Having worked extensively in digital photography since 2010, I returned to the analogue world in 2018 – but with antique cameras and historical processes.

Taking a stand against the relentless drive for ever more MEGA-images that are becoming more “real” than reality, this work celebrates the imperfections of a more basic process to create evocative images that invite the viewer into them.

Pristinely clear images from our modern cameras and phones can be scanned, appraised, re-tweeted or ignored and then forgotten. But an image that draws you to explore, think, imagine, can create and deposit something of value in us, that will last.

During the confines of the 2020-21 lockdown, I learned wetplate collodion – a 150-year-old technique that is contemporary with the cameras I am using. Here the images are silver on glass that interact with the light in a lovely way that digital and print do not. There followed collaborations with Underfall Yard and the Clifton Suspension Bridge Trust to produce work that celebrates the history and character of Bristol’s industrial past highlighting the beauty that comes with the aging process.

It has been exciting to find the level of interest from others in this work – the camera attracts a lot of interest when I am out on location. This has led to features in local press, radio and a video on the BBC website in 2022.

I have expanded my work to include 3D-Stereoscopic photography and Panoramic photography still with 100-year-old cameras and each producing wonderful, atmospheric, hand-crafted works of photographic art.

Most recently I am producing more work in Wetplate Collodion – making my own square photographic plates and exploring how this format can be used creatively.

“Experimental photographer Simon Williams specialises in tracking down antique photographic equipment and recreating lost techniques; the results are always fascinating. We often feel that Simon is restoring time machines rather than cameras…but perhaps they are both!” Artport2023