I started working in a black-and-white darkroom in 1983. I love, love, love real film black-and-white photography. Now I'm going to start offering real fiber-based prints for sale. A lab is being built; get ready!- Goff McCoy

In today’s fast-paced world, where we shoot millions of pictures per month and store them away on a hard drive to, in some cases, never be seen again, wouldn’t it be nice to have a real piece of art to hang on your wall? Something you could pass down to future generations and that they would cherish?

Digital has done a lot of great things for photography, so I’m not attacking digital work or prints from a digital camera. I use a digital camera myself, but there is something different about holding a fiber-based paper print in your hands versus sending a photo to an archive on a hard drive. Shooting film is different than shooting digital. Film records light in its own way, registering it onto a film base coated with a light-sensitive gelatin emulsion containing silver halide crystals. Those silver halide crystals are important. Their size, formation, and placement all have unique qualities and characteristics.

Then, after careful processing, you move to the next stage - printing. In a darkroom lab, you can see an image forming on the paper shortly after it sinks into the first chemical-filled tray. It is an awesome sight! A handcrafted, fine art print begins forming on your fiber-based paper. Other chemicals arrest (stop) the development, then the print moves into a fixer tray, then another fixer tray, then into a long wash.

Fiber-based paper has archival longevity. The emulsion rests within the paper, not on top as an RC paper does. This can give a print deep blacks. It is a heavy paper requiring extensive darkroom labor. It costs more than other types of darkroom papers or digital inkjet papers. On RC-coated paper, the wash time can be short, but fiber-based paper requires a long wash because the paper soaks up so many chemicals during processing.

You are buying not only a beautiful scene or portrait, but also the physical craftsmanship that goes into the work. Because it is so labor-intensive and costly, many pro photographers in the past, and now today, do not make the effort to master the required skill set.

You can buy a nice print in thousands of places today, but it is indeed rare to find a master craftsman producing this type of art.

It is truly a distinctive gift.