The Value of a Fine Print?

[Brian K]

Do autograph collectors prize autographs produced by the AutoPen?

I think the whole move to digital printing was out of convenience. I spend a whole day standing in the darkroom and I produce a handful of B&W prints. But if I really wanted to be productive I could hook 4-5 inkjet printers up to a few cheap PC's and have them going all day long. Instead of producing 12 prints of the same neg from 14 hours in the darkroom, I could produce 100-200. Plus I wouldn't need all that room I use for a darkroom .

To be honest if I worked in color, I wouldn't go the Burkett route. It's far too expensive and difficult to do it like he does, and he does it right. Then again when I was with Edward Carter Galleries I'd get to see a lot of his work, as well as similarly sized fuji crystal prints produced by another 8x10 chrome shooting landscape photographer and I have to say that the difference in print quality was significant. While I may not be moved much by Burkett's subject matter, I have to say that his printing is perhaps the best color printing you are ever likely to see.

[Brian K]

This whole conversation is a bunch of ideas past their time. This will be over when galleries realize that they won't be able to get silver prints anymore. Some of the galleries are just being ignorant and overly conservative and stuck up. It will all be over soon.

Lenny

Lenny

Lenny, there are a lot of people out there printing with alternate printing technologies. Platinum, colloidal, Gum, salt, and even silver. As we speak I have 3500 sheets of brand new Ilford paper sitting in my storage room. Over the course of the next two years those 3500 sheets will end up as at least 2000-2500 final prints. And I am not the only person producing silver prints. Ilford is doing extremely well, last year was one of their best years.

[Lenny Eiger]

Lenny, there are a lot of people out there printing with alternate printing technologies. Platinum, colloidal, Gum, salt, and even silver. As we speak I have 3500 sheets of brand new Ilford paper sitting in my storage room. Over the course of the next two years those 3500 sheets will end up as at least 2000-2500 final prints. And I am not the only person producing silver prints. Ilford is doing extremely well, last year was one of their best years.

Point taken. Sometimes I get frustrated and its ready, fire, aim. I don't mean to take away from anyone who feels the darkroom print is the best expression of their aesthetic. It's one of the few things we all get to choose for ourselves.

My point (which I wasn't making very clearly) wasn't that darkroom printing will or should go away (altho' I think it might). My point is that the value system needs to go away. Just as many here have taken years to master their darkroom techniques, there are other mediums which take the same amount of effort. Alternative processes (I used to be a platinum printer and still love a great platinum print) and digital printmaking involve equal amounts of creativity to achieve the ultimate goal of a truly fine print. Galleries need to get out of the conversation and understand that what they get from a photographer is their best effort at expressing their art.

Lenny

[QT Luong]

If a gallery accepts only hand-made prints, it does not necessarily imply it considers digital prints to be inferior, only that said gallery has decided to specialize in a certain photography niche that it finds sufficiently interesting and lucrative. On the other hand, museums have an obligation to be more balanced, and from what I read, there aren't many of them who do not have digital prints in their collections.

[jetcode]

If a gallery accepts only hand-made prints, it does not necessarily imply it considers digital prints to be inferior, only that said gallery has decided to specialize in a certain photography niche that it finds sufficiently interesting and lucrative. On the other hand, museums have an obligation to be more balanced, and from what I read, there aren't many of them who do not have digital prints in their collections.

I was accepted into a art gallery in downtown Tiburon with digital prints and the owner never asked. I think there is a certain aspect to hand made 1 up images which IMO is why painting has always had an edge in collectibility. On the other hand a greater number of people can enjoy the same image if they wish.

[clay harmon]

This is an interesting observation. A silver gelatin wet-darkroom print is much closer to an inkjet print than it is to a painting if 'uniqueness' and repeatability are the figure of merit.

I was accepted into a art gallery in downtown Tiburon with digital prints and the owner never asked. I think there is a certain aspect to hand made 1 up images which IMO is why painting has always had an edge in collectibility. On the other hand a greater number of people can enjoy the same image if they wish.