There are many kinds of photography. Fine art photography is distinguished as being an art-making process where the artist uses photography as the medium. Fine art photographers are artists who choose to use the medium of photography for creative expression. Within fine art photography there are different schools of thought. One school of thought places value in the fine art photograph as art object. The Contact Printers Guild embraces this view. The photographic print is what you as a viewer see. It is the art object that will provide a visual experience. The quality of that object, and that experience, is important to us. Just as you can taste the qualitative differences of foods and drinks, or hear the qualitative differences in music and sounds, you can see the qualitative differences in fine art photographs.
We also believe that the process of making an art object is important. The process contributes to the energy of the final art object, and thus contributes to the viewing experience. We believe that the quality of care that goes into the process affects the quality of the final art object.
As photographic artists, we want to make the finest quality photographs that we can. There are primarily two aspects to this expression. The first is the vision or way of seeing, and the second is the presentation of that vision in the print. In the pursuit of making the finest possible photographs, over many years, we have refined our processes, to serve that goal. The refinement of seeing is matter of growth and development throughout our lifetimes, as seeing is a function of being, and an expression of the relationship between the observer and the observed. The refinement of the presentation of our seeing is matter of mastering technique. We are not technocrats obsessed with technical matters. We refine technique so that the expression of our seeing is not compromised by technical inadequacy.
The process of refining technique is a matter of learning, practice, and materials. In the pursuit of making the finest possible photographs, we have tried a variety of techniques and materials. We have found that certain materials and processes serve our purposes better than others. In our commitment to make the finest photographs we can, we are willing to use whatever process and materials best serve the presentation of our seeing, without compromise. We will not compromise the presentation of our seeing for the sake of saving money, time, or labor.
What follows is a description of our current processes and materials, the result of many years of refinement in the pursuit of realizing the potential of a fine art photograph.
Azo Photographic Paper
Azo photographic paper is a fiber-based gelatin silver chloride paper produced by Kodak for over a hundred years. It is the last silver chloride photographic paper still in production. Just as photographic films have different speeds, photographic papers have different speeds. Azo paper is too slow for traditional enlarging. Azo is designed for contact printing. Today most photographs are made through an enlarging process and the demand for contact printing papers has decreased greatly.
Contact Prints
Contact printing is a process of making photographs where the negative is placed in direct contact with the photographic paper, exposed to light, and processed in chemicals. Therefore the print is the same size as the negative. Before the development of faster papers and smaller size films, designed to be enlarged, most photographs were made by contact printing and many different contact printing papers were available. An 8x10 contact print requires an 8x10 negative, and so most photographers making contact prints use large format cameras to produce big negatives. Large negatives are also made digitally and by enlarging a smaller negative on to larger size film. Currently, the large format negative made in-camera is the least compromised of the various methods of making a large negative for contact printing.
Contact Prints on Azo
Contact prints can be made on faster papers designed for enlarging, but Azo paper is different from other silver gelatin papers in a number of ways. Besides its slow speed, Azo is known for its long tonal scale—similar to the tonal scale of platinum/palladium papers. This long scale accommodates more shades of gray and requires a longer scaled negative for full advantage. Properly made, prints made on Azo paper are known for deeper blacks, glowing tonality, and a 3-dimensional effect. Simply put, contact prints made on Azo paper have a quality that cannot be matched or surpassed on any silver gelatin enlarging papers. Some of the differences are subtle and perhaps not noticed by everyone. But as artists, we are sensitive to these subtleties, and believe that these subtleties contribute to the viewing experience, regardless of whether or not the viewer is consciously aware of them.
Contact Prints in Platinum/Palladium
Platinum/palladium printing is an older hand coated alternative process. It begins by mixing a light sensitive emulsion containing, among other things, platinum and palladium metals. The coating is then brushed onto high-quality rag paper and allowed to dry. The hand-made sheet is exposed in contact with the large format negative to UV light. Processing the sheet takes place in subdued room light and the resulting photograph is warm and rich brown in color, with the texture of the paper showing through. Platinum/palladium prints are well known for their subtle beauty and archival permanence.
Advantages of Contact Prints
Resolution: In the process of enlarging a negative to make a print, many factors can compromise the sharpness of the print. Factors include the quality of the enlarging lens, the alignment of the enlarging system, and vibrations during enlargement. These factors are eliminated in contact printing. The only factor affecting the resolution of the contact print is the sharpness of the negative. Why is sharpness important? There is something visually satisfying about an extremely sharp print—there is a quality that cannot be duplicated by other art mediums. More minute detail is revealed. Likewise there is something that is visibly disturbing about lack of sharpness. For example, it is more unpleasant to try to read an out-of-focus page than an in-focus page. If you are not familiar with contact prints it can be quite amazing when you see the difference in resolution between a contact print and an enlargement!
Tonality: In a contact print, the visual quality of the various tones of gray is different (and we think better). In a contact print, the tones are denser, more continuous; the grain of the negative has not been spread out or stretched as in an enlargement. Contact prints result in tones of gray that appear solid, continuous, not broken up—more like a silver or pewter paint in its density. This visual effect is compromised upon enlarging.
The process of contact printing is more and more rare, as most photographers enlarge smaller negatives. And as digital photography becomes more and more popular, for professionals and amateurs alike, the contact print represents a return to an older, hand-made process, that yields beautiful photographs unsurpassed in detail, resolution, and tonal scale. In addition, contact prints made on Azo silver chloride and platinum/palladium are legendary for their extended tonal scale, luminous glow, and three-dimensional effect.
Advantages of Large Format Cameras
Using a large format camera to obtain a negative is a different process than using a smaller camera. Large format cameras are generally big, heavy and cumbersome. They are usually completely mechanical, with no electronics or motors. There are no mirrors and the image is seen, composed, and focused on a ground glass surface, receiving light directly from the lens. The image is viewed upside down and backwards (from left to right). Seeing the image this way is significantly different than looking through the viewfinder of a smaller camera, right side up. Seeing the image on the ground glass permits a greater emphasis on formal aspects (form, space, line, and various visual relationships) of the image rather than on the subject matter itself.
Using a large format view camera is a slower process, and this facilitates a more contemplative and careful approach to seeing.
The large format camera provides various camera movements (front and rear swing, front and rear tilt, shift). These movements allow changing the relationship between the lens and film plane. These camera movements are not available on most 35mm and medium format cameras, where the lens/film plane relationship is fixed.
Large format cameras provide a large negative, which means more information in the negative. An 8x10 negative has about 40 times the information contained in a 35 mm negative. This translates into a different visual experience when viewing the final art object because so much information is contained in a small area. Some people are impressed by large prints. We are impressed by large negatives!