Digital BW, The Print

I concur with Andre's comments.  

I have given a good deal of thought to these issues, and personally am delighted with all 
things about digital output...and would never consider returning to silver.

Here are my thoughts.
1.  While great prints are a treasure, photography by it very nature is reproducable.  
Assuming we wish to be "recognized for our art", the only vehicle of recognition is this 
reproduction.  Famous folks like Ansel would not be famous if it were not for their books 
and other inexpensive reproductions.
2. The digital inkjet print is a fantastic extention of the idea of Desktop Publishing.  I find 
the prints every bit as satisfying as Silver...though others may wish to debate this.  I know 
there are still Galleries that hold Silver as the Holy Grail.
3.  Though I have been out of the Gallery scene for a long while, I assume that the barriers 
to entry are falling for digital printers.  One of the real charms in my view of digital prints 
is that they are so reproducable and relatively inexpensive.  If I were a gallery owner, I 
would like at least some measure of reasonably priced quality inventory.  Once again, 
Ansel really gained popularity and commercial success by producing huge numbers of 
quality silver prints that were made by his assistants.  This mass printing of quality prints 
is easily achieved by a good digital artist.  This is achievable in a small home studio.  
4.  I cannot image going back to the extraordinary amount of labor involved in silver 
printing.  While I loved the ambiance of a darkroom with great music, the hours involved 
to print and finish silver holds no appeal since I can now achieve different but equally 
great prints so quickly.  I prefer to spend my time photographing.    

So I do not see Eric's venture as anything but a very small and shrinking niche market.  
While I wish him luck, I have a lot of doubts about the digital to silver future business 
prospects.  I do not believe that the differences between Gelatin Silver and these new 
baryta papers are all that significant anymore.  Handing off my images to a service bureau 
just to get silver prints makes absolutely no economic or esthetic sense to me.

Phil

> 
> I wish you success on your commercial endeavor, truly for it is a
> noble art to be b&w silver printing. However this process exist for
> its intrinsyc values, just like digital b&w printing and should be
> promoted as such. Neither printing methods really replaces the other
> without any needs to cast doubts about the other printing method.
> 
> Regards,
> Andre Moreau
>