Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/08/18

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Subject: [Leica] Greatest B&W Printers of all time?
From: benedenia at gmail.com (Marty Deveney)
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 12:50:04 +0930
References: <9F07836ED74F1C42AA69DFBAF8A1E2F1479F163350@MBX1.asc.local> <AANLkTikyEJuDDpdZS_cWwduu_wir9p2zir8OUXwoWz8D@mail.gmail.com> <AANLkTimYan3wvBbEQ8z-4_zWcOBL4mziTNtevSAsSwdB@mail.gmail.com> <AANLkTi=TFbHiG2Qn3c4SB_ibe3Cc8vxCkLQjVd8pLABf@mail.gmail.com>

V.I. Voltz, the Manhattan identity, and I are old friends.  We shared
our first martini together in Cambridge, at Brown's, among the ferns
under the rotating fans . . . long story.

The first thing I did after I got Voja's prints from my negs was to
make 4x5 copies of them for repro printing.  It was a wise move,
looking back.

Richard, read Mike Johnston's follow-up to the story.  I can make
prints as good as Voja's - it's just that it takes me a weekend and
half a box of paper to do what he can do in half an hour.  If you want
to make silver prints, go to John Sexton's workshop.  If you want to
make inkjet prints, go to George DeWolfe's.  There's nothing stopping
you from taking one this year and the other next year.

Critical points, often overlooked, but mentioned in this article, are
that the two most important things in printing are visual sensitivity
i.e. you need to look at a print and know when it is right and when it
isn't, and practice.  Voja spent thirty hours a week, forty-six weeks
a year, for more than thirty years in the darkroom.  No-one can expect
to just jump in and have that judgment or skill.  The best things
about workshops are that you can see really first-rate work, which
helps develop sensitivity, and technique that can help you get there,
and faster.

Marty

On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 9:36 AM, Robert D. Baron <rbaron at concentric.net> 
wrote:
> Mr. Voltz, I presume?
>
> :-)
>
> Thanks, Marty, for sharing a very interesting story.
>
> --Bob
>
> ==On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 6:10 PM, Marty Deveney <benedenia at gmail.com> 
> wrote:
>
>> One of my comments is featured under the second article. ?I'm not
>> permitted to post to blogs under my real name because of an odd work
>> agreement (but here is fine, go figure). ?Voja printed for me when I
>> was a young punk and did me the greatest favour anyone could - his
>> assistance landed me my first proper job. ?His work is stunning and
>> the wet darkroom I'm still working on setting up is inspired largely
>> by seeing what he could do.
>>
>> Marty
>>
>
>> On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 5:54 AM, Robert D. Baron <rbaron at 
>> concentric.net> wrote:
>
>>> Actually, I did already read it.
>>>
>>> The other member of the OKCLUG, Ken Carney (SonC is an associate
>>> member), sent it to me. ?It is fascinating and inspiring reading.
>>>
>>> I was just waiting to see if anyone else would post it.
>>>
>>> ;-)
>>>
>>> --Bob
>>>
>
>>> ==On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 2:14 PM, Kyle Cassidy <kcassidy at 
>>> asc.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
>>>> From the Online Photographer (which I'm sure you all read already:
>>>>
>>>> "The Untold Story of One of the Greatest Printers in Photography: ? 
>>>> You?ve probably seen his work. But for many years, he remained in the 
>>>> shadows, a mysterious figure few people in photography
>>>> knew much about. ... Today, Mike Johnston?s The Online Photographer ... 
>>>> has published a significant original article. It?s a profile of Voja 
>>>> Mitrovic, the darkroom master who printed for Cartier-Bresson, 
>>>> Koudelka, Sebastiao Salgado, Werner Bischof, Ren? Burri, Marc Riboud, 
>>>> Robert Doisneau, Edouard Boubat, Man Ray, Helmut Newton, Raymond 
>>>> Depardon, Bruno Barbey, etc etc etc"
>>>>
>>>> http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2010/08/voya-mitrovic-part-i.html
>>>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information


Replies: Reply from imagist3 at mac.com (George Lottermoser) ([Leica] Greatest B&W Printers of all time?)
Reply from mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner) ([Leica] Greatest B&W Printers of all time?)
In reply to: Message from kcassidy at asc.upenn.edu (Kyle Cassidy) ([Leica] Greatest B&W Printers of all time?)
Message from rbaron at concentric.net (Robert D. Baron) ([Leica] Greatest B&W Printers of all time?)
Message from benedenia at gmail.com (Marty Deveney) ([Leica] Greatest B&W Printers of all time?)
Message from rbaron at concentric.net (Robert D. Baron) ([Leica] Greatest B&W Printers of all time?)