Long before smartphones could capture thousands of photos in a pocket, photographers made images on metal plates by hand. In Tucson’s Presidio Historic District, Jono Melamed is keeping that tradition alive, creating tintype portraits that blend 19th-century chemistry, painstaking craftsmanship and a distinctly modern desire for something real.
What he loves about tintype photography, Melamed said, is the connection to history, the human influence on the medium, and the unedited honesty of the photos.
“It’s a pretty archaic medium, but it’s also really honest. I think, when it comes to photography, especially now, everything is pretty saturated, and hyper digital,” he said. “This is really raw.”
Part of the draw for his clients, Melamed said, is being able to take home a physical art piece that commemorates a moment in a way that digital photographs can’t…