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Cois Meyer

Welcome to a selection of my salt prints. Photography has always been a hobby. I enjoyed playing around in a traditional darkroom but have made the journey to digital. For some reason I still enjoy the old way of doing things - it just seems more 'real', hence my fascination with making salt prints. You are welcome to e-mail me at

What Are Salt Prints

Salt Prints are pictures printed on quality paper hand coated with a silver based emulsion created by mixing together various chemicals. Salt provides the base for the other chemicals to react, creating an image when exposed to ultra violet light.

I create salt prints using the process developed by Henry Fox Talbot during 1834. Gelatin sized paper used for water colour painting is coated with a mixture of water, salt and potassium chromate before being made sensitive to light by coating with silver nitrate dissolved in water. The negative is then placed directly onto the sensitised paper and exposed to sunlight. The image that forms is fixed or made permanent through a process of immersing in sodium thiosulphate and repeated washing in water. The total process, excluding taking the picture and waiting for the paper to dry takes about two hours.

Why Salt Prints ?

Each print is unique. Two prints made from the same negative will differ due to variations in elements outside mi direct control. Variables include temperature and the quality of sunlight on the day, the inaccuracy of hand coating each sheet of paper, and estimating when the print is just right to be removed from the sun to be fixed and washed.

The print is mat in appearance with the image sitting just inside the paper itself rather than on the top surface like with modern processes.

The thrill of creating and owning something unique made the same way it was made almost 180 years ago.

You don't find real salt prints everywhere. You do find imitations printed on ink-jet printers, but they do not feel and look the same. They are just not 'real'.

Blog

Each salt print is a unique piece of art work, due more to the process followed than to the fact that I made them. You are welcome to leave a comment on my blog at www.coismeyer.blogspot.com