Digital BW, The Print

Agreed.   Inkjet technology, once you've found the sweet spot, is almost 
effortless to print.   Darkroom work is much more laborious, and the results lack 
the inkjet's precision.   And yet I have gone backward, and returned to the 
darkroom after two years with inkjets.   Why?   I prefer the look and feel of a 
silver gelatin print.   But there were two big reasons beyond that.   One:   
I'm shooting large format film, and I never felt true to the integrity of my 
chosen medium when I scanned and printed digitally -- an emotional connection to 
the process.   Two:   I have come to appreciate that one strength of digital 
printing is also its weakness -- the ability to manipulate the image down to 
the pixel.   I prefer to surrender myself to the discipline that the materials 
and the process impose on darkroom printing.   By the end of a darkroom 
session, my print might not be exactly as I had intended it, but I find that what I 
make pleases me none the less because the materials drove me to another place.

I realize these are irrational, emotional, aesthetic reasons.   I realize, 
too, that most of the people on this list do not find them persuasive.   Still, 
they have taken me back to a place that resonates for me, that fixes me in a 
tradition that is over a century old.   I like that.

Sanders McNew
www.mcnew.net



In a message dated 8/20/05 1:35:24 AM, Clayton writes:


> This subject has been beat to death more times than I can count, but
> the consensus seems to be that they are simply two different mediums
> and they will never look exactly alike, and each has its own intrinsic
> beauty.  Many accomplished fine art photographers have switched and
> report that their prints are "better" (whatever that means to them).
> Many others are so attuned to the look and feel of emulsion prints
> that no digitial print will ever meet their expectations.  Both are
> right.  So choose your weapon and get to work <g>.
> 
> 



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