- About the Prints -
The toned silver prints presented here are handcrafted using techniques that date back to the 1800s, using metal salts and basic chemicals. Traditional darkroom skills such as flashing, dodging, and burning to make specific areas of the image lighter or darker by subtracting or adding light are applied to enhance the photographic vision. This process of exposure and development chemically reduces silver salts contained in the gelatin emulsion to metallic silver. There is no digital imaging involved at any level; a halogen light source and enlarging lens are the highest form of technologies used. So many hands-on techniques are required for each print that each is unique from others made from the same negative and will vary slightly from these online images. These low-resolution scans (75 dpi) of the prints displayed online convey only a fraction of the detail, tonalities, depth and roundness that one would see in person. Only the best prints are reserved for public purchase, and collector satisfaction is my top concern. Every print is bathed in selenium for archival longevity, the warmer hued prints are pre-bathed in highly dilute toning agents such as sulfide and potassium ferricyanide and washed numerous times before the final selenium toning and final wash. The varying toning processes are done in strict archival standards. Selenium toning alone will deepen contrast slightly and leave the cooltone feel (with cooltone paper). The sepia / sulfide process warms the hues of the metallic silver particles in the emulsion - not the paper itself. Both processes provide archival properties, creating a gelatin-silver print that can remain unchanged for several hundred years. Each heat-press mounted print is mounted to 4-ply one hundred percent cotton archival board and over-matted with the identical bright white archival board adding to its longevity.
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