A Time and Place for B&W Darkroom Prints
Black & White Darkroom Prints
In a previous article on print choices, I concentrated mostly on prints from inkjet printers or dye sublimation printers. The topic this month is about darkroom prints. The discussion will be confined to black and white prints or toned prints, since there are distinct advantages to color printing by machine. At the end of the article you will find links to some of my favorite “collectible” black and white photographers.
With my Dad’s help, as a teen I legally scavenged wood at the Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach, California. This was used to build my tar paper lined darkroom shed in the back yard. With four kids and a great grandmother in a 1500 square foot home, taking over a bathroom on a permanent basis just wasn’t feasible. My love for watching images appear on paper began. At sixteen, I had my my first job at Kirk Photo in Orange, California, where I printed passport and portrait photos and an occasional accident scene to sell to the local newspaper. The $1.25 an hour didn’t pay for many sock hops, but the job was fun. The darkroom magic continued. It also required judgment and skill, which the boss sometimes told me was something I lacked.
A respect for talented photographers grew from that experience and my later ventures into the Darkroom in Laguna Beach. I appreciated the control and skill of a different kind than what is needed for today’s computer processing of images. Most of us know that dodging (preventing light from reaching the print paper, yielding a lighter area) and burning (adding light through a longer exposure to the paper to make darker areas) are a primary tools of the darkroom printer. But there are many more skills necessary. Much of these techniques were developed an popularized by the American pioneers, Edward Curtis, Imogen Cunningham, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and others. Adams’ zone system was based on balancing light with film development and print processing skills.
In the Zone System a good image will have pure blacks, pure whites and all the tones in between, although these need not be distributed evenly in quantity. The photographer would meter light from one zone (say a person's face in zone VIII) and would adjust the exposures and processing of film and paper accordingly.
Making an outstanding darkroom print starts with capturing the shot. Today it is easy to use Photoshop to remove a cigarette butt from the ground or to erase a stray hair from a model’s face. Not so for darkroom print photographers. While I prized my retouching brushes and bottles of toner back in the sixties, it was trial and error, resulting in the need to hire a professional retoucher or to reprint many times. It was always easier to spend time in the field before the shot than to correct the shot later. Today, we can partially make up for our sloppy field skills with excellent post processing skills.
This darkroom print circa 1980 that doesn't qualify for zone system mastery. This makes me want to do more with more with my current compositional skills, but I'm guessing that will happen in my next life!
Roll film and sheet film was relatively costly compared to the hundreds of images we can put on a digital sensor. A typical wedding back when only film was around might have had 24 or 36 total pictures taken. Today the number is more like 300! You had to be pretty careful to get the film rolling on the spool each time you loaded up. When I see large format photographers in the field today, they may only be taking a few shots in a session, while I am likely putting a couple hundred on my digital sensor. This makes the composition more of an art for darkroom print photographers. They can’t expect as many lucky moments to help to make their home runs.
Darkroom printers also control their results with the processing of the film. Underexposing and overdeveloping (pushing) film results in a somewhat greater range of tones and more shadow detail, whereas over exposing and under developing (pulling) does just the opposite. Addition of certain chemicals changes the process even more. These skills must still be mastered in darkroom for the chemist photographers that still pursue this art.
What will you pay for a darkroom print?
Prices for darkroom prints are usually considerably higher than inkjet prints. Each print is a painstaking work of art. It is rare for many prints of the same image to be made in the same printing session. This means no two prints are precisely alike. Big name photographers can command higher prices for their prints. I personally would not consider buying anything from a limited edition of more than 100 prints, and 25 or 30 is a more reasonable number if you are paying a high price. As with all art you buy, if it is for your wall, be sure you will enjoy looking at it it for a long time or will enjoy bragging about your purchase. Many black and white photographers also sell boxed collections. These are not for your wall, but for a coffee table or very safe place. This is a very nice alternative for collectors.
Types of Darkroom Prints
Most darkroom prints are made on papers with a silver-gelatin surface coat. A second choice is a platinum-palladium print but few photographers use this material due to its expense, but those who stick with it do so for a reason. It usually has finer tonal gradations and more permanence from the embedding of materials in the paper fibers. You may hear of other techniques such as toned Kallitype or salted prints. If you get a chance, see if you can see the differences between these two processing techniques at the next photography show you attend.
There were a couple of decades where I had minimal interaction with the photography scene as I fed my family through a separate career. My photography growth was limited to an occasional black and white photo workshop. As I rejoined the serious photo crowd, it was more as a color photographer and digital printer. I quickly discovered that there were many, many of those old school photographers who have hung onto their skills with pride. They tend to have their own community, their own web portals and their own meetings. Some of us old coots who didn’t get as involved with photography as a career are now happy to find pleasure in outdoor adventure with the advent of digital color photography. We are a bit outside the young adventurers who will climb cliff faces to get the shot. But there are also a few young shutter snappers who have embraced large format black and white photography. I admire their patience and and believe we can count on them to keep alive the art of black and white darkroom prints.
Here is a short list black and white photographers of a wide range of ages whose work you might enjoy:
Kim Weston - Kim tells stories through his unique takes on nudes in timeless settings and the natural environment. His interpretations of renaissance masterpieces are particularly interesting. Kim is the grandson of Edward Weston and still lives in the home of his grandfather.
Ben Ham - A large format photographer with a gallery in Charleston, SC. He specializes in the East Coast Low Country. Visit his website to read about his photographic process.
Michael Kenna - worldwide photography, much of it featuring minimalism.
David Yarrow - African Wildlife and Western U.S. photography that sometimes involves a large production team which is matched by a large marketing team. Not a darkroom printer, I love his work, nonetheless.
There are many more collectible black and white photographers. If you have a particular area of interest, you will discover many more outstanding black and white photographers through an online search. Perhaps you like infrared photography, horses, high key, or architecture. Give it a try for an enjoyable hour or two on your computer!