About the Photographs...

My photographs have been taken with a variety of cameras, including a Wisner 4x5 inch wooden field camera with Schneider lenses, a 6x6 cm Hasselblad camera with Zeiss lenses, and Nikon digital cameras with Nikon lenses. Earlier black and white prints were made in my garage darkroom on either Kodak or Ilford variable contrast paper, utilizing a vintage Omega D2 enlarger with Schneider and Rodenstock lenses. The prints were toned, archivally processed and mounted on acid-free museum quality mount board, and framed in Nielsen Anodic Black frames with acid-free foam core backing and premium glass. Many of the prints made from negatives taken with the Hasselblad are square in format, but not all - sometimes it's appropriate to crop the square negative to a rectangular print format.

I prefer photographing mostly in black & white because of the abstraction it creates.  I believe black & white images look more like photographs and less like reality, which leaves more for the viewer's imagination to play with.  In addition to being helpful in directing the viewer's attention to the subject of the photograph, they show their age much less than color photographs; their appeal and longevity is greater than the same image photographed in color.  By removing the color component, a black and white image survives on impact and communication values alone.

When shooting with negative type film, the zone system was the basis of all black and white exposures, following the old but true axiom, "expose for the shadows and develop for the highlights". (Thank you, Ansel Adams.) Digital photography, however, requires exactly the opposite - expose for the highlights and digitally "develop" the shadows.  This is due to the linear nature of the CCD and CMOS  sensor chips used in digital cameras where fully one-half the available recordable tonal values of the scene are recorded in the brightest part of the image.

Digital prints are the result of the image either being scanned from the original negative (6x6 cm or 4x5 in), or downloaded directly from a Nikon professional digital camera. Most are digitally enhanced to eliminate distracting or unwanted details, and to improve tonal values. Then they are printed on an Epson Pro 4880 ink-jet printer with archival UltraChrome inks on Premium Luster or other Fine Art archival paper, and coated with PremierArt Print Shield for protection against UV light, moisture, airborne contaminants and fingerprints.  When properly displayed behind glass, these digital prints are expected to last for about 100 years before any noticeable signs of deterioration.

Digital printing has replaced traditional darkroom printing in my workflow due to the tremendous potential of digital photography and the opportunities for outstanding print quality. Now all prints are digitally produced.

Some of the tools used to produce the photographs...

Copyright © 2009-2011 Bob Graf.