> 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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