Photographing in the Land of Enchantment

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To make palladium prints, Kennedy brushes one or two coats of ferric oxalate, potassium chlorate (to increase contrast) and sodium chloropalladite (palladium and salt) onto archival rag paper. After drying, the sensitized paper is exposed in direct contact to the negative by either sunlight or a strong ultraviolet source. A saturated solution of potassium oxalate heated to about 120 degrees gives the tones of the image extra warmth. When the print is placed in the developing solution, the ferrous salts are dissolved, whereupon the palladium is reduced to the metallic state. After more chemical processing, the print is washed and air dried. A single print may take as many as fifteen hours to complete and, being handmade, is subtly unique from others. Kennedy restricts the reproduction of images to no more than thirty prints per negative.

In 1991, Kennedy began working on a portfolio of clouds entitled Cloudscapes of New Mexico - Ten Palladium Prints. For weeks he got up each morning and chased clouds, sometimes as far afield as Gallup, New Mexico. As twilight fell, he would often look up from his camera and wonder where he was. The edition of twenty portfolios, each containing ten 5 1/2" x 7" prints, was in its final stages when his daughter, Tymara Christen, was killed in a car accident. In his photographer's statement, Kennedy dedicated the portfolio to her. "When she died," he said, "I just felt this would be a present to her. May she ever be among the clouds."

In less than two years Kennedy had achieved his goal of supporting his family entirely on gallery sales. The few commercial jobs he continued to do were merely "gravy." Between 1987 and 1992, certain limited edition prints sold out and his galleries offered the remaining handful of artist proofs for sale. The Santa Fe Opera used his photograph of White Sands, New Mexico, for the cover of its 1992 program. Local newspapers and magazines frequently featured articles on his work, and students came from all over the world to take his workshops. In the meantime, Kennedy was embarking on new projects.