The article I saw this month in (Camera Arts?) quotes him as using "Nikon equipment exclusively, F100 body, 35mm, 50mm 1.2, 105mm). If I remeber correctly he said something to the effect that the negative AND the print are manipulated, but parts of the photos are very sharp and well rendered- my guess is he starts by split printing and using diffusion on darker areas (black gauze, etc), and goes from there. Hey may use some kind of opaque material to spot out areas on the negative first, to reduce the image to large dark areas, then take it into the darkroom. Lex is correct, it might take you a LONG time to "perfect" a technique like this. The artist/photographer Matt Mahurin has a similar technique for his photos (dark, sooty, dream like quality).