Contact prints are universally valued for their remarkable qualities of optical sharpness, fine detail, and sensual textures. Contact printing has evolved to a forceful aesthetic today, one of purity and perfection that is actively practiced by Guild members. The decision to make handmade contact prints reflects a method of working that necessitates contemplation. It is a time-consuming process that records each detail in the print quality to achieve the unsurpassed graphic and textural form present in each print.

At left is "Casa Cultura" by Sandy King, a 5x7 carbon transfer print (also available by special order in 12x14" and 12x17" sizes), and an example of the work currently available through our Online Gallery. Because we understand the difficulty of seeing the true beauty of a contact print from a scanned image on your computer, we offer an unconditional guarantee. If you are not satisfied with any photograph you have purchased from the Online Gallery, you can return it for a refund. We currently have nearly 400 photographs available for sale. Just click on the link below to quickly and easily view our catalog. The Gallery is a secure site that allows you to purchase using your credit card or PayPal account.

Click here to visit our Online Gallery.

New Developments:
Jason Miguel Russell—Albumenized Silver Chloride Paper

For our subscribers who are interested in trying some diverse contact printing processes, Guild member Jason Miguel Russell is now producing and offering a special paper for sale: albumenized silver chloride printing paper. He floats each sheet in the albumen salt & sizing solution to produce either a single or a double coat, depending on the buyer's specifications. Each type of albumen paper has its advantages and disadvantages. For the beginner, he recommends starting with the single-coated albumen. Although it looks much like the double-coated version, the image it produces is not quite as glossy and it will look as if the image is part of the paper. Single-coated albumen paper is easier to sensitize by applying a silver nitrate solution with a foam brush or puddle pusher. The double-coated albumen paper must be floated on top of a 15% silver nitrate bath to become evenly sensitized, but this paper gives a much glossier finish and slightly more detail. NOTE: There is no silver nitrate in the albumen, and the paper is not light sensitive until you apply it.

Albumen papers are printing-out papers and require a split-back contact-printing frame to allow the printer to monitor the print. Twenty-five sheets of 8½ x 11 paper sell for $30.00. Jason is accepting orders for both the double- and single-coated albumen papers. Simply email him at jason@contactprintersguild.com with the number of sheets you would like and specify which type of coating you prefer. Each order will come with a complete set of instructions on sensitizing, printing, toning, fixing and clearing. He will also include some recommendations on film and developer that he has found to produce the best results in obtaining the high CI needed for the process.

Above you see Jason's own gold-toned albumen print titled "Aqua Pod," available in our Online Gallery. To see more of his images, please click here.

A while ago, when someone would ask me, "What drew you to photograph that?" or "Why did you photograph it that way?" I would simply say that it was the way I saw the subject. For a long time, it seemed like a simple question that needed a simple answer. But as I've matured as an artist, the answer has often been beyond the power of words to describe. For me, my photographs reflect feelings I have about the subject and want to express and share with the viewer.

I just love everything about photography. Working out in the field and making images is the top of the pyramid. Processing the negatives, printing, mounting, and sharing prints with others are all time-consuming steps in the final expression of the photographer's vision, and they are all extremely enjoyable for me. I take pleasure in every phase as I move closer to the final print, each one connecting me again with the subject and with my feelings for it. I strongly identify with Whelan's quote in our introduction, "What makes a photograph powerful is the sense it gives the viewer that the photographer cared passionately and intensely about his subject, about the way that he or she and his or her camera saw it, and about every detail of the final image."

Getting to the final print, I reconnect with the subject from the field, with the negative in my darkroom and with what it captures. Finally, as the print emerges, it gives back to me, the photographer, all the care and emotional information I can coax out of it.

This image, "Winter Grass," is a roadside scene that I had passed several times before taking this photograph. I always thought that it looked interesting, but somehow I never had the time to go back to it and make a photograph; I was always hurrying home from photographing somewhere else. This time, however, I was heading to a place in central Oregon to photograph. Snow had closed the roads to where I wanted to go, so I thought about finally going back and spending some time with the grass. With limited access to the area, I had to rely on a longer-focal-length lens and hope the wind wouldn't shake the extended bellows too much. I can't recall too much about the mechanical aspects of making the image, but I still experience the deeper feeling I had when I first explored the image on the ground glass. The way the winds had sculpted the grass, the angle of the fence, and the tones of the image gave me goose bumps then, and I still get them now.

I can't think of anything I would rather do, or of anything that brings me more satisfaction than this journey from the ground glass to the contact print that I hold in my hands, expressing my personal response to nature's beauty.

Patrick Kolb is offering his beautiful "Winter Grass," an 8x10 platinum/palladium print, at a special price for a limited time--please visit the Special Offers section of our Online Gallery. To see more of Patrick's work, please go to his pages in our Online Gallery.

We are offering specially priced prints by Guild members through this newsletter. Using this link, you can buy selected photographs that we have discounted for a limited time.

At left is "Near Kayenta AZ, 2003" an 8x10 contact print on silver chloride paper by DJ Nayakankuppam, one of several images available in our Special Offers section this month. Some of the prints are also featured in the current B&W Magazine advertisement. Please visit this issue's special-offer prints on our website.

