>
> I'll stick by the "show me your work first, then maybe I'll listen to
> your" technique.
Well Jeff, I don't necessarily agree with that. Or let's say my experience
one million years ago in art school (Cooper Union, not photo it's true,
but still art), was that the best teachers were not necessarily the best
artists, and vice versa. I think perhaps *mostly* vice versa.... there's
often something very narcissistic about the best artists that makes them
indifferent teachers....
And you sure do hear that about photo workshops -- the celebrity buzzes
in, bows to the assembled supplicants, then disappears, leaving the
"teaching" to the journey-person assistant whose own work might or might
not be inspirational.
I also stand by my last paragraph, that you could have all the above wrong
and *still* make a beautiful gum print. Like you could get the facts of
life wrong -- think cabbage patch -- and still make a baby. (Just don't
write about birth control.)
But it's possible this is truer in gum printing, where the process really
does have more infinity of variations and more "roads to Rome" (if I may
say so) than any other. Other methods may actually be more "transparent,"
so you could look at them and know the person was or wasn't an expert. Or
it may just be my esthetic, a taste for the crude. Or what about the
possibility that someone has a WONDERFUL formula, or coating technique, or
whatever, and screws it up along the way, so the actual print is only
mediocre. You could be missing all that ;- )
Whatever, what this book REALLY proves is, like I always say -- get out
your 21-steps....
cheers,
Judy