Sally Mann’s series ‘Battlefields’ uses a wet-plate collodion process, as can be seen in the edges and streaks and cracked glass of the images. These pictures are of empty landscapes that refer back to the American civil war.

This is a study of the grounds of Antietam, the site of the bloodiest single day battle in American history during the Civil War. The Battle of Antietam had over 20,000 casualties.

Mann has remained most interested in black and white, especially photography's antique technology. She has long used an 8x10 bellows camera, and has explored platinum and bromoil printing processes. In the mid 1990s she began using the wet plate collodion process to produce pictures which almost seem like hybrids of photography, painting, and sculpture.

It's an interesting process but does it make the past meaningful to us? What we see is a gloomy landscape. Does this create a sense of connection to the past for us?