DIXIE FISHING COMPANY | Niki Butcher

Estero Island © 1983

Photographic Story When we first arrived in Florida, the Estero Island area was a fishing community. I never had a problem photographing as many of those rugged fishing boats as I wanted. I returned in the late 1990’s to find the area was ‘refining’ itself. Many of the places were gone. This one seemed like it was doomed as well (I think it eventually became a restaurant), so I set about photographing with the intent to save a portion of the old Florida that I could. The Art of Hand Painting Black and White Photographs Niki prints her images on fiber-base black and white mat surface paper in the darkroom, then using Q-tips and cotton balls, she applies a thin coat of oil paint over the surface allowing the image to gently be seen through the oil paint. Archival Print Making Niki’s open edition gicleé artwork is printed on Sunset Bright Velvet Rag matte finish paper using eight archival inks. A state-of-the-art Epson Stylus Pro printer creates deep, rich dark values that hold subtle detail in the shadows as well as bright vivid colors that are truly tropical.