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Recently I finally got the opportunity to visit a place I have seen in photographs, read about in books and seen in movies for my entire life. That place was the Eiffel Tower. Since I began doing tintype photography a few years ago, I have dreamed of making a tintype of the tower.
Everybody and their sister knows that this historic structure is located in Paris, France….which is quite a long ways from Panama City Beach, Florida. (4600 miles to be exact) The tower itself is 984 feet high and a television antenna atop the tower gives it a total elevation of 1,063 feet. The Eiffel Tower was the tallest structure in the world for 30 years running until the topping off of the Chrysler Building in New York City in 1929.
The family and I were only in Paris for a short time, but a big chunk of that time centered around the tower. We had a nice picnic in the shade of the tower on our first afternoon before climbing up to the second level to take in views of Paris from above. I photographed the tower from multiple angles before sitting back and enjoying the tower light up with sparkles at dusk.
Bright and early the next morning, the family and I trekked back over to the tower to get some photos of it in the nice morning light. While my wife was getting hassled by street vendors to buy generic nick-knacks (of which we did spend our last 4 Euros on for something cool for my son), I photographed the view that ultimately became the tintype photo seen here. Looking at my tintype photo, one would be hard pressed to guess if this was taken in the summer of 2023 or back when it opened in 1889.
While I typically photograph on location with my portable darkroom, flight restrictions kept me from bringing hazardous chemicals and darkroom gear on the international flight. I wound up photographing the Eiffel Tower with my trusty Nikon D850 digital camera, made a poster print of the image and then photographed it on tintype. Everything about the process is the exact same except for the fact that I photographed it with my Nikon first.
Needless to say, this was an amazing experience and I hope to get the opportunity to photograph more historical landmarks in the future. I would love to photograph the Pyramids of Giza, the Parthenon or the Colosseum in Rome on tintype.
Who knows what the future will bring, but I can guarantee I will be documenting it on tintype.
Prints of this tintype are available. Please contact me with the size you are looking for and I will send you a quote. Thanks!
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