Meg Turner

Printmaker and photographer working out of New Orleans, Louisiana. Her practice spans prints, photography, and installation projects that respond to the landscape and the community she is part of.

In addition to her own work and contract printing, Meg serves as the master printer for local photogravure and wet collodion artist Josephine Sacabo. She founded the New Orleans Community Printshop and has since stepped back from a leadership position to focus on her studio practice.

She shoots primarily with a 4×5 Crown Graphic press camera, working in film and wet collodion.

A circular portrait embedded in a dramatic magenta-to-indigo gradient field, with deep black edges framing the composition

Inside the large-format film portrait studio

The slow choreography of a large-format film portrait begins long before the shutter trips. For photographers working with 4x5 or 8x10 inch sheet film, every gesture is deliberate: the camera is unfolded, the bellows are adjusted, the ground glass is studied, and the sitter is invited into a conversation that may last an hour or more. This approach treats portraiture less like a snapshot and more like a sit-down in a Melbourne café, where the unhurried pace of ordering a flat white allows the conversation to unfold without pressure.

Meg Turner's practice draws on wet collodion and traditional darkroom techniques honed in New Orleans, yet the process resonates strongly with Australian photographers who have championed analogue methods. From the studio scene in Sydney to regional darkrooms in Castlemaine and Hobart, the country holds a quiet but dedicated community of large-format practitioners. The following walks through the stages that turn a fleeting encounter into a lasting silver gelatin print.

Selecting the view camera and negative format

The first decision is the negative size. A 4x5 inch field camera offers portability and a generous depth of field, while an 8x10 inch view camera rewards the patient photographer with a tonal scale that few digital sensors can match. Meg often chooses 8x10 when the portrait will be printed at 40 inches or larger, allowing the grain structure to disappear into the image.

View cameras bring mechanical movements that tilt the plane of focus and shift the lens to correct converging verticals. In the bright Australian sun, these movements become essential, particularly when shooting on a Sydney rooftop or a shaded verandah in Adelaide where harsh shadows might otherwise flatten facial features. A graduated neutral density filter, or simply waiting for a passing cloud, saves hours of retouching later.

The bellows must be light-tight, and the ground glass must be clean. Before loading film, a test exposure on the ground glass helps determine the exact framing. With a large-format portrait, the crop decisions made at this stage are final, since the sheet film captures only what appears on the screen.

Field kit for an 8x10 portrait session

Sitting, lighting, and the pace of conversation

A film portrait session is a collaboration. The photographer must explain the slowness of the process, the need for the sitter to hold still, and the mechanical clicks and whirs of the camera. Sitters who arrive from commercial or fashion backgrounds sometimes struggle with the pace; others find the rhythm restorative. In a country where many workers clock long hours, the invitation to sit quietly for an hour can feel like an unexpected gift.

Lighting is shaped by the architecture of the space and the weather. North-facing windows, common in Brisbane and Perth homes, offer soft, even illumination for much of the day. When working on location, a single silk diffuser can tame the harsh midday sun that beats down across the Australian continent. Meg prefers available light whenever possible, falling back on a single strobe only when the ambient light is insufficient.

The backdrop is usually simple: a painted muslin, a hand-dyed linen, or a weathered wall found on site. Meg is drawn to surfaces that carry history, much like the patina of a sandstone building in The Rocks or a fibro-cottage in Fremantle. The backdrop becomes part of the portrait's emotional register, a quiet counterweight to the face at the centre of the frame. Other artists exploring similar territory in portraiture have shared their own approaches online; one such example is documented on Imelda Almqvist's art site, which offers a complementary look at alternative processes.

Exposure and wet collodion chemistry

For black-and-white sheet film, exposure is calculated with a handheld meter and confirmed through careful bracketing. The reciprocity failure of traditional films means that long exposures under tungsten or low ambient light require compensation. When the project calls for it, Meg turns to the wet collodion process, pouring a sensitised plate, exposing it in camera while still wet, and developing it within minutes before the collodion dries.

Wet collodion work demands a portable darkroom: a chemical box, a tripod, and a supply of silver nitrate. The collodion itself is a syrupy mixture of ether and cotton dissolved in alcohol, which makes the process strictly regulated under Australian dangerous goods and customs legislation when shipped internationally. Many Australian practitioners now source their silver nitrate from specialised chemistry suppliers in Melbourne who understand the relevant state licensing requirements for hazardous substances.

The plate is developed in iron sulphate, fixed in potassium cyanide or sodium thiosulphate, and washed thoroughly. Each plate is unique, a one-of-a-kind object that cannot be duplicated. This constraint shapes the entire photographic act, encouraging the photographer to make every plate count.

Wet collodion chemistry on the road

Printing in the darkroom

Once the negative is dry, the printing begins. Contact prints, made by placing the negative directly onto light-sensitive paper under a single bulb, preserve the full scale of the negative and are often chosen for their intimacy. Enlargements, made on a horizontal darkroom enlarger, require a high-quality lens and careful dodging and burning to control contrast across the face and the backdrop.

The choice of paper matters as much as the negative. Silver gelatin papers offer a warm, continuous tone that suits skin; platinum and palladium papers, when the chemistry is available, yield a matte surface with extended shadow detail. Australian darkrooms often source fibre-based papers from European or American suppliers, and recent changes to import duties on photographic chemicals have made some papers more expensive to bring into the country.

Toning, whether selenium or gold, protects the print and shifts its mood. A subtle selenium tone can cool a portrait and extend its display life, which matters for galleries such as the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra or the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, where print longevity is essential for the collection.

Showing the work and reaching collectors

A finished large-format portrait is a substantial object. It demands wall space, careful framing, and protection from ultraviolet light. In Australia, where many homes open onto decks and gardens, prints are often framed with UV-filtering glass to survive the strong sunlight. Meg advises collectors to consider museum glass and to keep prints out of direct sun, even in well-shaded rooms, since UV damage is cumulative and irreversible.

Copyright in Australia follows the Life of the Author plus 70 years rule, in line with other Commonwealth jurisdictions. Photographers retain moral rights over their work, including the right to be attributed and to object to derogatory treatment of the image. When licensing a portrait for reproduction, a written agreement protects both parties and clarifies whether the image can be cropped, tinted, or used commercially.

For artists seeking to commission a portrait, book a workshop, or explore collaborative projects, the conversation often begins with a studio visit or a phone call. Meg works with collectors and fellow artists across Australia and internationally, and her Meg Turner about page outlines her background, exhibitions, and the contract printing services she offers for photographers who need access to a large-format darkroom. Portrait commissions are scheduled several months in advance, and workshop participants are encouraged to bring a project they have been meaning to develop on film.