- Joined
- Jul 26, 2009
- Messages
- 4,307
- Format
- 35mm
Hello friends,
I’ve been marathon printing for the past 15 years. Lately I’ve been going through all my xpan negatives that got printed 10”x24” or 8”x20” and I’m now printing on 4”x10” paper for the past 3 months.
This past year has been exceptionnaly busy for me, printing non-stop, and yet when I look at what’s left to print, negatives that I haven’t even looked at yet, I realize I haven’t even done a lot. There is so many left. Definitely, without the lockdowns we’ve had, I simply would never have been able to finish my work.
Here is what I printed in the past 3 months, about 3000 prints, all Fiber (ilford warmtone, ilford art 300, foma) sulfide toned and signed. Packaged in the bags Ilford supplies with their paper.
Please don’t tell me this is bad storage or I’m gonna go insane, and no I will not be buying special acid-free boxes costing thousands of dollars, because I would need A LOT of them and they are expensive. My money goes on paper and wine.
My conclusion to this insanity, besides being a totally worthless and blind endeavour? Don’t look back at your prints and I should stop using FB papers.
While printing I am doing my very best and there is obviously a sense of pride in all the extreme hard work, but when I revisit prints I am always APPALED by the shitty job I’ve done. Yes, I am a perfectionist and negatively biased although there are true masterpieces burried in there. But the general sense is “what was I thinking? Was is so hard to realize that I needed to use a filter #3 instead of #2?” or “was I blind?....”
Or uneven sulfide print batches. Some print batches are gorgeous, then some other batches are pinkish... but I seem to “clearly see” only months later. Oh well.
And now about FB prints. No matter how EXQUISITE AND ADDICTING it is to Touch, Feel and Look at Fiber prints and Ilford Art 300 paper, it is Triple hard work. Quadruple, even. Quintuple? Yes, can be. And there is always the drydown that shows up on the next day: what you found beautiful the day before is not so beautifully exquisite the next day.
And it’s expensive.
And the Pile of Prints you see here would be Half smaller if it were RC.
And only 5 minutes wash...
Cheaper
What you see in the fixer tray is exactly what you get once the print is dry!
Ok, no, I’m not switching to rc, at least not until I finish my fb papers stash that I’ve been hoarding. Maybe after, we will see.
Once I finish my xpan prints (about 1000 printe to go), I’m switching to my squre format work. So much fun ahead.
Thanks for reading this totally useless post. Feel free to comment on my “archival packaging” and share your thoughts/archiving/prints...
I’ve been marathon printing for the past 15 years. Lately I’ve been going through all my xpan negatives that got printed 10”x24” or 8”x20” and I’m now printing on 4”x10” paper for the past 3 months.
This past year has been exceptionnaly busy for me, printing non-stop, and yet when I look at what’s left to print, negatives that I haven’t even looked at yet, I realize I haven’t even done a lot. There is so many left. Definitely, without the lockdowns we’ve had, I simply would never have been able to finish my work.
Here is what I printed in the past 3 months, about 3000 prints, all Fiber (ilford warmtone, ilford art 300, foma) sulfide toned and signed. Packaged in the bags Ilford supplies with their paper.
Please don’t tell me this is bad storage or I’m gonna go insane, and no I will not be buying special acid-free boxes costing thousands of dollars, because I would need A LOT of them and they are expensive. My money goes on paper and wine.
My conclusion to this insanity, besides being a totally worthless and blind endeavour? Don’t look back at your prints and I should stop using FB papers.
While printing I am doing my very best and there is obviously a sense of pride in all the extreme hard work, but when I revisit prints I am always APPALED by the shitty job I’ve done. Yes, I am a perfectionist and negatively biased although there are true masterpieces burried in there. But the general sense is “what was I thinking? Was is so hard to realize that I needed to use a filter #3 instead of #2?” or “was I blind?....”
Or uneven sulfide print batches. Some print batches are gorgeous, then some other batches are pinkish... but I seem to “clearly see” only months later. Oh well.
And now about FB prints. No matter how EXQUISITE AND ADDICTING it is to Touch, Feel and Look at Fiber prints and Ilford Art 300 paper, it is Triple hard work. Quadruple, even. Quintuple? Yes, can be. And there is always the drydown that shows up on the next day: what you found beautiful the day before is not so beautifully exquisite the next day.
And it’s expensive.
And the Pile of Prints you see here would be Half smaller if it were RC.
And only 5 minutes wash...
Cheaper
What you see in the fixer tray is exactly what you get once the print is dry!
Ok, no, I’m not switching to rc, at least not until I finish my fb papers stash that I’ve been hoarding. Maybe after, we will see.
Once I finish my xpan prints (about 1000 printe to go), I’m switching to my squre format work. So much fun ahead.
Thanks for reading this totally useless post. Feel free to comment on my “archival packaging” and share your thoughts/archiving/prints...
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