Digital BW, The Print

While AA manipulated the contrast, selection through cropping, the local 
vs. global brightness and tonality he did not manipulate (at least that 
we know of) the structure of what was on the negative. He didn't 
superimpose objects into the image. He didn't superimpose one image on 
another. His representation of the image was much the way a classical 
musician pays a score with the negative being the score and the final 
print the production. Within the constraints of the score the 
performance may be different between two different performances.  It 
seems the goal of straight photography is to produce the pre visualized 
image that was faithful to the actual image on the paper. The negative 
was the intermediate point in this process.

Of course what the term "faithful" means is open for discussion.

Truman

Jerry Olson wrote:

>Ansel Adams manipulated his prints as much as they could possibly be
>manipulated, in the darkroom. Suggest you read his "The Making of 40
>Photographs", which tells how he manipulated them, and why.
>
>Jerry
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