The emotional journey of printing fine art photography

What does it feel like to print one of your own works? What emotions arise when you see your creation come to life, professionally printed on gallery-quality paper, meticulously tested and compared with other samples? And how does it feel when that print is not only mounted on a high-quality medium like 3mm aluminium Dibond but also framed in a way that elevates its presentation, such as with a floating frame?

These are questions I recently began asking myself. It was during an art photography coaching session with French photographer and artist Ludovic Baron that I was confronted with this reflection. As part of a challenge given to his students, we were tasked with producing a gallery-standard print of one of our favourite works within a month. This involved everything from testing various papers, ordering samples, selecting the ideal framing, and finding the perfect overall rendering. For my part, I had to wait over two weeks for my print to arrive from a renowned French laboratory that has been working with famous photographers for decades. The waiting, although long, only heightened the anticipation and the emotions I felt upon its arrival.