Still Water Woman and Jesse Hanson, Riders and Kickers

Still Water Woman

I am taking a week off from writing, because I am working on editing a never-published novella that is going into Riders and Kickers. My husband Jim has written an entire novella that centers around Tommy, and I'm going doing the re-write on it before we send it to Marie, my editor. When I get into heavy edit mode, it's hard to write, so I just decided to focus solely on editing this week. The novella a fun adventure tale, and I know you will all like it as much as I do. Finally, Tommy will get some airtime.

So, instead I made a couple "tintypes" of Still Water Woman and Jesse. Love making these. I am very happy with how Still Water Woman came out. I used a picture of the Yankton Lakota musician and activist, Zitkala-Ša. I chose her as a model because she's got such beautiful strength in her face. So I gave her a haircut and the hint of a traditional plains dress, and then sandwiched it with a picture of an old tintype, and then added some texture taken from an daguerreotype.



Jess Hanson

Jesse I did the same way, although unfortunately, I don't know the model's name. Not sure I like it as well, so I might do another one at some point. I do, however, love the tarnished and discolored tin in this one. The more tore up these things are, the better I like them.

Which is ironic when you consider that back in the Bad  Old Days, when I worked in a darkroom, one of the things I did was take old photos that actually did look like this and restore them. Which was a bit of a trick, because back then, nobody had Photoshop or even digital images. Had to use what I called Stupid Darkroom Tricks, photo bleach, and a thin, black or brown ink called SpotTone. I was very, very good at it. So I kind of enjoy the irony that I am now deliberately destroying perfectly good photos by Photoshopping damage onto them.

Anyways, hope you are enjoying these as much as I am enjoying making them. The regular posting will be back on next Thursday. See you then!