Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "john dean"
<deanwork2003@y...> wrote:
...
> As to this whole discussion of neturality, I agree totally with what
> Tyler just said. I think a lot of us strived for absolute neutrality
> because for so long it was unobtainable for the most part. Now that we
> have it I also say, so what, why is it desireable? I actually prefer
> some hue to my monochrome prints, either toward cool, warm, selenium,
> or something...

It's so hard to make hard and fast opinions about this stuff. When I
first had a chance to see a lot of Frank Gohlke's prints years ago at
a workshop, I was so impressed. They did not yell at you, they had no
screaming whites, no booming blacks, no rich selenium or Portriga
color. Just these glowing grays. I think he used Polyfiber, a paper
the rest of us never took seriously, with a slight selenium toning for
longevity. Sexton and others were part of the same west coast
workshop, so you know these were an exception.
And one of the impressions that really stood out, because it wasn't
the excepted norm- they seemed absolutely dead on neutral. They seemed
so neutral gray, that you actually made note of it consciously, how
beautiful gray is.
But, were they really? Was it just an impression? Would someone else's
work have had the same presence printed on the same materials? Another
time neutrality hit me was an old platinum print at a museum, it could
be neutral or even cold back then because it platinum  wasn't pure. It
was so neutral it looked like pencil lead, but photographic, and very
beautifu. But the same questions apply, was it really lab neutral or
just an impression?
I've always thought neutrality was a viable goal. Under what
circumstances it makes the most beautiful print is another issue
entirely, made even more complicated by how sensitive the eye/brain is
to it, and it's slight variation.
I'd like to play with the inks and see what works with them, and the
different papers, just not enough Epsons laying around.
Tyler