But contrasty and grainy are not joined at the hip like Siamese twins.
For instance a recent issue of the Eastman House publication Image
included a reproduction of a Clara Siprell platinum print as grainy as a
day at the beach, and quite limited in tone. I think also of many of
Gertrude Kasebier's platinum prints, which *in reproduction* cannot be
told from her gum prints (which give new meaning to the word "grain"!).
A very beautiful book (reproductions truly marvelous) on Kasebier, by the
way, published at $45, is being sold now by Edward R. Hamilton,
Bookseller, Falls Village Connecticut 06031-5000, for much less, somewhere
in the $20s as I recall. Sorry I can't look it up, but the newsprint
catalog from Hamilton is about 100 (truly, no exaggeration) pages of teeny
tiny type and NOT organized more than occasionally and vaguely, so I
couldn't find it. Also note, no 800 number. Guess that's where they make
their money -- saving clerical work and phone bills.
However, once you order from them you will receive these more or less
monthly seductions. I've gotten some wonderful books as cheaply as Strand,
in fact sooner or later Hamilton gets all the gorgeous "coffee table"
books. (Sorry Brits, but we have to have something to make up for
Silverprint.)
And while we're talking grain and contrast, I'll mention a lovely show two
or three years ago at the Princeton University Art Museum -- "The Art of
Pictorial Photography, 1890-1925." From the Clarence White collection,
mostly White but Kasebier, Anderson, others as well. Show was a very
well-kept secret until NY Times broke the story a few days before it was
over & I found I could get there (by mass transit, too -- bus stops at the
gate).
A well-printed catalog of the show was sold as Volume 51, Number 2, 1992
of the RECORD, publication of the Art Museum. The price was an amazing $8
(eight dollars!), subsidized by various funds. Although it was several
years ago, all was so well not-publicized, I wouldn't be astonished if
still in print.
The Art Museum, Princeton Univ. Princeton New Jersey, 08544-1018.
However, a quick look while on line suggests that it may not
include the medium for each print....If so, amazing betise! But
historians tend not to know or care such "details." (I've heard Beaumont
Newhall dismiss query as to which process with wave of hand, saying, and
I'm not making this up -- "Who cares, it's so beautiful"!)
Still, the many excellent reproductions suggest well the power of a print
of limited tones (many with the highest tone not even midway!),the aura of
soft focus, and in general what we lost when Ansel Adams hired a business
manager who made him famous!
Certainly when I brought the catalog to class and saw my students vie to
look at these *low-key* soft focus images, I thought, we seem to be ready
for a sea change in photo taste.
Judy