Fryeburg Fair (Maine) Ambrotypes

[Buck P.]

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.

 

[Russ Young]

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.