A crisis of faith

I finally get the decision on the print that was sold via my evil twin on the rock to Chicagoans. It is a bright cold sunny day and thus perfect for making platinotypes. The one chosen wouldn’t have been one that I would have chose – did like it initially but – think that there are one that say the same thing better – and it is a bit difficult to print due to the someone fogging the film on its way from L.A. to St. John’s. I seem to be in the right frame of mind – am patient – only want two prints to come from the late autumn shortened day.

Things go better than I expected. I had given myself a week to make the prints it will be done in a day. Everything seems to click. The contrast was guessed correctly the basement – after the flooding – is just the right humidity. I even clean the glass on the contact printing frame. I have the print and a duplicate in only four tries. I am quite pleased with myself.

I head into school where it seems that for the anal retentive digital output class has acquired a set of piezography inks – inks that instead of having colour are 8 tones of grey making, supposedly impeccable black and white prints.

Tim asks if I have a black and white digital file. Why sure when do hateful photographers not have a black and white digital file on hand? It is pete’s at night – halfway through the tedious spotting process.

He takes a copy and at lunch I have this beautiful inkjet – no archival pigmented is more worthy – print. It is black and white not greenish black and white. The tone doesn’t change from light source to light source. I could never do that with my printer, I had given up on black and white and was halfway through a black and white silver print book of stasis when this happened.

I am hoping that someone will take me up on the platinotype of the month class so that I can buy the inkset.

I have seen students make great black and white prints with the colour sets in the 2400 that we have I simply couldn’t. Thought that I would try using what I had learned from the piezography experiment.

Lo and Behold!!!! While there was a difference with the snaps beside each other it was minor, and with a little adjusting the prints as good without spending money on a new inkset.

I decide to make a Yanksgiving Day card for Carol to see how it goes over. Likes the image. Likes the tonality. Wants to frame it.
Don’t bother I’ll make you a real print.

Another sunny perfect day I add to the Bonne Bay images and make a platinotype of the card I gave the day before.

She prefers the card over the platinotype. The tones are deeper, the paper stock is better the image seems to glow.

I start to protest but but but there is a subtlety to the platinotype, the shadows are more open but I am really trying to convince myself as the archival pigmented print – have to save face somehow – is more seductive.

So now what? When teaching Manipulated Pretensions, the best point of the class was the paper choice options that traditional photography didn’t allow. One could choose the process and the paper. Now that is shot as there are more inkjet paper options than gelatine silver paper options.

To the contemporary eye - trained and untrained - the images do look better, we won’t mention the gallery’s name but when I went into Schneider to show some of my platinotyped pinholes that was made into an artist book a couple of years ago she asked if they were inkjet. Now they look like bad inkjet. Or so I feel.

A crisis of nerves. How am I going to justify this image to people who don’t know what a platinotype is and will think it a bad photocopy. I make a gelatine silver contact print to see if it is better looking – only because it looks like a photograph should.

Carol chooses it.

I promised a platinotype – do I send the gelatine silver print with a wordy explanation? Do I send the platinotype with a wordy explanation?

In the end laziness comes through. I still liked the platinotype, I was bowing to societal ignorance in my doubts but really the gelatine silver print needed a lot of spotting. I sent the platinotype.

But what about my alternative process class, for years I told the students everything done in the class could be replicated easier on a computer, didn’t think that it would this soon that theory would become reality.

This changes everything. Instead of trying to commandeer the half basement at Martin and Gabrielle’s place for printing platinum -which could be a hard sell as there would be no water and in truth there is no room at Sullivan’s Loop that doesn’t have a window – I will now equip either that or the Pipe House with a scanner and a printer and away I go. I simply have to remember to call them archival pigmented prints.