Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
We're glad to have the new OPF Print Exchange. Some pictures, intended only for sharing though a screen, are perfect for the internet. For photography intended for prints it's a different matter.
Print exchange, can, therefore, be a wonderful way for sharing ideas and technique beyond seeing what's on the backlit monitor. Many factors modify and modulate the viewers experience. The print size, kind of paper, choice of inks and final adjustments as well as print size and milieu in which the print is shown. The viewer most often does not have the power to alter any of these. So we just arrive.
Does the print itself hold attention? Can it pull us in to it's world? What value does it have to us in person? The print is the final interface between the photographer's mind and the viewer and it's therefore the only real way of getting to fully experience such a work.
There are many practical issues in running print exchange, the least of which is it being expanded too fast and diluted by poor quality work. It cannot be that one has to make 50 platinum prints to distribute to anyone who has pictures of their pooch on the porch or aunt Bessie drinking punch ant a barbecue.
So Mike, Cem and others are designing a system that would be fun and not a burden and have the opportunity to get a good number of folk involved. If you have any ideas on methodology and approach or hints to make it not a bug burden, then please share your thoughts here.
In the meanwhile, feel free to comment on Mike and Cem's work, although you'll only see, at least this week for sure, the picture here in OPF!
Asher
Print exchange, can, therefore, be a wonderful way for sharing ideas and technique beyond seeing what's on the backlit monitor. Many factors modify and modulate the viewers experience. The print size, kind of paper, choice of inks and final adjustments as well as print size and milieu in which the print is shown. The viewer most often does not have the power to alter any of these. So we just arrive.
Does the print itself hold attention? Can it pull us in to it's world? What value does it have to us in person? The print is the final interface between the photographer's mind and the viewer and it's therefore the only real way of getting to fully experience such a work.
There are many practical issues in running print exchange, the least of which is it being expanded too fast and diluted by poor quality work. It cannot be that one has to make 50 platinum prints to distribute to anyone who has pictures of their pooch on the porch or aunt Bessie drinking punch ant a barbecue.
So Mike, Cem and others are designing a system that would be fun and not a burden and have the opportunity to get a good number of folk involved. If you have any ideas on methodology and approach or hints to make it not a bug burden, then please share your thoughts here.
In the meanwhile, feel free to comment on Mike and Cem's work, although you'll only see, at least this week for sure, the picture here in OPF!
Asher