Have you looked at a print today?

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

One side effect of this awful pandemic is that for six months I have looked at photographs almost exclusively on a screen, rather than looking at Real Prints.

Yes, I have a (very) few prints hanging on my walls, but they have been there so long that I seldom really look closely at them. Also, there are many empty picture hooks because almost all of my picture frames are hanging on the walls of the Brookline Senior Center, waiting for the pandemic to end so that my exhibit can open. I haven't seen my own exhibit myself, because it was hung by a good photographer friend of mine on March 9 while I was still in hospital recovering from my kidney transplant on March 6. The exhibit will presumably open once it is safe for seniors to visit the Senior Center, and a new date will be set for an opening reception.

So this afternoon I went looking for a print I'm sure I had made of one particular photo that I took a few years ago. So I spent some time browsing through drawers of unmounted prints, and I was frankly stunned to see how beautiful many of them are!

For many years I have been one of those who believes that a photograph doesn't really exist until it is a print, and it only took six months of looking only at screen images for me to forget that.

So, my strong recommendation to all my friends at LuLa is this: Turn off your Mac or your PC and spend some time looking at some Real Prints again to see what you have been missing!

Cheers, and stay healthy,
-Eric

[Chris Kern]

I've been making occasional prints during the pandemic―partly to make sure my printing technique doesn't atrophy and partly to make sure my printer doesn't.

My wall space for hanging them is restricted because it must compete with my wife's collection of paintings, which take priority, so I've standardized my frame sizes, dispensed with mats except for a few favorites, and consequently can swap out images whenever the mood strikes.

[RSL]

A point well taken, Eric. Fortunately I have a house full of prints, some going all the way back to the Korean war. I'd like to believe that nothing can take the place of good prints, but I suspect the future may make me wrong.

[Alan Goldhammer]

I too have prints hanging on my walls.  I'm still printing regularly and shipping some stuff out.  I'm waiting for the weather to cool off before getting out and taking pictures again.

[KLaban]

I never feel an image is truly finalised until I have made a finished, approved print. That's not to say I print everything, far from it, only what I consider to be my best will ever see paper.

I've spent the last week experimenting with some new-to-me papers and profiles but doubt that I'll stray.