Most people meet my artwork first. They see a quiet scene, soft tones, and a sense of stillness. What they don’t see right away is the reason it exists at all.
Pictorial Whispers was born from a loss I could not fix or outthink: the death of my youngest daughter, Abby. Grief didn’t arrive as a single event. It came as a long, uneven road that still continues. My work is not an escape from that road. It is the way I walk it.
Category Archives: Calotype Chronicles
A Typical Day for a Calotypist – Acidifying and Iodizing Papers
I make fully handmade 1840s Adamson-era calotype paper negatives and ammonio-nitrate of silver (ANS) salt prints at a single vintage window, using only natural light and 19th-century chemistry to speak about grief and endurance. A typical day for me involves one of two paths. I am either in prep mode or production mode. Today, IContinue reading “A Typical Day for a Calotypist – Acidifying and Iodizing Papers”
Inside the Ammonio-Nitrate of Silver Print: An 1840s Salt Process for My Adamson Calotypes
When I say my prints are “ammonio-nitrate of silver salt prints,” I’m not just dressing up a basic salt print with fancy words.
I’m using a very specific 1840s variant of Talbot’s salted paper process, built on a silver–ammonia complex that people like Alfred Swaine Taylor, Talbot, and the Hill & Adamson circle actually used.
William Holland Furlong’s 1843 breakthrough—and why it changed calotype
The single-bath “double-iodide” iodizing method, as described by William Holland Furlong and read aloud by John Adamson on April 3, 1843, made calotypes more reliable and repeatable. That stability opened the door for the Adamsons (and Hill & Adamson) to work at scale, and it changed everything for the calotypists in 1843.
John and Robert Adamson: The Brother Who Taught a Master
In a previous article, I shared that as of November 1, 2025, I work exclusively with the St Andrews-era calotype: iodized paper, excited with aceto-nitrate of silver (without gallic acid in the exciting bath), and developed in gallic acid. This is the chemistry John Adamson employed in 1843 to stabilize and make the process repeatable. John Adamson was a medical doctor and clearly was an intelligent and critical thinker.
I’m Moving to a Historically Correct Calotype Workflow
As of November 1, 2025, I now work exclusively with the St Andrews-era calotype: iodized paper, excited with aceto-nitrate of silver (no gallic acid in the exciting bath), and developed in gallic acid. This is the chemistry John Adamson used to make the process stable and repeatable.
The 1851 Le Gray Waxed Calotype Paper Negative
Over the past several weeks, I have been working through the 1851 Le Gray waxed paper negative workflow, which he developed based on Dr. Guillot-Saguez’s earlier improvements in 1847. In this article, I share my motivation for trying the Le Gray pre-waxed version and my results.
Pictorial Whispers – Calotype Plate # 6
Pictorial Whispers is a deeply personal fine art collection of handmade calotype paper negatives 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.
Pictorial Whispers – Calotype Plate # 5
Pictorial Whispers is a deeply personal fine art collection of handmade calotype paper negatives 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.
Pictorial Whispers – Calotype Plate # 4
Pictorial Whispers is a deeply personal fine art collection of handmade calotype paper negatives 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.