Skate Soul

Old-school photography gets a new look.

In his stunning tin-type prints, Carbondale, Colorado-based photographer and longtime EO collaborator David Clifford has perfected the art of bringing real vintage beauty into the saturated age of social media filters. “I started shooting tin types to slow down and get back to what I loved most about photography,” says Clifford. The wet plate collodion process, which dates to the nascent days of photography in 1851, requires exposing and then developing the photograph immediately after on glass in the field. “There’s a sense of mystery and a certain amount of serendipity when you work in collodion. I love pushing the envelope with the medium. Portraits are wonderful, but being able to produce lifestyle and action and other aspects of photography on tin is super cool and has sparked my creative fire.” Here, Clifford shot local skater Nolen Johnson at his home hillside skate ramp. To get this shot, he spent four hours setting up 10 Profoto lights on the hill, assembling a portable darkroom on the Johnson’s lawn and shooting five plates. Nolen’s father Chris runs the Bonedale Skate Revival at Carbondale’s The North Face Skate Park, an event that’s now in its eighth year and continues to grow with support from the community. —Doug Schnitzspahn