One Take
Tintype portraits of Nashville's musicians, one plate at a time
One Take. The story of legends in Nashville. It's the story that gets retold: The part nailed on the first run-through, the solo nobody could improve, the fiddle squeak left on the record because the take was too good to lose. That's the standard the great ones are measured against.
A tintype holds a photograph to the same standard. Each exposure yields one plate, poured, shot, and developed by hand. Whatever happens in that moment is what exists. No copies, no fixing it later. Nobody ever kept a take because it was flawless. They kept it because it was right. A plate works the same way. I make each one the best I know how, and the flaws that come along are the human part.
One Take is a growing archive of the people who make Nashville's music: The artists everyone knows, and the session players, songwriters, and engineers the audience never sees. Made one plate at a time.
Marcus King
Guitarist, singer, and bandleader.
8x10 tintype. 2024.
He pulled a parlor guitar off my studio wall, nothing fancy, just one of a few cheap guitars hanging there. I told him so. He didn't care. "This fits the vibe," he said, and we went with it.
Every plate in this series is made using the wet plate collodion process. It’s the same photographic process used during the Civil War. Each plate is coated by hand, sensitized, exposed in the camera, and developed on the spot, all while the chemistry is still wet.
One Take is ongoing. New plates are added as sittings happen. If you want to follow the series as it grows, feel free to also sign up for my newsletter. That's where you will hear about new plates as well as stories that didn't make it onto this page.
Inquiries about the series: blake@blakewylie.com