Digital BW, The Print

Richard Orban wrote:
> It's been interesting to me to read this thread about Ansel Adams 
> darkroom technique.  Clearly I don't understand the F64 club.  I had 
> thought it was a reaction to pictorialism - a more painterly type of 
> photography which won A. Aubrey Bodine so much acclaim and award in 
> Salon competition.  My naive understanding of F64 was "shoot and 
> print".  So it's evidently more in the kind of darkroom manipulation, 
> rather than the degree.  Cool.  These guys certainly achieved their 
> purpose of proving that photography can be an art, not just a craft.
>
>   
This is an understandable mistake.  Beaumont Newhaul (sp?) made it as 
well, since F64 was often touted as promoting "straight" photography. It 
was a reaction against the methods of the pictorialists, both in subject 
matter and technique. The main difference was that pictorialists wanted 
to emulate painting, whereas F64 members did not.  F64 members were 
generally against anything that reduced photographic quality, such as 
negative retouching commonly used at the time for portraiture. In any 
case, Newhaul was shocked to find out that Weston dodged and burned his 
prints.