Each of these images means something to me. They have definite associations, meanings and truths for me. But you won't see them as I do. For you they may be meaningless... or they may have associations and meanings based on your own experience or imagination. So are we sharing these images, you and I? Or do they merely demonstrate how alone we all are?

I hope you have at least a little fun looking at them, and please remember that being alone is not the same as being lonely.

I am a keen oilprinter and am very interested in the digital alternative process that Nic Hale has devised. He does not have his own flickr account, but has allowed me to upload some of his digital oil process images (those which are credited to him by name are entirely his own, all other digital oil prints are my own, produced with Nic's help). I asked him to say something about his process, and this is what he wrote.

“ The Rawlins oil printing process intrigued me for more than twenty years. I had experimented with the Bromoil process, but found that it didn’t have the same flexibility or tonal range that the Rawlins method provided. But producing a more or less satisfying Rawlins print from the initial coating paper with gelatin to the final inking with stagsfoot brushes is a time consuming job occupying three days at least. But it seemed to me that the advent of digital manipulation promised the possibility of a much speedier alternative.

I wanted to devise a digital method that in every way followed the principles that George Rawlins laid down – using a negative to sensitise an apparently blank image space and then using suitably textured brushes of varying sizes which could carry varying strengths of ink to build up a visible image in a way that would give one complete control of content – providing the same scope to point, emphasise, omit, or include all of the picture elements, in the same way that the Rawlins process does.

There are several ways to approach this. The method that I have devised is only one of them, but it gives me the same constructional freedom as the original Rawlins system – so much so that the results given by the same negative in both systems are identical when viewed on the screen. If printed out one has, of course, to allow for a difference of mechanical surface finish, and also, if digital versions are printed by inkjet, for a considerable potential difference in permanence.

But I’m still learning... and there’s always room for a bit of fine tuning!”

All of Nic Hale's and my own images have all rights reserved ©. Please do not use, copy or edit any of my images or use any of my images on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit written permission.

Thank you.