SCARLETT DELORME: Photographing Queer Elders

Another part of it that drew me to this medium in particular is that it is an archival process, so the plates last for a very long time. We still have tintypes from the Civil War era that look beautiful and crisp and pristine. We're in a digital dark age with photography… there's gonna be whole swaths of time that aren’t printed anywhere, that aren't documented anywhere, because everything's gone digital. I think this process is the antithesis of that.

Foster: Yes, there's so much to that point, because there's a lot of information on the internet that's been deleted and lost. Furthermore, there's history on personal computers, hard drives, CD-roms, floppy disks, that have been lost. It also makes me think of digital images and their use in AI, and how your mode of photography is positioned against that movement. 

Thinking about how you described your artistic journey, I'm realizing that the William Way's juried exhibition in 2024 at Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks must have been one of your first art exhibitions.

 

DeLorme: Yes, it was my very first time having my work exhibited, yay!

Foster: Also as part of Radical Americana, you spent time doing artistic research in area archives. Specifically, you spent time here at the William Way LGBT Community Center’s John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives. I want to talk about what you learned and what stood out to you.

Foster: You also spent time in other archives, including ones with photographic processes similar to yours. Where did you go?

DeLorme: I did a residency at Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library in Delaware. It’s a decorative arts museum with beautiful grounds. They were incredibly generous—I was able to access their collections, but they also encouraged me to rest and take in the environment.

It was powerful to see. Tintypes became more accessible later on—you could get them at fairs—so these reflect a moment when photography opened up beyond wealthy people and scientists. Some of the images have held up beautifully, others show degradation, such as rusting and damage. That really reinforced for me how important the chemistry and process are. If they’re not made or preserved correctly, they won’t last.

 

They also had Victorian photo albums, and materials from the Centennial Exhibition—glass negatives, memorabilia. Seeing images of Memorial Hall packed with art was incredible.

Foster: That sounds amazing! We’ve touched on intergenerational connections and activism, but I’d love to hear more about what you’ve taken away from that—especially thinking about activism then and now.

That’s been really valuable—realizing I don’t have to do this alone. There are always people doing this work, and there always have been. If you don’t see it, you need to seek it out. 

Even at Winterthur, I saw abolitionist artifacts—like a teapot from the late 1600s with a message advocating for freedom. That reminded me there have always been people who resisted injustice. That gives me a lot of grounding. I can trust my own sense of humanity and connect with others who feel the same.