Wednesday 10 September 2014

The Documentary Photographer Podcast – Episode 21: Carl Weese and the Case of the Platinum/Palladium Prints


2014 has been a fast year. "Flown by" doesn't cover it. Usain Bolt himself would be left spluttering in the dust cloud left in the wake of 2014. I think Linford Christie (also a sprinter) once said that you have to go on the "B" of the starter pistol's "BANG!". 2014 is so fast, it would have finished the race by then.

All of which is a longwinded way of saying that I've had virtually no time to spend on the Documentary Photographer podcast. I'd love to do more, but in the scheme of things, it rates lower than many other things in my life this year. The chief time suck has been establishing a new business. The good news is that this has taken wing. It does mean that there is even less time to spend on the podcast, though.

The thing about a podcast is that recording one is the easy bit. The real time investment is in the editing. That can take two or three times as long as the actual conversation itself. And that's if you do a really rudimentary podcast like The Documentary Photographer. It's the reason why I have three recorded-but-unedited episodes. They would perhaps have stayed that way for many more months were it not for two people.

The first is Mark Cotton. An audio genius who has helped me edit some of the episodes that had been languishing on my hard drives. With his help, I'm confident they will appear soon. Or at least sooner than if I had been left to my own devices.

The other is Carl Weese, an American photographer who appeared in episode three of The Documentary Photographer. When we last spoke, he was about to embark on a 18,000 mile trek around the USA to photograph drive-in movie theatres. That journey is done. A book is in the works.

Carl contacted me recently about a new project. A sale of platinum/palladium prints. These are prints that have an exceptional tonal range. The making is part alchemy, part artisan wizardry. Carl is a grand wizard.

You can own one (or two)


Carl is offering two photographs as platinum/palladium prints at a vastly discounted rate. We're talking a reduction of 85% or so here. He suggested a podcast chat about the process of making these prints. I agreed. Although it did put me in a difficult spot. Because of the time limit on the print sale, I've had to bump the episode to the front of the queue – ahead of recordings with other photographers, who had been waiting patiently for me to get round to editing their episodes.

Needs must... and all that.

So here we have episode 21 of the podcast appearing ahead of 18, 19 and 20. Life is messy. I'm a little OCD, so it doesn't sit well to publish out of synch. But look, better this way than not at all.

By the way, if it wasn't immediately obvious, you can listen to the podcast by clicking the player at the top of this post.

More importantly, you can get all the details of how to get one of Carl's prints on the world's greatest photography blog: The Online Photographer.

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