Gentlemen,
I'm new to this forum but feel compelled to provide a little personal perspective on this thread. I knew and eventually worked for Fatali over a 5 year period (~94-99) leading up to Delicate Arch incident. Back then he did not print his Cibachrome work - it was printed by Richard Jackson of Hance Partners. Many of the images on his website (even today) were scans I made of 8x10 work prints. The Delicate Arch incident was the end of our relationship though it was really just an end point amplified by many other regrettable characteristics Fatali posessed. I still own many of his Cibachrome originals, a few of which I believe are some of the best compositions to have come out of the Southwest. Most of those are from his earlier work.
It should be noted that the Delicate Arch incident occurred while Fatali was teaching a workshop for the prestigious Arizona Highways outfit. Not only were Duraflame logs lit, but someone also culled together wood and started a fire in the sandy bowl below Delicate Arch. Those extremely misguided steps notwithstanding, my real issue was Fatali's arrogance when I confronted him. The question I put simply, "you were teaching people this behavior is ok.... why?" He had no answer and then proceeded to place a letter on his website justifying his actions. That did it for me.
With what I know, I honestly question if Fatali actually prints his own work. The town of Springdale, which he recently vacated, generally despised him and artists routinely related the story that he was printing Ilfochrome digitally through a Service Bureau. And now, suddenly, his website is touting "Illumachrome", a ridiculous pet marketing name for LightJets, something I explored in depth and rejected (for my own aesthetic reasons) over a decade ago.
I'd really like to believe Fatali turned around and is genuinely actually doing what he markets. But the veracity of his claims routinely leaves me with a questionable chill.
Finally, a couple replies to some of the posts:
Tim Wilcott: "There is no way a ciba is going to look as good as a properly printed inkjet print. I'll challenge that one, any day any amount of money."
Tim, stop comparing two fundamentally different processes. I'm intimately familiar with both and Ciba can blow away inkjets and inkjets can blow away Cibas. It just depends on the character of the film/pixels, who's doing the printing and their overall command of the medium. Tools of photography don't have to be a religion where one dominates another.
Chuck Kimmerle: Jay Dusard complimented your work in an email a couple years back and it was a great pleasure to discover.
Slobodan Blagojevic: You defend Fatali with a religious fervor - you must've spent a lot of money. I know, I've been there. Yes, Fatali should be forgiven for his transgressions those many years ago but I will never support his efforts again. I'm just not convinced his ego learned its lesson.