The Back Story

Why picturesbyhand, you ask? Well, I like making stuff. As far back as I can remember, I've liked making stuff. Woodworking, metal shop, cast plastics, cars... and photographs. When I was 12 my dad made room in the basement for a simple darkroom. Throughout my teen years I worked in my dad's tool and die shop and spent my spare time wrenching on a 1968 Buick and then my beloved 1967 Camaro convertible.

The Camaro was a complete re-build - motor, trans, interior, etc. I even painted it red and replaced the convertible top myself. These are the things you do when you're young and have more time than money and are in love with your car.

So, when I became more interested in photography in the late '80's, I started fiddling with platinum/palladium printing. This is way before the WWW kids, so information was hard to come by. It took me a few years of fiddling to finally get good at the process. Around 2001 I was introduced to gum bichromate by my friend Stuart Melvin. Since then, gum over platinum has been my primary medium on paper.

In 2004 I began working with wet plate collodion and soon became obsessed with that process. These days I often combine all three of these processes to make my work. I make the original image using wet plate, usually on aluminum, then scan the plate, make a digital negative and then print in gum over platinum. Collodion, platinum, gum and digital negatives. My prints span 3 centuries of photographic technology. And it's fun! Here's an example:

Carl