My photographs are entirely “Analog”. They are taken on traditional 8X10 inch film with a wooden camera that was built in 1958 (Deardorff) and processed by hand in a “wet” darkroom, mostly using Pyro-Metol. They are then printed via an enlarger built in 1954 (Elwood) equipped with a customized variable light source. My printing papers are of the finest gelatin-silver available today, mostly produced in Europe. All images are processed through two fixes and then toned in selenium for both permanence as well as esthetics. They are then washed to archival specifications. If properly displayed or stored, these photographs are guaranteed to maintain their original appearance for life (or the life of the photographer). Long Live Analog!
All photographs are Black and White, taken primarily in the Eastern United States. Subject matter ranges from industrial to non-traditional suburban-rural landscape and semi-traditional urban-scape. Occasionally to include people, as spectators, as evidence or as witness, or even as impromptu portraits. One of the goals with these images is to capture the environment “we” currently live in. It is to make a historical recording of our present, but not falling into the mode of documentary. In doing so, I wish to capture our period, expose the flawed, as well as the beautiful, and being careful not to edit, such as to purposefully avoid graffiti or trash. Mine is not a crusade for just making “pretty pictures”. Instead, the intent is to expose the contrast of our environment, be it rural or urban, and its potential degradation or rejuvenation, and make no attempt to avoid man made structures or his intrusions, but rather include such, and marry them into the collective beauty and grace of a scene, all in the timeless abstract of black and white, using the methodical but incomparable 8X10 Large Format. These scenes, like the sites from everyday-life of decades ago, are subject to an inevitable transformation under the premise of “progress”.
Gallery Open By Appointment: You may contact Mark at markpaulthomas@outlook.com or 540-687-0210. Located in Bluemont, Virginia, 1 hour West of Washington, DC