Robin Bell - Master Printer

[Steve_F]

I posted this link in d/room funnies (it isn't funny). I thought I should share it here. If you're in this forum you'll love it. About 20 min long.
Went to the exhibition in London at the Richard Young Gallery last November. Stunning work.

http://vimeo.com/13659991

Steve,

 

[ooze]

Great video. Thanks a lot for sharing.

 

[tlitody]

interesting. I think the maker was getting a little artsy cos I really don't see what all those seconds of film canisters moving about on the production line really has to do with it. But definitely worth looking at.

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

steve,

thanks for sharing! I watched it twice 🙂

 

[tomalophicon]

Excellent video. I wonder if this dude is able to take on an apprentice.

 

[fixbones]

Great video!!! The part when he was dodging and printing was just amazing. Graceful like a conductor and yet eerie due to the dark and stillness of the ambience.

Toma: Exactly what i was thinking!!

Was thinking about darkroom printing yesterday and now i just want it more.

 

[starless]

great stuff.

 

[Pablito]

Anti-digital propaganda. Get real. These folks are in denial.
A slick promo for Ilford.
The give away was the last sentence, I'm paraphrasing, "No digital print has ever been made that's as good as a sliver print"
Look, I spend many hours making sliver prints and I also get extraordinary results with ink-jet. They're just different. I've been told I am a master (silver) printer, though I don't print the work of others. This video had some promise but then it got all sappy, touchy-feely, and commercial. Too bad. I still might show the first part, when he's in the darkroom, to my silver-printing students.

 

[tomalophicon]

Anti-digital propaganda. Get real. These folks are in denial.
A slick promo for Ilford.
The give away was the last sentence, I'm paraphrasing, "No digital print has ever been made that's as good as a sliver print"
Look, I spend many hours making sliver prints and I also get extraordinary results with ink-jet. They're just different. I've been told I am a master (silver) printer, though I don't print the work of others. This video had some promise but then it got all sappy, touchy-feely, and commercial. Too bad. I still might show the first part, when he's in the darkroom, to my silver-printing students.

Good on them (Ilford), they need all the help they can get.
Take your own advice and concentrate on the real stuff.

 

[wgerrard]

Anti-digital propaganda. Get real. These folks are in denial.

There's no reason to pose film versus digital as some kind of contest. That's just marketing speak. When I was a kid, car magazines would pair off competing brands and declare a winner, as if they could decide for the rest of the planet. Much of the film vs. digital noise is exactly the same.

No device exists that can measure the attributes that make a silver print more appealing than a digital print, or vice versa.

Go with what you like, and forget this silliness about one approach defeating another.

 

[cliffpov]

Enjoyed the video. Thanks for posting the link.

 

[Pablito]

Take your own advice and concentrate on the real stuff.

Wasn't aware that I gave any advice. What might that have been? What is "the real stuff?"

 

[tomalophicon]

Wasn't aware that I gave any advice. What might that have been? What is "the real stuff?"

When you wrote 'get real', it sounded like advice to me. I may have 'read' that the wrong way.

The real stuff is the work he's doing, not the narration.

 

[ChrisN]

I really enjoyed that (the Robin Bell video, that is) - thank you.

 

[amateriat]

Very, very nice.

Pablito: While I agree the closing statement of the film was rather gratuitous, I do know the difference between even a well-crafted inkjet print (hell, that what I work with 95% of the time now, somewhat out of necessity), and a well-crafted silver print. Each can stand on its own merits, IMO, but the two aren't quite interchangeable, and I can understand dedicated silver printers getting perhaps a bit snippy on the subject. At any rate, your point is taken by me.


- Barrett

 

[Erik van Straten]

There is nothing like a silver gelatin print. Robin Bell did mention the guy who manufactured Spotone to retouch the prints. This guy died. I managed to get enough of the stuff for the rest of my life.

Erik.

 

[Erik van Straten]

Leica M3, Elmar-M 50mm f/2.8, Tmax400 printed on Ilford MGIV fb (silver-gelatine).

Erik.

 

[fbf]

Great video. Very inspiring.
Thanks for sharing

 

[Bobonli]

Wonderful image, Erik.

Assuming for a moment that the documentary is really a fancy promo for Ilford, which remains to be seen, it's still appears to be well-produced and informative. There are a couple of things I could watch all day--a guy like this working in the darkroom and autobody guys spray painting cars and motorcycles. Both represent sheer artistry and craftsmanship that could be gone in a matter of years but for the few people that keep it alive.

 

[wgerrard]

I enjoyed the video and did not see it as a set up for an Ilford plug. The video was attempting to contrast Bell's hands-on old fashioned craftsmanship with the scale and tech of the Ilford facility. As far as I know, Ilford is the only industrial-scale film producer in the UK, so its inclusion in a short video about a master British craftsman whose art depends on film merits no apologies.