From: bjs@RUTS.ccc.amdahl.com (Barry Sherman)
Newsgroups: rec.photo
Subject: Re: 8x10, Christopher Burkett, light sources
Keywords: Cibachrome, 8x10, Large Format, Beautiful Prints
Date: 5 Nov 92 20:45:47 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA

Hans Bongers writes:

>I was at the Weston Gallery in Carmel this weekend.  I saw some prints by a color photographer
>named Clinton Smith.  I mentioned to one of the "gallery girls" (TM) that Clinton's work was
>very reminiscent of Christopher Burkett's work.  She corrected me...  She said that Burkett's
>work is reminiscent of Smith's work.  It seems that Chris was a student of Clinton's some time
>back.

Interesting that you saw that connection.  I had not, but now that you
mention it I can see what you mean.  I got my first, very brief, introduction
to Cibachrome printing from Clinton Smith when he was teaching 1 evening
"Intro to Cibachrome Printing" classes at Bay Photo on Walnut in Santa
Cruz a couple of years ago.  I also bumped into him occasionally when I was 
renting facilities at the same shop.  He had an arrangement to use their 
facilities, and in particular their monster roller-transport processor.  I'm 
sure that he'd have no memory of me whatsoever but I was staggered by his 
prints and remember him and his work well.

Anyway, I must say that I like Burkett's work somewhat more.  Most of Smith's 
work is printed too dark for my tastes, a common complaint of mine regarding
Ciba prints and something I'm trying to overcome in my own prints.  Smith
does employ masks and it's not a matter of losing shadow detail, as happens
all to often with poorly printed Cibas.  They're just too dark, to me.  I 
remember speaking with the person who made Smith's masks (Clinton had sent me 
to him to have some made for my own prints before I started doing it myself).  
The mask-maker - Jerry Kuska (sp?), I believe - said that he has on-going 
dialogues with Clinton about how Smith prints too dark and Smith saying that 
he prints the way he likes his prints to look.  And around and around ... :-)  

Anyway, somehow Burkett manages to achieve great color saturation without 
having to print as dark as does Smith.  I wish that he'd give a workshop
down here in my area as I'd really like to pick his brain.  I've spent a lot
of time trying to achieve the color saturation that I want without having
the print look too dark.  It appears to be a very fine line and highly 
dependent upon display lighting.  I remember Clinton saying that he thinks
that the printer should be allowed to specify the viewing light in the
gallery.

And here I sit, critiqueing the work of printers who are, and probably 
always will be, light years ahead of me!  And dark or not, I'd give a whole
lot to produce even one print that could compare with what Clinton Smith 
does.

Barry

--


|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Barry Sherman, Amdahl Corp.  | PROGRAM: n. A magic spell cast over a com-  |
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