A STUNNING collection of portraits made using techniques and equipment from the 1800s has gone on display in Greenock.

Artist Alastair Cook has combined chemistry and photography in his new exhibition, ‘McArthur’s Store’, which is on at the 6Art gallery on George Square until December.

It takes its name from the old harbour building in Dunbar where Alastair, of the Greenock-based Absent Voices group, spent two summers working and sourced his subjects.

The exhibition features wet place collodion photographic work depicting the fishermen and residents of the East Lothian town.

The process dates from 1851 and uses some of the earliest photography techniques, where images appear on a tin plate after being dipped in collodion — a syrupy solution which washes off the chemicals and excess silver used to create the portrait.

It may be an antiquated system but the end result is a sharp, striking image with the same sort of clarity as a modern day high definition image but with all the charm and characteristics of early Victorian photography.

It is one of three exhibitions the award-winning artist is running simultaneously in Inverclyde.

Alastair said: “Wet plate is a process from 1851 and it’s like a Victorian Polaroid. It’s immediate. We have an immediate recognition of it because it’s what you see in the mirror — it’s a reverse positive.

“It involves a whole lot of chemistry and it’s difficult but that’s part of why it’s so rewarding.

“The exhibition comes directly from the ubiquity of digital. Some people say this is obsolete but I like to use processes like this.

“The reason I used wet plate is it works with ultra-violet light. We have translucent skin so the light can travel a bit further into it and the result is you get more detail. If you have a tiny wrinkle for instance this will actually show a much deeper wrinkle behind the skin.” The photographs are accompanied by a short documentary of Alastair’s time at McArthur’s Store and shows it exactly how he creates his wonderful wet plate collection.

He said: “It’s different and brings a special something to a portrait that digital doesn’t — digital does it in a different way.” Living in Leith, Alastair jokes that he is the ‘outsider’ in the major Absent Voices creative project, which is exploring Inverclyde’s rich past by engaging more people in art.

But he has a strong connection to the area through The Greenock Exhibitions — a series of displays of his work in the town.

He was artist in residence at the Dutch Gable House over the summer and his ‘Everything We Have Ever Missed’ exhibition of new 35mm photographic work with poetry by John Glenday is there until 21 November.

Alastair’s ‘Every Memory’ collection of pictures and film all about Greenock Amateur Boxing Club is on at the Beacon until next Friday.

He will also be helping with a major Absent Voices exhibition at the McLean Museum on 22 November.