Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, hogarth@... wrote:
...
> Let me try again. Different analogy: writing.
> 
Well it's Sunday and I don't feel like doing the yard work quite yet, so even though people 
are probably sick of this I feel like a few more attempts at finding some common ground.

> Pigment inks on matte paper has a limited range because of the Dmax 
> issue, as we've discussed into the ground. Think of this restriction in 
> the same way that iambic pentameter is a restriction in poetry. 
> Shakespeare didn't have any trouble expressing what he had to say in 
> iambic pentameter. Clearly, you can say a lot in a restricted medium. 
> However, not many people will disagree with the idea that you can 
> express an even wider range of ideas in free verse. Some will argue 
> instead that free verse is actually more difficult precisely because of 
> the lack of restriction. [apologies to Robert Adams]

Restriction restriction... you just lost me again. If someone happens to make a print that, 
for that particular image and tonailty, has that special something extra, that presense, on 
a paper with a (coincidentally) lower damx, that would hardly be a restriction. In fact, open 
the bar, I'd say that the image has been set free.
That same image may very well not have that presence on a paper with a more traditional 
photo surface or more dmax. That would be a restriction. It's far from inconcievable, I've 
seen it happen. Dick Arentz's most successful pieces are hard to try and imagine with the 
same presence in silver and having to print those pieces in silver would most definitely 
restrict him as a printmaker. Fredrick Evens ceased photographing altogether when 
platinum was no longer availble according to myth. Alternately platinum or matte ink 
would probably kill a Chiarenza.
By the way, I'm certainly not advocating low dmax, or suggesting the prints we were 
comparing in the original post were preferable BECAUSE of lower damx. Also, I've certainly 
seen my share of dead prints on HPR, I actually think it's a hard paper to print on as it so 
easily slips into a flat look with no help from the card-like surface character.

> 
> I think some people are looking for more Dmax simply because they don't 
> like working inside the restricted range of what we now have with 
> pigment inks on matte papers. To get the increase of Dmax, they are 
> willing to give up matte and go to glossy.

I'm all for it, there are countless artists for whom that is the apropriate endevour. I work 
with those papers as well.
In my formative phot years I lived and breathed the Ansel Adams books, the initial 
publications. I had never seen a master silver print. The books are full of talk of blacks, 
optimizing blacks, pusing dmax, etc. etc.. I did all the tests, learned all the techniques, 
made the best prints I possible could, always wondering if I was achiving this brilliance 
and richness constantly spoken of in all the books.
Then an Adams exhibition came to town, I specifically recall the impression of 
dissapointment when I saw the prints. The whites were no more brilliant the the white 
walls behind the prints, the blacks no blacker or more impressive than the black suit on 
the guy standing next to me. The impact was not from this hyped dynamic range at all. 
They were nice, rich, silvery, etc., but whatever luminousity they had as objects had more 
to do with everything "esle" about the piece, aided by minimal and careful use of blacks 
and whites. With all due respect to Adam's incomparable talent and contribution, some 
were even a bit harsh...
Serioulsy, we're all talking and writing and measuring, we need to be printing and looking, 
really looking at a lot of great prints to see what the medium is capable of, and what it's 
not.
...
> I've always been an advocate of people using the tools with which they 
> feel most comfortable...

Partially what I'm saying, partially. Primarily, the tools that most bring their imagery to life, 
but comfort is a factor there as well.
This won't feel very good on the DIGITAL B&W list, but I wish so many weren't herding 
away from the darkroom, the silver print is still one of the most beautiful photographic 
processes that inkjet still fails to replace for that particular look. I don't think it should 
have to, and the marketplace thinks it does.
Tyler