Contemporary Silver Prints

Colour is descriptive. Black and white is interpretive. 

Elliott Erwitt

My contemporary silver gelatin black and white prints are made from the fusion of modern digital technology and traditional exposure/chemical printing.  Using the best of both worlds.  Silver on silver.  My exhibition standard prints are made on Fibre Based paper and studio prints (Artist’s proofs) on Resin Coated paper.

From a negative captured on my medium or large format cameras, an internegative is made and exposed to light.  Instead of the traditional tungsten light bulb as the light source, in line with modern technology, laser light is used and the image is exposed onto light sensitive Ilford silver gelatin fibre based paper.  This is  followed by traditional chemistry baths that develop and fix the image onto the paper.  At the end of the development process, the chemicals are washed for a particularly long time, air dried and flattened in a press.

Fibre based paper has been popular as a traditional paper for black and white printing for many decades.  It has a layer of baryta (barium sulphate) applied to the paper base which is then coated with light sensitive emulsion.  These papers have a superb quality and give depth to a print.  Very special.\

I choose to print my Large Format negatives in this way - I feel this printing method translates my negatives in a way that aligns with my initial vision when exposing the 5 x 4 inch negative.