Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/08/18
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]In my opinion the hardest thing about darkroom printing is the keeping of objectivity. You loose perspective in the middle of a printing session. I think it has to do with the "white" light to safelight back and forth. Wake up the next morning and look at a a stack of just dry prints which you'd talked yourself into thinking was not way too dark or way too light but seeing it fresh you know they are. And so does your little kids or pets and so will who ever you show them too. A custom printer (which I have done) does not have the luxury of making "work prints" sometimes on RC paper which one can have around for a week before you go in with the fiber and go for the real thing. Glancing at the post it on the back you made for yourself on a Wednesday afternoon "way too dark by a stop and a half dummy". -------------------- Mark William Rabiner Photography mark at rabinergroup.com > From: Marty Deveney <benedenia at gmail.com> > Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org> > Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 12:50:04 +0930 > To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org> > Subject: Re: [Leica] Greatest B&W Printers of all time? > > 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 _______________________________________________ Leica Users > Group. See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information