Technique

Since the mid 1990’s my photographic work has been made through construction of more than one frame. It started through the wish to record more of what I saw in front of me without being restricted to what was seen through the viewfinder only. The panoramic camera was a possible way forward but was a huge expense and I would lose the accuracy of composing through the viewfinder. The way I chose was to shoot frames sequentially and then print the two, three, four or five negatives together in a 5x7 inch enlarger.

When six mega pixel cameras became more available I made a total switch to digital photography and the work I had started on my 35mm Olympus OM3 developed with this new medium. Now, instead of being confined to the rigidity and confines of a linear sequence of multiple frames, I was able to build up a more complete picture of an environment I was photographing by stitching sometimes as many as eighty single frames together.

The photographic process of making images has always been visible, through intention, in the finished print. My 35mm triptychs and larger were printed in a colour darkroom, in total darkness, with the inclusion of part of the films sprocket holes in the prints; there was also light spilling through the clear areas between and around the frames of negative image onto the photo paper. This process became more important as film and the traditional silver based photography became less important. Digital photography is on the one hand more perfect than film; there is no dust to blow off or scratches spot, no reticulation through a temperature variation whilst processing film and no streaks from light leaking through cracks in a developing tank, darkroom ceiling or the bellows of an enlarger. PhotoShop, the digital darkroom, has been developed itself to enable me a tool or workspace where I can make a perfect image, but I still want to leave a clue to the process within my work. The edges to my single photographic frames are left around the edge of some of my images hinting at the quantity of single frames made in the production of the image and at the layering, stitching and delicate erasing in the process of making.

The finished work is stored as a 500mb tiff file and printed onto archival canvas, approximately 1.2 metre squared, using archival pigment inks.

Camera and Software

I learned to use a digital camera and PhotoShop on the newly introduced Fuji FinePix 4700 in 2001 whilst making images for my ‘Proposed Re-development of Northampton'. As a teacher I wanted to learn from the new digital medium and as a photographer I wanted to embrace it, find and use its unique qualities to make a new kind of photograph. This camera came with its own 16mb memory card and although I spent a small fortune on a 125mb card I needed more memory for the location work I was intending to do. I bought a ‘Minds at Work – Digital Wallet' for £250 which had a capacity of 6 Gigabytes. Hundreds of 4mb photographs were taken for the ‘ Northampton ' pictures, many from other towns and cities, and these were then manually positioned using PhotoShop 6 as separate layers, their edges often softened with a soft edged eraser. The same approach, equipment and software was employed in the first photographs of my ‘American West' series of which ‘Douglas Firs, Navajo Loop, Utah comes from.

My camera progressed to the FinePix M603 and the digital wallet was replaced with a portable CD recorder. In 2003 I was using a Sony Cyber-shot 8mb single lens camera and since 2008 an Olympus E3, 10mb, with a 12-60mm lens.

PhotoShop has generally been replaced as the programme has updated. Today instead of having to combine layers totally manually I can make use of ‘photomerge' which automatically stitches them (to a point). However even now, with 2GB of RAM, I can only automatically stitch a handful of frames together, I can still take a week (over a period of months) to complete a major image.

Camera-less Images

These unique pieces were started in 1993 as a reaction to the anticipated digital future. I was aware that there was still a great deal to be discovered through experimentation with the traditional silver based, paper and chemical photography invented 150 years prior to this point. I could also see the practical, physical, hands-on approach to photography, the craft of traditional image making, disappearing and being replaced with a sterile clean digital system where the photographer need only ever leave the studio in virtual reality.

The inspiration for this work was noticing the wonderful reaction that discarded photographic paper had to light, developer and fixer at the end of a day whilst cleaning out a black and white darkroom. One would expect a piece of photo paper to simply go black, but in reality a whole multitude of colours were in evidence ranging from yellows and greens to purples including greys, black and white.

In 1997 and 1998 I made some of this work in Fine Shade Woods in Northamptonshire for the art and country crafts weekends of ‘Fruits of the Forest '. The work is made outdoors in sunlight. Firstly multigrade photographic paper is laid out as a grid on a piece of board, usually with a little spraymount to keep the paper from moving. Then leaves are laid on top after sometimes being immersed in water, stopbath, fixer or developer. A large, weighty piece of glass is positioned over the top to press the leaves flat onto the paper. I then leave it, sometimes over a 12 hour period, so that light and chemistry can do its work. The leaves are then removed and perhaps replaced after being immersed in a different photographic chemical. These wet leaves are held down tightly onto the paper under a piece of newspaper, which absorbs the excess liquid. The paper sheets are then removed and developed fixed and washed in the normal way; making sure to pull the paper out of the developer after only seconds and sometimes missing that chemical altogether. The paper is dried then assembled on a new piece of board.

Printable Version