The Cased Portrait

I have been a photographer in Kansas City specializing in portrait photography for almost 30 years. I have filled countless hard drives with innumerable photos, all with a process that has become increasingly fast, efficient and digital. Modern cameras are truly remarkable tools, capable of rendering tack sharp, full color, high resolution digital photos in milliseconds. But lately I have found myself wanting to take a slower and more deliberate approach to creating portraits. Instead of generating hundreds of images and then spending hours editing them on the computer, I want to slow down and be more intentional about the photographs I make.

The Cased Portrait is my opportunity to do that.

For this project I will look back to some of the original techniques used in early photography through the wet-plate collodion process. Developed in the 1850s, the process involves preparing photosensitive chemistry, coating plates of glass or metal, then exposing and processing them while they are still wet. I have already learned much about this process alongside experienced practitioners and have successfully made plates of my own. I am now ready to move beyond experimentation and create my own sustained body of work.

Each exposure requires preparation, patience, attention and time. Each finished tintype is completely unique. The object created in the camera becomes the finished piece. Not a reproduction, but a singular, one-of-a-kind photograph.

Each portrait will be housed in a case inspired by the decorative cases once used to protect these types of photographs. Instead of sourcing reproductions, I will be designing and building my own. Using silicone molds, individual cases will be cast and assembled with decorative mats and cover glass. I want the finished photograph to feel precious in a way that photographs rarely do these days. The case gives the photograph weight and importance. It says that what is inside is worth protecting and keeping.

I plan to make at least six 4×5 contemporary portraits of people from in and around Kansas City. The project will take place primarily at Cap Gun Studios in Kansas City’s West Bottoms between September 2026 and March 2027. Grant funding will support the chemistry, plates and photographic materials as well as the mold-making, casting and finishing supplies needed to create the cases.

The process becomes less about producing many possibilities and more about deliberately creating one thing. I’m not interested in reenactment photographs or simply reproducing the look of antique photography. I want to bring everything I have learned from a career making portraits into a slower and more deliberate process, one where the craftsmanship involved in making a photograph matters as much as the photograph itself.

I also want other people to experience that process. I will document and share what I have learned and the techniques I use in making the photographs and cases through my existing studio, professional networks and social media. Toward the end of the project I plan to have a public presentation at Cap Gun Studios where people can see the finished portraits, handle the cases and watch a wet-plate photography demonstration.

After spending so much of my career watching photography become faster, easier and increasingly disposable I find myself excited by the idea of slowing down, becoming more deliberate and creating fewer photographs that are meant to last.

Instagram @paulandrewsphotography