Gregory Colbert's Ashes and Snow Nomadic Museum

In 2004, Gregory Colbert contacted Cone for custom print process to produce a uniquely autographic process for exhibition prints for the Nomadic Museum of Ashes and Snow. Initially, Cone gamut-mapped the short and odd color gamut of a rare 40" x 80" Polaroid transfer process into a conventional CMYK ICC workflow for a Roland D'Vinci pigment ink set. By doing so, Cone was able to maintain the appearance between Colbert's traditional analog 40x80 polaroid transfers on handmade Japanese kozo/cotton papers, and Cone's new digital "look-alikes" which he printed at Cone Editions Press. The Santa Monica exhibition contained 30 digital large format prints that looked similar to the polaroid transfers, solving an issue of discontinuation of the giant 40" x 80" Polaroid camera film.

For the Tokyo and Mexico exhibitions of Ashes and Snow's Nomadic Museum, Cone abandoned the D'Vinci system and developed a more "photographic" look of a highly custom, triple Piezography split-tone with warm/cool blending while at the same time increasing the scale of the prints from 40" x 80" to 8 x 14 feet using 110" Roland printers. Cone invented the initial processes in Vermont on 64" Rolands, before setting up and maintaining two of the giant printers in a private studio for the photographer in NYC. Development included 11 new monochromatic "tone" inks, a double-black printing process to extend dMax on uncoated papers, as well as extending the Piezography profiling application to include pre-ripping the photographer's images for a file library so that the photographer's studio could print additional giant format prints "on demand".

Jonathan Singer's Botanica Magnifica

In 2005, Jonathan Singer came to Cone Editions for the production of a unique printing process for five double-elephant sized portfolios for the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. "Botanica Magnifica” is the first set of books to be printed and bound on double elephant paper since Audubon, making the work rare because of its content and format. All of the printing process was uniquely developed for the photographer and executed at Cone Editions Press. The folios now reside adjacent to the original Audubon suites. Singer's subjects are rare plants from the Smithsonian's own botanical collection.

Richard Avedon

Cone produced the process and made the last color portfolio "In Memory of the Late Mr. and Mrs. Comfort" in collaboration with photographer Richard Avedon. The inks were customized for the photographer, as well as the entire printing process which took place at Cone Editions Press. Color gamut and permanency were both an issue that commercially available inks from the printer manufacturer could not solve. The project took two years to complete in a limited edition of only 20 signed portfolios and two signed printer proof portfolios. The prints are rarely seen outside the collection of the Avedon Foundation. Visitors to the The Rencontres D’Arles 2008 were able to see the entire portfolio.