Joni Sternbach

SurfLand

November 5, 2009 - November 29, 2009

Joni Sternbach’s SurfLand is a collection of tintype portraits of surfers using the historic wet-plate collodion process. The photographs were shot on both coasts: Montauk’s Ditch Plains on the East Coast as well as Malibu, Del Mar and Rincon beaches in California. SurfLand is a chronicle and celebration of the people who inhabit regional surf spots across the nation.

Developed and fixed on location, the tintypes are the means by which Sternbach connects and interacts with her subjects. She writes:

“My moment with each surfer is a pause, as they pose at the water’s edge in a brief moment of stasis. Their boards become totems or talismans revealing their personality, while also helping them maintain their position for the long exposure.  Part theater and part craft, my use of this nineteenth-century process allows me to both capture time and slow it down. the animal, which is when l then photograph the animal´s reaction.”