Bucking the print size trend

[bglick]

David, what is your college status now? I remember you pursuing photographic curriculum?

Question, for those that print real small, say 810 and smaller, why use a view camera?

[David R Munson]

Bill- I have been done with school for just over two years now. For 8 months in '04 I worked as a freelance photo assistant in Chicago and decided, ultimately, that going in that direction wasn't really what I wanted to do. I'm still interested in doing commercial work, just not necessarily in the way that I was mainly involved in in Chicago. I'm currently back in central Missouri, where I'm working a couple regular jobs, refining my technique, and building my portfolio. I'm shooting a lot of B&W and finally getting my work to look the way I want it to. See what I'm doing here. I intend to have a career in photography but, as with all things in my life, I intend to do it in my own particular fashion.



As for using a view camera even for small prints, I say that there are a number of modes of reasoning here. One, perspective controls and such that one only has on a view camera. Two, that special quality of contact prints. Three, it's just how we like to work (the method fits us). I'm sure there are many other reasons that can, and hopefully will be provided here.

[Steve Williams_812]

I am completing my MFA in Art and will be having a show of my work in April. I have always printed small----8x10ish images on 11x14 paper. As I began planning my show and surveying the large gallery on campus where my work will be I feel a pressure to make my prints bigger just from the sheer size of the walls----that huge open space.

And of course there is the pervasive style of huge works on the walls. A show hung not long ago of 62 matted and framed 20x24 images. I just shuttered at the size/cost/repetition of the work.

My work is personal and nothing I would ever expect to sell. My heart tells me to print and show it as I would to friends who come to my home---an ecletic collection of little images displayed in an equally eclectic collection of frames and such. Being 50+ in age makes it easier to resist suggestions of the faculty to turn my work into a large installation. Younger students tend to be less willing or resistant to that kind of pressure.

And I have talked to a number of photographers who print big who tell me that their clients want that, that they they have a big house with a big wall and they need a print to hang over the oversized furniture. Drive a spike through my skull now....

Anyways, reading this thread has helped congeal my plans--- small prints for the most part. Maybe a big one here and there as an icon from series to series. Or maybe not....

steve

[paulr]

Steve, i feel that same sense of pressure when i walk into a lot of spaces. not even ones that i'm scheduled to show in ... when that usual narcisistic questio, "how would my work look in here" comes up, i can feel intimidated by the huge walls. and by the precedent of these greyhound bus-sized prints that always seem to be looming these days.

i think it's important to be open to new ways of doing things, but it's just as important to be true to your vision. if you want a particular body of work to be small, and really don't think it will work in a certain space, then better to find another space than to bastardize your work.

but likewise, if seeing huge walls and huge murals inspires you with some new ideas, then by all means (if you have the means) feel free to supersize the next body of work and see what happens. or see how printing that one big icon from each series goes. that could be a good way to dip your toe in the mural ocean.

[Sal Santamaura]

As follow up to my earlier post in this thread, note that the J&C/Kodak TMY special order offer includes 6 1/2 x 8 1/2 too. So, if you prefer that emulsion to FP4 Plus or HP5 Plus, there's no reason not to pursue wholeplate. Get in on the order while you can!

[William Mortensen]

In the current gallery world, I do think the over-sized, high-ceilinged hanging spaces demand work on a scale equal to the gallery itself. If today's galleries were more on the scale of "the Little Galleries of 291", or "An American Place", I think we would see much smaller works as the norm. This would also echo the normal scale for the homes where work might be hung. Then again, with so many of today's artists seeking that one big score, the buyers targeted are corporate entities with larger spaces demanding larger works.

I echo Sal's and Oren's appreciation for the old whole plate size. Though I don't go so far as building cameras and filmholders, or special ordering film, for that size, I do find myself shooting 8x10 with the intention of trimming it down to that size in the final print. The proportions are quite beautiful to my eye.

As to Bill's question as to why we use large view cameras for smallish prints, David answered quite well; the control, the quality (of a contact print), and the experience itself. Perhaps I could add, out of impractical impertinance, the principle of approaching perfection in the chosen medium.