The first successful photography business I ventured into was called Straight Photography. I was something of a purest at the time. As I noted more than once, my mentor in all t hings black and white photography was Alfred Stieglitz. And no, I didn't actually meet him, although... I was only two years off when he passed on. What he espoused and promoted a century ago remains pertinent today, and I believe any photographer today who fervently remains in the black and white camp, especially film shooters, are the choir of this position.
I might mention here that even the digital black and white photographers keep to traditional b&w values, applied using digital tools instead of chemistry. Good news for them is the new Piezographers who are replacing ink sets; both dye and pigment, with carbon based ink, applying it to black and white photography digitally with nine nozzles of black. Technology marches along as healthy as ever, while the beloved black and white realm of photography remains constant, albeit perhaps, less printers today, with so many other avenues now available. Perhaps too, I am wrong, with more interest in black and white photography today increasing, with the Millennials finding the artistic joy of this craft as inviting as screen based entertainment. I have grandsons who show me a lot of said pulse.
Having opened this post with Straight Photography, such a subjective position makes for a seeming conundrum, although I might argue otherwise. I refer to Stieglitz' "equivalence", in that the final print is what the photographer/printer deigns it to be through personalized treatment. As you know, from printing. The comparison between the Salted Silver and Kallitype image of the stagecoach was for exactly that reason. By altering the negative, I alter the print's outcome. Personally speaking, I am after something in between those two images, and I believe the new negatives I just printed up will do exactly that.
One of the negatives I just printed up is the image of "Horse Head", which I printed a couple of sessions ago. What I came to see of this print was that the density range was off, leaving the print lacking detail, yet shorter print time which shifted the image much warmer, with the palladium toning moving things even further warm brown. The new negative should/will correct this, printing in the upper tonal ranges, which are important being the primary image, the horse, is white. That's working for a tonal range within a tonal range. Fine tuning.
This print is a salted silver (salt paper) print, on Revere Platinum paper, salted 2 1/2% ~ 13% Silver solution; Print time 8 minutes, toned in palladium toner 4 minutes. The new negative will bring down the highlight zones and fill in lower tonal zones, shortening the density range just enough that everything prints in as desired when Zone 7 fills in. This print is okay, but not what it could be.
Palladium toned Salted Silver Print
"Horse Head" ~ 8"x10"
Tombstone, Arizona
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