Wife and husband artists Kate Boyle and
Craig Murphy have combined their endeavors
to form and open Glens Falls Art, a shop and
gallery, featuring an authentic tintype portrait
studio.
Murphy has been a professional photographer
for 20 years, creating tintype images using the
wet plate collodion process he learned from
photographer John Coffer for the past five years. Boyle is a registered nurse and former health
center director at Planned Parenthood Mohawk
Hudson. She began painting in 2004 after taking
a class with local artist Tanya White.
After they married three years ago, they
combined studios. Boyle moved her studio into
Murphy’s photography in The Shirt Factory in
Glens Falls.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held March
3 in conjunction with the Adirondack Regional
Chamber of Commerce.
The Glens Falls Art Tintype Portrait Studio,
creates wet plate images that can be passed
on from generation to generation. They are
created on metal or glass using a sometimes
unpredictable and always fascinating process.
Additionally, Murphy makes reproduction 19th
century daguerreotype cases, molded from
actual 19th century cases.
“Craig is one of only a handful of people
around the world making tintype cases”, said Boyle. “The cases complete the package for
most people”.
Invented by English artist Frederick Scott
Archer in 1851, “wet plate” refers to the fact
that the metal or glass plate must be exposed
and processed before becoming dry. Murphy said
these images are created the same way prominent
19th century photographers like Mathew
Brady and Alexander Gardner would have used
during the Civil War.
Glens Falls Art produces “Tintype Talks” for
schools and various organizations. In these sessions,
Murphy can arrange for a group to watch
the process from start to finish, while providing
the historical context, which made “likenesses”
popular at the advent of photography. Talks may
be held at the Gens Falls Art studio or off-site.
Boyle and Murphy also showcase artwork
from the rest of their family, including glass,
oil and watercolor paintings, local handmade
jewelry and prints in the gallery.
Located between Lake George and Saratoga,
Glens Falls Art is on the first floor of the historic
former McMullen-Leavens Shirt Factory
in Glens Falls (21 Cooper St. Suite 106).
They said the unique architecture of the
1,900-square-foot studio makes it an ideal venue
for present-day 19th century tintype portraiture.
More is available at Glensfallsart.com. Its phone
number is 792-4551.
Photo Courtesy Craig Murphy Photography