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The Process
I love natural landscapes and I love to be out in natural landscapes. I love the sense of peace I experience in a natural landscape as the tensions of every day life relax. I was drawn to landscape photography, in part, by the realization that photographs of the landscape can be relaxing and promote a feeling of wellbeing. My hope is that my prints will contribute to the sense of wellbeing that others experience.
This desire to share the therapeutic potential of nature informs the way I work in the field. I am very slow and deliberate in my photographing. I take time to become familiar with a landscape, to get a feeling for it if you will. The best, for me, is when I lose my self-awareness and photography just happens. I feel this is when I do my best work in that I get out of the way and let nature express herself through the image I record.
To this end I photograph primarily using a Pentax 67 medium format film camera. I have appreciated that the larger format slows me down in the field and, although I do miss some images because of this, my work is also more deliberate. After I return home, there is looking at an image carefully on the light table to determine if it has promise. Then, if I think it does, there is the scanning and spotting, all of which develops a familiarity with the image and feel for landscape it represents. This process helps me visualize the final print and how it might best evoke the feeling of actually being there at the moment the film was exposed. Photoshop, a marvelously spontaneous and creative tool, is then used to realize this visualization.
The Prints
The prints are on archival materials using Epson UltraChrome pigment inks, a material/ink combination that will give at least double the expected display life of the best chromogenic darkroom prints of the recent past. That display life can be doubled again if UV protective glazing is used. Prints come with a generous border around the image and a certificate of authenticity stating the image title and ID, the material on which the print was made, the ink set used and the date printed.
Color Prints
I offer two choices of materials for color prints – a 100% cotton fine art paper and a poly cotton blend canvas. Paper prints are made on Museoâ MAX that is a moderately textured 100% cotton, acid free fine art paper with wide color gamut and great Dmax that prints with fine detail. I find it’s matte finish and moderate texture particularly appropriate for landscape images because they provide a slight softening and tactile sense that characterizes the landscape itself – even “harsh” landscapes. If archivally matted and framed to reduce UV incidence and pollution effects, these prints will last for generations.
Since canvas prints take on more of the character of paintings, many like to stretch and hang them frame free as paintings often are. To accommodate this, before a canvas print is made a “gallery wrap” is added to the image file in Photoshop that reflects the edge of the image so that the canvas may be stretched without cropping the image or having an unnatural looking border. To achieve a desired visual impact, it is usual to choose the next larger print size than would be chosen if the image was to be matted.
My canvas prints are made on Breathing Color Chromata Whiteä canvas that is a bright white poly cotton blend matte canvas using an acid-free neutral pH coating. This is the most archival canvas available and the coating allows great Dmax and color gamut. After printing, the canvas is coated with Breathing Color Glamourä II, a non-yellowing, water based gloss varnish that will deepen the saturation of colors, protect against moisture and abrasion and increase resistance to image fading. This is particularly important for canvas prints because they usually aren’t framed with a protective glaze.
Monochrome Prints
My monochrome prints aren’t strictly black-and-white prints in that they are of a warm tone but otherwise would fit into the black-and-white genre. These prints also use Epson UltraChrome pigment inks and are printed on Moab (by Legion Paper) Somerset Enhanced Velvet paper. This fine art paper has a velvety texture with the resulting print possibly reminding some of platinum/palladium prints. This paper is an archival media buffered with calcium carbonate to help protect the prints from atmospheric pollutants. Monochrome prints are limited in size to 16”x20” with the maximum size of some images limited to yet smaller sizes for technical reasons.
Displaying Your Prints
All photographic prints are degraded by exposure to UV radiation and pollution. Our canvas prints are coated to help protect against this damage since they won’t generally be placed behind a protective glazing. In the case of prints on paper, it is critical that they be framed and placed behind glass or Plexiglas if they are to achieve their expected display life.
It is also desirable that photographs not be exposed to direct sunlight or continuous fluorescent light. If your paper prints will be hung in a room receiving a lot of indirect sunlight or long exposure to fluorescent light, their display life will be extended if you use glazing with UV filtering. If excessive glare is a problem, non-glare glazing is available.
Small Prints
I offer “small” prints (4”x5” and 6”x7.5”, the small dimension depending on image aspect ratio) primarily because I find them very appealing in certain applications. I began this practice after viewing some of Alfred Stieglitz’s “Equivalents” at a museum. What Stieglitz had done was to put prints that were quite small into a fairly large frame. The effect was to give the image visual weight on the wall yet to invite the viewer to come in close to view the details of the image – it encouraged an intimacy with the image that had a strong emotional effect on me. My practice is to put 4”x5” prints in a 16”x20” frame and to put 6”x7.5” prints in a 20”x24” frame – the Stieglitz print/frame size disparity was even greater. I mention this as a suggestion only, obviously frame sizes should suit the circumstances.
Open Editions
Prints are offered in open editions only although each print is individually dated and signed by me. Due to the ongoing improvements being made in digital printers, papers and inks and in my Photoshop skills, limited editions no longer seem appropriate. Each time an image is printed, the file is revisited in Photoshop for possible improvements. You will get the best print I am capable of making at the time of ordering. This time intensive approach to printing ensures prints of your chosen images will remain limited and will retain their value.
Peter Haigh Landscape Photography