Mark S. Tierney

I became interested in photography like most everyone else, with 35mm cameras. But after one semester at Savannah College of Art and Design in 1985, I started using a 4x5 large format camera because of the large amount of detail that could be recorded. I processed the film and prints myself in whatever makeshift darkrooms i could build on a shoestring as a serious hobby. After working to a certain level of proficiency, the photographs evolved to a highly personal exploration of the process. I was trying to document some of the changes that were occurring to the landscape of the Lowcountry and how it related to the rapid development in the area.

I came to a realization that I am sure many photographers come to; that I was really recording the light, not the subject being illuminated by the light. This realization made me reduce the amount of subject matter I was interested in trying to photograph. Having this limitation made me more aware of why I was actually photographing. I stopped photographing in 1991 for a variety of reasons; some economical and some personal, but I had answered many questions about myself in the process.

I was recently approached by a friend who was curious about how to get accurate reproductions of paintings. I was aware that accurate color with film was usually a cumbersome process but I had no real experience in working with color. With B&W being already abstracted, I tried to compose using strong lines, wide tonal range and textural detail. I knew that the perception of color was highly subjective and very difficult to get correct.

After some time spent researching the internet, I came across Stephen Johnson, a California photographer who has become a leading figure in all aspects of fine art digital photography and printing. At one of his workshops on printing, I was introduced to the Betterlight digital scanning back that can be used in a 4x5 camera to capture highly detailed large image files. The development and improvements in the hardware and software have re-kindled my interest in photography.

Now, in addition to line, tone and texture as the main components of composition, color has now become an important factor. But I am also interested in the accurate representation of the colors in the scene. I still use the processes in a relatively traditional way. The way that Edward Weston, Paul Strand, Ansel Adams and their students and followers worked; with the essence of the light that compels them to photograph and print the image first and foremost and the processes are used to refine and strengthen the image, not really to alter the initial impulse or vision. The tools and the process are a means to a 'pre-visualized' end, not the end in and of themselves.

By using the scanning back along with its software, the color present in the scene can be balanced and corrected before the final capture. The images are edited in Photoshop, but I try to use the program sparingly to refine the images, not to enhance them. I find there is plenty of color in the natural scene already. The power of the technology is such that it can be captured and printed more easily and faithfully today than ever before.