Each photograph is archival processed and selenium toned to insure maximum permanence. Each photograph is heat mounted on heavy, museum quality, acid free, 100% rag board, and finished with an acid free, bright white over-mat. With proper care, the photograph should last 200 years or more.                    

     Many people ask, "What is a gelatin silver print and why does it cost so much?" The term "gelatin silver print" refers to the photographic paper and process used to create an image.  In 1873, Peter Mawdsley invented the first photographic paper with a gelatin emulsion and commercially produced gelatin silver printing papers were available by 1885. Gelatin, an animal protein, is used as an emulsion to bind light sensitive silver salts (usually silver bromides or silver chlorides) to a paper or other support. After a brief exposure to light through a negative (under an enlarger), the print is immersed in chemicals to allow the image to develop, or emerge fully. Typically, the photographic materials in a gelatin silver print are extremely sensitive to light. Gelatin silver prints replaced albumen prints as the most popular photographic process by 1895, because they were much more stable, did not have a tendency to yellow, and were far easier to produce.     

     The old black and white photographs in everyone's family album are gelatin silver prints. These were generally machine processed and printed, but unfortunately turned brown over time. This aging is due to the inexpensive paper base used and insufficient fixing and washing during the processing phase.

     With the invention of color film and color printing papers, black and white photographs soon fell out of favor with amateur photographers. It wasn't long before most small photo labs quit processing black and white film and forced the black and white photographer to find a custom lab or process and print their own photographs.                    

     One would think that this would have signaled the end of black and white photography, Fortunately it did not. Fine art photographers and their patrons kept the medium alive.  They understood the power and impact of a finely crafted black and white photograph. Sometimes, color just gets in the way.

     A gelatin silver print, produced by the original photographer, is considered by many a collectible, and worth the higher price. Some pay thousands, and in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single gelatin silver print by a well known photographer.                

     As time goes on, there will be fewer and fewer photographers practicing the art of traditional black and white photography. It is, by any standard, a slow, tedious, and inefficient method of recording an image and producing a photographic print. The practitioners of this soon to be lost art, are not interested in efficiency, but the joy and satisfaction of creating a photograph with the rich tones and quality that can't be achieved by any other method.