I am a photographer and love exploring the world with my camera. When I was four years old my father put a small Kodak Duaflex camera in my hands. He was a teacher and loved to explore the National Parks in the summers with his Minolta. Fifteen years ago I picked up a camera again and tried to learn everything I could about photography.

First, I began with community college classes, then the Summer Intensive at Rocky Mountain School of Photography – an amazing summer in Missoula MT, finally finding my way to the Photographic Center Northwest in Seattle (PCNW), an wonderful photography school. I began to learn printing techniques beginning with color and BW ink jet printing. Then explored alternative process printing, which are hand made in the photography darkroom using historic printing processes.

I create cyanotypes, an iron based process, invented in the 1840’s. It is know for its deep blues and still popular today. I also create Platinum/Palladium prints, popular from the 1870’s to the 1930’s. These prints are known for their deep blacks and browns, have a long range of tonal detail, and are one of the most archival photographic prints.

I use a digital camera for all my image capture. For the darkroom prints I create a digital negative in computer software, then print the file on a transparency surface to create a negative. In the darkroom the solution of the process is painted on paper and then dried. The negative is placed over the paper and exposed in a light box. After exposure the paper is developed and cleared with several baths until all unused solution is washed out.

Because so much of photography today requires work on a computer, I especially like creating the darkroom prints where I can work with my hands. I find the process meditative and it’s always interesting to see the outcome because each print is different.

I have lived in Washington State for the past 40 years and moved to Bellingham 5 years ago. I find inspiration in the cycle of growth, decay and rebirth. The wonderful trails and forests here in Bellingham give me much to explore. I also find old buildings, ghost towns, and old machinery fascinating – probably from travels with my father when I was little. Somehow it seems fitting to print historical buildings in historic printing processes.