I’ll make no apologies for a second successive post on matters analogue.  You appear to enjoy them and I have a further post drafted (to follow in due course) offering my thoughts on why that might be.

Not only matters analogue, of course, as this is a marriage with digital technology too!

I digress.

Last week, I spent a couple of days working with my friend and colleague, Richard Freestone, in his domain, 139 Printroom.

I first enjoyed the darkroom experience at the age of twelve when I converted my bedroom to meet my new artistic and entrepreneurial requirements.  Sadly, I haven’t revisited these analogue methods since my university days.

Under the dim tungsten glow, I had forgotten what a gentle, calm experience the darkroom can be.

Everything slows right down to a strolling pace and goes a long way to creating the huge ‘pause button’ that I reckon the Western World craves…

Until now, my part in the Alternative Printing process has been to craft perfect Digital Negatives.  So, it was sublime to make my first Platinum/Palladium print from an image I have captured, scanned, made the Digital Negative and now printed using a process invented in 1873.

As you might imagine, I made some photographs of this rather special printing process and I thought you might like to see them too…

The Platinum/Palladium mixture, ready to be applied to the paper.

The mixture is drawn into a pipette...

...and applied to the paper.

The finest brush for the job is taken in hand...

...and the mixture is carefully distributed across the paper...

...leaving a smooth coating in readiness for the HP Digital Negative.

The HP Digital Negative is placed on top of the coated paper, held tightly under glass...

...and the exposure to strong ultra violet light is made.

Even before the paper is placed in the developing solution, parts of the image have already blackened to create a strangely beautiful latent image.

Into the developer we go and the image appears almost instantly.

After journeying through washes and clearing solutions, the print only needs to dry for the process to be complete.

A magical process, made possible by mixing together these chemicals (and then introducing some others!).

The Final Print | 'Scafell' by Jack Lowe | Platinum/Palladium Print from HP Digital Negative

Remember, you can learn more about this truly special service by clicking here…