Digital BW, The Print

Hello All, I have some personal experience with this project. I  
worked with John Hill and Sven Martsen these
last months and saw first hand their toil and dedication to this  
project. The exhibit is a joy to see, over 80 pigment
ink prints and a equal number of silver archival prints, some by  
Walker, many by other master printers. Some of
you might be surprised that the average well informed person has  
never heard of Walker Evans, and this exhibit's
purpose in part is for the general viewer, as fine a space the UBS  
gallery is, it is not a museum and there in is a
benefit. John Hill knew and worked with W.E. from about 1965 to his  
death in 1975, John was the executor of the
estate, so his motivations have always been for the greater good of  
Evans and photography.
  The prints are masterful and the enlargements have truly added to  
the depth of purpose in Evans work. The small
black object under the bed in the Field Family photo is a sleeping(?)  
cat not a rag! Many other images have gained
added meaning because of these new interpretations.
  I have been fortunate participate in keeping our shared  
photographic history alive. If at all possible see this exhibit,
and feel good about the imaging improvements that we are experiencing.

Regards, Tom Patsenka

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Thomas Patsenka 
<tpatsenka@...> wrote:
 
> Some of
> you might be surprised that the average well informed person has  
> never heard of Walker Evans, and this exhibit's
> purpose in part is for the general viewer, as fine a space the UBS  
> gallery is, it is not a museum and there in is a
> benefit. 

Ha - many of today's photographers don't know who Walker Evans is, 
which is sad commentary on some of today's photographers... - 
especially considering he is one of the most important American 
photographers of the 20thC (possibly THE most important).

Hell - I even lobbied hard to call our first son Walker - but it was 
vetoed by my wife when she pointed out the W in George W (Bush) stood 
for Walker....

The whole idea of this exhibit is taking quite a beating over at APUG
(no surprise). And yet not one person has said that they've seen the
exhibit or are going to see it.

I would like to know a little more about the process used for these
prints... Inks, RIP, paper, etc. The whole back story of the process
would be nice to read, and might provide so interesting information to
the rest of us.

> The whole idea of this exhibit is taking quite a beating over at APUG
> (no surprise). And yet not one person has said that they've seen the
> exhibit or are going to see it.

well that's not surprising - it's not like there isn't a whole lot of 
self-abuse goes on over there - what you might call endless 
circle "beating"...!

Combined with a whole lot of "the sky is falling, the sky is falling"

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Greg"
<dfaprinting@...> wrote:
> I would like to know a little more about the process used for these
> prints... Inks, RIP, paper, etc. The whole back story of the process
> would be nice to read, and might provide so interesting information to
> the rest of us.

This link was in a sidebar to the article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/25/arts/design/25bevan.html
So Reproduceable Published: August 25, 2006
The reproductions of Walker Evans photographs that you see here on
newsprint were made from digital scans, in TIFF format, e-mailed to
The New York Times by the UBS Art Gallery, of enlarged ink-jet prints
made recently from digital scans of gelatin silver prints produced
from the artist's original negatives preserved in the Library of Congress.

I found it curious that prints rather than negatives were used as the
source according to this sidebar. I don't know if this applies to the
actual exhibit as well.

Chris Jacobs

Hello, As in all information flow there are some inaccuracies, there  
is at this moment a variety
of sources. The Times was using digital files supplied by the UBS  
Gallery, which in turn was
supplied by Martsen/Hill who actually produced the prints. Even  
though most of the images are
part of LOC, John Hill used alternate sources and surprisingly they  
are prints that were drum
scanned. All this will not really clear up the details of the work  
flow The story is in the the prints,
and the lineage starts to matter less. The images are a joy to see,  
they do great credit to Evans.

Thank you, Tom

Tom, very well put.  I saw it today and was very excited by the
quality of the prints.  And finding that kitten under the bed was a
shock as I knew the photo well but had never noticed before and only
read your comments right now.  The exhibit is well presented and worth
a trip to see, along with all the other photography in NYC, of course!

>
> Hello All, I have some personal experience with this project. I  
> worked with John Hill and Sven Martsen these
> last months and saw first hand their toil and dedication to this  
> project. The exhibit is a joy to see, over 80 pigment
> ink prints and a equal number of silver archival prints, some by  
> Walker, many by other master printers. Some of
> you might be surprised that the average well informed person has  
> never heard of Walker Evans, and this exhibit's
> purpose in part is for the general viewer, as fine a space the UBS  
> gallery is, it is not a museum and there in is a
> benefit. John Hill knew and worked with W.E. from about 1965 to his  
> death in 1975, John was the executor of the
> estate, so his motivations have always been for the greater good of  
> Evans and photography.
>   The prints are masterful and the enlargements have truly added to  
> the depth of purpose in Evans work. The small
> black object under the bed in the Field Family photo is a sleeping(?)  
> cat not a rag! Many other images have gained
> added meaning because of these new interpretations.
>   I have been fortunate participate in keeping our shared  
> photographic history alive. If at all possible see this exhibit,
> and feel good about the imaging improvements that we are experiencing.
> 
> Regards, Tom Patsenka
>