Tony Conway, Angola, Louisiana 11 - 1999

Deborah Luster created this photograph, Tony Conway, Angola, Louisiana, with the wet plate collodion process, a 19th-century technique that gives the image a haunting, otherworldly quality. The sepia tones feel both historical and deeply personal. Look at the surface, it's not a slick modern print. There are imperfections, scratches, and those white speckles, like tiny stars against the dark backdrop. These imperfections aren't flaws, they're part of the story. They remind us of the physicality of the process, the artist's hand, and the way time and circumstance can mark an image, just like they mark a life. The way the light catches on Tony Conway's face, the soft focus, it all contributes to this feeling of vulnerability and resilience. There is something of Diane Arbus here, but where Arbus sought to confront and challenge, Luster treats her subject with a more tender and empathetic approach. Art, after all, is a conversation, an echo of voices across time.