Kasia Wozniak is a photographer who specialises in the Wet Plate Collodion process.

The Wet Plate Collodion process is one of the first photography techniques, dating back to the middle of the nineteenth century. The photograph is an outcome of a photographic ceremony, starting with the preparation of chemical solutions, pouring the negative solution onto the glass plate, which is then placed in the camera and exposed to the subject, the ceremony ends with developing the image in the darkroom. The fixed plate then becomes a hand crafted photograph.

Kasia is fascinated by the idea of creating a photographic image that is permanent and fragile, encapsulating the bespoke element of the photograph created once and only once, in the moment never to be repeated. Simultaneously, she is concerned with the relationship between photographer, sitter and the viewer. Her work questions the authenticity of the image and how we view photographs today. Intrigued by how the photographic image can become an object in its own right in the age of digital image making. Born in Poland 1983, she lives and works in London.

Kasia will be showing work from three series: 'Artisan', in which she photographs people in their place of work, 'Iconography', composite works in which she creates a portrait study from four separate plates and 'Reba' a portrait series of an exotically beautiful and stylish young woman.

Visitors on the Wednesday 'Open Days' will have the opportunity to watch Kasia at work and to commission a portrait by her using the wet-plate collodion method.

Kasia Wozniak first met the director of Gallery 286, Jonathan Ross, when she came to photograph him for the fashion magazine Jocks & Nerds. They discovered a mutual passion for 19th century photography which Ross has collected for many years.

Gallery 286 is located in a Victorian terraced house, built in 1872, whose many extant period features and warm, domestic atmosphere, distinguish it from most London galleries. Visitors enjoy the salon-like Private Views, often attended by many of the artists who show at 286 and, in the Summer, the beautful garden created by Ross’s wife, the artist Camilla Shivarg.