My Commitment to Fine Art Print Making
My goal is always to produce the best possible museum-quality fine art photographs using the best available print making techniques.
All of my prints are carefully and individually made. I personally trim, mount, and mat each print before delivering it to you. I feel strongly that each print I make is a work of art which must represent me and thus meet the most demanding standard. To back this commitment, I'll refund your purchase price if you're ever dissatisfied with a print for any reason.
While I still maintain a color darkroom and continue to do a limited amount of traditional darkroom work, the digital darkroom has become my toolset of choice because it provides unprecedented means for exploring the potential in a photograph and fine tuning the final print.
My photographs are generally shot on negative or transparency film stock, scanned at high resolution, retouched in digital form, and final printed as LightJet or giclee prints.
Unless explicitly stated otherwise, digital darkroom prints are made using the equivalent of accepted "traditional" retouching methods (color filtration, dodge and burn, contrast masking, etc.). Any prints made by compositing elements of more than one negative or by repositioning elements from within the same negative are clearly identified. My goal in any case is to be true to my subjects as they are, not to create fanciful or deceptive images. I'm a photographer, not a graphic artist.
LightJet Prints
LightJet printing equipment uses lasers to write continuous tone images onto conventional color photographic paper which is then developed in the same way as any color print. Printing this way creates a true color photograph in every sense and is an accepted standard of fine art printing in museums and galleries.
These prints are made on Fuji Crystal Archive matte or glossy photographic paper which has the highest archival display life of any color photographic paper (60 years without noticeable fading under normal indoor display conditions).
Giclee Prints
Giclee prints (from the French word for "spray" -- in this case a spray of ink) are inkjet prints made using special six-color archival pigments and archival fine art papers. This printing method, in the form of four-color Iris printing, has been a preferred method of fine art reproduction for many years.
Giclee prints on glossy stock can be made to have a true photographic appearance nearly indistinguishable from a conventional color photograph. But when printing on fine art papers and canvases, they gain subtle colors and textures not possible in a conventional photographic print.
Giclee prints also have the highest archival display life attainable through any color photographic printing process. A projected display life of up to 200 years is possible depending on the specific paper and pigment combination used.
Cibachrome Prints
Cibachrome prints, more properly called Ilfochrome prints, are traditional darkroom color prints from transparencies (that is slides or equivalent positive film originals). These are made using a unique photographic emulsion and chemical process originally developed by Ciba Geigy but since sold to Ilford (hence the name change).
Many of us came to know Cibachrome as the "king" of darkroom color printing processes for the vivid color rendition of its azo dyes and its amazing dark storage life (estimated at 300 years).
I still use Cibachrome with my LPL 4500 enlarger to make some prints from my 4"x5" view camera transparencies. In most cases, however, I'm now obtaining better results using LightJet or Giclee printing. These newer printing processes also provide better display life (60 years versus 24 for Cibachrome).
"C" Prints
"C print" is a generic photographer's term for a traditional darkroom color print from a color negative. Most snapshots, for example, are a kind of C print.
In my current work, "C print" usually refers to a process RA4 print on Fuji Crystal Archive photographic paper made using the LPL 4500 enlarger in my darkroom. This is the same photographic emulsion used in my LightJet printing and has the same excellent archival properties (60 year display life without noticeable fading under normal indoor display conditions).
I now prefer LightJet or Giclee printing for most color negatives I might once have printed as conventional C prints. These newer processes offer fine control that's difficult or impossible to obtain in the conventional dark room.
Silver Gelatin Prints
"Silver gelatin" prints are black and white (B&W) prints made in the traditional darkroom.
At one time, we would have simply called these black and white prints. Today, however, there has been a resurgence in alternative black and white printing methods including venerable methods like platinum and bromoil. In addition, digital methods including LightJet and Giclee printing can be used to make black and white prints.
Today I still do virtually all of my black and white printing in my darkroom using conventional black and white materials (although B&W is a very small percentage of my work). This is primarily because of the tremendous range of B&W materials still available and the range of "looks" they offer. As digital B&W printing continues to mature (and/or conventional materials become scarce), I expect to eventually switch my B&W work over to digital printing.
In some cases I chemically tone my B&W prints to obtain a distinctive color. In general, however, I use a technique called selenium toning to greatly enhance the archival life of the prints rather than to obtain a color change.