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Work · Cold Marsh

Saltmarsh, February

2022–2024 · 63 sheets exposed · 2 prints kept

A saltmarsh creek is a drainage system that redraws itself every winter. In February the grass is straw and the water is black, which is the one time of year the drawing is legible.

Sixty-three sheets across three winters, mostly wasted; the tide has to be right and the light has to be flat, and those two conditions do not care about each other.

Sinuous dark tidal creeks cut through pale marsh grass, seen from a low bank under a flat sky.
Creeks at low water Cold Marsh February 2023 neg. 4×5 fibre base, grade 2½ toner selenium 1:20, 6 min mean chroma 5.50
An upright frame of an undercut creek bank, black water below a lip of matted grass and mud.
Channel edge, undercut Cold Marsh January 2024 neg. 4×5 fibre base, grade 3 toner selenium 1:20, 6 min mean chroma 9.11

The prints in this series

Both were toned in the same bath at 1:20 for six minutes and measure a mean chroma of 5.50 and 9.11. The difference between those two figures is the difference between the two photographs, not between two treatments: a print with more shadow in it takes more selenium, because there is more silver in it to convert.

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