Digital BW, The Print

Mark, Clayton, et al...

To add my two cents...I am a good black and white printer, both of 
commercial portrait/model prints as well as fine art "tree/rock/root" 
and figure images. However, I never thought printing black and white 
came easy.  Each neg/print was a challenge.  Seldom did I get on a 
roll and feel that prints just popped out like cookies on a conveyer. 
They all had their own personality and it was up to me to find the 
special look in each negative.  That was a great challenge and I can 
look on some of my best prints with pride.

Now I have decided that digital holds the challenge for me.  Silver 
gelatin is in my past.  I closed my darkroom, am in the process of 
selling my equipment and am not looking back.  I accomplished more 
than I expected.  I love computers and  Photoshop with its electronic 
controls...I love the look of ink sprayed on lush paper surfaces that 
weren't available in SG printing. It is a whole new look.

Does it bother me that some uninformed people think it is a matter of 
turning on a machine and pushing a button that pukes out a print on 
demand...does it bother me that they don't understand just how much 
time and effort goes on before we push that button...yes it does. 
However, these people are ignorant and don't understand what I am 
learning..which is that inkjet printing is just as hands on involved 
as SG printing was...maybe even more so.  I can't tell you how much 
time I have spent with this digital thing.  SG seemed a lot easier to 
grasp and took even less time to become proficient.  We are in the... 
traditional printmakers being jealous of photographers...stage for 
this medium. They walk by the window of a one-hour lab, look at the 
prints flopping off the belt, look at each other and think that is 
how all photographers do it.

Someone told me once that "it is easier to ride a horse in the 
direction it wants to go."  One of the big advantages I had was to go 
back to art school and major in painting over 12 years ago.  That 
short time off from photography was worth it.  It gave me the ability 
to break away from some of the structure and tradition of 
photography. Most photo galleries are currently stuck in the 
past...try a painting gallery if you want to get someone to respond 
to images again and not process.

Now I am riding the digital horse and it doesn't look like the SG 
horse I rode for over 20 years.  In fact I am glad it doesn't.  I now 
think that it looks even better, but in a different way. I am letting 
the medium take me into many different possible looks.   Digital 
gives me many more options as an artist then SG photography did.

Mark, love your posts...very intense and very funny..., but you need 
to give up  comparing SG to digital.  When you do that you will have 
a lot more fun with photography...and that's really what it's all 
about.

Bill Agee
-- 

bill agee studio
capistrano beach, ca / laguna beach, ca

http://www.redsilver.com