Susanna Pershern moved to St. John to be a photographer's assistant in 2003, just as digital photography was taking off.  She was trained in the traditional processes such as silver gelatin (black and white) and several alternative photographic processes at Rockport College, Rockport, ME, (now, Maine Media Workshops).  When she arrived on St. John, with only a 35mm film camera, she began to set up a darkroom, not imagining the difficulties of making classic images on a water-scarce island and the limitations of  black and white photography in her new colorful world.  Adapting to the island, she learned the cyanotype (blue) process, which requires a simple photographic solution and the sun.  She turned to a natural island subject, images of fish from the National Park Archives, where she was an intern.  These original cyanotypes may be seen in the guest rooms at Caneel Bay, St. John.  Not wanting to limit herself to film and archives, Susanna embraced new digital technologies and returned to the Maine Media Workshops this summer where she learned the art of Platinum Printing from Digital Negatives.

Within the past several years, desktop printers evolved enough to rival the quality of a traditional darkroom contact-sized negative (4x6, 8x10 and larger). This has enabled a new generation of photographers to make negatives outside the darkroom, with their computer.  Unlike a digital print, this is just the first step on the path to a refined platinum print.  Little has changed in platinum/palladium printing since the first experiments were made in 1831 by the legendary Sir John Herschel. The process reached its peak in the beginning of the 1900's, yet declined after the advent of popular technologies epitomized by Kodak. Recently, the process has experienced rejuvenation among contemporary artists who feel platinum printing is unrivaled (although some digital printers would disagree) in terms of depth and beauty.  The process can take a lifetime to master, yet nothing in the world can quite capture time like a platinum print.

Having nailed down the basics of this strange and wonderful photographic world, Susanna has followed others in new directions, such as printing platinum over gold and platinum over pigment, which combines a computer- generated print with the platinum process.  Most recently, she has taken her camera underwater to capture shipwrecks for the National Park Service and is experimenting with a new process, “gum bi-chromate” that combines her love of watercolors with traditional photographic techniques.