos freely without being stuck in front of a computer screen is being able to meet the full spectrum of people who have visited her studio and the remarkable collaborations that have transpired.

Sean Hawkey

Sean Hawkey is well known for creating profoundly moving portraits of miners of SOTRAMI, a worker-owned and fair trade certified mining company in Peru. Capturing portraits during a demonstration in Lima about an illegal claim on their concession, his striking imagery shows the prolonged effect on the weary men that toiled in the silver mines for most of their lives. His dedication to using the tintype process in such a powerful documentary way is admirable. 

Andreas Reh

Andreas Reh is one of our international picks for the list with a killer portfolio of captivating headshots and breathtaking nude muses. These bare and raw tintypes make you feel an intimate connection to the subjects, as if you have known them for years.

Lead image used with permission of Joni Sternbach.