29/05/2026
Who loves prints? I do! It's how I started my career in photography, working in pro labs, where we would develop and print the work of excellent photographers all around the country. I learned about colour, exposure, and film, paper, and hand retouching and absolutely EVERYBODY had prints then. The digital age has changed things, and although my boss made me change along with it , very reluctantly I might add, it became a blessing because I was developing ( see what I did there ? :D ) dreadful allergies to the chemicals. It hasn't changed the desire for creative photographers to make images that evoke, or challenge, that is still at the root of it all, thankfully, but it has changed the way we keep our family photographs. All stuck on files and discs and phones. I lost count of the times somebody would come to the lab, clutching a torn or damaged photograph, telling us it was the only one they had of their precious family member. My colleague had the skills to complete wonderful restoration work, and usually the customer would be thrilled, but it also made it so much more important to me to print, print, print. I have thousands of photographs. Literally thousands and thousands, and even I have started to slip into keeping them stored and unprinted. There really is nothing like a beautiful image, perfectly printed, mounted and framed . They're treasures, increasing in value as the years go by.
