[Leica] Q & A on digital

[dnygr at cshore.com (Douglas Nygren)]

Why didn't I fall in love with the digital prints if they and the 
silver gelatin were both printed well?

They didn't look as good. When I got closer to them, they lost whatever 
magic they had whereas the silver gelatin didn't. I was giving a 
lecture on the exhibit which had a mixture of old and new printing 
techniques. There was digital, traditional silver gelatin, tintype, 
palladium printing and some others as well. Silver gelatin had an 
immediacy that was missing from the digital. Digital color, I won't 
even go there.

The palladium printer is noteworthy. He begins with a negative, scans 
it, edits it, prints to disc which he sends out to have yet another 
negative made from, but this time to a size he will contact print from. 
He prepares special rice paper with platinum and then takes the 
returned, touched up and reshaped negative and makes his print. The 
effect is stunning.

I like his approach. He has brought the mediums together. He uses 
digital to do the work he would otherwise do with the enlarger, has a 
negative made and then prints. This allows him to make duplicate copies 
of his work, which he sells. He' taken some of the work out of the 
darkroom, but not all.

I also suspect that the availability of platinum materials will 
continue and he will be able to make photo paper at will.

Best--Doug