Fryeburg Fair (Maine) Ambrotypes

Commissioned to create an homage to 19th Century portraiture, David Puntel, of the Central Valley Project, with the support of grants from the Fryeburg Academy and Fryeburg Fair, spent a week this Fall at the Fryeburg Fair (Fryeburg, Maine), one of the largest and best-known agricultural fairs in North America. In that time, he made almost 100 wet-plate collodion glass plate images (ambrotypes) of Fair participants.

Thanks, Buck. I was there about 15 years ago and it was a portal into another time unlike any current fair I'm aware of. The barns of pulling oxen were especially impressive. I had trouble taking film images because the light was so poor - congrats to Puntel.