When I took the original photograph, using a 20mm UD-Nikkor on one of my Nikon F bodies, I was interested in the partial overlapping of the interior shapes and reflection of the street scene behind me. The interior of the salon was modern and quite sparse (minimalist is the word used nowadays) whilst the exterior was more busy as many of Manchester's Victorian buildings will reveal if you look at them above normal eye-level (most people don't look up at older buildings... if they did they would be very surprised at the amount of ornate detail embellishing the architecture).

What happened in the darkroom was not typical... it was bad practice which I admit I do from time to time just to see what happens. Of course "just seeing what happens" is easy to do digitally in Photoshop... all you have to do is experiment in a new layer, delete it if it doesn’t inspire, and try again with another effect in another new layer. To many, Photoshop is instant gratification... traditional and unconventional darkroom methods take somewhat longer to realise. As in this example... over a week!

What actually happened was that I couldn't make the image I had in my head. The composition wasn't right... the shapes were wrong... the contrast was too great... the focal point was split between a foreground lamp and the two high-contrast hairstyle photos mounted within the interior... I was also tired and not feeling very creative.

The reject and partially fixed print was dropped into the holding tray filled with water (probably the darkroom waste bin was full that session). After half a dozen prints are made I normally transfer them to a tray with hypo-clearing solution, then a toning bath, then into an archival washer for an hour of washing. On this occasion I didn't because I knew the prints were crap... so they were left in the holding tray (the bad practice I mentioned).

Doing this, however, turned the photo image into something else because I didn’t go back into the darkroom for a few days... and in that time the improperly fixed emulsion layer of the prints in the holding tray became soft through total immersion in water and started to break-up... in places lifting away from the surface of the print. I saw some potentially interesting chemical “image manipulation” happening in front my eyes... and after gently lifting the print out of the now gungy water and placing it into an empty tray, I carefully brushed away small areas of the blistered and disintegrating emulsion layer... and with it the silver image it held. By tilting the tray slightly the remaining blackened, silver-salt contaminated water slowly flowed and settled on the lower part of the print where it was left for a few more days. As the remains of this filthy-looking solution dried out, the deposit became hardened as you see it in the reproduction for this article.

Certain parts of what was still recognisable of the image were enhanced with black, red and yellow inks applied by brush and Rotring draftsman's pen. Images such as this, of course, are one-offs... unique... perhaps for many it would be more appropriate and save much time and effort by scanning the basic degraded image and having fun in Photoshop. But for me the “artistic” process has to be chemical and mechanical à la main... I can't get enthused by the digital aspect of manipulation for this kind of image. Those with real expertise in PhotoShop will be able to achieve truly surprising results, I have no doubt, but for me I have a different approach which I am more interested it... my digital photography is exclusively channelled towards image sales through a stock agency.

I know I need to keep paints, brushes and a nice fountain pen as part of my creative armoury. After all, I never studied - nor was I even interested in - photography for my four years at Art College... I drew, painted, worked in metal, wood and clay, had fun, made love, created a child... but I remember on Graduation Day wishing I'd been studying photography for those previous four years.

So the questions I occasionally ask myself are... did I make the right or wrong choice? And is the above photo art or crap?