Welcome

The Dave Butcher Black and White Photo Library contains tens of thousands of images as archivally processed silver gelatine film negatives, mostly medium format 7x6cm and 6x6cm. These can be printed directly onto traditional darkroom materials or scanned for use in many different applications.

Working exclusively in black and white with Mamiya 7 film cameras and Ilford film to produce stunning landscape photographs and striking city shots his work is widely published in books and magazines. He is the author of 6 books, 3 of which are still available through this website, Amazon and any good bookseller. His images can be seen in numerous advertising and PR projects, and Dave’s original black and white pictures are popular with interior designers, businesses and homeowners alike.

Black and white prints available through this website are hand printed from film negatives by Dave Butcher in a traditional darkroom using silver gelatin paper. High quality prints to last a lifetime!

Print Sizes: I have reduced the sizes available for each image. For most images there is a small size of 40x30cm or 40x40cm, and a larger size of 60x50cm, 60x40cm or 50x50cm, sizes available are dependent on image format. A small number of images are also available in a ‘Letterbox’ format and just one size of 60x25cm. The dimensions refer to the outer dimensions of the mounted print including the window mount. Effectively it’s the frame size needed for the print as supplied. All prints are mounted and have a window mount with borders between 5cm and 7cm depending on format and size.  I can also supply larger prints up to a maximum of 120x120cm. These are also darkroom prints, but are not printed by Dave Butcher, and are supplied unmounted in a postal tube. Images available as 60x40cm prints look great at 100x50cm, for example.

The Clearance Prints Gallery contains finished prints that are in stock, mostly at reduced prices of at least 60% (£16 to £100). The Clearance gallery shows examples of finished prints as supplied from the other gallery pages whereas the four main galleries show the images alone and orders are then printed by hand before mounting and shipping. Many of the prints are no longer available from the gallery pages or are in sizes or crops/compositions that are no longer produced. For example, 20x20cm, 25x20cm, 30x30cm, 50x40cm and the larger sizes of 70x50cm, 70x70cm, 95x33cm and 100x50cm have all been discontinued but you may find them on the Clearance Prints pages.

Our website shopping cart system uses the secure PayPal payment system, or we can take payment using BACS transfers.

All payments are shown in UK Pounds Sterling but we can also take payment in Euros. If you wish to pay in Euros we will calculate the equivalent value for your order at the exchange rate on the day you place the order. Our Swift payment details (similar to BACS but for our Euro bank account) or a PayPal Euro Payment Link will then be emailed to you for payment to be made.

about dave butcher

Dave Butcher has over forty years experience in photography and the photo industry, including working for Ilford between 1981 and 2002. He combines this photographic expertise with his chemical background – a PhD in chemistry from the University of Cambridge and he is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry – to make the highest quality darkroom prints using traditional chemical processes.

As an Ilford Master Darkroom Printer, and probably the last active professional darkroom printer trained by Ilford Photo, he combines his creative talent with an in-depth technical knowledge of the processes involved in black and white film developing and darkroom printing to produce distinctively unique prints using traditional darkroom methods and materials.

His handmade original prints are included in many private collections worldwide and are displayed in many homes and businesses.

Dave passes on his expertise through darkroom workshops, landscape photography courses and lectures, as well as through free tutorials, illustrated articles and demonstrations on his DarkroomDave.com website and DarkroomDave YouTube channel.

It’s probably safe to say that Dave Butcher likes snow. A huge proportion of his work covers skiing at around 80 ski resorts (so far), ski mountaineering, mountains, frozen forests and winter landscapes. He has hiked and photographed around much of the UK and Europe. However, he has also spent a lot of time photographing urban landscapes around the world which can be seen in the UK Cities and World Cities galleries. Many of his trips have been recorded in illustrated trip logs and are included here on the About Me page.

Covid-19 Note: Due to Covid-19 we are not running landscape photography courses or darkroom workshops at the moment. We were hoping to resume running courses and workshops once lockdown restrictions in the UK were lifted in July 2021 but the number of new cases reported daily is so high that we are still waiting until it is safe to run them (I have chronic asthma so am being more cautious as a result). If you would like to be added to the waiting list please use the contact form on this website to send me an email. We will contact you and agree dates in the order in which we are asked to add details to the list.

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Dave Butcher is supported by Ilford Photo and Harman Technology to encourage the use of Ilford film and paper products for photography courses using film cameras, darkroom workshops, professional masterclasses, lectures and exhibitions.