Why I only print on baryta

Fibre paper is slow, expensive and impossible to keep flat. It is also the only paper that holds a real black.

People ask why the prints cost what they cost. Most of the answer is paper. Resin-coated paper dries flat in ten minutes; baryta takes two days between blotters and still curls if you look at it wrongly.

But the black on a fibre print is a different substance. It has depth, it sits in the paper rather than on it, and under gallery light it does not go grey. Everything I do in the darkroom is in service of that black.