Process
PROCESS
METHODS OF PRINTMAKING
Photography is a process, It is a journey. It begins, for me, with travels to the canyons, mesas, deserts and hillsides of the American Landscape. Using 4X5 and 8X10 view cameras, modern films and lenses, I seek out the uncommon scenes, the rare moments of light, the unusual subject. Returning with a handful of images the process continues in the darkroom or on a computer monitor where I continue the 'journey' into the creative, sometimes mysterious work of making the images convey the emotional aspects of what I find in the natural world. Working on a new image may take hours, days, or weeks, until I am satisfied. Sometimes I may work on an image for a time, only to finally abandon my efforts because the image does not 'feel right'. I may later return to an image and attempt to redefine it in a different way. Eventually I will travel again in search of new images. I may return many times to the same place, always finding a different light, a different mood, a different feel.
I use many tools available in the photographic processes to create the prints that I desire. To give, I hope, the viewer a glimpse of the beauty and emotion that I feel when I photograph the natural world, the incredible diversity and beauty of Nature's light. When I started this journey in the late 1970’s, commonly available photographic materials give neither the color quality nor longevity that I wanted for my images. So, for many years I printed my images using the very difficult and elaborate dye transfer process, for it was the one medium that gave me both the color quality and control as well as color prints that would last decades. Modern digital processes give the artist tremendous control and a variety of output choices which meet or exceed most of the desirable qualities of the dye transfer process. Lightjet photographic prints actually have better light fade stability than either Cibachrome or Dye transfer and modern pigment printing processes far exceed anything previously available in the photographic realm. In addition, the sharpness of these prints is extraordinary.
I believe that only the artist can truly render his vision to the printed medium. There are an infinite number of ways that a single image can be printed. Light and color are both subjective and in spite of the belief that 'the photograph' doesn't lie the truth is that it is rarely an accurate representation of either the color nor the mood that a place expresses. My intentions in printing my images is to create as best I can the beauty and emotional aspects of a given moment and place. Whatever tools or processes or techniques I use is irrelevant. Only the effect the final image has on the viewer is important.
For my large format film work, after the film is processed the chosen images are mounted on an acrylic drum in a layer of transparent fluid and mylar. Then this drum is placed in a Heidelberg TANGO drum scanner where the highest quality scan results. The image is then edited in Adobe Photoshop before being printed on a variety of printers or alternative process prints. The result are prints of exquisite quality both in terms of color depth and sharpness. From large negative or camera files very large prints can be made with no loss of sharpness or detail, but even smaller prints from such large files have a quality that cannot be matched with smaller format cameras.