“Taking pictures is the number one thing people do when they go sightseeing, because there is something about being at the overlook often surrounded by lots of people; a group psychology takes over, if you will, that makes people more uninhibited in front of the cameras and in front of mine as well.”
–Roger Minick
Category: on photographers
Smith in the Dark
Smith considered two thousand negatives to be valid for his opus, an impossible number given his idiosyncratic printing technique. Certain prints required a few days to make, said Karales. The pair made dozens of 5 x 7 work prints for each negative, testing and experimenting until Smith was satisfied. Then they would make an 11 x 14 master print […]
“We went through a lot of [emulsion] paper,” Karales remembered, “[…] We went through boxes of paper, believe me. We bought two hundred and fifty sheets at a time. Before this, I never knew what you could do in a darkroom. At least fifty percent of the image is done in the darkroom — I think Gene would say ninety percent.
The negative has the image, but it can’t produce the image completely, as the photographer saw it — not as Gene saw it. You have to work it over and over with the enlarger, you have to burn it in, you have to hold back areas — this detail down here or over there.” from Paris Review
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