Re: Only fifty photogs working with platinotype/palladiotype!?

Hello,

Pedantic insults snipped.

>Of course we do not know how large is large in this claim, and as we
>already see, he's a sloppy writer (although not necessarily a sloppy
>printer). But let's say he means large as would be large in, say,
>Polaroid. That could be 20 by 24. Or even 16 by 20... I suppose there
>are people who do 16 by 20 platinum portraits, tho I don't know of any
>living (I recall Robert Mapplethorpe, tho he didn't do the prints himself... Would he count?)
>
11x14 according to himself on his webpage. What size exactly is
irrelevant as even if he was shooting 4x5 it would still be large
format. I'd also wager a guess that he would still be using the same
sort of self-hype. By you're reasoning, if I make a webpage and say
"I'm only one of fewer than 40 people working in large format
Cyanotypes overlaid with Gum." I would be completely honest, so long as
I'm working in 9X12 or 10X15 or some other large format that fewer
people use?

>Anyway, my guess is that could be possible, that relatively few
>photographers are doing large format portraiture in platinum as a
>*specialty.* I mean, subtract the platinum prints that include one or more large trees and naked ladies. (Oh, that will raise some hackles... so please note, I didn't say "all" or even "most.") But if do that, and then call for large format (what is large format in platinum -- 11x14?) and *portrait*, and as a specialty -- how many can you name?
>
The statement is ridiculous simply because 1) there's obviously many
photographers out there using platinum 2) there's also many
photographers out there that "specialize" in portraiture and lastly,
many of said portrait photographers use large format cameras.
Therefore, statistically speaking, there could just as easily be
hundreds or thousands world wide.

I think the point raised is that Mr. Auerbach probably has no idea one
way or another how many there are and is being pretentious in making
these claims. Not that I'm saying he's the first person in history to
do so.

-David-

----
Q: How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: Two.  One to hold the giraffe and the other to fill the bathtub
     with brightly colored machine tools.