Under Construction: Glass Plate Negatives of A.V. Rabenau
“Rabenau was not alone in using glass plate negatives to capture images of railroad construction workers. From about 1870 to 1920, many photographers used fragile glass plates to portray daily life,” says Convertito. “Plates were sold in boxes, factory-coated with a gelatin emulsion of silver bromide, available through mail order or at stores in large villages such as Key West. The photographer loaded one negative at a time into their camera, made the exposure, and stored the negative until he or she developed it in a home darkroom.”
Under Construction: Glass Plate Negatives of A.V. Rabenau
“Rabenau was not alone in using glass plate negatives to capture images of railroad construction workers. From about 1870 to 1920, many photographers used fragile glass plates to portray daily life,” says Convertito. “Plates were sold in boxes, factory-coated with a gelatin emulsion of silver bromide, available through mail order or at stores in large villages such as Key West. The photographer loaded one negative at a time into their camera, made the exposure, and stored the negative until he or she developed it in a home darkroom.”