Teaching photography Ray McSavaney

ray mcsavaney, factory butte, utah, 1996, ken karagozian
http://www.kenkaragozian.com

even @ risk of running out of loaded film holders, made @ least 2 exposures. parenthetically, necessity of carrying bulky film holders (anachronisms in digital age) considerably eased when kodak s readyload packets became available. mcsavaney s spare negative insurance against defects , allowed him experiment altering tonalities in darkroom necessary printing. made polaroid print on spot decide on best exposure critical scenes. in pre-digital age, rare serious photographer ventured wilds of southwest without trusty polaroid 4x5 film-pack adapter , several boxes of film. (must read: ansel’s relationship edwin land , polaroid in ). many well-exposed polaroids in mcsavaney s archives. careful photographer, sparing no effort, final print in mind. practiced adams’ dictum, analogous orchestral music, negative merely score whereas print concert performance. in same vein, oliver gagliani, friend of ansel, had different take equating music language of soul, photography language of spirit. bruce barnbaum passionately equates landscape photographs music. few photographers stray far adams analogy, or far sound of music.

mcsavaney discusses of printing techniques in book. knew adams wry observation on occasional necessity fine art landscape photographer use drastic exposure , processing techniques. ansel rumored have observed scene, ‘god had poor eye tonal relationships’ — esthetically pleasing tones of fine-art photograph.

briefly, after making preliminary proofs evaluate possibilities of negative, mcsavaney decided degree, if any, needed alter achieve final tonalities wanted, , print paper, developer, , toner achieve them. after making proof prints, progressively evaluated negative necessary adjustments used selenium toner or spotone dyes, judiciously applied in localized areas. during enlarging process, applied burning , dodging necessary — again satisfy sensibilities of print tonalities , harmonies. employed ‘the tricks of trade’ in producing final prints — negative manipulation, selective exposure during printing, combination of print paper, developer, , final toning best expressed vision print. end result invariably well-conceived photograph, masterpiece. writer attending mcsavaney print exhibition summarized techniques, overall artistic seeing, , talented creativity 1 insightful word: ‘craftsmanship’.