FUTURE SERIES

The images shown here are from future exhibition series under preparation. These are digital scans of silver gelatine baryta paper ‘straight prints’. At this early stage they show only the raw image available on the negative, before any darkroom fine-tuning.

The final exhibition-standard version of a finished print may use alternative chemical development processes, such as lith development, to achieve a particular effect or, alternatively, the black and white print may be subjected to one or several further chemical reactions in toning baths of solutions like gold chloride, selenium or thiourea, so as to achieve a particular tonal effect but also to increase archival stability.

This is the reason why silver based photographic prints made like this have already survived for over one hundred and fifty years and have retained the same appearance they had on the day they were made. It is probable that correctly produced silver gelatine prints made today will still be in good condition in two hundred years from now, perhaps five hundred; whereas there is no evidence yet that modern ink jet prints, which use dyes and are the preferred medium for displaying digital photography, will still look as good even just twenty years from now.

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Digital scans of silver gelatine prints shown on a web site, such as this, can never convey the subtlety of appearance of the real thing: a fine art wet darkroom print made by a master printer on baryta paper. Hold it in your hands and examine it carefully. You will not be disappointed!