Gold River, Niakoon Park, Haida Gwaii #1201

Gold River, Niakoon Provincial Park, Haida Gwaii, September, 1993

 Sold! ......This print from the Art of Black and White Photography show in Canmore that opened this past weekend ( Feb 14 / 2014 ). The print is a 16" x 20" is a silver-gelatin print that I made in 1996 for a show in Sooke during that same year ( getting to be vintage ! )

 Here is a little behind the scenes story about this print for anyone that might be interested in reading further. I made the print "Gold River" back in late 1995 as part of an exhibit of 15 to 20 prints fairly large size prints for a small gallery in Sooke, BC, called 'The Hidden Space' the show was called 'The Shuttered Eye', I had previously met with the owner and showed him my work and he liked it, I was the main featured artist featured with another 4 or 5 other photographers showing their work as , it was in the month of July, 1996, The show went well, people liked it except wouldn't you know it, not one of my prints sold. I felt bad for the owner of the gallery as he only ended up selling one small print and nothing else, he had devoted his whole gallery space to the photography exhibit.

Each these prints was made in my darkroom on 16" x 20" silver-gelatin paper called 'Brilliant' made in France for Zone VI Studios from the US, I loved that paper! of course its long gone by the wayside in the digital age, even if I was printing in the darkroom today which I have not done so since 2004, I doubt if I could find a paper to match the quality of the Brilliant paper, it had a wonderful tonal scale, and toned beautifully with selenium toner. I printed the whole show on this paper which was a fairly big job. I probably printed 4 to 6 prints of each image. 

 So to continue with my story, after the show in Sooke I took the prints home and put them away, until one day in December of 2012 I got a call from the Sooke Harbour House Gallery on Vancouver Island, they wanted to feature my work for a show in January of 2013, could I have anything ready in two weeks?, I said sure, Since I had the West Coast prints all ready done and they were dry mounted on museum rag board , I pulled those out, put them in frames and delivered them, that show was called 'Antiquity of Landscape' it was up for the months of January and February of 2013 and wouldn't you know it…..not one print sold. I yet had another opportunity to exhibit this work including the Gold River print plus 11 others in July of last year at the Unitarian Church in the Victoria are, again no prints sold. 

Then just after Christmas I got a call from Richard Brown a photographer in Canmore Alberta, would you like to take part in an exhibit called 'The Art of Black and White Photography' he needed two prints fairly soon, so I sent out the Gold River print and two alternates. So finally in Canmore, Alberta I was able to sell a print made for a show in Sooke, BC, 18 years ago ( Cheer goes here ! ) 

The buyer has a unique print, checking around my home, it appears to be my last print from of series, my parents have one which I gave them for their 40th wedding anniversary, I believe one one my my brothers or my sister has one which I gave away for a Christmas present one year and there might be one of two others out there that I gave to friends. I can still make a print of 'Gold River' of course, which is pigment on paper, a totally different technology.