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Thread: report from Chicago

  1. #21

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    report from Chicago

    Yes Brett your portrait in platinum can be viewed by your family for the next 7 generations as opposed to 2 generations or as opposed to .5 generations in respect to an inkjet. The ever changing landscape can be recorded just how it is in this moment and time to be viewed 500 years from now for historical references. I could go on and on but I think by you just asking this question you won't seem to grasp this concept.

  2. #22
    Kirk Gittings's Avatar
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    report from Chicago

    Jim,

    Ink prints are different. I actually love the look of ink on mat paper. It reminds me of stone lithography. Ink prints have their own strengths, weaknesses and unique look. For me there is some tonal control I can achieve that I could not get any other way and believe me in 30 years of trying I had tried everything, masking, split filtering, selective toning, selective intensification, platinum/paladium, Van Dyke, etc. etc. etc. But I manipulate tones allot. I am not a "straight" printer.

    After almost a solid year of 80 hour weeks I have reached a point where I am satisfied with my ink prints and prefer them in many cases to comparable silver prints. Of course I am primarily printing images that I was never entirely happy with in silver. I have an upcoming show at a local museum that I largely reprinted 60% of the images in ink rather than pull them from the museums collection of my silver prints. That may tell you allot. Next year when things slow down some I am going to explore digitally enlarged negatives as I have seen some interesting work done that way.

    I will basically try anything that gives me a more expressive print. I love the fact that there are more choices out there. Ink prints are still in their infancy. This is a technology that will only improve in terms of d-max, dynamic range and archival life.

    I love the fact that my daily tool kit includes a 50 year old 4x5 rail camera, a 25 year old wooden field camera, a 50 year old Hassleblad, a traditional b&w wet darkroom and a state of the art digital darkroom. I percieve photography right now as extremely exciting.
    Thanks,
    Kirk

    at age 73:
    "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
    But I have promises to keep,
    And miles to go before I sleep,
    And miles to go before I sleep"

  3. #23

    report from Chicago

    His observation was that from the perspective of the gallerists, buyers and curators he spoke with,

    Uh, where does it read that he spoke to any of the above? From what I understood in the post he spoke with fellow professors and people at Calumet. Hardly a representative sample of" gallerists, buyers and curators."

  4. #24

    report from Chicago

    After almost a solid year of 80 hour weeks I have reached a point where I am satisfied with my ink prints and prefer them in many cases to comparable silver prints

    So, the purpose of your post was a little bit of gloating and a little bit of self reaffirmation about choosing to go digital? Did you really thought that just because you talked to a few instructors (who have a personal interest in their choice) and a sales clerk at Calumet that those of us who disagree would go "ah well, Kirk said it so it must be true I was wrong and better start learning PS?" Given Samuel's response, apparently the argument is not as "dead" as you say it is.

  5. #25

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    report from Chicago

    "I have allot of opportunity to interact with photo professors (at SAIC, Columbia and other schools), museum and gallery people and friends at Calumet etc."

    And for what it's worth... the SAIC is attached to the Art Institute, and several of the professors also work with the curatorial staff, and the curators have been known to teach courses at Columbia too...

    It's a tight knit photo world here in Chicago. Kirk is squarely in the middle of it at the moment.

  6. #26
    Kirk Gittings's Avatar
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    report from Chicago

    For whatever it is worth.....

    I have spoken with friends and colleages in all the institutions mentioned above-that was my point, but this is not a scientific survey. It is the result of casual questions over lunch or a few to many glasses of cheap white wine at an opening. The SAIC is a very rich environment for networking with people in the field even during the summer session when things are slow, because of pre-opening events for faculty and staff at things like the new Toulouse Lautrec show.

    The drawback though of such a casual survey is that my circle of friends and colleages in Chicago are very much in the vein of cutting edge contemporary art who have never been to concerned with the issues of craft etc. that we labor over here. I have always been a bit of an old school curmudgeon at SAIC. It has amazed some people here that I have gotten into ink printing as I am percieved as "old school" a perception that I have been very comfortable with.
    Thanks,
    Kirk

    at age 73:
    "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
    But I have promises to keep,
    And miles to go before I sleep,
    And miles to go before I sleep"

  7. #27

    report from Chicago

    Thank you Robert. I am speechless with awe at your sheer brilliance. I see now that a print that only lasts 150 years is essentially worthless.

  8. #28

    report from Chicago

    I'm with Kirk on this one. I don't do it for a living and I don't do it for galleries. I'll use whatever it takes to get what I want. I came back to film after 4 years of doing nothing but digital because I just enjoy it. In fact I went backwards, I now do carbon printing.

  9. #29
    Whatever David A. Goldfarb's Avatar
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    report from Chicago

    In the New York galleries there has been some color inkjet, but very little B&W inkjet. It might be that I'm not going to galleries that would show it.

  10. #30
    Photographer, Machinist, etc. Jeffrey Sipress's Avatar
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    report from Chicago

    Thank you, Kirk, for sharing your 'real world' observations. And thanks to Brett as well, for the excellent supoport.

    Apparently I don't buy into the 'greater than thou' attitude of some chemical workers who have either never worked an image digitally, or never learned to do it well. I'm guessing that I now have an equivalent number of years of experience manipulating images on the computer as many experienced lab printers have. So they spend a few hours making a series of increasingy improved prints until they are satisfied, always going back and masking, dodging, burning, and so on. Well, I do the same thing. And they want those perfect tonalities, blacks and brightness, just like me. And they all want long lasting materials, the respect of the 'art' community, gallery sales, and success. Well, so do I. When are they going to finally see that we are all doing the same thing, with the same desires and goals? We simply use different tools!! Get over it, people! So I don't know a thing about dektol or pyro? Have you ever created a custom shape graduated mask with a variable opacity and a defined feathering on an adjustment layer? Who cares! I just want to realize my photographic vision, and enjoy yours... We should be associating, not argueing.

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