Pacific Cloudlight

A lone sailboat plying the waters off Devil’s Slide near my home in Montara, California. This 60x60” pigment print was made for a special collector in Woodside, California through my dealer at the time, the Gerald Peters Gallery of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The substantial size of this piece required rendering it as a digital pigment print. My process follows:

In the darkroom, print a series of interpretations from the 6x6 cm negative, complete with burning, dodging, and toning. Select the print with superior values, retouch, and flatten in press.

Scan the resulting print to an extremely high level of acuity. In this case, the resulting scan is approximately 1 gigabyte in size.

Make multiple test prints (on left) from the scan and adjust as necessary to match the original gelatin-silver fine print.

Produce final print on Moab Entrada Bright paper using the Epson 11880 printer with Ultrachrome Archival pigment-based inks, allowing at least 24 hours for the pigments to dry.

The finished print was then signed, titled and delivered to Sterling Art Services in Oakland. They are the “go-to” framer for projects such as this. Glazed with non-reflective ultraviolet-filtering aerospace inspired acrylic, it is an exceptionally powerful example of my photography!

SPECIAL THANKS:

-To my clients who support my work as an artist and who allowed me to tell this story.

-To the finest printer I’ve had the privilege of working with, Dickerman Prints, and my friends Seth Dickerman and Garnell Boyd who have assisted me for decades.

-To the most meticulous framer I’ve come across and who has framed my art for over 3 decades, Sterling Art Services in Oakland, California.

And for those of you who like a good hike, Devil’s Slide is the only place on the entire Coast Highway where you can walk for a mile and a half on the original road in the absence of cars, as they use the adjacent Tom Lantos tunnel. The views are spectacular! This is where I made Pacific Cloudlight in 1990, long before the tunnel broke ground. Should you pay the Devil’s Slide Trail a visit, feel free to schedule a visit at my studio in nearby Montara by emailing info@buelteman.com or texting 650.504.1555.