Judy B. Messer's medium as a visual artist is black and white
photography, crafted with uncompromising quality. Her technique begins
with sensitivity and intuitiveness to the available light in a portrait,
landscape or still life. With light, Judy sculptures the physical and
emotional elements of a composition to best depict the inner beauty and
the joy of the subject.

Through the method of the black and white zone system that was
developed and studied by great masters in photography, Judy accurately
exposes the film to attain the maximum detail and range of light. The
film is then developed by hand in a small tank, a procedure using
specific development time to again obtain maximum detail and range of
light. Using an enlarger and an archival tray developing procedure, a
silver print is made on fiber-base paper, to ensure longevity and
sustain the beauty of the image. The print is dried and pressed to
flatten for handling and dust spotting. Dust spotting is accomplished
using a dry form of the dye that the paper is made of, blended on a
palette with water to match the print tone, then applied with a small
brush to build density in the less dense areas of the print. The print
is then trimmed to an acid-free mounting tissue and dry mounted to an
archival eight-ply mount board. An archival matte board is cut slightly
larger than the image area and placed over the mount board. This allows
the viewer to see the edges of the print and later protects the print
from the glass when framed.

Judy has chosen some images that she enhances further with the use of
oil paint. These selected images are first printed on heavier textured
fiber-based paper to create the required surface for oil painting. Using
a realist's palette of non-filler oil paint, Judy applies the paint
with q-tips and cotton on toothpicks. In an almost watercolor like way,
she paints the photographic print so that the beautiful range of tone
and light are seen first, then the presence of color. Additionally,
pastels and colored pencils are sometimes used for further enhancement.
After painting the print, it is then finished with the mounting and
matting process.