Printing for Apparitions

For the first time in many weeks I was able to go down into my darkroom and work on making some prints.  In recent weeks, as my broken leg continued to recover, I was able to organize my darkroom and make some unsharp masks.  Since I've returned home from my recent trip to Nordegg I've now made time to get back downstairs and start on some printing.

Arturo and I are supposed to have our exhibition prints ready for the Apparitions project by May. Originally the deadline was in January, but we requested and were granted an extension due to a delay in the availability of our silver gelatin paper from Ilford, the manufacturer.  In hindsight, its good thing we are able to do that, as my broken leg resulted in further delays.  The reason that we even have a deadline is because we were awarded an Edmonton Arts Council grant to help finance putting our exhibition together.  We have the shipping crates essentially built, and just have to attach a little hardware and then they are ready to go.  We also have all of our framing materials... frames, glass, mounts, matts, hardware, etc. all cut and ready to go.  It is just the printing that remains, and then install the prints into the frames.

The exhibition will consist of 32 large prints, 16 by each of us.  I have actually printed about six or eight of mine, but I'm not 100% happy with all of them.  This is always a problem for me when it comes down to preparing prints for exhibition.  I can never decide what to include and I always begin to second guess myself.  Some of my more recent work often gets more seriously considered than images that are a couple years older, and that I have already grown tired of.

On February 20th I had a little time, so I tested a questionable batch of Dektol developer.  When it proved to be alright, I continued working and printed one negative.  Then the next day, I returned to the darkroom and spent about five hours down there.  By the end of it I my leg was pretty tired.  I think my good leg actually feels worse than the broken one, because I favor it so much.  In any event, there was no significant pain and it seemed to go alright.  I attempted to print four negatives.  One I was totally unhappy with an gave up after one work print.  But the other three turned out pretty well.  

I think that out of all the prints I have made so far I have about six that will make it into the exhibition.  That leaves me with ten more to print before the deadline.  One of the issues that I have is that I know I have some strong newer images, but I have not even developed the film yet.  But, I will focus my attention on getting this project wrapped up over the next several weeks.

We have already begun sending out gallery submissions to find venues that are willing to exhibit our show.  We have four submissions already sent out, and two more in the works.  These are typically sent out well in advance and should we be accepted, it would likely be for 2026 or 2027.  Over the course of the next year or so we plan on sending out at least two dozen more submissions.