Susan Huber

"The Road to Vantage" by Guild member Susan Huber received an honorable mention and is included in the 7th annual "High and Dry" exhibit sponsored by the International Cultural Center of Texas Tech University. (You see the image at right.) The show runs through January 18 at the ICC facility, 601 Indiana Avenue, Lubbock, Texas, and is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For further information, please call 806-742-2218.

Please visit our Online Gallery to see more of Susan Huber's work.

Gerald Pisarzowski

Several of Gerald Pisarzowski's 16x20 platinum/palladium prints have been selected for a group show entitled "Eiszeit" ("Ice Age") at Galerie Wild in Frankfurt. At left is his image "Pine River #1, Ontario," one of those featured in this show.

"Eiszeit" runs until February 13. The gallery is located at Kirchnerstrasse 2 / 1st (at the corner of Kaiserplatz, across from Hotel Frankfurter Hof) in Frankfurt and is open Monday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. For more information, please visit their website.

To see this and more of Gerald's work available in our Online Gallery, you may click here.

Guild Group Show in Phoenix, AZ

You still have a few more days to catch the Guild's group exhibition at 422 Gallery in Phoenix, which continues through January 14. At right is "Globe AZ, 2007," an 8x10 contact print on Azo paper by Scott Peters, one of the many images crafted by 17 artists that are displayed in this show.

The venue is located at 4115 N 44th Street in Phoenix, at the corner of Indian School and N 44th Streets. It can be reached by phone at 602-957-3122. Regular open hours are 9-5 Monday through Friday and 1-5 on Saturday.

Michael A. Smith and Paula Chamlee: LA Photo

Michael and Paula's publishing company, Lodima Press, will have a booth at Photo LA through Sunday. They will have many of their photographs there, as well as all Lodima Press books, and invite everyone to attend. The show is located at Barker Hangar, 3021 Airport Avenue in Santa Monica, California. For more information on Photo LA, please click here.

Above is Michael A. Smith's "Jokulsarlon, Iceland 2004," an 8x20 silver chloride contact print available through the Guild. Please visit our Online Gallery to see this and more of his work. To see Paula Chamlee's images, follow this link.

Scott Peters and John Wimberley: Phoenix, AZ

Following the Guild's group show, the 422 Gallery has scheduled a two-person exhibit of work by Guild members Scott Peters and John Wimberley during February and March of 2008. The gallery is located at 4115 N 44th Street in Phoenix, Arizona.

To see the contact prints John Wimberley has available through the Guild, please visit our Online Gallery.

Gerald Pisarzowski is teaching a two-day platinum printing workshop April 19-20 at Big Camera Workshops in Burlington, Ontario. This workshop is limited to six to eight students. Participants will have hands-on experience mixing emulsions, coating paper, and exposing and developing the image. Other topics to be discussed include negative development, selecting paper, scanning negatives and making inkjet negatives. Please go to Big Camera Workshops for more details.

John Wimberley is offering "Sight and Insight: A Workshop on Seeing in Photography" from May 16-18, 2008. This session will be at the Bainbridge Island Creativity Center, Bainbridge Island, WA. You can email John at tjwimberley@charter.net to sign up for his class.

Ray Bidegain and Patrick Kolb will be teaming up with workshop veteran Jeanette Altman July 9-13 for a five-day platinum/palladium workshop. This is an expansion of the popular three-day workshop series by Ray and Patrick. Additions to the agenda will be the study of tailoring a film negative for the platinum/palladium process, tailoring a film negative for scanning, the scanning of the negative for platinum/palladium, and crafting a digital negative for platinum/palladium printing. Their workshop will encompass all of this, as well as spending three days on demystifying the platinum/palladium process. Look for additional information in future newsletters.

Michael Smith and Paula Chamlee's 2008 agenda is being set up at this time. Please consult their Workshop Page from time to time to learn more about and sign up for one of their "Vision and Technique" weekend workshops for intermediate and advanced photographers.

Guild member Ray Bidegain talks about the challenges of editing one's work, and gives us a unique approach to the task.

"I spend what some might consider an inordinate amount of time looking at and thinking about my photographic work. As I look over the prints, my hope is that I will be able to edit them, culling the weak ones and leaving only the best images that represent my art. The problem for me is this: I can't seem to look at the work without taking into consideration a whole myriad of factors relating to the photographs. I can't forget about my experience of making the photograph; if it includes a person, I am reminded of my interaction with that person and how I felt when making the photo. I wonder about the size of the print and how it will look when displayed on the wall versus being held in someone's hands. All this extra information makes if difficult for me to know how to edit and select. It may also be unimportant criteria for what makes a good photograph.

"I often get together with other photographers who are my friends, and we share and discuss our new work. I find this very valuable and helpful, but I still have to take into account that they are photographers and they are my friends (more of the myriad of factors).

"There was a time when photographers of the era would journey to New York to show their photographs to Alfred Stieglitz. Everything I read about this experience tells me that it was not take lightly; Stieglitz had a reputation for being extremely critical, and very direct. So it came to me: What if I imagined that Stieglitz was still alive and was receiving photographers and their portfolios for review. Which ten of my photographs would I show him, knowing that he would not care at all about any of that other stuff I always seem to consider. To my surprise, this approach has been useful for me. For a short time I am able to look at my work and not think about the other stuff, but simply respond to the photographs that feel the best to me.

"Want to see my ten?"

Above is "Tulips on Paper," one of Ray's selections. To see this image and the rest of his work available through the Guild, please visit our Online Gallery.