It is important to understand that alternative printmaking does not belong to any type of photography, be it small format, medium format, or large format, nor can it be classified by its analogue or digital origins. Rather, it is a marriage of the old and new with no disciplinary borders. Alternative photography may involve equally pin hole and zone plates on digital and large format cameras, and the sharpest lenses on 35mm and ULF formats. As a long time alternative printer (from the 1980s) the idea that discussions on alternative printing should be limited by type (digital or analogue) or format (small format versus large format) of the taking camera is to me utterly absurd. I don’t accept these limitations for my work, and I am sure that my feelings are shared by the great majority of persons who do high quality work with alternative printmaking.
I have no issue with the general guidelines on the LF forum regarding the prohibition in the galleries and discussion forums of work done with small format cameras, both digital and film. That is to be expected.
However, alternative print making is different from general photography in at least two very important ways whenever it involves digital processing, either when the capture is with film and a scan is made of the film, or when the capture is with a digital camera. First, with alternative printing, whether original capture is made in the camera or with a film scan. it is only an intermediate step. In order to make an alternative print you must first learn how to take this file and make from it a digital negative of the same size needed for the final contact print. It is only at this point that you are back to the same base line with direct capture with LF film. And making good digital negatives is pretty much an art to it self, as most people who have worked this way know very well.
The second way in which alternative printing is totally different from printing with digital files on inkjet printers is in the process itself. When printing digitally, one can take the image file, adjust it a bit, and print directly with an inkjet printer. It is a very fast and direct method of making a print. With alternative printing, one must 1) first learn to make the digital negative, and 2) learn control of a very complicated wet processing system. The time required for each step is on the order of hours, even after one has acquired mastery of both steps.
You are free to disagree with my point of view, as you like, but my credentials as an alternative printer are there for you to see. I have many articles on the web on alternative printing, a book on printing with carbon transfer, and I have exhibited my work widely. I have printed with ULF in-camera negatives (see p 203 of the second edition of Dick Arentz’ book Platinum and Palladium Printing, 2nd edition for a palladium print printed directly from a 20X24" in-camera negative, directly from LF negatives and from digital negatives made of scans of large format negatives, from digital negatives made from scans of medium format film, and from digital negatives made from digital files of DSLR and another direct digital capture.
Finally, it really bothers me that some people claim that I don’t want to play by the rules. I have made over 2800 informative and opinion posts to this forum over the past six or seven years and all of them were made in accordance with the rules. However, when rules don’t make any sense to me please do not expect me to stand by blindly and ignore the absurdity.
Bookmarks