Digital BW, The Print

Only ocassionally will you see something that reflects a slight
element of mature creativity and that was probably the result of
considerable luck.

The technology was not there and the know-how certainly was not there,
therefore it is safe to claim - and I do - that the 19th century
photographer had to make do with inadequate technical options and
therefore
made the best of a bad job.


That is a joke. Either you have seriously got to be kidding or you
haven't seen much of the truely great 19th century printmaking. I
have. Such as entire portfolios by William Henry Jackson, Carlton
Watkins, Edweard Muybridge, Timothy O Sulliavan, and Julia Cameron
from the very beginnings, not to mention Francis Frith, Frederick
Evans,etc,etc,. Yea things got slicker in the 1930's primarily because
of sharper and better optics and a little faster films, but not
significantly different in my opinion. It was the same aesthetic only
with different ideas, which was what made the work different, not the
technology. Our technology is radical and moving light years beyond
what people could even dream of even 50 years ago. Unfortunately our
ideas are what is lacking. A lot of the work I see is trying to
emulate something that was from another conceptual era altogeher.

John