Digital BW, The Print

Brooks,

I, for one, really appreciate your experience. I just learned
something today. I have admired your dedication to fine printmaking
since the beginning of your projects and the amazing quality you guys
have always maintained while making things affordable. Even your pdf
cd of Burkholders work was so good that I actually printed out the
files with piezzo inks on good paper and showed them to my students.
They were so well done. You guys do everything you can do to things right.

You comments about the state of the technology for outputting great
digital negs for contact printing on silver or platinum with
imagesetters kind of gave me a jolt. I didn't know it was disappearing
that fast, but it shouldn't have surprised me. Things are moving along
quicker than we can keep up sometimes. But life goes on and new things
replace the old and so will Lenswork and your limited edition portfolios.

Thanks for the comments, we appreciate it,

John




--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "lensworkpub"
<editor@l...> wrote:
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Peter De Smidt
> <pdesmidt@T...> wrote:
> > Carl Schofield wrote:
> > 
> > >Yes, but read this:
> > >http://brooksjensenarts.com/pigmentonpaper.htm
> > >  
> > >
> > Yep.  I know. That doesn't take away from the fact that Lensworks 
> > Special Edition prints, the ones  made by contact printing a negative 
> > made on an imagesetter on Ilford FB paper, are very nice prints.
> 
> Mind if I add my two cents?
> First, thanks for the compliments. I really do appreciate them.
> Second, there is a fundamental difference between our LensWork Special
> Editions prints in gelatin silver and my personal work, now
> pigment-on-paper. In the former we are challenged with making an exact
> replication of the photographer's original print -- the image,
> tonalities, and medium. The goal is to make the reproductions
> "visually indistinguishable" from the original -- a goal which I
> believe we achieved. In the case of my personal artwork, I am free to
> use whatever means are at my disposal to create whatever artistic
> statement I choose to. I consider myself (gosh this sounds
> braggadocios!) an accomplished gelatin silver printer. Nonetheless, I
> now choose to work in pigment because it is unquestionably the best
> medium for my personal work. Of course, this is entirely a statement
> about me and my work and not at all any sort of indictment of gelatin
> silver.
> Having said that, I must be candidly honest and admit that we have now
> officially closed the LensWork darkroom. In fact, we have dismantled
> it completely, effectively shutting down the LensWork gelatin silver
> Special Editions program. We have done so for a variety of reasons not
> the least of which is the increasing difficulty in the availability of
> materials. We used a great deal of Forte paper and it is gone. We used
> Ilford paper and they are hanging on by a thread. Worse, our ability
> to secure large scale digital negatives that are not flawed is almost
> impossible as imagesetter machines fall farther and farther behind the
> curve in technology and maintenance. We were heartsick to make this
> decision, but after a year of debate and vacillation, we have finally
> pulled the plug. For us, it is a sad "end of an era" experience.
> Over the last couple of years we have been frequently asked if we will
> offer LensWork Special Editions in ink. We might. We are not sure.
> Right now I am working on about 10 years of backlogged personal
> projects. For years I focussed my attention on developing and
> perfecting the LensWork hybrid printing technology. (Which I could
> have avoided if Burkholder had just written is book about 5 years
> earlier!) For the last seven years since the introduction of the SE
> program I've spent a great deal of my time making and managing the
> production of the over 17,000 gelatin silver prints we've sold. It's
> now time for a bit of a rest and regroup.
> As a "lurker" ever since Tyler Boley turned me on to this group, I
> hope you don't mind my butting in!
> Brooks Jensen
> Editor, LensWork Publishing
> Written Sunday August 21, 2005 at 3:50PM