PSA Gold Medal Won for Best Monochrome Fine Art Black and White Print!

I'm so excited I just had to share, I just found out I have been awarded a PSA (Photographic Society of America) Gold Medal for Best Monochrome Print in the PSA-sanctioned International Exhibition of Photography at the Oregon State Fair!

The print is titled "La Cigale Homage." It's an homage to one of my favorite photographers, Frank Eugene, based on his photogravure, "La Cigale," made in 1900. Frank Eugene's work is representative of one of my favorite periods in photographic history, the Photo-Secession movement which promoted photography as fine art in general and photographic pictorialism in particular. I have a detail scan from my print here. Sorry it doesn't show the whole print, I scanned the 11x14 print on a small scanner--I wasn't expecting to post the image but was just sending the scan by e-mail to the model.


I also won an Honorable Mention Award in the same show for the following print, "Uncaged," which is a sister image to the one above. This also shows just part of the whole print.



Both prints can be seen at the International Exhibition of Photography in Salem, Oregon, during the Oregon State Fair, August 28-September 7, 2009, in Cascade Hall.

Update: For those friends and family that are in the area and are interested in attending the awards presentation ceremony, it will be held from 7-8 p.m. on Friday, August 28th, in Cascade Hall.

For those of you who might be curious about technical details for the two prints:
"La Cigale Homage" and "Uncaged" are both silver emulsion prints made on Foma Fomatone MG CLassic 542 Chamois paper--a warm-tone, triple-weight, variable contrast paper on a cream-colored rough-textured, matt, fiber base. They were both developed in Amidol paper developer (mixed from scratch), and toned with a pre-sulphiding sepia method (as outlined by Tim Rudman in his book, "The Photographer's Toning Book: The Definitive Guide.")

Sadly this particular paper has been discontinued, it is no longer available on the rough texture which gives it its charm. It is still being made under the same name, but only on a smooth paper base.