78/46 Analog Work. Elemental Presence.
Exhibition Opening: Friday, October 3, 2025
A Photographer's Place
5100 Lacy Avenue
Raleigh, NC 27609
United States (map)
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM Eastern
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
There are certain photographs that defy translation. You can try to scan them, photograph them, reproduce them in a book or on a screen, but something essential always slips through the cracks. Platinum and platinum/palladium prints are like that. They aren’t just visual; they’re physical, elemental. You need to see them in person to truly understand what they are.
This is why the 78/46 exhibition came into being.
As the editor of Analog Forever Magazine, I’ve spent years celebrating the beauty and resilience of analog photographic practices. I’ve written about platinum prints, published them, even obsessed over how to best present them in print. But no matter how carefully we reproduce them, they never quite land the way they do in person. And that’s not a failure, it’s a reminder.
78/46 refers to the atomic numbers of platinum (78) and palladium (46). It’s a nod to the chemistry at the heart of this work, but also to the artistry. It is the transformation of metal into emotion, of materials into meaning. Each of the three photographers in this exhibition brings their own voice to the process. One might lean into narrative, another toward abstraction, a third toward the conceptual or poetic. But all of them share the discipline and devotion that this medium demands.
Ray Bidegain has spent decades perfecting the quiet language of stillness. His images often explore the human figure and constructed scenes with a painter’s eye, capturing moments suspended like lucid dreams. Rooted in large-format film and the platinum/palladium process, Bidegain’s prints are timeless meditations rendered in luminous tones.
Amanda Tinker weaves photography with emotion, using the platinum/palladium process to explore presence, absence, and the landscape of memory. Her images often walk the line between documentation and reverie, finding magic in the mundane and the sacred in silence. She brings an intimacy to the process that resonates far beyond the frame.
Andy Mattern approaches the medium with a conceptual lens, examining the material and cultural legacies of photographic history. His recent work explores the nature of the print itself, questioning how we perceive and preserve photographic objects. Mattern brings intellect to a process that is often viewed through a purely aesthetic lens, pushing its boundaries with subtlety and insight.
And while their voices differ, what connects them is the physical act of making. Platinum and palladium printing is slow, deliberate work. It asks for intention. It demands patience. You coat each sheet by hand. You expose by feel and instinct. You develop in trays, not clicks. It’s photography as craft and ritual.
This is more than just an exhibition. It’s a statement about presence and about showing up, slowing down, and connecting with something real. It’s a way of saying: look at what the artists hand can still do. Look at what happens when artists commit to materials, time, and tradition. Not to replicate the past, but to speak from within it.
I’ve always believed in the power of these prints, but I’ve also known how easy it is to overlook them in a world ruled by speed and pixels. 78/46 is my way of pushing back. Of saying, this matters. Of making space for the prints, the artists, and for the people willing to stand in front of them and really see.
So come closer. Let your eyes adjust. Let the prints speak in the language they were meant to.
~ Michael Kirchoff
Editor, Analog Forever Magazine
FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHERS
Ray Bidegain
I have worked as a photographer my whole adult life; 45 years of making pictures. For the last 26 years, I have been lucky enough to spend my days working as a fine art photographer. More specifically, working as a photographer who photographed using large-format cameras and made platinum prints from the sheet film negatives. Many of you have collected these platinum prints over the years. Some of you have learned platinum printing from me along the way.
I love the process, and I have loved every minute of this period in my work. Platinum printing is an amazing and beautiful way to make photographs.
For the last nine years, I have started working to make photogravure prints – polymer plate photogravure prints, to be specific. I worked to learn the process, decided I wanted to make a change, and made a commitment to working as a printmaker making photogravure prints. You all know me as a person who likes handmade photography. Handmade objects are at the heart of my photographic journey, and printmaking is all of that, and more. I have, in the last year, added letterpress and hand-made fine press books to my list of favorite things. These objects will continue to hold my fascination for many years.
