U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: Why Use Photo Alt Processes?

Re: Why Use Photo Alt Processes?



Don,

This is quite true.  While everything has a purpose—and large color inkjets have their purpose, such as for garage sale signs, etc..... some mediums add more intrinsic beauty to an image and can be more suitable for an image.

In addition there is the enjoyment producing something that is hand made and the joy of owning something that is hand made—and the value of that hand made object being made by a master of the medium.

There is also, as John pointed out, the serendipity of the hand made print that makes each print unique.

I think that each person is attracted to and persues a particular medium/process that gives them joy.  It is senseless to argue that one method is "better" than another, such as in camera negatives vs digital negatives, when perhaps a person just loves to shoot with that 8 x 10 and go in the darkroom and develop the film.  Sometimes it isn't catching the big fish that is important, it's the joy of being there fishing.

Best Wishes,
Mark Nelson

Precision Digital Negatives - The System
PDNPrint Forum at Yahoo Groups
www.MarkINelsonPhoto.com

In a message dated 9/9/07 4:30:22 PM, don@sweetlegal.co.nz writes:


What an interesting discussion.
I have just been reading a John Szarkowski interview published in Focus
Magazine in May 2007.  Some things happen more slowly in New Zealand.  In a
passage concerning his adverse response to 'gigantic prints' Szarkowski
said:
    "... photographic materials - especially color materials - are not
instrinsically beautiful - not like marble, or tapestry, or bronze, or paint
on canvas.  They look instead like something manufactured out of petroleum
and soybeans in factories that cause serious pollution problems. The
traditional solution to that problem has been to make the print - the object
itself - invisible."
Practitioners of alt photography seem to be addressing this same problem
when they use handwork and alchemy to make the print itself look
non-industrial, or post-factory if you will.
Don Sweet













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