This picture was taken in the botanical garden in Coimbra, which is right next to the university. The garden is constructed on several different levels and the stairs in the picture connect
the lower area back to street level. We often walked through the botanical garden on our way to and from work; it was beautiful, in part because it hadn't been renovated recently. It still is beautiful but
most of the walls and buildings have been updated in the meantime.
The image was diffused during exposure, which gives it the unfocused and outworldly look. This is done by placing a piece of diffusing material (a zip-lock bag in this case) somewhere
between the lens and the enlarging easel. The closer to the lens and the longer the material is held in place, the stronger the effect. If an image is diffused during printing, the dark image areas bleed
into the lighter ones, resulting in a somewhat gothic and dark look. If a diffuser is used during exposure of the negative in the camera, the opposite effect results and the final image is light and ethereal.
Following exposure, the image was completely bleached and redeveloped in a warm-tone hydroquinone developer. Following the second
development, the image was blue-toned using a commercial gold toner. In principle, this leads to a permanent blue image tone but the process and final tone are very difficult to control and depend on the
paper used. I have never been abe to reproduce that image tone. If I didn't have this example to prove me wrong, I would doubt it was possible at all.
