Artist Talk: Stories of the Dat Do Dogs
Saturday 25 November 2023 from 2pm to 3pm
Jack is an American Special Forces veteran of the Afghanistan conflict. His exhibition in collaboration with the Anzac Memorial, Stories of the Dat Do Dogs, features the photographs and stories of 50 veterans and nurses who served in Vietnam.
Each veteran was given the time and space to tell their story and then, together they created one-of-a-kind portraits using a 175-year-old wet-plate tintype technique, which Jack has described as the Instagram of 1851.
Wet-plate collodion photography is technically demanding, and above all, slow. Each plate must be prepared, exposed, and developed before it dries out. Utilising a large format camera and lenses made between 1861 and 1926, every image has a long exposure time, with subjects needing to stay still for 5-15 seconds.
Discover why Jack chose this historical method to commemorate the experience of these veterans and witness this extraordinary process.
Jack McLain is a participant of the Open Program as part of the 2023 Head On Photo Festival.
The free talk will be held on Saturday 25 November from 2-3pm in the Memorial’s Auditorium on Lower Ground level (enter via the Liverpool St entrance).