Welcome to an immersive journey through time and technique, where Dan Hawkins’ artistry of wet plate collodion photography unfolds in mesmerizing detail. This exhibition invites you to step into a world where the past meets the present, capturing moments with a timeless allure and a distinctive aesthetic.

Whether you’re a photography enthusiast, an art lover or simply curious about the intersection of history and modern creativity, this exhibition promises to leave a lasting impression and ignite your imagination. The past and present converge in a symphony of silver and light.

Hawkins is a Seattle-based photographer who uses a variety of obsolete and innovative imaging processes to create his work. These highly personal documents often deal with the dual themes of memory and decay.

Beginning with empty houses and discarded water towers, he has gone on to record EPA Superfund sites, chemical factories, decaying ballrooms, deserted nuclear facilities, crumbling hotels and a number of derelict mental hospitals and jails. In his attempts to describe a “landscape of the soul” he has managed to see many of the nation’s lost treasures of industry and tour its forgotten mental health legacy. He is currently working on a body of photographs from a tour of the nuclear reactors of Northern France.

Hawkins will teach some of his photo processing techniques in April workshops at Boxx Gallery.

Wet Plate Collodion Workshop

The wet plate collodion process was first introduced in the 1850s. It’s a process that requires tin, glass, or photographic medium to be coated, sensitized, exposed, and developed within about fifteen minutes. If working in the field, it requires a portable darkroom for development. Though the overall experience can be delicate and cumbersome, it renders each plate a one-of-a-kind art piece.

The workshops introduce preparing of plates, making exposures, developing, and varnishing your own wet collodion plates. This is ideal for any photographer who wants to try something new. Everything is supplied. Prepare to fall in love with this most bewitching of processes.

• One-day workshop, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, April 6, Boxx Gallery, 616 Maple St., Tieton. Cost: $155. 

• Two-day workshop, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. April 13-14, Boxx Gallery, 616 Maple St., Tieton. Cost: $280. 

For more information or to enroll in a workshop please visit boxxgallery.com.

• Boxx Gallery is a non-profit art gallery and community gathering space in Tieton. Winter hours are 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.