Michael Carter is a photographer and videographer in Dallas, Texas. While his corporate work uses modern digital processes, his black and white darkroom work uses only traditional film, chemistry, silver gelatin photographic paper and vintage cameras, with no scanning or digital printing. His work is currently focused on Lith Printing, which is in most respects similar to standard darkroom printing, except that highly diluted graphic arts film developer is used in place of standard paper developer. It is a difficult process to master and often involves very long paper exposure and development times, but produces unique colors, tonality and contrast on the final print. Very few photographic papers are manufactured today that work with this process, and the best prints come from papers that were discontinued from twenty to forty years ago.

My current darkroom work focuses on time, mortality, and the conquest of nature over our comparatively short lifetimes. I'm interested in abandoned man-made rural structures that once supported industry and commerce, and are slowly succumbing to time and nature. My sense is that stories of their creation still exist within them, while a greater story of life and mortality is also expressed. I work exclusively with decades-old cameras, and traditional black & white film and darkroom processes and chemicals, using no digital scanning or printing.