Palladium toned Kallitype

As with any project worth bleeding for, one endures the endless stream of obstacles that invariably appear right in front of you at the worse possible time. This is referred to as psychological mugging, or ganging up on your last nerve. I'm well into the latter form. I refuse to give up, however, stalwart fool I am when confronted with a truck load of such irritants. After working through several printers and several other print heads applied to said printers, one finally works, which I came to realize just before it became clear that the laptop had a stroke, and won't talk to the nice printer now. This is assuredly cruel punishment of some form. No whining allowed.

During the wrestling match with the newest printer, out of the box new mind you, I was able to squeeze out four negatives before the printer simple told me to do back things to myself. I have moved on. Three of those blessed negatives will complete the Arizona Portfolio, which for now stands at fourteen prints. The fourth was printed to replace the one I have been trying in vain to use to make "The Swing" gum print. The image there simply wasn't printing in the lower tonal ranges with any detail at all. Just not sufficient densities in those lower ranges on the negative. This new negative addresses that and should finally bring more of the image to life with this printing. The two previous printings have shown that image takes two weeks of work to finish; both runs. Thus, another two weeks before I have that image to show.

The first of the three images to complete the Arizona Portfolio is one of the two Main Street images, without any activity. Just the street as it looked 130 years ago. That has been the underlying focus of this portfolio, offering a glimpse of life from a bygone era, in its historical context. I have been about 98% close to that goal, keeping any components of modernity out of the image. I also printed this portfolio to closely resemble traditional photographic methods that would more closely resemble prints from that period, using the historical printing processes used at that time. The prints in this portfolio are all Kallitype prints toned in palladium. Technically they are now palladium prints. The tonal range and print color of the images are natural to that period.

Palladium toned Kallitype
"Looking Down Main Street" ~ 8x10 ~ 1/5
Tombstone, Arizona