Allan King - Artist Statement

As a Western  Canadian photographer, the subject matter I am most passionate about addresses primarily, but not exclusively, the landscapes of the Canadian Rockies, as well as the National parks of Montana, Utah, Arizona, California, and the austere Four Corner's region. I also am drawn to places of spirit, and European architecture, especially cathedrals, has been an awe inspiring challenge. Since 1991, the bulk of my work has been the crafting of these images as fine art black and white prints for exhibitions both nationally and internationally.

However, for the for the last five years, I have chosen to express much of my work in the medium of the hand crafted platinum/palladium print. I have found that this classic process  more fully reveals the entire original tonal scale of my large format negatives. It conveys a sense of three dimensionality, and enables me to convincingly translate the elements of space, water, atmosphere and earth with a delicacy unattainable by any other process. In other words, from the viewer's perspective, it creates a sense of presence. Images in platinum in many respects resemble the tonality and atmosphere of the late 19th century photography with its warm sepia tones. I feel that the timeless ethereal quality of a platinum print is very much suited to landscapes, architecture and portraiture.

My preference is to photograph with large format cameras utilizing sheet films ranging in size from 4X5 up to and including my workhorse camera, the ultra large 12X20. I prefer this format because  its exaggerated rectangle extends the sweeping narrative of the landscape, and because it most effectively articulates the way I see the world. Also the aspect ratio of the 12x20 view camera closely approximates the "Golden Rectangle", and I have found that much of my landscape work naturally falls into this rectangle. From a viewer's perspective, it invites a different way of seeing, more like a journey into an unknown frontier . The view camera also has the unsurpassed ability to control perspective and capture the greatest amount of detail.

Email：allanwking@gmail.com