Title:
Pictorial Whispers – Two Souls – Plate No. 1 (Limited Edition of 10)
Pictorial Whispers is a deeply personal fine art collection of handmade calotype paper negatives and salt prints created in the wake of losing my daughter. Through this work, I’ve found a quiet, grounding way to process grief, using a process as slow and imperfect as mourning itself. These are not photographs. They are physical manifestations of emotion, made entirely by hand using a process first practiced in the 1830s by William Henry Fox Talbot, the inventor of the calotype and salt printing process.
Limited Edition Salt Print Details
- Title: Pictorial Whispers – Two Souls – Plate No. 1
- Medium: Handmade Salt Print from Calotype Paper Negative
- Format: Whole Plate Calotype printed on 8×10 Salted Paper
- Paper: Bergger COT 160 (100% Cotton Rag)
- Toner: Gold
- Edition Size: Limited to 10 prints, numbered and signed
- Print Size: Image area approximately 6.5 x 8.5 inches on 8×10 inch paper
- Price: $450 (mounted on 8×10 or 11×14 archival museum board, ready for framing)
Collector Details
- Format: Whole Plate (6 1/2 x 8 1/2) Calotype on 8×10 Bergger COT 160 Paper
- Camera: Custom 8×10 Chamonix View Camera
- Lens: 11.5″ Wollensak Verito F4 Soft Focus Lens (c. early 20th century)
Calotype Paper Negative Process: The calotype was first iodized and let dry. Then, I sensitized the iodized paper under red safelight conditions in my darkroom with silver nitrate and glacial acetic acid and blotted before loading it in my large format plate holders. The calotype is now light sensitive because it has formed silver-iodide, which reacts when exposed to natural UV light. In the field, I exposed the calotype with natural sunlight and the developed it by hand in the darkroom with gallic acid, glacial acetic acid and silver nitrate to bring it to life.
Salt Print Process: I use Bergger COT 160, a natural white, 100% cotton archival paper with no additives, optical brighteners, or chemicals that might compromise longevity. Each sheet is hand-coated with a proprietary sizing solution made from historic arrowroot starch and salt. Once dried, I apply a silver nitrate solution by hand, rendering the paper light-sensitive and forming silver chloride within the fibers.
After preparing the salted paper, I place a handmade calotype paper negative directly onto it, forming a tight “sandwich” inside a contact printing frame. This ensures firm and even contact between the negative and the salted paper.
The sandwich is then exposed to UV light. During this exposure, a chemical reaction occurs with the silver chloride, and the image slowly prints out as a visible positive. Once the desired image density is achieved, a careful multi-step archival process begins. This includes clearing, toning with gold, and fixing the print to preserve its beauty and permanence for generations.
After the final wash and drying, I hand-wax the salt print using a 19th-century technique—blending pure beeswax with 100% lavender oil. This not only protects the print from airborne contaminants but also imparts a subtle, timeless sheen that enhances its depth and character.
Artist Story
I didn’t set out to photograph this tree—it found me. When I need to escape the harsh reality that Abby is gone, I go to nature and wander without a plan. Whatever happens, happens. On this cold, still winter morning, the land whispered back the ache I was carrying. These two trees, separated by a swell in the land, felt like two souls reaching but never quite able to touch. It reminded me of Abby and me. There was connection—deep and real—but also distance I could never close for now.
After losing her, I needed something to command my attention—something I couldn’t rush through. The handmade calotype paper negative and salt printing process became that for me. It’s slow, messy, and hard to control—just like grief. But it gives me space to feel, to reflect, to make something real.
Reflection
These calotypes and salt prints are physical manifestations of my journey through grief and loss. The organic nature of the chemistry’s interaction with light and paper is a mirror of what’s happening inside me when I create this work. Every calotype and salt print is unique and can never be duplicated, just like every person is unique, and how pain and healing take different shapes in all of us.
Philosophy & Process
These are not photographs. They are physical sheets of paper that are hand coated with ancient chemistry that reacts to light to form inverted tones. If the sky is light, it displays as dark. This inversion forces me to think about the reversal of tone and color and the metaphors that communicate my thoughts and emotions.
I use rare vintage soft focus lenses in conjunction with the calotype and salt printing process because the pictorial aesthetic expresses how I feel inside. No other tools convey my truth with the same intimacy and emotion. The imperfect nature of the calotype process represents the hard truth no one wants to talk about—life is imperfect, and when someone we love dies, all we have are memories.
Creative Framework
This work draws on my core creative pillars: Resilience, Transformation, and Connection.
- Resilience — the trees endure, season after season, alone but standing.
- Transformation — light and chemistry reveal something new each time.
- Connection — though imperfect, the bonds we have don’t vanish with death.
Closing Thoughts
This is how I speak when I have no words. Each calotype represents a real day in my life and how I worked through grief and loss on that day.
Plate No. 1 helped me face the day—and for that, it holds more truth than any sharp, perfect image ever could.
About Pictorial Whispers
Pictorial Whispers is a deeply personal fine art collection of handmade calotype paper negatives and salt prints created in the wake of losing my daughter. Each piece reflects a real day in my life—marked by grief, memory, and the quiet act of choosing to keep going. Made entirely by hand using 19th-century processes and vintage soft focus lenses, these calotypes and salt prints are not just images—they are emotional records of presence, loss, and resilience.
Art Collector Resources
- Collector and Student Testimonials [read]
- Collector’s Guide [read]
- Why Analog Photography is Essential to Fine Art Creation [read]
- Why I Create [read]
- Aura – What is it, and why does it matter? [read]
- Why Analog Photography Is a Smart Investment [read]
- Analog photography in the Digital Age: Examining transformation, alienation and authenticity in modern photographic practice. https://doi.org/10.55927/ijads.v2i3.11019
