On one Adams print in a book: "One picture is a mountain landscape which Ansel prints about 30x40 inches. In the book it's compressed to something more like 4.5x6 inches -all the page size allows, and something vital is lost"
Lee
Hi David
Interesting article, but I think you are mistaken in your belief that intimacy is a vital ingredient of every successful photo. The examples of someone else's family portrait and Weston's pepper are perhaps particularly good for illustrating your point, but hardly representative of the range of photographic subjects. Small prints probably do generally foster a greater feeling of intimacy, but I am not at all convinced that intimacy is a necessary or even desirable goal in every presentation of every image. I reckon it all depends on the particular image, the particular space where you are going to put it, and what feeling you are trying to achieve. A lot of really large photographs look pretentious simply because they are just not that good, or they are in the wrong place... I like small intimate presentations as much as the next man, but sometimes (more often than you suggest) a big image can be very strong and effective.
Ian
Just went to 3 separate galleries today and let me tell you, they are a bad place for keeping one's prints small. I had remarked on how an 8x10 looked, or felt like, a 5x7 in the gallery context (due to all of the available blank space). Even 20x24 didn't *look* 20x24 to me. 11x14 felt more like 8x10, and basically every print felt atleast one size smaller than how I would perceive it in my own familiar settings.
How about, "In Praise of the Intimate Photographic Print." Or perhaps, "Intimacy and Print Size."
But seriously, we have to let the man who wrote the article decide his own title. Alll of us can write our own articles and decide our own titles
Yep, and I agree, Peter, that the style of the article will feel rather non-neutral if you do in fact do large prints. Some may prefer a more neutral academic style of argumentation. On the other hand, I kinda like it when an author throws caution to the wind and just says what he/she really thinks without any diplomatic filtering
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