The Print

Pony Island. Boulder Creek, Colorado, 2013

These days, probably 99% of the photographs made in this world are destined for:

1) the memory card in the camera in which they were taken, never to see the light of day, or

2) a brief 30-second display on the LCD of the camera or phone involved as folks all lean their craniums together to see, or

3) an attachment on an e-mail to friend or friends, or

4) a quick upload with inane comment (I’m guilty, too!) to Flickr or Facebook, or

5) display on a personal website, or…

…or, whatever other digital media display environment you might imagine.

Chances are, though, very few end up as physical prints that you can actually pick up in your hands (white gloves, please!) and admire at close range. To me, though, it is the print that really has me fascinated. To see an actual print, up close…to touch it, to note the heaviness, texture, and quality of the paper…the fineness of the colors and tones…well, that, to me is what photography is all about. The computer screen is nice, and it can even be pretty, but it just doesn’t quite do it. (As an added bonus, note that prints will even survive power outages!)

Ansel Adams famously said that “the print is the performance.” I and many others would agree with that. He even published a famous trilogy of books of which the third is called The Print–a tome with principles still relevant today even though some of the chemical and darkroom-related techniques may have moved into the digital darkroom.

A friend pointed me to a John Paul Caponigro essay on this topic–the print–and it is worth reading if you are interested in What Printing Can Do For You. [NOTE, as of October, 2016: This article may no longer be available online. Try Googling, though, just in case it might have made a reappearance.]

Yes, when you decide to present your work as finished prints, a whole host of decisions need to be made–paper (weight, color, luminescence, texture, thickness, etc.), size, matting, mounting, framing, hanging, lighting, expected viewing distance, and so on. What you choose at each turn of the road will eventually define your vision and style.