Printing is part of photography too

I think that printing as part of photography is often neglected compared with the actual composition and taking of the photograph.

Recently, I have been reading a book about Australian photographer Olive Cotton. Cotton was very skilled in her use of light, and I recently posted an example of her work. The book described how Cotton in her later years spent two days each week at her dark room printing old and new negatives.*

In describing how Cotton took advantage of her later years (after she had stopped taking clients) to print negatives, the book makes an interesting observation:

“But photography offers a generous deferment to those who, for whatever reason, need time to unite the two component parts of taking the negative and making the print”

With digital photography, are we too often forgetting the second component part of photography … or at best, outsourcing it? It is perhaps ironic that digital photography has made the printing process easier and much faster, and yet the printing aspect of photography is often neglected.

Ansel Adams, who trained as a concert pianist, before embarking on a photography career, likened the taking of a negative to composing a piece of music, and the printing he likened to a performance of the music. Within certain constraints set by the composition, each performance of the music can vary.

The printing part of photographic art can be tedious, but it is tremendously rewarding and should not be neglected by photographers.

* Source: “Olive Cotton Photographer”, National Library of Australia, 1995, p1.

Confusion

I currently have a couple of my images in a photography show. One of the images of Dissipating Memories of a Transitory Life. From what I have hear, the image has caused various confusion for people who have visited the photography show. Some people thought the image was a painting. Someone thought the picture was taken from under water. Someone thought that a “regular” image had been manipulated in Photoshop to create the water effect. In reality (if you haven’t guessed), it’s an image of a reflection in the San Antonio River. I quite enjoy the different reactions of the image.