M.P. Ward
Photographic Printmaking
Alternative process printmaker in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
Although I’ve owned a camera for over 40 years, a serious artistic interest did not develop until around 2013 when I moved to Japan and was exposed to the vibrant and diverse landscape of the Pacific Rim. Japan and its neighboring countries are rich not just in color but also in texture and detail, and I was therefore quickly drawn towards monochromatic.Not satisfied with how my prints looked from the standard inkjet printer and frustrated by the inconsistency in lab-printed photos, I traveled down the rabbit hole of self-printing and eventually settled on the venerable printmaking processes of Platinum and Palladium.Platinum and Palladium printing use a solution of light-sensitive iron salts and noble metals, brushed onto fine watercolor papers, and exposed to ultra-violet light while in contact with a large format negative (film or digital). The exposure to ultra-violet light, followed by immersion in a developer bath, induces chemical reactions which affix the metals to the fibers of the paper. The result is a finely-toned, archival and stunningly deep print.Each platinum and palladium print is unique: it is challenging, unforgiving, and the results are spectacular, which explains why platinum and palladium prints are valued by artists, collectors and museums across the world. I also employ other alternative printing processes such as Cyanotype, Van Dkye Brown, Salted paper, and carbon transfer.If you are a fine art photographer and would like to see your images in platinum and palladium, contact me.After leaving Japan in 2016, I lived in the Black Hills of South Dakota until 2024, when I moved to Staunton, Virginia in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, to be closer to family.[email protected]
(703) 745-2426
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(Opens in Flickr)