DOUGLAS THOMPSON PHOTOGRAPHY
“I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking. Recording the man shaving at the window opposite and the woman in the kimono washing her hair. Some day, all this will have to be developed, carefully printed, fixed.” – Christopher Isherwood
Welcome
For as long as I can remember I have always been enthusiastic about photography and the cameras and processes which produce the images.
I am very much drawn to photography as a means of individual expression but also drawn to the science of photography with the manipulation of light and the application of process to record an image.
I use film, early 19th century chemical based photographic processes and of course digital mediums to produce my work. In no tangible way is one somehow better than another, they are only different technologies with different characteristics which produce particular kinds of photographs.
I hope you enjoy them.
Platinum / Palladium
I was first consciously aware of the particular qualities of Platinum/Palladium prints through an exhibition in the National Portrait Gallery, London, of photographs from ‘Vanity Fair’ magazine made in the early 20th century. I thought they were stunning with their very subtle tonal range and fine surface quality. I was determined to learn the process.
Several years later, a lot of work, trial and inevitable error combined with the support of great teachers in Carl Radford and Kerik Kouklis, has enabled me to produce my own images in these exquisite metals.
Pt/Pd printing was love at first sight and now an enduring passion.