[Largeformat] Prints (Was Re: Elliot !! Weight of Deardorff, etc.)

[Clive Warren <cocam@cableinet.co.uk>]

From: Clive Warren <cocam@cableinet.co.uk>

>From: Vic Culver <vic@exis.net>
>
>OH, DEAR!  I sense a serious discussion about to rise up and smite the
>jollity I've seen the past couple of days (since I signed up!).  In
>response to a side comment Lee made -- I'd surely like to have a serious
>student.  I did not teach in the arts, but rather in Professional Education
>(Ed. Psych., Psychoeducational Diagnosis, etc.) but the college WOULD
>permit me to teach short courses for non-credit.  It seems that the quality
>of the product is not the proof of a photographer, but rather his
>credentials (how did E. Weston EVER get that Guggenheim grant???), and
>lacking formal credentials I could not teach 'for credit' classes.  Well,
>the dozen or so I taught over the past few years have produced not a single
>soul who had any aspirations beyond an inexpensive 35 mm with a big zoom
>lens (which was more often than not BORROWED for the 'class'), no visible
>appreciation of anything approaching a fine print (how fine can a 35 MM
>negative BE blown up to MURAL proportions???), and no willingness to do the
>drudge work of learning craft!  MY FAULT, let me say it first!  And LORD, I
>hope you don't think I'm comparing my stuff to Weston's, but If I were a
>better TEACHER I might have inflamed one of those young folks!  But the
>best prints I have, and the best of the fine prints I have collected didn't
>do it.  A one roll shooting assignment (to provide grist for the darkroom
>and printing phase, where the photographer gets to make the most of his or
>her luck (OK, skill) with the machine, produced maybe a dozen exposures
>each -- and inspection by Fred's PROPER-PROOF method revealed not much
>worth looking at!  I was generally glad when the two week experience was
>over and done.  Some time would go by and then I'd decide to try again!
>Or, more likely, I was enticed to do it because the program NEEDED short
>'courses' to make the experiential learning program work.
>
>Send me one serious student and I'll carry HIS (or HER) 4 x 5!  Then we can
>become friends and work together as Ken and his son seem to do -- and we'll
>BOTH grow.
>Lecture ended.
>
>Hey, I KNOW there are some great students out there (aren't we ALL) and I
>see them in some of the publications -- like the Ilford teaching materials,
>etc. Maybe you have to give bona fide academic credit before they will join
>in -- and we did NOT have a formal photography program at our college, so
>maybe the real fanatics were either out making photographs (ala Weston) or
>however comfortably ensconsed in a formal program somewhere else.  I hope
>so.  Good luck to them and may God bless them!
>
>Let's look at some prints!  Who'll go first?  Vic
>
>

Vic,

Well that's a great challenge - would love to rise to it, however until I
find a 5x7 light mixing box for the Super Chromega E Dichroic head sitting
on the Durst 138 chassis will have to pass on the 4x5 prints.  The negs
have been sitting in the darkroom in anticipation for some time now and
have only shot trannies as a result.

Have been laid up for a few weeks and the last print was from a 6x7 IR neg
which is here just to get the ball rolling:

http://wkweb5.cableinet.co.uk/cocam/Hound.jpg

The experienced printers amongst you will note that the enlarging lens
(80mm El Nikkor) is not up to the job of printing 6x7 negs stopped down to
f11 (see left side of print) - this is a full neg. print.  Am looking
forward to the 100mm Componon S which should be here next week.  Have also
been offered a 105mm Componon S but know nothing about the differences
between them - maybe someone here does?

It was a challenge to print with no dodging or burning - did change the
paper contrast a bit on the way through though :-)  Managed to get into the
dark room a couple of times a few days ago but there is no scanner here so
those prints (which are probably a bit better than the above) will have to
wait.

The enlarger set up is fairly new to me as I have been lucky in the past to
have access to a good darkroom elsewhere.  Rather than wear out my welcome,
picked up the Durmega a couple of months ago to print 4x5 at home....  It
was the eternal question as a friend said - food or gear, food or gear ;-)
Well he said lenses rather than gear but you get the drift.....

Regularly print 35mm up to 3 feet by 2 feet - don't know whether it's art
but it gets into exhibitions. Duchamp had the right idea ;-)

By the way, hope no one is offended by the snipping of previous messages -
keeps the mail box from overflowing :-)





All the best,

              Clive     http://clive.bel-epa.com