Today I’ve generated my first digital negative for ‘PULSE’ on a printer I have affectionately nick-named ‘The Beast’ and I can already tell it’s not going to be my last…

In the next couple of weeks, I’ll be busy with what I know is going to be a lengthy iterative process where testing by trial and error will be strongly dominated by, huh, error… The idea is to use a late 1800’s contact printing process called Van Dyke Brown on each of the 10 photographs of my latest Locked-in series. I’m incredibly excited!!

Granted, I am not particularly looking forward to the weather vagaries of Holland where the sun plays hide and seek (mostly hide), as I have the feeling that my exposure times will not only strongly vary but likely will demand more than 10 minutes on average (whereas, if I lived in California, I’d need less than 2…). The minimal developing time for one print when you include the different washing baths is about 50min. That’s not counting the time to prep and dry the paper. I’m not the most patient of people in everyday life but I am a perfectionist when it comes to my work so I’m sure it will all balance out. I just accept the fact that some cursing might be involved in the process… I’m also going to play with ferric ammonium citrate, tartaric acid, silver nitrate and sodium thiosulphate and, well, given my track record, I feel somewhat compelled to promise: I will be extremely careful!

The thing is, I know it’s going to be a labor of love. I’m also convinced it’s going to be so worth it!!