Re: [Leica] printing and photography are DIFFERENT arts

[Rob McElroy <idag@pce.net>]

Kyle Cassidy wrote:

"photograpy and printing are very different arts. archetects don't build their own bridges."

For All,

This is only somewhat  true.  The disciplines of photography and printing aren't that different.  Printing (b&W or color) - is the completion of the
photographer's original interpretation of the scene that was before him the moment he pressed the shutter.  The "print" has so many variables, just as
film does,  that the printer has a large amount of artistic control over the interpretation of the negative and how the final print will look.  He has
TOTAL control over the tonality and contrast.  The printer is the link in the chain that can make or break an image. A bridge builder has NO creative
control.  He is a technician performing a specific task, following specific instructions, with no room for creative interpretation.  A printer is not
directly analogous to a bridge builder, although you could equate a one-hour-lab "machine" print to a bridge builder.  The automated printing machine
follows preprogrammed "averaging" instructions just like the bridge builder.

The world's best photographs have the photographer's TOTAL input from exposure through printing.  If you've never printed your own negatives, you're
missing half the fun and half the creative power the darkroom (or whiteroom) has to offer.

Within the tonality lies the emotion!  Make me see only what you want me to see.  Guide me through the photographic journey you have created with your
camera.  Control the emotion.  Print your own negatives.

Regards,
Rob McElroy
Buffalo, NY


andrew nemeth, trying to stir things up said:

>
> <CONTROVERSY>
> A photographer who doesn't do their own printing is just like
> a painter who only does the intial sketches and leaves the
> brushwork up to someone else...
> </CONTROVERSY>
>
> but forgot the lasting gen-x wisdom of marsha brady: "i don't know how to
> build a watch, but i can tell time." photograpy and printing are very
> different arts. archetects don't build their own bridges.
>
> kc