[pure-silver] Re: Getting Organized

>
> Next: I deal with every negative I make before I make any more. I 
> either print it or discard it.  In this way I learn from my work. And 
> since I know what I have done I do not repeat myself. At least it is 
> easier not to repeat myself when I know what I have done. A major 
> problem that many photographers have is that they do not deal with 
> their negatives. Ansel Adams had 40,000 unprinted negatives when he 
> died, which is why, I contend, that after awhile he just repeated 
> himself. Edward Weston, on the other hand, printed every negative, or 
> he discarded it. He kept growing as a photographer.
>

I wish I could print every negative before I make another one. But 
this isn't practical for me: I shoot in TN during the summer, and then 
go back to my darkroom in Houston in the fall and spring and print 
them. So, I don't really know what I've got till I get there and 
develop the film.

I think that you, Michael, go on fairly long photo shoots too. And 
Weston was gone for a long time on his Guggenheim trip. So I think you 
don't mean literally that you print every negative before you make 
another one, although that would be ideal for learning. I think you 
mean you don't keep a huge backlog of unprinted negatives. Right?

--shannon

Frankly I don't think that it would even add that much to my learning. 
I don't think that a single negative with a problem would have had the
same "Houston We have a problem" type of moment that we have all had
when we find a whole roll of film suffers from a mistake.

As far as negatives, I keep almost all of them.  Only the very worst
where it is so totally out of focus or some other problem is found that
it makes the college file.  Prints I toss often, but not negatives.  

A show on the Ovation TV network has a show on it that plays every so
often is about Ed Weston's wife Charis and interviews her about many of
Ed's photos including the Gugenhiem trip.  One thing I always wondered
is why they didn't take a changing bag and at least develop the
negatives from time to time.  I suspect the main reason that if you
drive 5 hours or so a day and take pictures another 8, the main thing
you are interested in then is to eat and rest.

Now the latent image is the most prone to damage.  I try to at least
develop the negatives if its going to be a while before I can print. 
Prints can wait till I get to them or I am ready to do them.  Wait with
the negs and adverse conditions may make printing unnecessary.  If I
were in Tn all summer, Id try to find a darkroom or make another temp
one. grin  On that Shannon you are now an expert.

Mark


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