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"Is It Live or Is It Memorex?"


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For those who may not remember, this was a commercial on TV and in print about

the quality of Memorex audio recording tape.

 

I recently read an editorial in LensWork magazine (#73, Nov-Dec 2007) by Editor

Brooks Jensen. He stated that lithography is at a level today where a printed

copy of a black and white photograph is indistinguishable from the original

image (and is sometimes technically superior). He wonders, and I wonder, what

this will do to the livelihood of those fine art photographers who make their

living through gallery sales. If indistinguishable copies can be sold cheaper

than the original, does this doom the sale of original,hand-made prints?

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"If indistinguishable copies can be sold cheaper than the original, does this doom the sale of original,hand-made prints?"

 

Do you really believe this guy? After all, it's just an opinion, and not necessarily an unbiased opinion.

 

If it were true, I would charge just as much for the lithograph copies or sell an whole bunch at a reduced price. Either way, I'd spend less time printing :-) Who holds the copyright, controls the distribution.

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Ask the people who "invested" in copies of today's equivalent to black light poster art from Thomas Kinkade, the Painter of Light.

 

There will always be at least a handful of people who appreciate the process as much as the image itself and will be willing to pay a premium for that difference.

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I took a photo of a guys graduation, one that he paid for. Scanned it on cheapo HP scanner, did a quick fix on an obsolete program, I think it was Micrografx, printed it on a cheapo HP, and yes, it was vastly superior to the original.

 

I would think, tha it would boost sales, you still need the original though, and that is where the time and money are.

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"...If indistinguishable copies can be sold cheaper than the original, does this doom the sale of original,hand-made prints?..."

 

Possibly, but then the artist can just sell lithographs instead and use the old ploy of only making a limited number of them. There's no reason why they have to be sold cheaper than hand made prints, in fact if you're only making a few it may actually cost you more to make them!

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Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

 

Most people will never see an Adams print. Should that mean they never see an Adams image. Is an Adams image less...because it becomes "such" a lithographic print.

 

Lithography does not devalue traditional printmaking ...it simply means more people can share the view.

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"Lithography does not devalue traditional printmaking"

 

Lithography is "traditional" print making. It goes back many hundreds of years farther than silver gelatin. This is something that most photographers have trouble appreciating. A printmaker (in the sense of a lithographer) has a greater freedom of choice in paper and ink than a photographer does. So, while those in the "inner circle" of photography judge all images relative to some Adamsian standard of air dried fiber, the public at large is quite likely to prefer a lithograph or a well executed inkjet print to a Jell-O-Gram.

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Lithography is a method of printmaking Joseph..not the only method. (see Alois Senefelder the Bohemian, and his mothers shopping list)

 

But you are right. Having printed Letterpress and Offset for many years ..I found "most" people, prefer an ink rather than a darkroom print.

 

If I could...cost is prohibitive..I would supply all my images as offset prints.

 

Then again. :) I'd prefer to paint them all by hand if I could. Sitting under a tree in early autumn. Dreaming.

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Quit true, Anthony. I should have been more specific. I've practiced a variety of printmaking, stone lithograph, engraving, offset lithograph, serigraph (hand drawn and photo). Also many photographic printing techniques (such as gum and bromoil) that produce much more "classical" results, prints that resemble "printmaking".

 

As far as painting them by hand, it's taken me years to learn how to shoot in a way that differs from what I would paint. I refer to things like deliberately seeking out complex textures that as a painter I would have avoided because they're too much work.

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