Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Mark Tucker" <mark@m...> wrote:
> Steve/Rick/Anyone:
> 
> What about this --

Mark, here's my theory, for what it's worth. Steve is well aware of
it. You can't take on the burden of "educating the public", you have
work to do. Considering their tendencies during elections, who wants
to try anyway? It all comes down to your name. If they haven't heard
of you they're looking for a reason not to buy. Is it push button? Is
it archival? Oh dear.
If it's a Raushenburg in a gigantic edition and it's not archival, and
it'll look good over the couch they'll buy it no matter what.
I fill out an edition on demand. Papers change, inks change, I change.
Same in the darkroom, masters printed to order even if editioned.
Rarely identical.
The technology changes rapidly. If a better printer or ink or paper or
technology comes along I'm not keeping an old setup over in the corner
just to make sure I can match a previous print. If someone places an
order (uh huh), they'll get what I make for them. I'm the artist, I
decide. I probably spent hours and hours on qualities they don't see
anyway. I'm the one who has to feel satisfied with it and my years of
learning qualify me to make those decisions. No one else. I mean "I"
in the sense of whoever the artist may be, err something. They don't
like the better prints I make now, they don't have to buy. Hell they
probably have shoes that cost more, the hand wringing makes me pissy.
I may switch to digital negs and go back to platinum, so what? I set
an edition size that I'll probably never reach by the end of in my
life, 50, beyond that I won't want to deal with it any more anyway. By
the way, for the BS scarcity issue, that's small compared to many very
famous print artists who use blueberry jam for ink and command huge
prices. No one asks them these questions.
Any print I make with any technology is part of the 50, period. They
can count on that.
Do what ever you want, what makes sense to you and has integrity,
You'll never please them all. Just yourself.
Tyler