Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => But is it Art? => Topic started by: pgpgsxr on June 03, 2007, 08:52:14 pm
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Just wondering what you feel is the current situation in the art world towards digital prints? Are they starting to be accepted or is there a long way to go yet?
Cheers Paul
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There is definitely some hesitancy towards digital prints, but it's getting better. I think many gallery owners realize, whether they like it or not, that digital printing is the future, though there are still a few holdouts. One gallery owner I know refuses to stock digital prints as she considers them "phony" art, but has no issue selling lithographs. Idiot!
Chuck
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I believe it is declining rapidly. For example, the Fraenkel Galllery in SF, which is as upscale as West Coast galleries get, recently showed work by Katy Grannan. Her older prints were Type C & the newer ones archival pigment prints - with no apologies for the latter.
Henry Wilhelm established some time ago that pigment prints on good paper now outlast Type C, so any gallery that has sold Type C should not be shy of inkjet.
A quote from the NY Times article of June 5 on print permanence:
"Mr. Reilly and Mr. Wilhelm agree that a big leap for inkjet printing came with the development of inks whose coloring agents are pigments, which are suspended particles, rather than chemical dyes. Mr. Wilhelm says his tests have shown that pigment inkjet printers from several makers now offer better longevity than conventional color prints."
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The stigma around the inferiority of digital prints is definitely waning but not completely gone. There may still be some hesitation by traditional galleries (ones that exhibit mostly 20th century artists). My experience has been that most of the contemporary galleries that sell photographs have been selling digital prints for at least the last 5 years. My guess is these galleries ( like the few that represent my work) have about 1/3 of their inventory in digital prints (pigment or digital c-prints). Museums are collecting digital prints so private collectors are feeling it must be ok for them to do so as well.
If your an artist and want to know what type of prints to create the best thing to do is look at the galleries that show work similar to what you are doing. See what types of prints the images are on in that gallery and talk with the people there about the issue.
- Doug
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In the UK there are several artists who exhibit digital prints in galleries - John Goto is just one. His work can be seen on his website if you Google. He has done several large bodies of work including New World Circus which is shot on digital cameras and printed digitally.