I was struck, as were others I spoke to, that the silverprints in the
Sudek show at ICP seemed mundane: it's hard to imagine his reputation from
them alone. Even some few with a greater tonal range lacked the charisma of
the pigmented prints -- utterly.
> 'perfect' bromide technology and 'imperfect' hand-coated materials: The
better > the potential imaging quality (in a sensitometric sense), the
less the viewer > accepts 'lost' tones and the more the photographer is
forced to fullfill the > viewers requirements of seeing as much as
possible from the original scene. The > 'worse' the imaging quality and
the less detail and tonal values are offered, > the more the viewer's
phantasy is asked for, allowing to appropriate the image > to himself
according to his individual experiences and imagination. That is what >
both, Demachy and Kuehn had in common, although their photography was
different. > >
Klaus, that's very nicely put. Sounds convincing, too, or at least a
hopeful and refreshing possibility after all this talk of the FarberWare
rule and the numbing suggestion that all those tons of noble metals have
gone down the drain to create the greatest possible number of discernible
tones....
Just one other point: what's "the original scene" got to do with it?
Judy