Digital BW, The Print

Tyler,

>I see these kinds of opinions stated primarily by photographers, 
>rarely other artists. I think most of us really need to get out 
>from in front of our computers and test prints and get out and see 
>some master work.
>It's become obvious to me over the years that photographers isolate 
>themselves in their own world detrimantally. In fact, when you read 
>about the Modottis and Westins and others who set the standards of 
>our media, they hung with other artists of all kinds, rarely 
>other photographers.

I fully agree.  My strongest artistic influence has been my
stepmother, a very accomplished west coast painter, who instilled in
me most of my working concepts re composition, form, space, value,
etc. I maintain a membership in a small arts oriented library (The
Four Arts Library in Palm Beach, Florida) which has a wonderful
collection of monographs of painters.  I will on occasion (usually on
winter afternoons, such as we have in south Florida) spend a late
afternoon in a comfortable chair perusing these books of paintings.  I
admire and look at the works of many photographers, but when I am
photographing it is often the painters' works that I find flitting
about the periphery of my responses to what I'm seeing.


>...we come to the Modotti/Weston exhibit. There were platinums and 
>silver by both artists mixed together. Perhaps the previous hours 
>had beat down our photo print preconceptions and opened our eyes, 
>but there seemed to be no difference at all. You either liked each 
>one or not on it's own terms. In fact, I never even thought about it 
>until days later reading your post.
>Nothing really blew anything else away, I mean really.

I'm happy to hear you say that, as I've found myself being pulled in
both directions as I've been experimenting with the new papers, and, I
think, building it up into a bigger issue than is deserved.  I
love the prints I'm getting from matte papers, yet there is no denying
the effect of greater dmax.  But I've found that some images look
better on these papers, some look worse, and some look equally good on
either.  I'm glad the new printers are making it easier to switch
between MK and PK because it seems like both types of papers will be
around for a long time and using both will become common.

My biggest hope is that R&D on matte papers will continue and the dmax
will improve.

Thanks for your thoughts and observations.

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm