I remember reading a story, written by a close friend of Brett's. While living in Hawaii, far from the city lights, with no air conditioning, rather than work in a hot stuffy darkroom, he opened the windows, and printed by star light in the cool night air.
Come to think of it, Brett could have marketed those prints as "all natural, organic prints". They probably would have demanded a higher price.
Brett Weston is my hero.
Bob Carnie is my hero.....
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"
Ok buddy lets not have a repeat of Sherman's here. Its still early in the day for me.
Originally Posted by Kirk Gittings
Merg,
I agree 100%. With the exception of quality lenses, skills and craft can take the place of lots of bells and whistles and are often more flexible than many "convenience features." There are only a couple of features on view cameras that I can't live without: basic swings and tilts, shift on at least one standard and a gridded ground-glass (actually, I could work around the shift, but that's one convenience I like). Other than that, I can get the same results from any camera. I tell my students often that the most important thing in photography is what they point their cameras at, not what they are pointing with.
I, for one, love the simplicity of the silver process and strive to keep my approach as basic and unencumbered by mechanical and electronic "aids" as possible. The real exception is a Pentax spot-meter. Otherwise it is basic Zone System exposure, development by hand in trays (timed by a metronome and kitchen timer in Vienna, where my darkroom is quite basic), and enlarging onto graded paper, again using a metronome.
I guess I could move to a larger camera and contact printing and simplify even further, but I love 11x14 and 16x20 prints and probably couldn't lug that large a camera quite as far as I can my 4x5s.
Best,
Doremus
P.S: My dream one day is to have a darkroom where I can open the barn-doors to the outside at night and print...
We all, of course, define simplicity in different ways. And technology that seems simple to a person who has mastered it might seem complex to a beginner.
Technology offers temptations, and some of the temptations are to serve the technology rather than serving the image. But even the highest technologies can be used with discipline and simplicity. In fact, simplicity is the high calling of technology--taking away those bits of process that are not central to the thinking we do as photographers and artists to provide more headroom for the thinking we need.
I have built darkrooms in the past and explored the full traditional process, back when it was the only choice. I found that I struggled to achieve my visualization--the technology was limited and required years of effort to master. I did okay with that part considering it was not my living, though I often had to make compromises many would find unacceptable (RC paper? Anathema!). But as much as even the greats have learned to manipulate their craft, even more they learned how to see their subjects in the context of what that craft could produce. Thus, they learned to constrain their visualization as much as they learned to express it.
When I venture out with my Pentax 6x7, I avoid images that demand movements and concentrate on images that don't. When I'm out wiith the Sinar, I'm bored with images that can't make use of at least some of what the camera can do. When I'm out with a 6x6 camera, I see images in squares (I think it was Ken Lee who said this in another thread, and it absolutely speaks for me). When I have a DSLR in my hands, I have a different set of options and thus attempt different types of pictures. All of that suggests to me that much of craft is learning how to visualize outcomes that are within the capabilities of the tools at hand.
It takes me much less time to produce a print that approximates my visualization using my film-scan-Photoshop-Epson workflow than I was ever able to achieve in the darkroom, given the context of my life. For me, that's keeping it simple.
For me, the ultimate simplicity is seeing the outcome of releasing the shutter clearly so that we always know where we are going, and with the confidence in our skills to get there. Without that clear sight, no technology will ever seem simple. But we can also distract ourselves in the pursuit of ever-better technology and never let ourselves see those outcomes. That's how I choose to interpret your wisdom as advice I need to hear.
Rick "for whom silver has never been simple" Denney
Last night Richard Garrod gave a talk at the Fresno Art museum. A great deal of his material was on the need to move beyond the mechanics and physical equipment that we use.
Developing Vision is the key. The way to do that is to simplify your process - a way to simplify the process is to be disciplined and master it. Once the physical is mastered, the artist can concentrate on being an artist.
He had a great comparison to driving a car with a clutch( not that many people do that any more ). One you are practiced enough to start smoothly, you can concentrate on being a driver.
For him, like many of us, decades have been spent moving ( or attempting to move) beyond the mechanics. He ( and Merg ) have done so with great success. Film is what we know, film is our standard transmission car, we just need to continue on this road and enjoy the ride.
Perfectly said Merg. I'm at the point where I just enjoy the quiet alone time in the dark room. The mechanical work almost does itself and I enjoy the 'me' time, listening, thinking.
Hi Terry, good to hear from you and that you were able to connect with Richard last night. I saw him in December and knew that he was headed your way; if he ever slows down, we are trying to sneak in a lunch together!
I hope he brought some of his magnificent work to show. He had an outstanding exhibition in these parts a few months ago. His vision and technique are extraordinary, as you suggest, due to many years of dedicaton.
For those unfamiliar with his work, here is the link:
http://www.richardgarrodphoto.com/#
Best,
Merg
Hi Jim, I reached that point decades ago; we may be among the privileged few these days!
Hope you are well, and belated best to you and yours for 2012!
Merg
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