Working under the imprint Cascabel Press, my time now revolves around hand-pulled printmaking and book arts. I am excited and passionate about it, and I hope y’all will get excited with me! Photogravure prints are beautiful, and this type of printmaking has a long, rich history. These objects are ink on paper with so many variables: the paper I use, the color of the ink I choose, and adding some very interesting techniques such as chine collé that give each print a unique look. Mix in typography, letterpress printing, and book binding, and I am truly “living the dream.”
I hope you will look me up and continue on this journey with me.
Andy Mattern
Andy Mattern is a visual artist working in the expanded field of photography. His photographs and installations dissect the medium itself, reconfiguring expectations of photography's basic ingredients and conventions. His work is held in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the New Mexico Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among others. His photographs and exhibitions have been reviewed in publications such as Artforum, The New Yorker, Camera Austria, and Photonews. He holds an MFA in Photography from the University of Minnesota and a BFA in Studio Art from the University of New Mexico.
Hiding on the backs of some long-forgotten photographs are “ghost” images, accidental traces of other pictures left pressed up against the surface. Often barely visible but on occasion startlingly clear, these apparitions are the result of a chemical reaction caused by platinum photographs. Under certain conditions — the right platinum print stacked with the right paper for decades — a mirror image will appear. With each imprint, I like to imagine that the medium itself issues a reminder that photography has power beyond our control.
I was amazed to stumble upon this new type of picture, and have now spent several years ghost hunting. As a conceptual gesture, I rephotograph and reanimate them as hand-coated platinum prints. This process returns the portraits to their original material and offers them yet another chance to reproduce. I am drawn to their mysterious qualities — where the ghosts happen to land on the page, how they merge with graphics and text, the layering of multiple “exposures” — and I am captivated by the idea that, while no one is looking, the photographs are reproducing themselves.
Amanda Tinker
Amanda Tinker (b. 1974) was raised in New Jersey and currently resides in the suburbs of Philadelphia. She has been teaching the history of photography and 19th c. processes in Philadelphia, Pa, since 2001. In her process, Amanda uses large analogue cameras and 19th c. photographic techniques as a way of arranging elements from nature. She uses historic photographic processes to comment on a fragile, local biodiversity and considers plants as worthy subjects in our current moment. Amanda was shortlisted for the Hariban Award, International Collotype Competition in 2018. In 2020 Amanda was invited to be part of Rebel Lens at Lonsdale Gallery as part of Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival in Toronto, Canada.
In this series, Small Animal, each photograph looks at the natural world as if it were held just for our observation, suspended far from any recognizable landscape. Drawing inspiration from my family garden, children's literature, and vintage identification guides, nature's small beauties—such as birds, butterflies, twigs, and petals—are arranged into layered setups that invite contemplation. They are inspired by my time growing up at the edges of the New Jersey Pine Barrens, a wonderland of a coastal habitat, and a landscape out of time.
The 8x10” view camera used to make these photographs factors greatly into the work. The large piece of glass at the back of the camera where each image is composed, offers inspiration. It is a projection screen for my interest in the early history of photography, particularly as a tool for studying nature. One can imagine an era just before the dawn of photography where views of nature stirred on the glass of a camera obscura. Nature had been transformed through optical devices giving way to a diminutive view; the landscape on a smaller, more intimate scale. This project, situated in the 21st century, reflects a personal experience of the natural world and considers plants as worthy subjects of art.
ABOUT THE CURATOR
Michael Kirchoff is a photographic artist, independent curator and juror, and advocate for the photographic arts. He has been a juror for Photolucida’s Critical Mass, and has reviewed portfolios for several fine art photographic organizations and non-profits in the U.S. and abroad. Michael has been a contributing writer for Lenscratch, Light Leaked, and Don’t Take Pictures magazine. In addition, he spent ten years (2006-2016) on the Board of the American Photographic Artists in Los Angeles (APA/LA), producing artist lectures, as well as business and inspirational events for the community. Currently, he is Editor-in-Chief at Analog Forever Magazine, Founding Editor for the photographer interview site, Catalyst: Interviews, Contributing Editor at One Twelve Publishing, and the Co-Host of The Diffusion Tapes podcast.