Digital BW, The Print

This long thread has been very interesting. I have taken John's 
workshops and being thrilled by them, but I recently have been 
printing on my new R2400 with Epson Premium Semigloss. I am also 
currently enrolled in a workshop this weekend with Ryuijie and 
Martha Casanave. Both are excellent printers and know their 
traditional stuff.

When I presented my small portfolio for critique, I had one image 
mounted identically in two forms. An inkjet on EPSG using ABW on the 
R2400 and a silver gelatin print, selenium toned. These were NOT 
behind glass and were placed on the ledge of a school-room chalk 
board for viewing. Not one person in the workshop including the 
instructors could tell the difference between the two. A few people 
picked up the prints and held them at a severe angle to the light 
and made some guesses, often incorrect. Now I can tell the 
difference easlily because I have obsessed about the subtle 
difference in surface reflection (silver - creamy smooth and injet - 
slightly sparkly). But it became VERY clear to me that nobody else 
seemed to be able to tell. This included the instructors who stated 
that they really did not like anything digital. Also, AMAZINGLY, 
every one, after being presented with the novelty of two types of 
prints looking very much the same, wanted to talk about the content 
of the image!

Thought I would post this interesting experience with very 
sophisticated viewers. And the inkjet print was even on what some on 
this board call "that awful plasticy paper".

Are we just getting to the point where all of this is minutiae??

Cheers!