Digital BW, The Print

On Oct 9, 2009, at 12:46 PM, john wrote:

> Paul Caponigro. Not in any way to be confused with his son.

I can't help but notice the degree of emphasis you use there...

I had a girlfriend in high school whose family's summer place as a  
couple door's down from the Wyeth's. Her great aunt was Christina  
Olson, as in "Christina's World". So as a young art student I was  
steeped in Wyeth, but also in Caponigro. He shot a large number of  
images of the Olson farm (which my girlfriend's family simply referred  
to as "the family farm"), and printed many of them on early high  
contrast B&W paper. Funny how we internalize that stuff, and its with  
us for a lifetime.

A couple of years ago I won a photo competition. A lot of people sent  
me congrats, often with comments, but the one that just floored me was  
from our company's color scientist. Not the person I would expect  
penetrating artistic analysis from. But he commented that he saw a  
good deal of Wyeth in the image. Once he said it, of course, it could  
not have been more obvious! That detailed, scratchy egg tempera hay in  
Christina's world was clearly involved in my color, sharpness and  
other decisions in processing that image, even though it was shot in  
Tuscany, not Maine. Similarly, I can't process an image of weathered  
wood, without those high contrast B&Ws of Caponigro's urging me  
towards more contrast, and more texture! Can't say that his son John  
Paul has effected me on that level, expect perhaps negatively; by  
producing an aversion to symmetrical images produced by mirroring...

C. David Tobie
Global Product Technology Manager
Digital Imaging & Home Theater
CDTobie@...


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