Digital BW, The Print

On Friday 01 March 2002 11:12, you wrote:
> > So why, other than a bit of time, and the fact that one is done in the
> > dark with chemcials, the other in daylight with inks is a digital print
> > any less valuable than that of a silver print? I may understand it 10
> > years from now when there are fewer and fewer silver prints being made
> > thus making them rare, but right now I just don't see it.
>
> Maybe it's that further prints from the darkroom will all have subtle
> variations between them, as it's unlikely that a person has the precision
> for repeatability that a machine has, making each darkroom print, however
> so slightly, different from the next?
>
> I think we need to consider where the nay-sayers are coming from even if we
> ultimately reject it.
>
> What if we were discussing a piece of fine furniture, a wood chair? If you
> were looking at two seemingly identical chairs, and you knew that for one
> the artist/artisan stood over a lathe and personally carved each leg, and
> used chisels to hone out the indent in the seat, and put his latex gloves
> on to hand rub the oils - would that chair have anymore value for you than
> the other, that was from the same artist, but off his automated machine
> shops production line?

i still think the two processes are more similar than is being put forth. 
When i'm in the darkroom.. >
>
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the first print is always the hardest.. it takes hours, sometime days to get 
it right.. burning, dodging, exposure, trial and error, contrast masking, etc

When i'm at my computer, the first print is always the hardest. it takes 
hours, sometimes days to get it right.. curves, contrast control, "exposure", 
etc.

The following prints are usually much easier.. both darkroom and digital. If 
i change chemicals or paper in the darkroom, i may end up repeating the 
process of the first print.. if i change paper or ink, then i may do the same 
for digital.

Digital printing is *not* assembly line printing.. it's a craft as much as 
the darkroom is.

	Jim


>
> That's a question we each need to decide for ourselves. Some buy art for
> the final piece, some buy to support a process. Most just don't buy. ;-)
>
> Todd