[alt-photo] Re: new MFA program in alt!

[David Ashcraft]

Big or small there so many bad, mediocre, and crappy photographs out  
there in the world with no end insight now with the ease at which they  
can be "captured" and printed or displayed on the web.  Fortunately,  
inkjet prints don't last very long.  RIT and Wilhelm ratings permit a  
35% fade rate before the end point is reached.  This means if it is  
rated at 100 yrs that the ink has faded 35%.  See, you can get  
something for free: insurance that the future will be spared the eye  
pain!  As for big art: statues, murals, etc... it goes back thousands  
of years.

At our community college we still have a darkroom and also offer an  
alt class.  My frustration with the program is most instructors have  
moved to digital themselves and only two of us have a fine art  
background in photography.  With the cuts I will probably not be  
teaching there anymore.  But just like this group others will continue  
with traditional photography - I hope!

At the risk of sounding like someone with multiple personalities; I  
don't really have much of a problem with digital photography.  Partly  
because I'm not forced to use it and that the shortcomings IMO will  
eventually be worked out.  Besides it's not that it's digital or an  
inkjet print, it's that it is boring photography most of the time.   
With minimal investment of time, thought, and money anyone can make  
better quality photographs now than before digital.  This does not  
guarantee it will be better aesthetically!  Personally I don't care  
for the way inkjet looks, I prefer the way continuous tone prints look  
and feel to my eye, sooo sexy.

Now for my confession: I make large inkjet prints, my biggest seller  
by far is one.  The people who buy the large prints have large spaces  
they want to fill with art.  I have been invited to their homes and  
offices to advise and hang the artwork for them and I would not  
recommend to most of them to hang several small artworks because it  
just would not look good.  I also make small prints - smaller than  
8x10, because it looks better and works at that  size.  Can you  
imagine music without a full orchestra or a solo; ff and pp?  The  
photography I enjoy the most doesn't sell nearly as well as the other  
but with what money I make I am able to keep making what I love best  
whether anybody else likes it or not.  Photography is my mistress;  
there, I admit it and she can do no wrong!

Please keep this confession confidential.  Also, I reserve the right  
to change my opinion and mistress at any time!

David





On Apr 19, 2010, at 2:53 PM, Diana Bloomfield wrote:

> Hi Loris,
>
> Yes, I tend to agree that not ALL big digital prints are bad-- it's  
> just that I rarely see any that aren't printed where you could  
> measure them in feet, not inches, that if they're all