Richard Dickson Photography
From over 6500 entries I have been selected for this exhibition. The work is one of the argyrotype prints from my series South Downs – Rugged Beauty. This is the second time I have had works selected for this prestigious annual event. The exhibition runs from 14th – 23rd November at the
Mall Galleries, The Mall, SW1 5AH,London. @INGDiscerningEye
I am very pleased with this as it means the works from this series have now been selected for exhibition in the UK and US.
This year two works have again been chosen for exhibition by Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati (https://www.manifestgallery.org/) in their annual small works callout. I am pleased that the chosen argyrotype prints are from my series shown in 2024 at ArtWave in Sussex.
This print was selected for a call from Loosen Art in Rome. The exhibition title was ‘Scenes from Real Life’. I like that subject matter, seeking images often with a counterpoint of ordinary human activity whatever the surrounding environment – Finding Space. In this case the family enjoying the beach side with the fog surrounded, decommissioned nuclear power station in the background.
The digital images posted don’t show the subtle tones of the final prints. It is difficult to show a true representation of how the final prints look either by scanning them or digitally photographing them. These are digital photos taken with a flash. Still not very good but will get some done in a studio geared for product shots.
I will be exhibiting prints from the series Rugged Beauty, taken on the South Downs (see post South Downs – Rugged Beauty…) at this years Art Wave Festival organised at locations around Lewes.
These prints have been created using a modified Victorian process, argyrotype, with hand coated paper and produces a fine, detailed print with a log tonal scale. It is an intensive, involved procedure but suits the subject and method I used to obtain and interpret the images.
Also showing works that have been selected for exhibitions in open calls internationally and at home, some listed in previous posts.
@artwavefestival
Argyrotype is a modified contact print process developed in Victorian times by the early experimenters of photography. This more recent version uses a slightly different chemical mix for longevity. All of these methods are based on hand coating suitable paper with a light sensitising solution, applying a negative to the surface and exposing to light then developing and fixing the final image.
The negatives I had for this series were a paper type from very old Polaroid film and never intended to be used for anything other than an instant print. Actually I like the negative image as it is.
So to get a workable, transparent negative I had to scan the non-transparent Polaroid one and from the digital file print this negative onto an acetate sheet. To obtain a version that can be used for the contact printing process requires much testing and calibration.
You have adjust the negatives for the process. There are many variables; exposure time, chemistry, temperature, humidity, acidity,paper. All of these can affect the final tone of the print. There are various tools to aid this procedure but it took over 20 test prints and negatives to arrive at a suitable one.
The stage of creating the print involves coating paper with the light sensitive iron/silver solution. Clamping the negative to this then exposing it to ultra-violet light. The chemistry is only sensitive to UV light which makes the process easier as the setting up can be done under soft light bulbs.
The paper is marked out to fit the negative and I mask the edges to provide a crisp edge. Sometimes a rough edge is used, emphasising the hand made nature but in this case with the framing in mind a cleaner one is better. The sensitising solution is applied using a glass rod. The paper is then left to dry. I mix my own solution from scratch. It’s like working in a laboratory, but then I studied chemistry at university level.
The dried, sensitised paper is now clamped together in a printing frame, in this case a plywood sheet covered with a piece of foam, then the paper and negative on top and finally a sheet of glass all clamped together with strong spring clips.
My UV exposure unit is just an old face-tanning lamp set in a box. The printing frame is placed over this and exposed to the light for the calculated time.
After exposure the image shows on the paper with a reddish brown tone. It is then washed for several minutes in acidified distilled water, rinsed again and then a fixing solution applied to clear any remaining unexposed silver halide particles.
Fixing immediately turns the reddish image to a darker brown. It then undergoes several rinses in water remove traces of any chemicals.
As the prints dry they undergo a further darkening and a more neutral tone shift which takes at least 24 hours to reach their final shade and density.
Framing is a very important part of the artwork. I always spend a lot of time working on dimensions and proportions, the colour of mat card, if used, to get the final result, according to the type of image to be presented.
And this is the final result. The image size for display is slightly small than I wanted as the paper size was unavailable but have now got the required paper.
Another Midwest Center selection, this for the Likeness exhibition November 2023.
https://www.mwcponline.com/likeness.html
I want to do more portraits but my style is very much informal, impromptu where I think you can get real essence of a person being in that moment.
If there is a material I can extract an image from I will try my hardest to do so. I obtained a few boxes of Polaroid sheet film that expired in 1982, no hope of the original chemicals working. However, it normally produces an interesting paper type negative, so with these ancient examples I experimented and found a method to develop exposed sheets using normal developer.
It works, and the negative having lived through many heating/cooling, dry/damp cycles in its life produced an image with some mottling and fine fibre marks. These ‘defects’ can give a scene a nuanced feeling or energy, unveiling a particular felt sense.
In late summer I did many walks along these hills with magnificent open views to sea or inland over the hedge-rowed fields of the farms below. I found the walks bucolic and peaceful as you wander into a space shared with sheep and cows grazing, calmly, contentedly. Still, the landscape has a harshness; the chalky soil, sometimes just bare chalk; rutted, pebbly pathways; the prickly gorse and windswept trees; the unbounded pasture and fields or craggy, chalk cliffs; the unsettling sense of exposure to the elements. From the first test exposure I took I felt that the images produced from this material would emphasise that stark, rugged beauty.
I think these would make interesting photopolymer intaglio prints so plan to work on a series.
Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA is an extraordinary organisation. Not just a gallery exhibiting works from open calls and solo exhibitions, they are an arts education establishment with a broad and inclusive outlook. It encompasses a Drawing centre that explores and promotes, unusually together, drawing and photography and have a residency program. Also, unusually, they have a prolific publication department producing a huge annual of all the year’s exhibitions, 375 pages for the last one. They also produce, every three years, on a rotating basis an annual of photography, drawing, and painting respectively. The quality of these products is superb.
For the exhibitions all the works are judged in a rigorous blind jury process prioritising quality reducing any curatorial bias or juror prejudice. In the latest season 17 publication there were 41 separate exhibitions of 567 works in total from 319 artists and over 11,000 submissions.
I may be biased as my first engagement with Manifest was being selected for the last Photography Annual, then a year later for the opening round of the season 17 exhibitions and just this year have had two works again selected. It has presented me with an opportunity to showcase some of my work with an affirmation of their quality. I am extremely proud of this especially in the knowledge of their blind jury process.
My work is photography based, often using or abusing different materials and processes. I think that photography in the US is taken more seriously and accepted as an art form. All of the works I have had accepted by Manifest have been submitted in the UK without success.
What I like most about exhibitions is not necessarily seeing my own work, I know it so well, but viewing it in relation with the others on show, appreciating their work and in the context of the exhibition theme.
I have had two works selected for exhibition in this years Manifest Gallery Magnitude Seven show, in Cincinnati USA, for small works. The show is of 27 works from 15 artists out of 352 entries from 101 artists. The exhibition is on from June 2nd to 30th.
I am especially happy with these two has they originated from the vintage glass plates I exposed 98 years after manufacture. One is a direct contact print of the plate via the argyrotype process (similar to all hand coated prints like platinum/palladium) and the other a photopolymer intaglio print mixing modern technology with old methods.
