Macartney’s work centerpieces a weekend devoted to local artists
See the full MarfaMUST Artist Weekend schedule at marfamust.org and @marfamust.
To hear Carolyn Macartney talk about how she creates her tintype portraits, you’d think she was relaying some kind of recipe for a complex chemical compound that could either explode, or maybe just knock you unconscious—after all, ether is involved.
It’s a purely analog photography technique dating to the late 1800s that relies on collodion with light-sensitive silver crystals that ultimately produces a positive image on an aluminum sheet. The results are stunning images that seem to live in a metallic realm with beautiful glitches resulting from the process itself—strange markings that appear on their own.
Macartney will be displaying her tintypes, created in 2022 to 2024, portraying stark images of Marfa residents, as part of the Marfa Untitled Studio Tour (MarfaMUST) Artists Weekend, with an opening on Thursday, May 28, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at New Star Marfa, 301 W. Dallas Street.
The MarfaMUST’s Artist Weekend will showcase local artists with exhibits, talks and other events throughout the city on Friday through Sunday.
A former Marfa resident, Macartney moved to Joshua Tree, California, to be a tad closer to civilization that allows for the simple things, like easy repairs of your washing machine, doctor visits and other conveniences, while still living in a high desert environment.
She recalls how she became enamored with the tintype format. “I shot a lot of portraits in black and white film, and I would do all my own printing. Then when like everybody else, I got to digital, I kind of lost my enthusiasm for photography because I didn’t quite like the digital outputs.”
“I was working in the medium of tintype photography because it is painterly and expressive, and because I wanted to return to an analog form of shooting portrait photography,” she says. “The inherent foibles of the chemistry and the monochrome image serve to abstract the image out of the ordinary and into the realm of fine art.”
Unlike pushing a button to apply a filter on your phone, her work is tactile—wet plates, the smell of ether, and a deliberative process that needs to be quick and precise. “It’s 100% labor-intensive,” she says. “It’s a process, and there are loads of mistakes that happen. So that’s why you see all sorts of swirls and all in the portraits. It’s very organic looking, which is a big part of the beauty. You’re not after perfection. I don’t think you can get perfection.”
Marfa residents will recognize a lot of the subjects in her work, but they communicate the being of a person that’s more intentional, and sometimes a bit eerie to this viewer.
Macartney, like most portrait photographers, also chalks up the unique looks to her personality and moments in time. She said a friend once remarked to her, “It can’t be the technology. It can’t be the methodology. It can’t be the tintype process. It must be how you see Marfa people.” “And I really liked that,” Macartney said, “I thought that’s such a gift that he gave me to say that. And that’s how I see those people, because Marfa’s full of a lot of really wonderful people.”
She might add “patient” to “wonderful” since her models sat for her with a head brace behind them to ensure the long exposure for the photos needed has as little movement as possible.
Macartney was also known as “the sign painter,” after spending much of her time in Marfa and the Big Bend painting business signs. (The Sentinel cafe logo is her work.) You can’t wander or drive around Marfa without her creations popping up on buildings and windows. For Macartney, it wasn’t only a stable course of income. It was a chance to collaborate with “amazing designers” to bring signs and logos to life.
Macartney says as much as she loved Marfa, it strained her to deal with the social demands of knowing so many people—and all of them knowing so much about what was happening with each other. Now she has the gift of being a visitor (she will be here for the weekend events) and watching others view her portraits of friends who surrounded her world.
MarfaMust Artist Weekend
FRIDAY
– Artist Talks with Carolyn Macartney about Portraitre at New Star Grocery, Friday 12pm.
– Learning Workshop with Riley and Joe Cashiola, filmmakers show how to approach recording Art specifically at New Star Grocery, at Saturday, 2pm
– Panel Discussion with Mary Cantrell, (Alexis Wolfe TBC) and Zade Williamson, on Artists talk about their Art on Friday, 4pm
SATURDAY
– Gallery Talk with Valerie from Rule Gallery at Rule Marfa, Saturday, 10am.
– Healing Workshop with Darren Freesia Kelly offering Acutonic Session at Big Sky Yoga Studio, Sat. 12pm
– Artist Talks with Julie Speed at her studio 4pm Saturday