Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/09/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Guy Bennett wrote: > Also interesting (and telling) are some of his other manipulated classics: > compare, for example, the "stright" and burned versions of the Haitian > madwoman prints, and the full frame and (radically) cropped shot of a woman > (against a wall?) from the Spanish Village essay. > > Incredible > Incredible > Incredible > > An absolute f****** master! > > Guy A great source of information on the printing techniques of Smith is in one section of the book Darkroom. Originally published by Lustrum Press in 1977, it is unfortunately out of print. Highly recommended. Grap a copy if you can find one or it's followup, Darkroom II. The book goes into great detail about the specific darkroom techniques used in many of Smith's most famous images. Putting all discussion on technique aside, my favorite quote from him comes in the last papagraph where he says: `As I said before, I absolutely despise printing. I look at the negative, and I look at the print. I come face to face with all the mistakes I made. In the darkroom it is my problem to overcome the mistakes. I know the print I want, and know I'll probably get it, but it's sheer drudgery. My formula for sucessful printing remains ordinary chemicals, an ordinary enlarger, music, a bottle of scotch, and stubbornness.' Robert Browne