Digital BW, The Print

Paul Roark wrote:

> Harvey F. wrote:
> ...
> >Have you considered the work of Paul Caponigro ...
>
> Definitely.  Although I'm not lucky enough to own one of his originals, it
> was a good excuse to pull his "Masterworks From Forty Years" off the shelf
> and browse through it again.  Beautiful, full-tone prints.  I can't imagine
> how Running White Deer would look without the deep tones and great contrast
> between the shadowy forest and white deer.

It's funny that you should mention that image (the deer).  There was a time that Paul thought of the Running
White Deer image as only worthy of a christmas card, and nothing more. (an aside)

Now to the point:  Yes, that image has deep tones and great contrast...I never said that prints shouldn't.
And certainly images that are not full tone absolutely need good contrast.  I just think that not all images
need a drop dead black or a paper base white, that's all.  No more, no less.  Many of Paul's images that don't
contain the aforementioned are very technically proficient, and *have* contrast that visually adds up to print
brilliance, or luminescence.

I was talking to my partner about this thread tonight.  And another thought that I had was that the Ansel
Moonrise image has the intensity of a sweet dessert, but that  life is not just made up of desserts.  There is
(and needs to be ) a balance in both food and imagery.  If you look at Ansel's life's work, they balance out
his vision...And I think that he would have been the first one ot say that....He didn't *just* shoot images
that looked like that.  And to him to just tha timage does him a disservice.

Oh, and before this goes any further, I want to go on record as saying that I like a full toned image as much
as the next guy.  I also think that when you want a good black in an image, it *should* be there.

> For that matter, I think the shots I found on the web of yours have great
> impact.  Very good stuff indeed.

<blush> Why thank you, your imagery is no too shady either.  :- ).

Harvey Ferdschneider
partner, SKID Photography, NYC


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