MY FINE-ART PRINTS
A NEW ERA OF ARCHIVAL COLOR PRINTS
Traditionally, the fine print has been the end, or at least the end product, of the photographic process. I confess that in my photographic life I have generally avoided making and selling prints—until recently. This is because traditional darkroom prints of color images never satisfied me. Whether Cibachrome, or any other process, earlier color prints never equalled the tactile quality of black-and-white darkroom prints, and never matched their archival longevity. Worse yet, traditional color printing never came close to capturing the saturation, contrast range, and vividness of my original Fujichrome transparencies.
All that has changed with the coming of age of fine digital printmaking. The quality I've dreamed of for years is actually here. After some intensive work and study with my friend and digital mentor, Bill Atkinson, I am now finally able to make, exhibit and sell prints that meet my own absurdly high standards.
Bill Atkinson, by the way, is perhaps the most accomplished color photo printer today and a brilliant nature photographer in his own right. I think of Bill as the Ansel Adams of the color photographic print. You can see a rich sample of his work at WWW.BILLATKINSON.COM
The portfolios on this web site are just the tip of the iceberg, but they constitute tightly related visual stories that I love to present together. Other images, from my earlier books and from my image files, are also available as prints.
HOW I MAKE MY PRINTS
I now make archival pigment prints on archival watercolor-type paper. This combination produces the richest, deepest and and most satisfying color prints I have yet seen. The paper is a beautiful 300 grams-per-square-meter sheet, specially treated to receive and hold pigment inks. This paper is quite heavy, a real delight to hold in the hand, and the slightly matte surface is an exciting departure from conventional high-gloss photo papers.
Because of the unusual look and presence of this paper, I have chosen to print my images on larger sheets of paper, allowing a generous border around the photograph — my standard size print is a 12 by 18 inch image printed on 24 inch square paper. I personally love framing and presenting my rectangular images in this square format, as it makes it easy to display and enjoy both vertical and horizontal images together in a harmonious way.
In a sense, these are self-matting prints. I prefer to exhibit them without any overmatting, in simple silver-grey frames with no glass, or else under "museum glass," a wonderful if somewhat expensive solution because museum glass is crystal clear and has no reflections whatever.
WHAT NOW?
ORDERING PRINTS IN THE TIME OF CORONAVIRUS
It won’t be a surprise to anyone that the pandemic that has taken the world by storm in 2020 has also severely impacted my ability to make and then ship the beautiful prints that I have exhibited and sold for the last few years. Currently, with my husband and partner, Lito Tejada-Flores, I am so to speak, “sheltering in place”—and of course photographing—at our second home in Chilean Patagonia, far from my Colorado studio and my terrific Canon Prograf archival printer.
So regrettably, I can’t accept any print orders at the moment and, like you, I am waiting eagerly for some valid solution, like an effective vaccine, to put an end to our pandemic dilemma. In the meantime, stay well and stay in touch. I have faith that the natural beauty that inspires my photography will help us all through these difficult times.
Linde