Presenting LF photos in Internet. How?

[Richard Mahoney]

No argument. But you can tell by looking at their small images that they will be powerful large images, if the quality holds up and delivers the promised detail.

I don't think I've ever seen a photo that looked bad in small sizes but suddenly looked really good at large sizes. ... Denney

Possibly this is because -- after years of looking -- you know what you're looking for. I wonder though how many `ordinary' viewers would be impressed by Sommer's images at the Getty, esp. his `Colorado River' and even more esp. the `Arizona Landscape'. Personally, I find the subtle composition and promised texture of the `Arizona' just wonderful, even at such a small size. From this glimpse alone I'd very much like to stand in front of the original, though it wouldn't surprise me if these web impressions left the vast number of viewers cold. I wonder too about the Amon Carter holdings for Eliot Porter: so much is just too refined, and the web is coarse at best.

Frederick Sommer @ The Getty
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/...ils?maker=1746

Eliot Porter @ Amon Carter
http://www.cartermuseum.org/collecti...rter/about.php


Kind regards,

Richard

[rdenney]

I wonder too about the Amon Carter holdings for Eliot Porter: so much is just too refined, and the web is coarse at best.

Eliot Porter is a great example in support of your's and Ben's point, and his work seriously undermines my thesis. Thank you for bringing it back to mind. I saw his work in the flesh only once, at the museum in Albuquerque many, many years ago. Those dye transfer prints were just something to behold. They were not that big, though.

And I have his In Wildness...--the first edition with the varnished plates--and I have to admit that these really do make sense only larger than a typical web display.

But many of his images show promise even in small sizes. This one, which is linked from the Amon Carter museum website you linked, is an example:



This one, though, makes your point pretty well:



(And as a former Dallasite, my heart was always with Fort Worth. The Amon Carter was just one example of how Dallas applied culture like a varnish, but Forth Worth had it down deep in the grain.)

Rick "who has never made a dye transfer print" Denney