When I came to California at the end in 1969, I fell in with Los Angeles photographic artists Robert Heinecken, Robert Fichter and Todd Walker. Their innovative works inspired me to seek a transforming printerly vision through rethinking and reworking the photographic process. Special Process #1 adapts the imagery of my earlier black-and-whites to the abstract tonalites of a process I call partial-reversal processing. Special Process #2 uses another variant of of the process. These works continue the quest begun with my Hand Series of seeking a spiritual expression through photography. The strange tones and aura-like emanations suggest that behind the conventional photographic image abide other, more mysterious forces.

Click the photographs to see larger versions with titles and dates.		  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 

Partial-reversal processing is a variant of the chemical process used in commercial photo booths, for direct-positive film processing, and for Kodak Type-R prints. Special Process #1 prints are 11"×14" silver-gelatin photographs made from straight negatives on conventional black-and-white photographic paper.
Process #1: exposure; partial development; partial bleach; re-exposure; re-development; stop; fix; wash.
Special Process #2 prints are 11"×11" silver-gelatin photographs, also made from straight negatives on conventional black-and-white photographic paper.
Process #2: exposure; partial development; re-exposure; partial bleach; re-development; stop; fix; selenium toner; wash.
Because of the unpredicatability of these processes, the prints are unduplicatable, and each piece is unique.