How do Struth, Gursky and Wall Do It

[Robert Boire]

Hello,

I have been reading and looking at their work for some time.  Aside from aesthetic considerations, their work is distinguished by often very large print sizes often measured in meters. So my question is, how do they print so big? I know that they used large format cameras. But what about printing? What I am curious about is the technology especially given that most of the prints are C-prints and predate large format ink jet printers.

Does anybody have any insights?

Thanks

[Chairman Bill]

I remember printing a very large print many years ago. We had to man-handle the enlarger so that we could expose on to paper that was lying on the floor, with the enlarger on a table. We used large plant containers (from a local gardening supplier), which were big enough to take the paper for the developer, stop bath etc.

[Rob C]

Another way was using horizontal enlargers.

As for the Gursky way, I sort of remember watching a video on that, and all that comes to mind was a set of large, separate bits of print laid out like a jigsaw on a long, long table. I think he originated via digtital at that time, and stitched. As I wasn't really interested in him or those techniques I can't remember well enough to help, but if I come across the video again I shall post it. In the meantime, you might try Messrs Google...

Rob C

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

I remember printing a very large print many years ago. We had to man-handle the enlarger so that we could expose on to paper that was lying on the floor, with the enlarger on a table. We used large plant containers (from a local gardening supplier), which were big enough to take the paper for the developer, stop bath etc.

That reminds me of the one time I made an ENORMOUS print, probably about fifty years ago. My darkroom was in the basement of my parents' house, where I could adequately block the windows sufficiently to develop and print at night. I had bought a package of huge printing paper, but I didn't have any trays big enough (my biggest were for 11x14" prints), so after exposing the paper I put it down on the floor and spread developer over it with a big sponge until it looked OK under the safe light. Then I poured stop bath on it, and then sloshed fixer on it with another sponge for about ten minutes or so, after which I took it upstairs to wash it for an hour or so in the bathtub.

My processing must have been pretty good, because I still have the print, and it hasn't faded or yellowed.

Oh, by the way, that huge print was all of 16x20"!  How the times have changed.

[elliot_n]

Another way was using horizontal enlargers.

Yes, that's the way to do it (if you prefer an analogue c-type to a digital c-type). A horizontal enlarger on about 5 metres of track - some are motorised, others are manually controlled. The paper is attached to a metal wall using magnets. The processing machine will normally be adjoining the darkroom, so the paper comes off the wall and is inserted straight into the machine.

[Robert Boire]

Thanks for all your inputs. Somehow it all sounds a bit ad-hoc and improvised.

The paper is attached to a metal wall using magnets. The processing machine will normally be adjoining the darkroom, so the paper comes off the wall and is inserted straight into the machine.

I'm curious about the material. Somebody actual manufacturers photopaper in sizes of meters? Or do they do it in pieces like a collage? Somehow I doubt that since the seams would be visible?

And how does Wall do it? He usually uses Cibrachrome if I remember correctly and so produces what are essentially large scale positive slides?

[elliot_n]

C-type paper comes on rolls. 72 inch is the widest, I believe. If the final artwork is bigger than that, you need to print on 2 or more sheets, and adjoin them somehow.

[GrahamBy]

Back in the 70's offset printing used technical process cameras that were big enough to expose a complete (2 or 4 page spread) of newspaper. I got to check out one at my father's printery: the lens board was in the wall between two rooms, the sensitive material was on a vertical frame in one and the laid-out page(s) was in the other. Illumination was by big arc-lights and exposure in minutes. Processing was in custom made welded stainless steel trays. So that sort of gear could have been adapted for regular photo work : it was more good quality carpentry than super-precision machine-shop work...

The other trick I heard of for processing was to get some PVC pipe, cap both ends, then split it down the middle to make two troughs. You held the print by the ends so it hung in a "U" into the trough, then sawed it back and forth. Not particularly easy or clean, but better than throwing it on the floor and swabbing the developer on with a mop 

[Robert Boire]

Back in the 70's offset printing used technical process cameras that were big enough to expose a complete (2 or 4 page spread) of newspaper.

Actually, you just reminded me of something I had forgotten.  My father was in the newspaper business too and I remember that the paper that he worked for staged an open house at some point. I was quite young at the time, but I do vaguely remember seeing a huge camera (or was it an enlarger) several feet across, hung from the ceiling on a rail, a double room arrangement with the medium in the wall (was it direct to paper, I don't remember). If I recall correctly the camera included a huge bellows.. I knew nothing about photography then... what I wouldn't give to see the beast again, but I am sure it no longer exists.

[Rob C]

Yes, but process cameras were for copying, not printing. At least, not anywhere where I came in contact with them. I think the brand was Penrose? It was in '64 - gimme a break!

There used to be a set of rails, and at the open-room end of them, an easle where the subject was placed and illuminated by four carbon arcs. The other end of the rail was in the darkroom, where you loaded the film into the massive holder. The film never had to fill the space for it - you just cuts bit out of larger film sheets to suit the size of negtive you were trying to make, and tape 'em down. There was no problem about depth of focus: once you'd focussed on the glass, that was it.  Crude, amazing. Like a tractor.

Rob C

[landscapephoto]

Gursky had his negatives scanned, manipulated in photoshop and had them printed on a C-type printer, which is a machine which draws on photographic papers with lasers. The largest model, the Océ LightJet500XL will print at about 2m x 3m (76" x 120"), which is about the maximum size of his prints. Some of his prints are longer, but not as wide. I think that the Durst Lambda could do that.

Photographic quality large format inkjets will print on rolls up to 150cm (60") at any length but if you are prepared to go down a little bit in quality, much wider inkjets also exist.

For completely analogue prints, Hiroshi Sugimoto still uses an enlarger for his massive prints (in B&W). The following interviews show glimpses of his labs and the work of his assistants:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhZJF4IPXcw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCsbxVCdDtA

Of course, there is also this.