Jack Amster has photographed his travels around the world for more than six decades, working exclusively with 35mm film and natural light.

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"As a youth, I marveled at the physical world with all of its color and fine detail. Even now, many years later, I clearly recall the wonder of discovery and my attempts to see the way film sees, to capture a fleeting moment in time. As a photographer, I use the camera’s viewfinder to reflect my own vision; a means for composing a tapestry of line, shape, and color. Whether the subject selection is a landscape or people of different cultures, I employ light as a paintbrush to record the original image through my point of view, with minimum distraction from the photographic process.

 

The platinum/palladium prints illustrate this principle. These images are printed on hand-coated, fine art paper, are created through direct contact with the negative, producing an unmanipulated, straight representation. This labor-intensive, 19th century archival process is not a substitute for traditional silver gelatin printing. It is an aesthetic alternative that offers permanence, subtle distinctions in tonal range, and handcrafted quality that allows me the expressive satisfaction of being “true to the materials” in the making of every print.

 

On the other hand, the IRIS prints represent a thoroughly modern process. IRIS images debuted fairly recently as a fine art reproduction medium and have been called Giclee prints, which literally means “to spray forcefully.” These prints are made by a process that begins with my negatives and transparencies and ends with the application of ink onto Somerset fine art paper. Like the platinum process, IRIS prints have a broad tonal range, a beautiful quality, and archival image permanence.

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In every case, I endeavor to visualize the entire photographic process from film exposure to the final print as both a spectator and a participant, combining my artistic vision with the application of technical skills. All of my photographs are made with conventional film and are always taken in natural light. Rather than producing merely a mechanical reproduction of the subject, I strive to focus my attention on the interactive elements that finally make the photograph evolve into something vital and alive.

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— Jack Amster