Re: Digital vs analog for negs
Jim Spiri (plyboy@teleport.com)
Mon, 19 Feb 1996 21:40:26 -0800
Hmm, it never occured to me to use an Iris inkjet to make negatives. I use
the device with watercolor paper for my digital output, and it is very nice.
I wouldn't do digital imaging without it. [Graham] Nash Editions is
considered the premier place for such work, much more expensive than others,
but better, though i can do without the adapting of traditional printmaking
practices in an attempt, kinda like the Pictorialists, to make a new art
form acceptable by reflecting existing attitudes: they sign in #2 pencil and
stuff. And some folks "limit an edition" by erasing their file, which one
artist compared to "a lithographer breaking the stone." I replied that no
one would intentionally break a litho stone, they're valuable, cherished,
reused and handed down from generation to generation. Printmakers do cancel
plates, this is to maintain quality, since the matrix deteriorates with use.
Not so with digital imaging, where it is possible to create an infinite
number of identical originals with no degradation. Limiting an edition in
this case is a purely market driven act. An article in OnLine Design on Nash
Editions states. "Up close the black and white photographs [Iris prints] are
virtually indistinguishable from platinum prints." I think not. Not to folks
on this list, anyway. Many of Nash's Iris prints are ersatz platinums (or
perhaps photogravures) and i don't care for slavishness (unless heavily
tinged with irony). But using digital technology to create a negative for
platinum printing (or other alt.procs), YES. Never thought of using Iris for
negs as Luis has. Woulda thought a film recorder the way to go (never done
it myself, and don't know of the Burkholder book, must check it out).
If i can get some time in the near future i'm gonna whip up an essay for
y'all on the Pictorialists re: glossy vs. matt. Stuff being discussed
recently here. Look Out!
Plywood and Rhetoric: Graphic Design from Both Sides of the Brain
http://www.teleport.com/~plyboy
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