Contact printing paper size

Michael A. Smith

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Joined
Sep 7, 2002
Messages
660
Vaughn,

Is the black border part of your vision when making the negative, as it was for Avedon? Or is it just something you do not trim off to prove that you are printing the entire negative?

Michael A. Smith
 

Vaughn

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Dec 13, 2006
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10,079
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Humboldt Co.
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Large Format
Michael,

I am much of a print-maker as an image maker. I originally showed the entire coated area around the pt/pd print (using a coating rod, this would be at least 3/8 inch on each side -- usually slightly wider on the long ends). I would mat showing up to an inch of the white paper around the black. Basically I wanted to show the whole print, not just the image.

While the above method was quite nice, the window itself was 10'x13" or so...and needed to have an over-all mat size of 20x24 to look good. It became important to match the print paper with the matboard color, and as I was changing papers occasionally (due to supply, changes within the paper itself, etc), this style of matting became difficult to present as a consistant group of photographs. After some thought, I reduced the size of the window opening to include just the 1/8" or so of black around the print...using an 8-ply over-mat and a black wood 16x20 frame. The result is quite stunning (bias warning!).

I do not have anything to "prove" per se. I can see this way of presentation as an out-growth of how I presented my silver prints (drymounting the trimmed print with an over-sized window), and more importantly, as part of my reason and method of photographing.

For me photographing is about the art of seeing. I artificially place barriers in front of myself by printing full frame and without burning or dodging. It forces me to see more intensly as I wander through the redwoods, etc...knowing that I must see and reconize the light -- and transform/transfer that light onto the negative and then the print without further manipulation of the relationship of the tones of the scene (of course exposure/developement, print contrast, and color do get manipulated).

So while I do not care if others know I use the whole negative or not, it is important to me that I do.

One other consideration, I do not wish to dry-mount a platinum print of a carbon print...as both have the potential of outlasting the paper they are on. So unless I want to have the window cover part of the image, I am limited in presentation methods.

Avedon used a white background for many of his portraits -- that is when he used the black rebate of the film to give the images a boundary. One does not see it when he uses a gray background. It seems to me as primarily a framing device which is, or became, part of the image itself. So in this sence, yes, I use the black border as part of the final image/print...thus part of my vision.

Vaughn
 
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