In 2003, I was invited to travel to Ottawa a second time to review press tests for a series of posters Alex Taylor of Endurance Designs was producing of images taken during Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated Trans-Antarctic expedition of 1914. I had prepped the HiRes images significantly in Photoshop, spending hours pouring over each of perhaps a dozen images, removing mechanical artefacts and blemishes introduced after the creation of the images. A decision was made early on to not remove any defects to the images that we felt had been part of the original creation such as bromide drags, errant dust on the plates as exposed. I relied on my decade of work in colour darkrooms to make these discernments, printing for many of Canada’s luminary artists by request such as Michael Snow, Evergon, Michael Ontkean, Jackie Burroughs, Robyn Collyer and others.
Here are some images taken at the printing plant in Ottawa where the posters were inspected, tweaked and run.
