About-Jeff Francis
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER
JEFF FRANCIS
I AM A LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHER! Ever since I was young, I’ve always loved being in nature. As a teenager I started playing around with cameras and teaching myself how to develop and print black and white film. I frequented the local library for books about photographers and discovered Ansel Adams, Edward Weston Minor White, Eliot Porter and many others. After seeing an exhibition of Ansel’s work—large beautiful prints before which I had only seen in books— I knew I wanted to make prints like those. I borrowed my high school's crown graphic 4X5 camera and eventually purchased my own 4X5 View Camera. A lifelong journey in search of images of the landscape had begun.
Although I began working in Black and White I eventually found myself shooting color transparency film and taught myself the difficult dye transfer process for making color prints. (For an excellent description of the DYE TRANSFER process check out the wonderful explanation by my friend Charles Cramer on his website: www.charlescramer.com/dye-transfer. For more than 15 years I printed my images as ‘Dyes’. Kodak stopped making the materials for dye transfer in the mid 1990’s. I continued for a few years with the materials I had but eventually began making prints with modern digital techniques. I still have some of my ‘Vintage’ dye transfer prints available.
The images contained on this site are a sampling of my work from over 4 decades. Mostly taken with 4X5 and 8X10 film cameras. For some images, when traditional film cameras are not practical I use medium format digital cameras which can almost match the quality of the best large format film images.
WIDE IMAGES: While most of my images seek to capture the ‘intimate’ and artistic aspects of a landscape, I’ve always also loved what I call ‘the Grand Landscape’. I find a 2:1 aspect ratio to be ideal for these photographs. Using mostly my 8X10 view camera with a format frame insert to crop the top and bottom of the film, this format satisfies my desire to maintain the advantages a view camera offers with the extreme quality obtainable from such large sheets of film.
PROJECTS: I appreciate the work of a wide variety of photographers, not only landscape photography but fine art, portraiture, street photography, astrophotography and more. Over the years I have played around with the idea of shooting ‘Projects’. Picking a subject and seeing what kind of images result. Lack of time has prevented any kind of a serious outcome but I enjoy the effort. This section reveals a few of these images. They are ongoing.
PRINTS: My goal with my photographs is not a picture to put on Instagram or other social media platforms or even this website. The ultimate goal for me is to make large, sharp, beautiful prints that can be displayed on the wall of a home or gallery or Museum. One cannot appreciate the impact these images can have on a viewer until they see the actual prints in person. The image subject, composition, quality of light, etc. are most important but image quality at large sizes is a must for me as well. Black and white images can be printed on either inkjet printers or on traditional B&W Silver Gelatin Paper. I am also beginning to work in some alternative processes such as Platinum-Palladium, Gum Bichromate, etc. These prints are prized by collectors and Museums for their longevity and traditional look.
EQUIPMENT: The majority of these images were taken with a 4X5 or 8X10 film view cameras (Toyo 45A and 810M and later a custom Giballini 810Ti). I started using a 4X5 camera in 1978. Later in the 1990’s I purchased an 8X10. Since 2017 I also occasionally use a medium format digital camera. Color images were exposed to transparency films such as Fuji Velvia 50. The transparencies are scanned on a Heidelberg Tango drum scanner, edited in photoshop and printed on modern inkjet pigment printers or on color photographic paper via the Lightjet system. The Tango is an amazing machine, build in Germany in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s it is the pinnacle of drum scanner design. Through the generosity of friends Bill Atkinson and Charles Cramer I have been privileged to do most of my scans on this device. Black and white images are from Ilford films such as Delta 100, developed in PMK pyro or lately Pyrocat HD.
I hope you enjoy the images here. If you have any questions or are interested in prints please contact me.
Jeff Francis