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Timeless Process, Timeless Landscape

The University of ����ӰƬ Museum of the North (UAMN) has received a 2024 , enabling the acquisition of Denali Diptych, a striking wet plate collodion photograph by Charles Mason, Professor of Photography and Department of Science and Environmental Journalism Chair at UAF. This addition highlights the museum’s commitment to preserving and promoting diverse ����ӰƬn art forms.

Mason has been shaping the university’s photography program since 1990. His passion for creative expression led him to embrace collodion photography, a meticulous 19th-century technique that balances technical precision with artistic serendipity.

Denali Diptych, crafted during Mason’s 2018 artist residency in Denali National Park, exemplifies this approach. By coating glass or metal plates with collodion, sensitizing them with silver nitrate, and developing them within minutes, Mason captures a raw, textured beauty often lost in modern digital perfection. His works reflect the unpredictability of the ����ӰƬn wilderness, making each image unique and alive with natural imperfections.

“The thing that bugs me [about modern photography] is it’s so perfect,” Mason explained in an interview for Aurora Magazine. “It’s really hard to screw up in an interesting way.” This philosophy led him to the collodion process, which he described as offering “big helpings of uncertainty, blending technical photography with art.”

Mason’s embrace of the process stems from his appreciation for the unexpected textures and imperfections it creates. “If you plan it, then it becomes contrived,” he said. “If you just let it happen, it’s the gods helping you out.”