The Salt Experience

One of Photography’s First Ways of Becoming Permanent

Before photographs lived on screens, before film, and before the modern photographic print, there was the salt print.

Developed by British inventor William Henry Fox Talbot in the 1830s, the salt print grew from his experiments with creating photographs on paper and became the basis of his later photographic printing process. Paper was treated with salt and silver nitrate, creating a light-sensitive surface that could produce an image through exposure to light.

The beauty of the process is in its simplicity and unpredictability. Each sheet is prepared by hand, exposed individually, washed, finished, and allowed to become its own object. Subtle variations in chemistry, paper, exposure, and the hand of the maker mean that no two salt prints are ever exactly alike.

Nearly two centuries later, I'm bringing that process into my own portrait practice, combining medium-format film photography with handmade salt printing to create portraits that connect the beginnings of photography with the people standing in front of my camera today.

It is slow. It is imperfect. It is made by hand.

And that's exactly what makes it special.

How the Experience Works

Your experience begins with a relaxed portrait session lasting no longer than one hour, photographed entirely on medium-format film.

I develop and scan the film myself, and within one week you'll receive a minimum of 15 finished digital photographs from our session. From those images, you'll choose the portraits you want transformed into handmade salt prints.

From there, the process returns to the studio. Each selected photograph is individually printed by hand using the salt printing process, then finished and waxed before being professionally matted in an 11×14 mat and made ready to frame.

Your finished salt prints will be ready for pickup approximately two weeks after your portrait session.

So you aren't choosing between a traditional portrait session and something completely different. You're getting both: a collection of medium-format film portraits to keep digitally, and the opportunity to turn your favorites into physical photographs created through a process nearly two centuries old.

Handmade. Timeless. Personal.

Pricing

We Start with the Portrait Session — $80

• Up to one hour of photography

• Medium-format film

• Minimum of 15 finished digital photographs

• Digital photographs delivered within one weel

Required Fee: Film Processing — $15

• Film processing completed in-house

Your digital photographs are included with the portrait session regardless of how many salt prints you choose. After receiving your 15 images, you simply select the photographs you'd like me to produce as salt prints.