Amaeur Printmaker

[Chlo]

Hiii,

Im in my final year at university and we've been asked to make a plan for the next year which will aid our career choices. The thing is I'm really looking into becoming a printer and all of our talks and handouts are directed towards digital and photographers so I have little information to go on as to what to expect and what my next steps should be. My biggest worry is that once uni is over i will have very little printing options due to lack of darkrooms in the north west. Do I apply for an artist in residence programme? Or do I aply for an internship with a lab? Or do I apply directly to printers themselves? Or do I go down the teching route??
Any help would be greatly and massively appreciated.

Thanks

 

[pentaxuser]

You've got two almost identical threads running. I'd have thought you'd want to have all answers together in one place

Just a suggestion

pentaxuser

 

[Jeff Kubach]

Welcome to Apug!

Jeff

 

[Rick A]

By becoming a printer, I can only assume that would be a photo printer. When I was in school, I chose commercial art as my major, and the only thing facing me upon graduation was a job at RR Donnaly, as a "printer". The thought of spending my entire career in a printing facility, burning plates, stripping, or other related task in a print factory looked dismally bleak to me, I chose to find other gainfull employment. If you are aspiring to be a fine art printer, good luck. I think I would recommend artist in residence for you, let the uni's pay for you to explore all the avenues involved in such a broad term as "printer".

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

That's a very broad and open-ended question. Without more information from you it is impossible to give an answer that means anything.

1. What do you mean by 'printer'? On APUG it means someone who works in a darkroom making silver gelatin and/or Pt/Pd and/or alt process prints from negatives.
2. Where are you going to school?
3. What is your current major? Are you thinking of switching majors to become a printer?
4. Why do you feel you want to become a printer?
5. What experience do you have? Academic qualifications? Apprenticeships? Jobs? Has photography been a hobby for you? How many years?
6. Who do imagine yourself working for?
7. And the famous sure-to-frustrate question: Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years?

 

[papagene]

Chlo - hello and welcome to APUG!!

 

[removed account4]

find a commercial lab,
and get a job working there.
you will print an awful lot.
when i graduated school i worked
for a portrait photographer who was trained in
the dark arts back in the 20s-30s ...
she taught me new things and reinforced what i already
knew. it was a great experience. not sure where in the northwest you are
but do the yellow pages search and cold call labs or photographers ...

have fun !

 

[Chlo]

Hi Nicholas Lindan,

Thanks for giving me some more questions to refine my area of practice, Im really struggling trying to hone in on what I exactly want to do.

1. Working in a darkoom making silver gelatin, I would love love to be working with alternative processes too.
2. I'm currently studying at UCLAN, our darkroom facilities are pretty good although the darkroom demonstrator has been off sick for the last 3 months and we've had no replacement. So my learning
3. I have no idea what you mean by major, I study BA photography and the curriculum in 3rd year is pretty broad in the sense that we can produce and study what we want.
4. Im pretty much living in the darkroom right now 9-4 days and everything I do in there I love. The few assignments I have enjoyed have all been printing exercises and I try and spend as much time printing as possble. I love the smell of chemicals. I love finding new ways of printing but i am still extremely amateur.
5. A level photography, (by June) a degree in photography. And experience wise is purely what i'm doing whislt at university, nothing in the industry. I did have some work experience over summer with a PR company but it wasnt really enjoyable. I started styduing photography (by chance) 5 years ago but analog photography was never really pushed and it wasnt I started university that I completely fell in love with MF.
6. Realistically I know that I will have to work alongside someone for a long time before I could work for myself, I feel that I have so much to learn. I'd ideally love to work alongside a photographer who produces their own prints, or printer who works for themselves producing prints for photographers.
7. In 5 years, under the careful apprentice of printer or lab. In 10 years, uder the careful apprentice of a printer or lab.

Thank you!

 

[Chlo]

Jnanian, by commercial lab, do you mean digital based? Im hopefully being realistic enough to be expected to able print digitally but would love to be based in a darkroom environment too.