A3 hand signed reproduction giclee print on  Hahnemühle German Etching paper.

This is the scan of a test strip; I love test strips. I love their tactility and how very material and object they are. I love how small and pragmatic they are. I stick them all over my darkroom walls and marvel that people have used this simple calibration method in darkrooms for so many years now. The act is simple; you lay a small piece of photographic paper under a photographic enlarger in the dark. The light shining down on the paper is covered and exposed in intervals, usually seconds. You are left with a psychical marker of time. I can’t remember what time is ascribed to each line here, but I think it’s likely in 5-second intervals. I wonder which exposure you would choose.

I choose this one image as it’s of Ephyra, and it’s for Ovate (the design house of Audrey Cantwell). Ephyra and Audrey have been pivotal figures in my practice over the years, and I have grown with them. I feel a true creative symbiosis with Audrey’s designs, and I am in debt to the characters Ephyra has helped me to create over the years, a woman strong and searching. This image is about creativity, trust and the same love of your collaborators and craft; I hope you feel it too.