Liquid silver prints are photographs printed on liquid photo-emulsion. The process is delicate, exacting, time consuming and toxic. With each stage of production, until the various liquid chemicals have rendered their task and hardened, safety is a constant issue, as is dust, temperature, humidity and light. First, a black & white negative is chosen. When working on wood, the wood is selected for its grain to complement the chosen photograph. The panel is then sanded and stained to create a background on which the image will lay. Areas of light are created to enhance, and areas of darkness or color are created to augment. Four coats of polyurethane are painstakingly applied to each side of the wood, sanded and smoothed to a polished finish.

After the woodworking aspect of the process is complete, and the piece has been allowed to cure, the finished board is brought into the darkroom. Melted down from its gelatinous form, the emulsion is carefully poured in pools on the leveled board. The pools are formed to pull out only the desired areas of the image, and to add form and movement to the piece. All this is performed in the dim amber safelight of my darkroom studio. Curing once again occurs as the piece is left in total darkness to set.

Squared and focused, the image is projected onto the coated wood panel. Then the emulsion is treated with four chemical processes that develop the print. Provided the image is acceptable, the piece is then washed and left to its final day of curing. If the process has not created the desired effect, the emulsion is immediately scraped from the wood and the board chemically cleaned. The darkroom part of the process is sometimes repeated over and over until the work meets the effect I am looking for.

When framing, my frames are created from mahogany, milled in my wood-shop and oiled to a tone to accent the piece they surround.

Liquid silver prints can be created in any size, from the hand-held to wall filling. Subject matter can be captured under a contracted photo assignment or can be chosen from one of the thousands of negatives that fill my archives.

This process is not limited to wood. My work adorns glass doors, and can be applied to fabrics, paper and even stone.