While I wouldn’t trade my time in the darkroom for anything I do appreciate that my darkroom has come into the light via my computer.
Today’s quote from John Sexton about the magic of trying to pull a print and the frustration & fun that lies therein is something that I now experience in working to create my fine art photo pieces in the computer. The difference is I have many more tools available at my beck and call… and the ability to repeat a print much easier. In the past I remember trying to pull a print like one I had already made and with the vagaries of dodging and burning and shifting chemistry making it near impossible to duplicate the exact tones.
Is this a good thing? It’s definitely different but I believe so. The idea is to get the image that is pre-visualized onto a media to share with others. We now have the tools to touch every single tone in an image giving us the ability to really make a print sing! I saw a quote from Ansel Adams in his auto-biography that he wished he could be around in 20 years (published in 1984) to see what others could get from his negatives via electronic means. It wouldn’t be the electronics but the operator that would be making the difference. He said that the images wouldn’t be like his but that people might very well get more from his negatives than he could in the darkroom.
I enjoy the challenge of sharing my imagery… no matter the way it is eventually created. The result is what counts, not the way in which it is achieved.
“For me the printing process is part of the magic of photography. It’s that magic that can be exciting, disappointing, rewarding and frustrating all in the same few moments in the darkroom.” John Sexton
