NOTES ON THE PRINT

If it is decided to view a photograph as a print rather than as a transparency on a light box or on a computer monitor or as a projected image, I feel there is a particular aesthetic the print brings to the photographer’s original vision of the photograph.

A print is the two-dimensional paper physicality of the ephemeral two-dimensional image seen in the camera’s viewfinder or ground glass. The print, which is seen by reflected light, must be able to endure a scrutiny far longer than the momentary recognition of a fleeting image.

The print, as Stieglitz knew and taught us, may enable the viewer to recreate for himself the magical process given to the photographer as the image is imagined, discovered and realized in the camera.

The print quality must be extraordinary if it is able to fulfill this lofty role. Whatever beauty may reside in the image as conceived by the photographer can be fulfilled or lessened by the print quality. Whatever clarity of vision was captured can be preserved or destroyed in the print. Whatever feelings gripped the photographer and whatever feelings he wanted the image to share can be brought to fruition or left still born by the print quality.

Whatever expertise I have developed only resides in “seeing” an image and capturing it such a way that it can be made into a photograph. Making the print requires a different expertise.

My printer is Ben Diep. I have worked with Ben since the mid 1980’s; first, as a young man in his father’s lab (Hong Color, in New York City) and now in his own lab—Color Space Imaging in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. Ben’s East and West fine art studies and unusually thorough grounding in film-based color and black and white printing have enabled him to enter the environment of digital printing with perhaps a unique viewpoint to guide his prodigious technical skills.

Very important for my long collaboration is that Ben also has the ability to be a good listener. Egos are put aside and the image reigns. This sounds hyperbolic and winded, but an extreme attention to detail coupled with a broad intangible sense of the image are required to push the print process as far as the image itself needs it to go. The result of working side by side is a remarkable experience and a truly extraordinary print!