Digital BW, The Print

Wow, Richard. . .   that was quite inspiring to read. Thank you.

I'm just coming out of some very serious burnout. For a year and a half I
didn't touch my camera. It's the worst I've ever experienced. All that I
kept doing was some printing. In December I started to shoot, a little. In
January I started to experiment with new papers and inks, and I went a
little nuts. I've been feeling guilty about how much I've spent in the last
3 months, but it was almost a compulsion. Now I better understand why.

I have one question, perhaps for Tyler. It's something I've wondered for a
while. When you print a customer's image, do you modify it, as part of the
process to achieve your vision for the print?

Best,

Terry.

On 09/04/10 8:52 PM, "CorrPro96@..." <CorrPro96@...> wrote:

> A few years back, Amadou Diallo invited a bunch of us during the Photo Expo
>  here in NYC to a "Print-Off" of one of his images. It was there that I had
> the  pleasure of meting a number of the members of this forum and seeing
> the  results... the printmaking of as many participants as were present, plus
> one. The one was Tyler's print, sent to add his input. Only one of the
> prints  was an ABW... all the others were from dedicated monochrome printers.
> Looking at  the many versions of the same image, I felt comfortable that my
> prints were  holding their own, I was surprised and impressed at the quality
> of the lone ABW  print and found myself learning from the interpretations of
> the image in the  other prints shown.
> When I saw Tyler's print I remember suddenly having the feeling that my
> prints sucked. They were fine up to that point, but suddenly looked lifeless.
> The detail was there, the feeling was not. We all spent quite a bit of time
>  discussing Tyler's print, examining the tonal range, the tonal
> contrasts....  everything. I don't know what the others thought about
> comparing their 
> work to  that print, but that was the beginning of my communicating directly
> with Tyler,  asking him about his methodology and trying to find out what
> the "secret sauce"  was. It wasn't the "sauce"... it was his vision, his
> previsualization realized  that was the difference.
>  
> Gentlemen..... we are all in pursuit of the holy grail in our work, and I
> doubt if there are any 3 of us who use the same stuff and work the same way.
> I  am now printing with a 4880 and ABW, a 7600 with Special Edition K7 and
> a Z3100,  all making B/W prints. I find the image to be the challenge and I
> will use  whichever methodology I have, that brings the image to life....
> that gives me  the interpretation I want to enjoy.
>  
> We are sometimes our worst critics; we tear up a lot of good expensive ink
> and paper.... because 'it sucks', just because we are trying to take our
> printmaking to a higher level. We should not take offense in this effort,
> when  someone is ahead of the curve and trash talks what is going on.
> Somewhere 
> down  the line, we ourselves will move to a new plateau and feel exactly
> the same way  about what we thought was acceptable a few moons ago.