Ampersand is pleased to present an exhibition of nude, portrait & still life photographs by Brandon Fernandez & Jefferson Hayman. Having worked actively as a photographer since earning his MFA in 1998 from Mills College, Portland based photographer Brandon Fernandez brings to the gallery a new body of work shot entirely using the wet plate collodion process. Collodion might bring to mind the 19th Century, but Fernandez emphasizes that he does not use the medium for nostalgic purposes or to emulate imagery from the past. Instead, he notes that collodion's technical peculiarities, its inconsistencies & need for time require that he engage the act of making photographs with more deliberation & intensify the momentary intimacy of his photographic relationship with the female models that occupy his nude studies & portraits. By extension, collodion's singular clarity & the artist’s distinctive approach to these portraits heighten the viewer’s sense of intimacy with the women that figure in these photographs.