The Tintype Archive Black Skin on Tin x RCA BLK by 2024 graduate  Shayla Marshall@shaylamonii

Supported through The RCA BLK Research Hub: The Tintype archive offers a unique opportunity to create an archival collection of work.

During Marshall's fellowship she will be documenting the extended network of Black Scholars at the Royal college of Art both past and present using the method of tintype photography.

Tintype, also known as wet plate collodion, is one of the earliest image capture techniques. Developed in the 19th century, this method of photographing onto tin was initially accessible only to the affluent. For black individuals, having their portraits taken was uncommon; the earliest records depict images of slaves as an extension of their owners' wealth. Later, there were the rare images of wealthy black individuals; however, even then, these images depicted them as assimilated into white colonialism rather than in their true cultural identities.

This project will aim to capture 30 artists from RCA

BLK's extended network.

Creating a contemporary archival legacy project of images that reclaims historical photo taking, bridging a new dimension to the existing cannon of Photography.

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