[Leica] Eugene Smith and the darkroom

[tcharara at mac.com (Tarek Charara)]

There is a book called Darkroom (actually two books: Darkroom &  
Darkroom 2) where photographers write about their darkroom methods.  
The chapter with Eugene Smith is very interesting:

"There is nothing in photography I hate worse than the discipline of  
the darkroom, and yet I have spent all these years printing. The  
reason is very simple. I want the damn pictures to say what I want  
them to say. [...] Making my own print is the only way to fulfill what  
I saw when I made the photographs."

"My printing style has evolved out of my work for publications. In an  
effort to balance prints and make them work for engraving, I evolved a  
style that I happen to like for my own work. The two approaches  
coincide, except that I give the printer the worst print. It's usually  
a little lighter, although you can't totally outguess a printer. I  
have illustrations from several sources made from the same print, and  
the differences between them are fantastic."

"Yesterday somebody shocked me by bringing over sixteen prints I had  
made at the time of "Spanish Village" (1951). They were absolutely  
beautiful. Whether the paper has changed or I cant print as well, I  
don't know, but there was an openness I just can't get with the  
present papers. I'm not happy with any that I'm printing on. I have to  
work harder to get the openness I want, or I should say I have to work  
harder with ferricyanide. [...]"

"As I said befor, I absolutely despise printing. I look at the  
negative, and I look at the print. I come face to face with all the  
mistakes that I made. In the darkroom it is my problem to overcome the  
mistakes. I know the print I want, and I know I'll probably get it,  
but it's sheer drudgery. My formula for successful printing remains  
ordinary chemicals, an ordinary enlarger, music, a bottle of Scotch,  
and stubbornness."

The chapter is longer of course...


All the best from the south of France!

Tarek

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Tarek Charara
<http://www.pix-that-stimulate.com>