Sandstones: A Portrait in Palladium

Sandstones is a series that I worked on and exhibited in the early 1990’s. This series had a documentary basis of recording the heritage of the sandstone buildings in Calgary. These structures represent the architectural history of the city from the 1880’s until the 1920’s when different materials came into use as permanent materials. Calgary started as many prairie towns with wood structures that had a tendency to burn down on a regular basis. As the settlement was sitting on sandstone, it was a logical choice for a readily available permanent building material.

My approach was not strictly documentary, as I wanted to make the images as visually interesting as possible and try to capture a spirit of the buildings. I used a large format 5x7” camera which was able to produce a large negative but not be so cumbersome to carry around. I originally planned the work to be realized in silver prints but ended up making palladium prints using the platinum/palladium process of the 19th century which gave the work a certain feel. This meant that all the images had to be the same size as the negative as it is a contact only process. I have subsequently found a silver paper from Eastern Europe that gives a similar feel, so these images are now available also as silver prints in larger sizes.

The culmination of my efforts was a three month long exhibition at the City of Calgary Archives. Some of the work was purchased by the City and now is part of their permanent collection. Recently another portfolio of images has been purchased by Alberta Art Foundation.

Ray Van Nes