About Tom

Tom started making images at the age of 7 and by the age of 9 Tom taught himself how to process and print black & white film.  By the age of 12 he took his first photography class at the Institute of Art and Science in Manchester, NH and he became hooked.  Tom continued taking photos wherever he went and after high school, while in the US Navy,  started photographing friends portraits and weddings.  After serving in the Navy he started his portrait and wedding business while still making black and white images of anything that interested him.  He is know for his black and white silver gelatin portraits of families  and their children. Tom retired after a 43 year career as a professional photographer and returned to his printing black and white but now using an archival carbon system and the highly colected and expensive process of Palladium/Platinum for his most coveted images.  Tom continues to make portraits and scenics in his beloved black and white photography.

About The Image

This image of the Old Man of the Mountain and Hiker was made on July 7, 1998.  I was in the north country looking to make some memorable black & white images on medium format film.  I had been by the Old Man countless times but never felt compelled to stop as there was nothing interesting about the lighting or conditions.  This day I loved the wonderful clouds that were streaming by the mountain.  I stopped, hiked up a nearby trail and set up my tripod on a large boulder.  I was shooting with my Hasselblad on TMAX 100 film; I metered the scene and decided to add a green filter to lighten up all of the trees and darken the sky a little.  My thoughts were to have detail in the shadow areas but still maintain detail in the clouds; this called for opening up a stop from the given exposure and giving the film a Minus 1 development.  After making several images I was just about to take the camera off of the tripod and pack up.  I looked up to see a person now standing on the head of the Old Man.  I was so excited to see this and realized that there would not be much separation between the person and the blue sky (I needed a cloud).  Just to make sure I had the image I took a couple images with no cloud and waited for what seemed an eternity for a cloud to pass by.  A cloud came by and I pressed the shutter, however the person had bent down to collect their stuff.  I really did not think I had captured the person standing upright.  I was so excited once I processed the film and saw that I had indeed captured this now historic, as well as being a one of a kind, image.  This is being offered in a limeted edition of 12 prints.

About The Process

Palladium and Platinum  (Pd/Pt) prints are a 19th-century handcrafted photographic technique prized as the pinnacle of fine art photography for their incredible permanence, unmatched tonal range, and matte, velvety appearance. Unlike silver gelatin, this,contact-printed method embeds platinum/palladium metals directly into the paper fibers. 

Key Characteristics of Pd/Pt Prints

1. Archival Permanence by using two noble metals on hand made pure rag paper (Arches Platine from France)

2. Unmatched Tonal Range (you have to see this in person)

3.  Handmade Nature with a beautiful warm tone and extremely high fidelity

4.  Highly sought after by photography collectors