Some New Azo Prints

[bennoj]

Got out a few weeks ago with some "new" cameras - an ICA 10x15 plate camera and a Voigtlaender Avus 9x12. Finally managed to get in and print them and these three are the best of what I shot, one with the ICA and 2 with the Avus. I tried when shooting to shoot what seemed to be more intimate shots with the smaller negatives than I might shoot with my 8x10. Comments welcome....

 

[Donald Miller]

Got out a few weeks ago with some "new" cameras - an ICA 10x15 plate camera and a Voigtlaender Avus 9x12. Finally managed to get in and print them and these three are the best of what I shot, one with the ICA and 2 with the Avus. I tried when shooting to shoot what seemed to be more intimate shots with the smaller negatives than I might shoot with my 8x10. Comments welcome....

I agree with your impression that small negatives can produce very intimate photographs when contact printed. Azo is a wonderful paper. I know that a scan is a poor representation of the actual print. My impression in viewing the scans of your prints is that the overall scale is slightly compressed. Were these printed on grade two Azo? If so that may account for what I observed...or it may just be that the scans are not up to the print values. Grade two Azo requires a density range of 1.65 to 1.75.

On the subject of small contact prints, I observed a small contact print produced by Imogene Cunningham that was displayed at the Camera Obscura in Denver, Colorado. That print was offered for sale at $2,500. Also last winter, as I recall, another small contact was sold at an auction in NYC for $105,000. So large prints are not always the better way to go.

Good work thanks for sharing.

Donald Miller

 

[juan]

I have a miniature Speed Graphic and a Graflex, both 2 1/4 x 3 1/4. I contact the prints from both cameras. I find myself, as you do, taking closer, more intimate photographs than I would take with the 8x10.

Thanks for sharing your work.
juan