Jody Ake, a contemporary photographer working in the same process as renowned Civil War and society photographer, Mathew Brady, will be creating portraits of current luminaries using the 19th century process of wet collodian, or ambrotype, photography. Having worked in this process for over fifteen years, Ake is a master at uncovering the beauty and mystery of portraiture in an equally challenging and sublime method of capturing an image.

Mathew Brady, the most famous American photographer of his century, is best known for his work documenting the Civil War. Years earlier, he established his reputation through his studio's portraits of the nation's most famous individuals. Among Brady's subjects were Abraham Lincoln, Commodore Nutt and Miss Minnie Warren of P. T. Barnum Circus fame, Horace Greeley, Walt Whitman and Martin VanBuren, to name but a few.

Ake envisions a contemporary collection of faces and personalities reminiscent of those photographed in Brady's world. Located in one of the original Brady studio spaces in downtown Manhattan, the project acknowledges an important part of American history brought to life by the vitality and currency of the most influential creatives, politicians and thinkers of the 21st century.