Jan Avonds

I hand-print all my images using the 19th-century developing-out platinum-palladium photographic process. My images are often of dark or night scenes, and the unique tonal scale of the platinum-palladium print medium provides a long, subtle range of detail in the shadows. This is a time-consuming process that involves first hand-brushing the light-sensitive solution onto cotton-rag paper, then exposing it to the image with UV light, and finally developing it. In a deviation from the conventional process of exposing the sensitized paper by contact-printing with a large-format negative, I instead expose the sensitized paper using a novel scanning-laser system I developed. The hand-brushed sensitizer defines the rough edges around the image areas.

My background is in engineering and operating robotic camera systems for visual effects in motion pictures, beginning in the analog film era (under the name John Higbie), and continuing into the digital. This gave me a rich, multidisciplinary skillset and perspective on the crafts of photography and image creation.

Series in progress: “Ghosts of Amsterdam”