In the late 1970's I had access to many delicately handcrafted lace and cutwork tablecloths at a specialty laundry owned and operated by my wife's grandmother. Once the tablecloths were washed and starched, they would be placed on wooden stretchers and leaned on a wall and left to dry. This process kept the fabrics from shrinking and also from needing more than touchup ironing.
I used a 4"x5" view camera for the project, sometimes focusing on a small section of the tablecloth, and at other times backing up to photograph the entire piece. Over the period of this project, I made nearly 200 negatives.
Unfortunately, the negatives turned out to be too difficult to make good photographs with standard darkroom procedures, so I put the project on hold. It wasn't until recently that I realized that I could scan these negatives and use Photoshop to make digital images that that I could then print on my Epson printer.
© 2014-2021 Henry Paine Photography
