George Tice exhibition Pt/Palladium fine art print

[icebear]

I attended an exhibition opening yesterday night.

"George Tice at 75"
http://gallery270.com/george-tice-at-seventy-five-sixty-years-in-photography/

Besides the usual "free drinks, fruit, cheese and cracker" aspect that attracted a few 😉, the space is a little crammed. It's a store and not a designated gallery space.

75 year old Mr. Tice patiently posed together with various guest for pictures they had taken with I-phones. And instead of asking the photographer any questions about his work, people were "oh you've got the 5s", "I love the gold", "this is a bit bigger".

I guess we were thinking the exact same thing when he smiled at me and I smiled back. I did not take any pictures...
Autographed books were on sale, some out of print.

Coming to the main aspect that of posting about this event:

The fine art prints ranging from small scale for $1900 to 20x28" for $45,000 were all pretty low contrast, at least in my book.
I am not experienced in fine art prints and I have never spent money on prints of famous photographers (too much on Leica-M equipment though).

For me in black and white prints I want to see the full scale of tones and not only the mid tones. Detail of these prints was fantastic but I was missing the real black and the real white. For me these prints were pardon my french "mushy".

I realize this is a typical YMMV thing but I'd like to get some more opinions on this low contrast preference of some fine art print work. Is this just the preferred style or is it a technical aspect of Pt/Pd prints?

Thanks for feedback.

 

[finguanzo]

Klaus, I just got back from the Newark Museum were they premiered a documentary about his work, he gave a small talk.. pretty cool guy..

I know what you mean about his prints and low contrast, although certain prints were pretty good with plenty of blacks, seemed like maybe his older prints were low contrast...??
Either way, some great work..

 

[Gordon Coale]

That is typical of platinum prints. They have a different look than silver gelatin.

I have a lovely 8x10 silver gelatin print by George Tice that I bought in the mid 1970s for $150. Prices seem to have gone up. 🙂

 

[finguanzo]

Did he typically print platinum.?
I know he mentioned printing the mobile station photo in platinum because of the extreme contrast on that, seemd to control it i guess, so I assumed that most others were silver gel..?

 

[Gordon Coale]

Most of what I've seen, and that includes his books, has been silver gelatin.

 

[x-ray]

I platinum print and Pt/Pd prints are done on watercolor paper which gives it a lower contrast look. Pt/Pd itself is lower contrast and to make a good print the negative should be one that prints with normal contrast on a grade 1 or 0 silver gelatin paper. It's difficult to have a neg that prints properly on both Pt and silver gelatin.

Most people viewing a silver gelatin print of the same subject next to a properly printed PT/Pd would say the Pt/Pd was flat. It's just that the Pt/Pd print has a much longer tonal scale. The tones in Pt/Pd prints are more delicate with more subtle transitions and tones. Not everyone likes the look of Pt.

 

[drewbarb]

I took a printing class with George Tice at the Maine Photographic Workshops years ago- both because I have admired much of his work since I was a kid, and because he is master of the craft. He was very open about his methods and his reasons for choosing his media. He shoots his film (mostly 8x10, but smaller formats too) and makes silver gelatin prints of everything. He also makes platinum/palladium prints of almost any of his images that anyone wants to buy in pt/pd; it's really about sales. He doesn't really print pt/pd directly from his original negatives; he does a lot of careful darkroom manipulation for all his images, and when he wants to make a pt/pd print of anything, he makes a corrected print on lith film with all the adjustments he feels necessary- including adjusting the contrast for the pt/pd print medium- and then makes a contact printed negative from that. The result is that he then ends up with a negative that is fully corrected (according to his own criteria) for platinum/palladium printing without requiring any adjustment to get the final print he desires.

This said, although I admire much of his work- particularly his early work from books like Urban Romantic, Fields of Peace, and Seacoast Maine- I too have found some of his prints lacking contrast and dramatic punch. This is curious to me since he is so critical and meticulous with his darkroom work, and since while some of his prints (in both media) I have found lacking, others (again, in both materials) are truly spectacular.

 

[icebear]

It seems to take up some steam. I already thought nobody cared after a week with no reply at all and now some really good input.

Thanks to all but especially Drew for sharing some first hand information about the printing class with George. It looks like in general Pt/Pd is a different animal than silver prints but a big part of the result is just personal choice.

 

[DominikDUK]

Looking at George Tice's images I can understand why chose to print with lower contrast. An image with deep blacks and clean whites is certainly snappier than the average platinum print, but it doesn't suit all subjects imo. Sometimes a subject needs subtlety and that's were platinum and less contrasty silver prints shine.