Holy mashed potatoes Batman-Willian Clift printing inkjet?!

[Drew Wiley]

That sounds like a can of worms, Robert. ... Some of AA's best known negs weren't all that easy to print. You'd have to contract someone like Alan Ross on one
side of the equation, and someone else as the inkjet tech attempting to achieve the same look. As much as AA liked to sound liberal about leaving behind his negs
for posterity as a teaching tool to reinterpret as people wish, I'll bet his hair would still stand on end if it wasn't done "right". He certainly wasn't very
open-minded when he juried other photographers' work and was sometimes known to reprint a "better" example than what they themselves provided. Besides,
Ansel's images are already coming out everyone's ears. The AA trust has already mass-produced a number of high-quality clones of his prints using more serious
tools than inkjet. No need for yet another mutt form of reproduction.

[Darin Boville]

>>Richard has also recently published a book of his incredibly involved color ink prints<<

Thanks. Didn't know about the new book--just ordered it.

--Darin

[Darin Boville]

>>I can't understand why The Arizona archive isn't scanning the Ansel Adams negatives and producing some prints and shows.<<

The real question is why they aren't scanning them and making them available to the public for research and study. That was sort of the point of the bequest. Funny that there is not more serious scholarship on Ansel, huh?

--Darin

[Drew Wiley]

What the heck do you want to find out anyway? AA has already described in print his philosophy, technique, and recited many concrete example. The geography
is known. There's so much in print and on display that it's like a commercial commodity - like Pepsi and Coca Cola. And most of us know way more dev and printing
tricks than Ansel ever did - after all, he taught us a bunch of em, and learned a whole lot more since... He obviously deserves his place in photo history and that
of the enviro movement and Natl Parks... but gosh, ain't the record getting stuck by now?

[Robert Langham]

There's always another layer.

[bob carnie]

Finally had the chance to see in person Willian Clift silver gelatin prints. In a room with 5 Ansel Adams and I would say comparable print quality, but the prints did not really blow my eyes out of my eye-sockets.
I would like to see more of his work .

[Brian Ellis]

I can't understand why The Arizona archive isn't scanning the Ansel Adams negatives and producing some prints and shows. Seems like it would be a dead-nuts obvious hit to do a show of silver prints by Ansel next to scanned and printed photos. He would have loved it. . . .

I was under the impression that the negatives bequeathed to the University of Arizona were there for study by students, scholars, etc. and that exhibitions and print sales were the province of the Ansel Adams Trust.

As for exhibiting prints next to ink-jets, I doubt that the Trust or anyone else with a financial interest in the sale of Adams' original prints would want to do that. It wouldn't be difficult to make ink jet prints that that are essentially identical to many of the originals. In fact it would be very tempting to make ink jets that look better than the originals in some ways (recognizing that "better" is in the eyes of the beholder). IIRC one reason Adams left the negatives to the University was to allow others to interpret the negatives differently than he did. I think it would be fascinating to see the different interpretations that could be made by a talented ink jet printer/photographer using the tools available to us today. However, having a bunch of easily-reproduced ink jet prints floating around probably isn't something the Trust et al would want to see, especially if some of them looked "better" than the originals.

[Merg Ross]

>>I can't understand why The Arizona archive isn't scanning the Ansel Adams negatives and producing some prints and shows.<<

The real question is why they aren't scanning them and making them available to the public for research and study. That was sort of the point of the bequest. Funny that there is not more serious scholarship on Ansel, huh?

--Darin

Scans are available for research and study under certain circumstances.

http://www.creativephotography.org/c...s-research-use

[Struan Gray]

... really good papers were all flax (linen rag). Nowadays all the artists' flax papers I know of are hand made in Europe, and that means those papers are of too imperfect surfaces for my taste (to emphasize their hand-making I guess) and also terribly expensive. The only modern smooth machine-made flax paper that I've heard of is the one US dollar bills are made of. .

Ridax, I'd be interested in any sources you might care to share for pure linen rag papers. I know of the Herschel paper from Ruscombe Mill which is aimed at alt-process work, but that's about it. My local artist shop only sells cotton rag paper - the linen is in woven form.

Any experience you have of inkjet printing on linen papers would be interesting to hear too.


Struan

[paulr]

John Cone might be a good source of information about printing on uncoated rag papers. He's done mural projects on very heavy handmade papers (not sure about the type).