![]() ![]() With the technological advancements in stability and longevity, it has made our job easier. They are the ones who dictate what we collect, and at LACMA, we`ve been collecting digital photography for some time. We in the museums are in a privileged position in that we go where the artists lead us. Tim Wride, Interim Head of the Photography Department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), commented: Yet museums are also open to whatever is happening at a given time. ![]() Obvious reasons for this include its handcrafted nature, depth of image, quality of tones, overwhelming beauty, lengthy tradition, and the fact that it utilizes a precious metal. Judging from auction prices and gallery exhibitions, the fine art market seems more interested than ever in the gelatin silver print. This credo was made famous by the late Robert Heinecken who said, "The photograph is not a picture of something but is an object about something."1 Photography U entering a similar phase where the handcrafted object, and the properties that make a gelatin silver print unique, are taking on a new significance. ![]() Painting did not die in 1839 it is now more important than it has been for a long time. Just as photography freed painting to do more than record a likeness or scene, digital imagery is freeing film photography from the mundane tasks of commercial and news photography that instant imagery serves so well. My students are overwhelmingly interested in making pictures instead of just learning technique, and my classes are as full as ever. One positive aspect of this drive for the latest gadget is that the technology-obsessed dilettantes show up a lot less in photography classes. All this is an attempt to mimic the traditional gelatin silver print we have been making for decades-and the result is still found lacking. Yet each year new products designed to improve our digital images are marketed as "the way to go." Crowds flock to buy a printer with the newest technology and the latest inkjet papers, and to upgrade their software, plug-ins, and print drivers. One is a reliable workhorse and the other is a fancy paperweight. Compare the Nikon FM2 I bought in 1985 for $600 to the Nikon Coolpix I bought in 2003 for $999. Consider this: how many of us have the same computer and printer as we did five years ago? It is a figure unlike the number of us who have the same camera and enlarger. Chemical darkrooms do not cost as much to set up or maintain as digital studios, and a half-life is built into the hardware and software. The gelatin silver print combines the essence of craft with the ambition of art, and, in our time of dreary automation and mediated experiences, the satisfaction, even joy, of darkroom work is undeniable.īut there are big profits to be made from digital technology. Yet, many artists have devoted decades to mastering the process. It is relatively easy to learn to make good black-and-white prints. With each advancement in digital black-and-white printing, darkroom photographers ask, why bother? We already have an excellent process with highly reliable products and suppliers. More recently, my concern was renewed when I received yet another brochure from Epson touting how their new inks work in combination with their printers to produce "real black and white prints, without any compromise." A few weeks later, this same question came up repeatedly in conversations at the annual Society for Photographic Education conference held in Chicago. At the Silver International Conference and Competition held March 3-5, 2006, at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, the main question on everyone`s mind was how the beloved gelatin silver print would survive the digital age. ![]()
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