Richard Misrach fan here

[nathan_r_butera]

I'm a BIG fan of Misrach's. Especially the Desert Cantos. Anybody here know about his process? Or can

anyone suggest what he might have been doing? I know he was shooting 8x10. The photos have a

lovely warm, low contrast feel that I'd like to try and duplicate.

 

-Nathan<div></div>

[ellis_vener_photography]

How funny the timing of this question is! Two nights ago I had a dream in which he was a

passing character in!

 

Misrach shoots 8x10

color negative and either makes his own prints or closely supervises the printing. Mostly what

yo uare seeignis afunction of the light. try shooting very early or vry late i nthe day --maybe

just after sunset. If you like his work you should also check out: Mark Klett, Nicholas Nixon,

Joel Sternfield, Robert Adams, and Stephen Shore.

[nathan_r_butera]

Thanks, Ellis. Which, if any, filters does he use? Do you know or can you guess?

 

I'm curious about some of the very light tints like chocolate - nothing strong, no tobacco,

but just something to give a little more...

[ellis_vener_photography]

no filters on the camera but of course he may be altering the color balance while printing.

[leicaglow]

I often had this sort of low contrast, light, warm effect using a Nikon W 135mm f/5.6 lens on Kodak Vericolor (I believe) and boosting the yellow just a bit while printing on Cibachrome. The shots were almost always at sunrise. I sold the lens because it just wasn't sharp compared to my others (please don't get into the sharp/not sharp war over this post). But it certainly had an interesting quality about it. It might have to do with a lower contrast lens, light angle, and lower contrast color film that isn't as saturated as many pro-negative films these days.

[mona_chrome]

I knew Richard back in the 80's and unless he changed something, he always used a

printer to do his color work--he was one of the artists involved in the infamous lab fire of

that time in San Francisco, where so many lost negatives. The lab offered "safe" storage

for artist's negatives.

 

He is a great guy and I can guarantee you he works as simply as possible. it is all light and

choice of time of day. you have to remember that he chooses what to print and he has

always been very astute at being "consistent", something I think others need to learn if

they want to be successful. (His wife at the time, Deborah Bloomfeld(field?) also shoots in

a similar type light and you can google her for her site or she is also a Guild.com

photographer.)

[ellis_vener_photography]

Notice that in the example you posted that light is only hitting the tops of the mountains i

nthe distance and the rest is still in shade indicating a certain tiem of day -either just before

dawn or just after sunset.

[wilbur_wong]

Richard does indeed closely supervises his printing. A decade ago he was using a lab in Los Angeles, but I understand that he has moved toward digital printing now. Richard has for years worked very simply and straight forwardly, one camera, one lens and color negative film. Ten years ago Richard convinced me to stop shooting color slide because of the much larger value range of color negative film. I have been very pleased that I made this change in my own photography.

 

When Richard Misrach was doing the Desert Cantos series, he often would disappear for weeks in the desert with a Vanagon and his camera. At times he has referenced the color quality of light and the scene to a PMS fan (Pantone Matching System swatches). This gave him a non-subjective standard to work to in the fine tuning of the final prints.

[linka]

Richard shoots at low light with C-41 film which is very forgiving and easy to manipulate

in the scanning and printing process. I can confirm that he does not do his own printing,

nor has he for a while. Richard likes to print large mural size prints. He has been doing

this through the same printer at a fairly large commercial lab in Los Angeles, for at least 5

years. His prints are made first by drum scanning the originals. The images are adjusted

and manipulated in Photoshop and then printed using Lightjet technology on Kodak

papers. He does not do his own retouching. His images are highly retouched these days,

especially the beach series. This is done in a lab and although he is very specific and

involved in the process, he relies heavily on his retouchers and printers. Even with all of

this, he is very talented and I appreciate his work. I was very influenced by him in

photography school in the early 90's, the desert cantos are beautiful.

[nasser1]

<p>What I know that he uses a 300 Fujinon L lens for his capture (desert cantos). I used this lens and it was smooth in contrast, all my photos that I shoot with this lens are not contrasty, is like a painting.</p>

[nasser1]

<p>Is Richard Misrach still uses his old format? I took a look at some samples of his new book "Distroy this memory", and what I knotes is photos with less dynamic look, and a slight distortion at the photos! Am I missing anything?</p>