What do you take photo’s for?
I take them to share me artistic vision, my personal take, on the things that “ring my bell” and how I chooses to interpret them. This must be formed from an elements of ego, curiosity and a need for acceptance, as these are the only driving forces in play (protection of those close to me and survival being effectively irrelevant in this context).
My first and most critical (and easiest to deceive) viewer is myself and I hope that that stays that way, because I dread the day I do not care or I think I have done it all.
Next are friends and family who are supportive by nature, so they are more easily impressed and finally the broader public, who can be inspiring or tough, but usually honest.
Posting on this site gives me some satisfaction. It can potentially reach anyone, anywhere in the world allowing my singular take on the places I go be interpreted, appreciated or ignored as desired by viewers who have their own, different perspective of the world. This can be exciting, but, from my end purely speculative.
True satisfaction, for me, comes from printing.
A print is permanent, tactile, resilient, beautiful in it’s own right, subtle and powerful. A print is a celebration of an image. No social media has the ability to just “be” for extended periods of time, allowing the viewer (even the maker) to discover, or re-discover it at different times and in different light. I personally find screen saver images annoying as their importance is at odds with their inconvenience as the thing blocking your entry into the device.
The print can come into your life periodically by chance rather than by choice. It can be there when your guard is down, filling a space on a wall patiently until needed. It can be inspiring, even triggering fond memories or just bolstering your confidence, reassuring you that you can achieve, even if you did not realise you did need it to.
Which prints you create is key. If you get too carried away with the process and start hanging anything that prints reasonably or takes your fancy in the short term, you run the risk of loosing interest, even reducing the whole process to a shadow of it’s potential.
The last thing you want to do is treat printing like social media, short term and disposable.
A cheaply printed lab image in a store bought frame, but the perfect reminder of our lost friend Jack. The placement of the print (in our bedroom in a quiet corner) allows me to re-discover him often, regardless of my mood.
For a print to soar, it must be relevant, technically sound (the level of technical accomplishment and presentation is of enormous importance, only trumped by relevance), properly sized and placed well.
This may sound like a pretty strict shopping list of needs, but the reality is, the process is where the satisfaction lies.
Posting an image to social media or a web page is relatively easy. The site will be tweaked for best presentation (hopefully), it will be viewed on a variety of back lit devices and it’s staying power, even if insanely popular only needs to be sustained in very short hits each viewing.
I know as well as any other, that my own standards drop when posting. The images are down sized, often chosen to show a point or as fillers for articles. The processing is aimed at punch and to eye catching as the viewer will or will not pay into it almost immediately and most importantly, it is going out to an anonymous world anonymously. ironically, I feel an image, even a sacrificial one, is needed to make a post noticeable.
Choosing a print can be harder and at the same time easier than posting to a site. If you ask your self the simple question “Is this worth the time, expense and emotional investment to print?” the answer usually comes pretty quickly.
The photo above of Jack’s framed image took a grand total of 3 minutes from idea to uploaded image. I actually like the tones and composition enough to think “printable?” on a basic level, but I am immediately aware of the image’s technical short-comings. This heightened awareness of follow through to a displayable product is one of the key reasons to print.
It makes you a better photographer. You do not cut corners at the beginning of the process, because you know it undermines any further investment.
It makes you a better processor. Processing to print teaches you a lot about image making (see point 1).
It makes you a better editor of your own work. Self editing is tough, but editing to printable standard helps remove the chaff. It allows you one clear and realistic question, “print or no print?”.
It allows you to define yourself as an artist, even leading to full series of prints and a clarity of vision.
It makes/helps you share and gain critique passively or more actively (great personalised gift). Hanging a print takes some courage. The print can then hang until noticed (or not), but does not require anonymous “likes” to instantly accumulate.
It is another hobby in itself, maybe even being your off season process for image making. I find summer can be less fulfilling as a photographer, so the hottest months will be reserved for printing.
It gives your images more presence, lifting them (and you) to the next level**. There is simply no higher form of display for a photographic image. Even a seemingly underwhelming image can lift if seen from the perspective of a print.
It gives your favourite images a physically stable, often archival, backup (really important!)***. The realistic life span of a single digital file is 5-15 years if you are careful (backing up and regularly transferring to upgraded devices not withstanding). Pigment dye prints have a 100 year+ storage life and are not format dependant.
It makes the whole process real, adding relevance and satisfaction to your expensive hobby. If you ask yourself “what is ultimately the most satisfying destination for my work?” this may be the answer.
Last but not least, Printing does not worship the computer screen gods of 100% detail resolution, freeing the printer up to enjoy other characteristics of lenses and subject. Print resolution is tied to pixel counts and other quality needs, but not to the same insane standards computer screens give us access to.
One of my favourite landscape images from a few years ago (especially the mono that I seem to have lost). This image was taken with plenty of pixels and lens quality but external forces were at play (pounding surf lost in the image to the long exposure) and is not sharp.
*With printing, less is more. Too many prints reduce the power of the whole, which is a lesson to remember when posting bucket loads of images to social media. The process itself can help prohibit over saturation, but there is still an element of tough self editing discipline involved.
**Printing and framing almost always empowers an image. When printing is genuinely in the offing, I find I look at my images differently. Even the one of Jack above had little presence when viewed as a basic 6x8 lab print. I sometimes “see” an image that will grow another foot when in a frame, one that would otherwise sit in the so-so category.
*** The projected life span of a digital image is apparently 5 years if device based, although cloud storage does offer potentially longer if you are lucky. Formats change, devices die, hard drives crash and things get lost/deleted. It happens. Meanwhile the box of old prints under the spare bed sits patiently until needed. Even pro level ink-jet printers can make prints that have archival storage lives of 50+ years.
Your do not need to go out and buy a printer, but if you are inspired to, be aware that the journey to good printing is not necessarily quick or easy, but even if you rely on a good lab, please print, frame and share.
It will do you as much good as it does those you share with.