Andrew Farr

*Size A2 (59cmx42cm) Limited Edition of 100 (larger sizes up to 150cm available on request)

*Cambo Legend 4x5, 240mm Nikon Copal 3, Now discontinued Fuji Velvia 50 4x5

*The quality of a large format film photograph cannot be well displayed online. 

*Photograph can be shipped worldwide. 

"I had been traveling East from Kunawaritji WA to Kiwikurra WA for hours as the sun in the West slowly set behind me. I had just been ceremoniously dismissed from my job without warning and I was driving into a very uncertain future, down one of the most isolated roads on the planet. it was several days drive in either direction to anything, and I was left to ponder my reality. As always, I was honoured to experience such incredible beauty, isolation, and freedom, especially as most of the world was stuck in lockdowns. But it came at huge personal cost, as has every one of my adventures into the truly wild depths of the Western Desert. I was starting to really ask myself; how did I get here?As the sun was heading towards golden hour, I found myself in the section of road that traverses the northern Gibson Desert. It was so flat in sections that for nearly an hour the shadow of my car was cast out onto the road ahead. I was left staring at it, wondering what lay ahead. As the sun hit the horizon, I was left in awe as the shadow of my car had extended to nearly a kilometre ahead of me, a truly incredible site. While processing this spectacle of light, I came round one of the few bends in the road, atop of one of the huge rolling dunes, and the scene before me left me gobsmacked, it was a perfect visualisation of my feelings. A view into the never-ending depths of the unknown. The light was changing, and diminishing, rapidly. I jumped out of the car to set up my large format camera, but time wasn’t on my side. Before I was able to set up the camera, the lightshow had ended, and shadow fell across the desert. The disappointment was real, I had missed the one opportunity that this gut churning drive had given me. I later found a camp off the road, past Jupiter Well, where I sat and contemplated the meaning of life, in what was my most isolated camp ever. Fortunately, the journey I was on to relocate my belongings from WA back to the NT, required a second trip to Kunawaritji via the same route. After a couple of days rest in Mutitjulu and a night in Docker River, I headed north on the Sandy Blight junction road towards Kintore. I had deliberately left late in the afternoon to enjoy the stunning light that falls on the sand dune country around Lake Hopkins. While in camp amongst the desert oak, I knew that if I timed the next two days of driving, I would maybe be able to see again the scene of the Gibson Desert that I had been thinking about for days. I camped the next night at Jupiter Well, a significant boundary in the Western Desert. Jupiter Well gave me a sense of spiritually safety, and as long as I camped no further West, I would be ok. This gave me a full day to travel the 3.5hrs to Kunawaritji, collect the rest of my belongings, and then travel 3.5hrs back to the safety of Jupiter Well. I knew that if I left Kunawaritji at roughly 2pm, I would be back in that same spot on the road at sunset to take the photograph. On my drive that morning to Kunawaritji, I couldn’t find the spot I had seen days ago, although I was traveling in the other direction. I managed to pack my belongings up, say goodbye to a few people for the last time, and I left Kunawaritji bang on 2pm. I drove West eagerly awaiting the scene I had witnessed over a week ago. As the light show began again, the cars shadow streaked ahead of me, I knew I was getting close, just one, maybe two more dunes to crest before seeing the corner. Five or six dunes later, and several corners of disappointment, the light was rapidly fading, and I was starting to panic. I was going to miss it again, was it even real to begin with? I had almost resigned myself to failure when I came to huge sweeping bend that slowly started to feel more and more familiar. The scene I had thought about for a week, started to loom Infront of me. This time I had maybe a couple of minutes more time on my side, I raced to set up the camera and just as the last light of the day was hitting the road, I realised I had left my light meter in the car. If I returned to the car to get it, I would lose the opportunity. I was going to have to just try and guess the exposure, an unholy sin. Knowing the exposure would be a few seconds, I opened the shutter straight away and then started working out in my head the exposure time. It looked about 1.5 seconds at f22, but with very warm light, reciprocity failure and the sheer size of the lens, 1.5 seconds would be underexposed. I decided on 3 seconds and closed the shutter, with a sense of dread that it would be overexposed. It wasn’t until a few weeks later that I got my slides back from Sydney, and I could breathe a sigh of relief. It had come out, and it truly captured the essence of my lived experience, alone in the Western Desert."  

Printer

Printed on a state-of-the-art Epson P906 A2 printer. The P906 is sets new benchmarks in A2+ professional photographic printing, delivering the highest D-max to date and unsurpassed black and white photography along with outstanding colour exhibition quality prints.

Paper

Printed on Hahnemuhle Museum Etching 350GSM, with a deckled edge. Museum Etching is the best of the best from Hahnemuhle. It has an immediate sensation of quality and timelessness in the hand and the deckled edge gives a beautiful handmade feel to the paper, it looks great when float mounted. Prints are then hand signed, and numbered, before being shipped to customers.

Archival

According to Epson, Accelerated testing of prints on specialty photo & fine art media displayed indoors under glass indicates light stability of up to 200 years for colour and 400 years for B&W.

Prints are then protected using Hahnemuhle Protective Spray, which once sprayed, lays like a fine film on the paper, without changing the paper structure. It fixes colours of pigment-and dye ink and prevents an eventual colour fading, and the intensity and the high brilliance of the colours stay permanently. The coating increases the abrasion resistance of the paper, so the risk of finger print marks and scratches are reduced.

Prints are then packed in Crystal Clear bags, which protect the print until it is framed.