Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/09/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi folks, This is in praise of one of the LUG's extra ordinaire street photographers ! :-) Our very own Johnny Deadman! The other day it was my very good fortune to receive a gorgeous B&W real live 11 X 17 print from his series ... "Human Traffic" As many of you, I've looked at the various images Johnny has posted on this series, some blew me away, others created questions, awe and, "well OK John, what the hell is this?" Often I wondered how good they'd look on real paper, under daylight scrutinizing as a print and not an electronic image. Trust me, if all his prints look anywhere close to the one I now have before me, they are the fine work of a talented artist! The print has a tonal richness with a depth I've never seen in wet darkroom prints. Even prints of fine art shooters don't seem to have the same depth effect.. Is it the depth of the print tones ( ? ) the film developing (?) the printer combined with the Piezography (sp) inks? Whatever, it's a wonderful new way to look at how to make ones prints. But it's the rich quality I'm amazed at!. It's the same kind of rich depth I saw in "Mom" Tina Manley's prints at the Leica Seminar. Many of us have admired her work on the screen, but in real prints her photographs take on a whole new meaning of richness and feeling, the likes no screen on earth can match! B.D. showed me a portfolio of smaller prints on 8 1/2 X 11 heavy duty paper illustrating a similar rich depth of quality. So what do we learn from these three fine photographers? A new day has dawned in the world of printing where you don't have to turn out the lights and mix chemicals! Gawd I'll miss it! ;-) It's not too often I get wound up on new fangled photographic methods, however, in all seriousness those who've pooh poohed this dry print method, including yours truly, we might just take another look, as it's quite remarkable. Now back to our Johnny Deadman.... Thank you for a wonderful photograph ! ted Victoria, Canada http://www.islandnet.com/~tedgrant