Black and White Photography
by
Paul Roark
Welcome to My Home Page
(My current Gallery Los Olivos print images will be placed here (updated) soon.)
For information on Gallery Los Olivos, click here.
Over the years, I have worked in several somewhat distinct media, including, traditional darkroom and silver printing, various internegative processes, and, in recent years, a variety of inkjet media. With the advent of modern inkjet printers and inks, it became clear that the silver print had become an "alternative" medium that had simply been eclipsed by the best modern digital approaches.
One of my efforts has been to push the envelope in B&W inkjet printing, which has taken a back seat to color by the major printer companies. As a former darkroom worker who often mixed his own developers from the raw components (for example, POTA for Tech Pan film), the B&W inkset development work I did came rather naturally. (A brother who was a PhD chemist in the carbon field didn't hurt.)
At www.PaulRoark.com/BW-Info/ I cover or link to numerous current as well as older inksets and workflows that I have used in the past. For a number of years MIS Associates (inksupply.com) sold the older inksets that I developed. When their founder sold the company, it lost interest in B&W inks. I have continued to source the inputs for the former MIS inks through STS Inks in Florida. And, while I have worked with a number of different papers, these days almost all of my work uses Red River's UltraPro satin paper. All of my B&W ink work and ink mix formulas are done on an open-source, royalty-free basis. I just make what I want, and have published my formulas and profiles.
As noted abobe, I prefer a "satin" finish that can be coated with acrylic spray (as opposed to put behind glass) to protect the image from the envirenment, including fingerprints. This eliminates the glass and refections -- both from the glass and a glossy surface -- and provides a far better dynamic range than matte paper can deliver. The water-proof surface can be cleaned, if necessary, without affecting the print.
My primary wide format printer (an Epson 9800) is loaded with a variant of what I call my "Glossy Carbon Variable Tone" inkset. This puts 100% carbon pigments, which are by far the most lightfast, in all but one of the ink positions. In one ink position I have a specially formulated "toner" that is light blue (a blend based on Canon pigments). This gives the prints the same look as traditional black and white darkroom prints, but they use modern technology and are more archival that the old "traditional" darkroom prints.
The basic principle for making the most archival B&W prints is simply to keep the carbon content as high as possible for the tone you want, and use the best color (toner) pigments available. This maximizes longevity and virtually emiminates artifacts such as metamerism.
I generally print on Red River UltraPro Satin paper and then spray the prints with four coats of Premier Art's clear acrylic Print Shield. I have a professional service bureau mount the prints.
Digital technology, of course, knocked out film.
Until 2024, I used mostly Lieca M optics on a modified Sony camera body. Today, I use mostly the Sony RX1r, with its Zeiss-designed, 9 element 35mm lens. (Sorry, but I found even the best zoom lenses do not reach the quality I prefer.) I have a professional service bureau mount the large prints on a 1/2" backing to keep them flat. I have had no negative issues with this approach.
Of special note, with the advent of Topaz's AI Gigapixel software, a good "35mm" size sensor with an excellent lens can produce what would be large format (4x5") film quality in the film days. That said,the smaller aps-c frame, which I tried for a year, still appears to be more limited than I would prefer. (It may run into the limits imposed by the wave length of light.) As such, I have moved back to the 35mm size digital sensor size. (Currently the Sony RX1r.) This, with the help of AI Gigapixel software, gives me the quality I need for wall size prints and panoramas that are totally sharp at all viewing distances.
The bottom line is that a very good (aprox.) 1 lb. camera (Sony RX1r) on the belt *can* now do gallery-quality, large wall display prints. (And my 25 lb. Rollei SL66 outfit will stay in the display case. Progress!) That said, making professional-quality, large photographs still takes a skillful photographer and very careful work.
In general, B&W prints are available in all sizes up to 44" by whatever (5 feet or more). All are printed with a dedicated B&W, carbon pigment inkset of my own design. All of my prints are made individually, as needed. (I do not sell color prints.)
In June 2018 I was featured on the Red River webpage/blog. The article can be seen here. (But note that the actual prints are not as dark as they appear on the Red River website.)
From mid-Februry to mid-April 2019 a broad cross-section of my work was featured at the Elverhoj Museum in
Solvang, California (where I live). Click
here for a copy of the postcard relating to the exhibit. For a copy of the review of the Elverhoj show by the SB Newspress,
click here.
And there is always an exhibit of my work at Gallery Los Olivos (see above).
Thank you for visiting my humble website.
Paul Roark
Solvang, CA, USA
www.PaulRoark.com
All Photographs -- Copyright 1980-2025 Paul Roark -- All Rights Reserved