Digital BW, The Print

Hi guys:
 
I've been reading this exchange of views and feelings and I find it very  
interesting intellectually. 
 
I started digital B/W with 3 1280's, each loaded with a different set of  
PiezoTone inks, trying to find what I could be satisfied with as a 
methodology  for making new prints digitally, that would be as satisfying to me as the 
Dektol  prints of the same images I have on the walls of my apartment. I 
would  constantly compare the two, using the Dektol prints as the standard to 
match. 
 
A few years back, Amadou Diallo invited a bunch of us during the Photo Expo 
 here in NYC to a "Print-Off" of one of his images. It was there that I had 
the  pleasure of meting a number of the members of this forum and seeing 
the  results... the printmaking of as many participants as were present, plus  
one. The one was Tyler's print, sent to add his input. Only one of the 
prints  was an ABW... all the others were from dedicated monochrome printers. 
Looking at  the many versions of the same image, I felt comfortable that my 
prints were  holding their own, I was surprised and impressed at the quality 
of the lone ABW  print and found myself learning from the interpretations of 
the image in the  other prints shown. 
When I saw Tyler's print I remember suddenly having the feeling that my  
prints sucked. They were fine up to that point, but suddenly looked lifeless.  
The detail was there, the feeling was not. We all spent quite a bit of time 
 discussing Tyler's print, examining the tonal range, the tonal 
contrasts....  everything. I don't know what the others thought about comparing their 
work to  that print, but that was the beginning of my communicating directly 
with Tyler,  asking him about his methodology and trying to find out what 
the "secret sauce"  was. It wasn't the "sauce"... it was his vision, his 
previsualization realized  that was the difference.
 
Gentlemen..... we are all in pursuit of the holy grail in our work, and I  
doubt if there are any 3 of us who use the same stuff and work the same way. 
I  am now printing with a 4880 and ABW, a 7600 with Special Edition K7 and 
a Z3100,  all making B/W prints. I find the image to be the challenge and I 
will use  whichever methodology I have, that brings the image to life.... 
that gives me  the interpretation I want to enjoy. 
 
We are sometimes our worst critics; we tear up a lot of good expensive ink  
and paper.... because 'it sucks', just because we are trying to take our  
printmaking to a higher level. We should not take offense in this effort, 
when  someone is ahead of the curve and trash talks what is going on. Somewhere 
down  the line, we ourselves will move to a new plateau and feel exactly 
the same way  about what we thought was acceptable a few moons ago.
 
This is the forum for that level of critique.... perhaps not for the  
beginner who might be sensitive to costs and learning curves. This stuff is  
expensive and not easy to master. The out of the box alternative is getting a  
lot better, a lot more appealling.... but it will not sit in first class... 
not  yet, and frankly, I personally hope the OEM engineers never get there.
 
My 2 cents.
 
Richard Massie
 
_www.rmassiephotography.com_ (http://www.rmassiephotography.com) 


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