Making Prints From Memories Of Venice
I had already started to write up the trip to Venice in a day by day, diary-style. Well, I had day one done and started on two and three! As much as I knew the pictures would be central to the writing; the idea of going through the daily folders, each with hundreds of mostly unedited images in them was not very appealing. Then one day I was looking at my 10-year-old, hardly used Epson Artisan photo printer and I thought, it's got to go, unused, too much space, too expensive to run. But maybe I should try some generic inks first, if I'm going to get rid of it what have I got to lose?
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| Opening pages of the Venice Album - Chiesa di San Moisè. |
So that was the start of the Venice photo album. A compromise that I had always resisted before. Cheap ink! Which after a bit of tweaking in Photoshop (OK a week of test prints...) turned out to be better than I expected. I had had pretty low expectations. I'd thought If I can just get a nice serviceable facsimile of the file – I mean the picture on the computer screen – it will do, to boost my memory. And since I was not expecting masterpiece prints; quite early on I was pleasantly surprised by the quality I was able to produce. So then I went all in, continuing to improve my 'custom printer profile' whenever I found a subject that was not printing quite right.
That was it, I started by using the loved but underused printer instead of tossing it or giving it away. And, 'spoiler alert' replaced the printer after I broke the belt (same series, bigger better...), changed cheap dye inks for high-quality light-fast pigment inks after I saw how much better the replacement printer was (which of course I needed a week to make a new print profile for too). By the way - even the original genuine inks needed their own custom profile!
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| Opening pages of the Venice Album - Day One |
Having started my photographic career back in the days of film, I had been used to processing my black and white film and making darkroom prints, even on occasion colour ones too. Once I had these 6 x 4 inch matte prints coming, I was keen to make them as good as I could without getting too bogged down. One of the first pictures to challenge me was a picture of a sculpture encrusted church, Chiesa di San Moisè. I became a little obsessed with the tones in the darker area of the picture, the people on the square. My imperfect printer profile also gave me ideas about how I might edit the picture as well. The work of making the print providing its own creative lessons, fuelling ideas that I may not have otherwise considered.
I suppose I should add that I was aware that the printer using my print profile was printing somewhat warmer than the pictures were displayed on my correctly-calibrated screen. This all became part of a feedback loop of editing, printing and correcting my home-made printer profile. And has me thinking of the A4 and A3+ prints I am making on Canson, 100% cotton Edition Etching Rag as unique prints, as opposed to correct prints. Approaching the process as Ansel Adams said of his beautiful black and white darkroom prints, as the performance of a music score. The scores equivalent being the photos negative. Until I started on this project I would never have considered that approach as a possibility for digital photography and digital prints. As I was too rigidly bound up in the idea of a print being correct or being wrong! Speaking of creativity, when you approve of what you have made, there simply is no such thing.
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| Matched - unique - A4 and A3+ giclee prints of the Lion of Venice. |
There have been many lessons from this project, and challenges of perception, what I see, what I like and why I like it. Softness, sharpness, truth, memory, agreeing with the camera's data... or making decisions that the camera could never understand, to fulfil the promise of what I saw when I clicked the shutter, to complete the picture from the memory in my mind.
Fine art giclee prints are available for purchase.
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