Spring Cleaning, Week 2

In celebration of "Tax Day" here in the USA, it's back to "Spring Cleaning" here in the darkroom. This week's deal is one that you will not see again on this site. In celebration of another 364 days until taxes are due again, here are my first four images made on 8x10 infrared film, available to you as 16x20" silver gealtin fiber prints, for the low, low price of $100 + S&H. Get 'em while they're hot off the press, literally, because they won't be here for long!

IR 16x20 Silver Gelatin Print

Litzenberg Park 1 Litzenberg Park 2 Maple Grove Cemetery 1 Maple Grove Cemetery 2

 Just a quick reminder, all B&W prints are hand made by me in the darkroom, are printed on double-weight fiber paper that has been selenium toned for archival permanence, signed and numbered by yours truly, and will ship encased in a protective sleeve and backboard. For the collectors out there, I'll only be printing these images as 16x20 until the end of this month, so consider this a very, very limited edition run.

Thanks all for looking, and as always, long live film!

Selenium Toning B&W Prints

While putting the finishing touches on some 8x10's for next month's show, I decided to do a quick-n-dirty rundown of selenium toning B&W fiber prints.

Darkroom Daze

Whew! Another day, another step closer to getting the upcoming show ready.

One thing that separates darkroom printing from any modern inkjet equivalent is the extra calibration and control needed to achieve a consistent, cohesive series of images. "Dapper", being my largest solo exhibition to date, I was even surprised just how unprepared I was, for hand printing 30 images of varying size and exposure. In the end, it'll be the quality of the prints that will count, and boy will they have it! All prints are being made on double-weight fiber base silver gealtin paper. After exposure, some requiring some intense dodging and burning, the paper is developed in Kodak Dektol, fixed, washed, selenium toned, and washed again for archival permanence. Another one-up on digital, these prints should see their way through to my nineties, assuming they're cared for reasonably.

When I've got the last round of 8x10's printed and dried, I'll be posting a quick how-to video on selenium toning prints for aesthetic appeal and archival permanence.

P.S. Silver gelatin papers aren't cheap, just check out what they're going for right now! >__<