About the Process

I've been a photographer for eight years and have always been interested in displaying my photos in unique ways. The process through which I transfer my images onto the wooden squares is just such a way. It's very time consuming and must be done by hand, to ensure quality. 

I purchase all of the wood at a local woodworking shop, which also cuts the boards into the 5-3/4" squares for me. Then, I use a router to reverse-bevel the edges at a forty-five degree angle. Each square is then sanded to prepare it for the gel medium transfer process. The images are applied in reverse, and once they're allowed to dry for 10-12 hours, the paper is dampened and peeled off. This is the most time-consuming and nerve-racking part. It's all too easy to end up peeling off too much of the image. Next, I give each image two to three coats of clear coat for protection. Finally, I mount a hanger on the back, stamp it, and hand-sign each piece with my signature and the coordinates for where each photo was captured. These sets of coordinates can be plugged into Google Earth (or any other GPS-type device) and located to within a few feet of where I was standing at the time the photo was taken.

Artist's Note: Since each of the wood transfers are made by my two hands, pieces will vary slightly. The gel medium transfer process is very hard to get 100% right, and as such, parts of the images are sometimes not transferred. I try to keep this to a minimum. This normally only happens toward the edges and tends to give the images a worn or vintage look. Many times, I will embellish or balance out these small imperfections with sandpaper, to make them as aesthetically pleasing as possible.