Why alternative processes?

[faberryman]

It seems that alternative processes has expanded and now includes anything other than inkjet. At the recent Contact show at the Photrio Symposium, there was a collection of 350 "alternative process" prints which included a fair number of silver gelatin prints.

 

[Bob Carnie]

Yes I truly believe silver gelatin is indeed in this designation today, We will see less and less of these prints over the next 10 years.

 

[jtk]

fwiw I don't doubt that many silver printers, and especially some platinum printers, accomplish results that few could approach with inkjet. And reverso.

The OT started this thread with an intentional challenge related to inkjet printing. The OT imagined that, with a loupe, dot patterns could be detected in inkjet prints. While that's certainly true with some skillsets and papers and tonal goals, as well as mural sized enlargements, I think it's equally true that some inkjet papers (e.g. Epson's current "Legacy Baryta") can resolve and define grain more clearly ("better") than can glossy silver papers. Grain is of course an important detail when a typically good darkroom printer focuses enlargements.

For people who find sharpness unnecessary, as frequently with "alternative processes", the advantages of inkjet may be irrelevant. For others, who find detail important, inkjet has the edge (so to speak)

 

[Arthurwg]

Yes I truly believe silver gelatin is indeed in this designation today, We will see less and less of these prints over the next 10 years.

Yes, and that's why they will become more valuable than ink jet prints. And BTW, Kirk loves that red filter too much.

fwiw I don't doubt that many silver printers, and especially some platinum printers, accomplish results that few could approach with inkjet. And

I know I much prefer oil painting to acrylic, even though it's sometimes difficult to tell them apart. Have a look at paintings by Chaim Soutine, currently on view at the Jewish Museum, NYC. Also on view at the Barnes Foundation in Philly.

 

[eddie]

The only thing I envy about digital printing is the "undo" command.

 

[removed account4]

The OT started this thread with an intentional challenge related to inkjet printing.

sure, but i don't believe ( maybe i am wrong ? ) that the OP considers ink jet, no matter how skilled the inkjetter, an alternative process.
he specifically asked why alternative process ... i am sure your prints are great, you have talked about them often since your
return to this website; do YOU consider them to be alternative process ? if so, alternative to what current mainstream photographic printing process
( that isn't silver paper, pt/pd &c ) lambda? dye sub? lightjet ?

Yes I truly believe silver gelatin is indeed in this designation today, We will see less and less of these prints over the next 10 years.

less and less is dead-on ! the clock will turning back about 120 years in the next 10

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Digital and inkjet printing is not alternative photography. It's mainstream. Anything that is not mainstream is alternative... The only time inkjet printing is alternative is when platinum is laid over top.

 

[images39]

Much of museum-grade fine-art photography is about the artist's concept, not the image (which can be stunningly mundane).
Tom

Man, that's well-stated.

Dale

 

[removed account4]

Digital and inkjet printing is not alternative photography. It's mainstream. Anything that is not mainstream is alternative... The only time inkjet printing is alternative is when platinum is laid over top.

thats waht i thought

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

My photographic practice is primarily platinum/palladium printing. I have recently embraced the use of digitally enlarged negatives for pt/pd printing as it gives me a tool to produce images shot in smaller (4x5 and smaller) formats to sizes I think they should be seen. But my current labor of love project is all about contact printing 6x12cm film negatives in palladium. They really could be no other way - the small size is a requirement for the concept, as is the medium to produce the tonality and the texture and the color. It's the sum total of all the factors that drive why I am printing these images the way they are being printed. For something else, doing large format color inkjets would be more than acceptable.

 

[tnp651]

Why don't you just print the 4x5 negative in your darkroom?

1. I want to print larger than 4x5
2. Chasing the correct contrast for kallitypes would be a bear
Tom (OP)

 

[nmp]

Why?

Because, we like torture....

(Not that inkjet printing is less torturous, actually it might be more. And the people who do digital negatives, it is doubly torturous.)

 

[Chan Tran]

1. I want to print larger than 4x5
2. Chasing the correct contrast for kallitypes would be a bear
Tom (OP)

I am not familiar with kalitypes so it must be contact printing?

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Kallitypes are similar to platinum palladium...

 

[Peter Schrager]

I recently learned how to do ziatypes and it is a great process as an offshoot of platinum
Most of the workshop students were using digital negatives...the results looked great to me..so maybe digital negatives could be considered alternative process
For me it's what the result on the piece of paper is..if the vision sucks who cares what process
That's one reason most colloidion is boring..i could care less if you poured a plate on a piece of glass if the photograph is just lousy...
There is some great potential with the dry plate as i have seen some interesting work
No one has to defend their PROCESS just do it to the best of your ability and make art