Minimising my environmental impact on the planet has been something close to my heart since my early days, although the way I think about it has changed as we become increasingly aware of how much damage we are doing, and the ways in which we are doing it.
I now run my main commercial photography business in such a way as to reduce my carbon foot print, as well as reduce other damaging practices such as the amount of plastic used, and you can read more about it on my page about Running A Sustainable Photography Business.
However the commercial photography aspect is only one part of my business as I also sell fine art giclée prints, which in itself has an environmental footprint separate to operating on a commissioned basis as a photographer. When I originally started selling prints I would do all my own test strips and printing. This was borne out of a desire to make the highest quality print and stemmed from my background in producing prints in a darkroom when I only used film. However this process involved a lot of waste of both paper and inks as the desktop printer I was using had certain limitations that a large printing business doesn’t have. The ink cartridges themselves also have a huge environmental impact as many are not recyclable or certainly easily so.
As a result about 18 months ago I switched to outsourcing the printing of my limited edition prints to The Printspace a carbon neutral print company, as they were able to operate on such a scale that they could easily monitor and control the carbon footprint of their entire process, including that of their suppliers and couriers. Their print machines are of a much larger scale and use refillable ink well drastically reducing the amount of plastic used in the process.
I have to say that I was very nervous about handing control of my printing to a third party, but by virtue of both myself and the Printspace working in a fully colour calibrated and controlled environment, it was unfounded nervousness. I am enough of a control freak though as to have all prints delivered to me first so that I can inspect them to ensure that they are all perfect, so that I can continue to offer my personal guarantee that you will receive the highest quality print.
I do still print some images as test prints prior to releasing them for sale so I can ensure that they live up to my high standards, but these prints don’t need to have the ultimate quality that I offer to the buyers of my art.
I am constantly reviewing the way I work to see what other changes and improvements I can make, and if you’ve got any suggestions then please drop me a line.
Did you enjoy this? Shall we stay in touch?
:DK
You must be logged in to post a comment.