Digital BW, The Print

> -----Original Message-----
> From: sceptre12345 [mailto:am1000@...]
> Sent: Saturday, August 09, 2003 8:11 AM
> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Digital BW] Bruce Barnbaum on digital photography
>
>
> IF I'm not mistaken, this was written not too long ago.
>
> www.barnbaum.com/thoughts.html
>
Andre,

Thanks for the link. I have long admired Bruce Barnbaum's prints but have
never met him. Interesting to hear his opinions on digital.

I agree with some of his assessments, especially about cost, but I find it
sad that he ultimately casts his discussion into a competitive mode which
serves neither chemical or digital photography. His lack of experience with
digital reveals a lot of misconceptions when he talks about things like file
storage, masking, bleaching, etc.

A couple of things I did find very annoying.

His discussion of "convenience".

"....Work will be produced in times of convenience, but it won\ufffdt be
outstanding work...."

He goes on in the same vein for a couple of paragraphs.

Now in my opinion this is on the level of "you have to suffer to be a great
artist." There is no evidence that working only when it is inconvenient
produces better art! Great artists have done other things in their lives
besides their art. They did not have to "sacrifice everything." This is
really silliest stuff.

In closing he says, "But I must add one final thought in support of
traditional methods: nothing has the radiance of a finely crafted silver
print. Nothing."

He seems to have forgotten that he is selling silver prints made from
digital negatives output by film recorders. I own one and I can't tell any
difference between the print I have and ones I saw in his show. If silver
prints are what you want, digital vs. traditional is not a choice you have
to make. You can make great silver fiber prints from any digital source,
camera or scanner. He makes a common mistake thinking that going digital
means abandoning silver or platinum or albumen printing. The issue he
presents doesn't even exist!

Of course making silver prints from digital files is not as convenient as
traditional methods.<G>

Martin Wesley
http://www.borderless-photos.de/guests.html