Digital BW, The Print

Here's a long-one. Didn't think I would end up writing this much.  
Jeez. Now I'm getting flutters in my stomach as I'm get ready to hit  
send . . .

All of this brings up very interesting questions for me. I am  
conflicted about my thoughts on the issue after reading later posts  
and also Jon Cone's post on PiezoBW about looking at "difficult" art.  
That's a great read and is something I'm interested in exploring  
more. In the end, our reaction is entirely our own and not created by  
another person. I see now my post from before was my filtering of the  
situation. As I look back upon my reaction part of it seems childish.  
Who am I to write off a photographer without a second glance? And  
part of it seems valid. Who is this guy who's using a free megaphone  
to trumpet his work to the hot-bed of bw minded photographers out there?

And it brings up more stuff for me. As this forum has expanded and  
become a launching-pad for new technologies and ideas about printing,  
does it also need to cover the other half: the content of what we as  
photographers create? As 2D black and white "dies," transforms, and  
re-grows how does this forum, as a flash-point of that process,  
fulfill the other itch? How does it validate our obsession with a  
process thought of by many galleries and curators as "stuck in the  
1900s"? I would argue that bw is having a resurgence in part because  
of this forum and it's great momentum. I see it every day for the  
many galleries that I print for. But I also come against the wall  
where galleries are only interested in large color-glossed photos* of  
weird people in weird places. *and a lot of those photos are well,  
damn good in their all-the-same-it's-a-movement kind of way.

So how does my ramble above connect with the first post on this  
rapidly more angry thread? I guess I see now a call for critical  
response as well as self promotion by the originator of the thread.  
Maybe if he had asked first about our opinions of the images and then  
explained he was having a show, I would have looked at it  
differently. I am deeply deeply interested in the artistic works of  
the people who contribute to this forum (both content-wise and  
technically) and want to see this forum support that work as well as  
the technology that makes it happen.

I think the people who are here have more rattling around in their  
heads than dot-gain and dither-patterns (I see it every day on the  
forum to a limited extent) and that maybe it will be a joy to let  
some of that critical content-oriented response out. The best  
critique I've ever got (most hard hitting) has been from  
photographers who consider themselves printers. I don't know why that  
is. Maybe someone here can explain the reason.

This has all been touched on before as it's such a large forum. I  
feel like I've blathered on long enough now,
all the best,
Walker




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