Embracing uncertainty

The joys of experimenting for no particular purpose other than curiosity

Loch Eilt, Scotland, Summer 2025. Lith print toned in gold and selenium

My usual preference is for predictable results in my photography. I use film, and print in the darkroom, but this isn’t because of a preference for uncertainty. I am precise, I use materials I am very familiar with and never change them. I visualise a final print when I am making a photograph and am disappointed when it doesn’t quite work out as I wanted. I am not, generally, looking for surprises.

I had a family bereavement over the Christmas period. One of my ways of dealing with it has been to spend a lot of time in the darkroom. And I have found myself embracing uncertainty and serendipity, by spending many hours making lith prints on various papers, and experimenting with toning them in gold and selenium. Not everything works, and almost everything is a surprise. This has been a comforting exercise. I have no idea where any of these pictures sit amongst everything else I do, but I am not thinking about that at the moment.

Arisaig, Scotland, Summer 2025. Lith print toned in selenium

I won’t describe the lith process here, but there are many online resources if you are interested in finding out how these prints are made. Here’s a Wikipedia entry.

Wildwood, Spring 2025. Lith print toned in selenium

Cow Hill, Scottish Highlands, Summer 2025. Lith print toned in gold and selenium

Norths Seat, Hastings, Winter 2025. Lith print toned in gold and selenium

This is a small handful of the 40 or 50 prints I have made over the last few weeks. Soon I have to start work on putting together my next book, Island of Strangers, a narrative of a walk along the Channel from Dover to Portsmouth, photographed between 2022 and 2025 in colour, using a very high resolution medium format digital camera, and extremely considered compositions; back to my usual ways of working. I think this period of uncharacteristic experimental abandon has helped me get my thinking in the right place for this next job.