Anacostia Portraits is a participatory art project that used a historic photographic process to create a visual archive celebrating the people who make up the Anacostia region of the District of Columbia. In this revival of the 19th-century tintype, individuals with a connection to the community were invited to portrait sessions with photographer Elena Volkova at the Anacostia Arts Center. Each sitting produced two portraits, one for the participant and one for the final installation.

Volkova sees Anacostia Portraits as a way for people to shape their own representations and encourage a dialogue between past and present. The tintype, or wet plate collodion process, makes exposures on metal plates coated with wet silver nitrate. Like a Polaroid, each exposure produces a single image. However, a single tintype takes about 15 minutes to create. Volkova used the forced slowness to collaborate with participants, learning enough about each person to reveal their internal stories in a final portrait.

Honfleur Gallery in Historic Anacostia will host a final installation of the portraits produced through Volkova's projecT with a reception on Saturday, May 14, 2022, at 4 pm. Nearly 100 original photographic plates and digital enlargements will be on display. 

Anacostia Portraits is supported by a grant from Corcoran Women's Committee and ARCH Development Corporation.

Honfleur Gallery
1241 Good Hope Rd, SE
Washington, DC 20020