The Final Print

Now that most of us are entrenched in the digital age some of us don’t think about our images final print. Instead we place it on the internet in facbook, blogs or our webpage and think no more about it. I have to say I have been guilty of this until recently when a video on platinum printing had caught my eye. This started me thinking about my prints and how I want them displayed. The internet is ok but there is nothing like a print, a great print on the wall

With a project I am starting this video could not have come at a better time. It has made me think beyond my image I took and how it looks in the camera. It is making me think of how I want to print it. The platinum process is not only a beautiful and the most archrival process but it is expensive. So any print that I did in this process would be limited and must be solid.

For the bulk of my prints I would like to find a way of printing them on so that they will display with longevity and brilliance. I want them to draw you in and pop off the wall. I want the viewer to look at them intently over details they did not see before or will again. I want the mundane to become the most interesting. I want all that in a print that I can’t take my eyes off and nether dose the viewer.

Personally I would love to go back to the darkroom and produce a silver gelatin print but most of my work at this moment is in digital form. Not easy to make a print the old fashion way. As it stands now instead of light sensitive paper you now have inkjet and different types of paper to print on. Or maybe print on light sensitive paper that is metallic, glossy, or matte. Or how about canvas? There are options but I almost feel divorced from my print when I can work it myself. There is something about working the paper and slapping it into the trays and creating a print that makes photography an art.

Well as I create my images I will also be looking for ways to print them up. I do want to do some of them in a platinum process, I just got to figure out how.

In the meantime here is the video that caught my attention.

Secrets of Platinum Printing by V. Tony Hauser from PIKTO on Vimeo.