Re: Re: Sad News


Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Mon, 01 Feb 1999 02:14:13 -0500 (EST)


On Sun, 31 Jan 1999 Ender100@aol.com wrote:

> Judy,
>
> heheheh I always get a kick out of your posts and unique
> perspective... I agree.... the guy lived a long life....don't be sad
> for christ's sake, CELEBRATE!...and I (the unanoited) don't even know
> who the hell he is hehehe

Thanks for the compliment Mark...to tell the truth, I was surprised to
hear Sommers had died. I would have thought he died long ago. I believe it
was Jeffrey Mathias brought the event to our attention.. it seems to have
struck a chord -- I am certainly grateful.

> but I'm learning...
>
> I just got a book I love... saw images by DeMachey, White and Koppitz... need
> to find more images by them

Who is Koppitz?

For what it's worth, I go with Picasso (in this if little else): geniuses
borrow, hacks steal. Or maybe it was the other way around. But nothing
comes from nothing. I try to look only at art that has something to take,
because life is too short to waste look power. And if you DON'T look at
everything in photography, you run the risk of reinventing the wheel.
Better to start where they left off. (My students got much better when I
did -- from starting where I am.)

> PS: I am re-reading volume #1 and about to order materials to try my hand at
> gum printing...say a prayer heheheheh looking forward to it.

I pray that no prayers are necessary. For what it's worth, I've gotten
testimonials on that one I'd blush to write myself -- although I hasten to
add (lest I seem excessively immodest), it's not so much *my* method as
classical gum printing with some of the myths accreted over time removed
and a certain amount of modern system inserted. My own best reference on
gum was exactly Puyo and Demachy....

But the myths still accrete. I recently saw a chapter on gum saying coat
by *safelight*. Mark, you don't have to do that. Ordinary roomlight is
fine, though it's advisable to dry the paper in the dark.

Meanwhile, when I think about what they did without electricity and
without 21-steps and WITHOUT THE INTERNET, I am awe struck. A few weeks
after he got a couple of sentences worth of rundown on the process from
another customer in his supply shop, Demachy had gum prints in the salon !

cheers,

Judy



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