Re: Soemarko's Direct Carbon (Soemarko's Process I)


FotoDave@aol.com
Sat, 27 Nov 1999 12:21:54 -0500 (EST)


In a message dated 11/25/99 10:06:39 AM Pacific Standard Time,
jfulton@itsa.ucsf.edu writes:

> The prints look great … congratulations on your success.

Jack, thanks for your encouragement!

> They do look a bit grainy and this I wonder about.

Yes, the grains is the part that took me nearly 2 years.... to achieve and to
control.

> Wonder in the snese that I
> just had the oportunity to visit Stanford Museum's collection w/Helene
Pinet
> from the Rodin Museum in Paris to look at their collection of photographs
> commissioned by Rodin. In these images were a number of carbon prints with
> and without tones (the green tones were most interesting as I'd never seen
such
> a thing prior). The photographs were sharp as a tack and exhibited no grain
> (virtually).

Hmm... I just read about Rodin and that he also made some of his own carbon
print too, but I forgot where I read about it (from a book or a web site). I
think his carbon prints are carbon transfer prints, whereas mine are direct
carbon without transfer, so the look are quite different.

To others who are not very experienced with judging prints from a web site or
monitor, I have to remind that we must remember the difference between a
print and its look on monitor. An image on monitor can look better or worse.
The surface quality and pigment body cannot be seen well on monitor, so
actual prints can look better. But at the same time, an image on monitor can
look better because the monitor *transmit* light and the density range of a
monitor is greater than that of a print, so the image looks more luminous on
screen.

I just want to mention it so that people won't think I am trying to cheat
through showing my prints on monitor.

Is this collection that you mentioned on special exhibition right now? Do you
know how long it will be? I might be visiting San Jose / San Francisco in
January so I might be able to see it if it is still being exhibited.

> At any rate, it'd be wonderful to give your process a try.

Hmmm.... perhaps many on the alt. process list are curios to give it a try
too. I will update my site this afternoon to put a limited-time discount
(sorry to all, this is not an ad but a service.)

> Best with your new found 'baby'

Thank you very much. For some reason not easily explainable, what you said
above gives me comfort. I have been misunderstood from both side of the
worlds. The engineering friends asked why I was spending time on this
artistic artsy stuffs. Will it make money? Will it help me in my career path,
etc. etc. At the same time the arts people asked why I always talked about
the theory, densitometry, step tablets, etc. etc. Are you able to make a good
print at all? Stop the talk and make prints, etc. etc. It has been a long and
lonely journey.

But after the long labor, indeed a "baby" was born! :)

Dave S

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