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| November 1994 |
My mother, grandmother, my Rosemary and I were all teachers. Once you have taught it is difficult to stop. I am 83 and I believe that I have useful information (at least related to photography and portrait photography) that I would like to impart. But few in this 21st century, where Rembrandt lighting has disappeared and phones are ubiquitous, seem to be interested.
Perhaps someone reading this just might be interested in why 8x10 glossy photographs were the rage back in that other century.
This can be explained easily with these initials BS and AS. BS stands for scanners (be they flatbed or those non-plus-ultra drum scanners). AS stands for After Scanners.
In that now remote century when newspapers, magazines and photography books or illustrated books were paramount to information and culture, blacks could not be properly reproduced, particularly in newspapers. These publications demanded glossy 8x10 photographs. I can remember my finickity photograph drum drier. The output would feature photographs that had spots, etc. The cure for this was awfully complicated. And so Ilford Photo in England came up with the idea of plastic coated photographic paper. When I used it I applied slight pressure on the wet photograph with a car windshield wiper. I finished it off with a hair dryer.
Once the scanner came into the equation, scanners could reproduce true blacks for publications. It was at about that time that some of us figured out that Ilfospeed Photographic Paper was not archival. Even in files with no light the prints, in spite of having been properly fixed developed a yellow cast full of spots.
And this guy, noticed that some of them were beautiful. They were so amazingly lovely that I have been scanning these prints and printing them as inkjets with archival paper.
An example I am awfully proud of is this 8x10 (not glossy!) of Jann Arden.
