Vintage Photography on Protrega Paper

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Museum Quality Silver Prints from the portfolio of Andrew Yale



    
LIMITED EDITION VINTAGE SILVER PRINTS
AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME.

   I started making photographs when I was still in my teens, with a second hand Nikon F that I still use today. It quickly became a passion. I've spent much of my life documenting obscure scenes   that fascinate me, particularly archaic and vanishing life styles.
    On this website you will find vintage photos of  Irish "gypsies" known as the Traveling People, of  the   great Memphis Bluesmen Booker White, Furry Lewis and Piano Red,of Lakota Sioux      school children on the Saint Francis reservation.
 You'll see silver prints of New York candy stores and diners, of old New Hampshire hotels, of Irish musicians, and Appalachian mountain people with a lifestyle rooted in the frontier. Much of this
work was done on assignment. My photography has appeared in Rolling Stone, Guitar Player, The New York Times, Southern Exposure, Harpers, Natural History. Memphis Magazine and numerous other publications.
      As I refined my photographic style, I settled on a combination of film, developer and printing paper that produced rich, warm toned images suitable to my subject matter.
    All of these photos were shot on Kodak Tri-X film, developed in Agfa Rodinal and printed on double weight Protrega fiber based paper.
    They were archivally processed using two fixing baths, hypo clear, and two separate running  water rinses. Since I view the negative as only the starting point in the printing process, all of my  silver prints are extensively manipulated in the darkroom.Each of these prints is unique, and subtly different from others of the same image.
      A perfectionist in the darkroom, I make multiple copies of each print, seeking to capture the  image I see in my minds eye. As a result, over the last forty years I produced a huge inventory of archival quality silver prints. For the first time, I am making these fine prints available to collectors and the discriminating public.
     Protrega paper and Rodinal developer were discontinued by the manufacturer in the 1990s.
Prints with this depth and  full rich tonality will not be made again. Like the Autochrome color prints of the 1920s, these photos are artifacts of a bygone photographic process that can't be replicated today.
      In addition, they are witness to ways of life, individuals and communities that have been swept away by the relentless hand of time. Irish travellers, the Beale Street blues scene, self sufficent Appalachian farmers, the corner candy store and itinerant carnival sideshows are now all memories. These vintage photos offer a taste of the rich texture of the past.
    This is a unique chance to acquire fine quality collectible photographic prints directly from the artist that made them.


NEW PHOTOS ARE POSTED REGULARLY.

Last updated: March 3, 2010
  



 A Note about Cyberdust:
The process of scanning photos so they can be displayed on the Internet produces some unavoidable distortions, including the appearance of dust in the darker areas of the print.
    While every effort has been made to produce scanned images that faithfully portray the original print,different browsers and monitors render tonalities and contrast differently. The quality of the actual prints is SUPERIOR to that of the images on your screen.
    You will not see dust spots on the actual prints, while they may appear on  the scanned version. The photographs also have a far greater range of tonality then can be displayed on a Web browser with limited definition.
    Displaying the photo at 50% on your browser may give you a more accurate sense of its actual appearance.