Joe’s How-To
Preparing your photographs for printing
For the sake of simplicity I’ve compressed these choices into four groups: curation, size, process, and media. One could spend a week discussing any one of these groups and not exhaust the topic, and among any three photographers there are at least four thoughtful opinions.
By Joe Doherty
For some reason we’ve stopped printing our work. On one level it makes sense, as we can quickly share digital images online. But on another level I think it’s harmful to the creative process. At the risk of getting philosophical, a photograph isn’t “real” until you hold it in your hand, twist it in the light, set it down, look at it from a distance, or hang it on the wall. Seeing an image on your phone won’t surprise you in the same way that a print stuck to your refrigerator will. And a print is something you can permanently share with others. It’s a means of communication far beyond a three-second Instagram hit.
Curation What makes an image worth printing? It depends on what you want to do with the print. Sometimes I get frustrated by my own work; something is off and I can’t put my finger on it. Is it the color? The composition? The crop? The contrast? I will make a work print and let it sit around the house where I can see it as I pass by. I may never figure it out and abandon it, or I may find the print a year later and figure out the obvious. Just as often I’ll print an image that I want to see around the house. I am, ultimately, taking pictures for myself, so that makes sense. I don’t need to make a big commitment to the image. I don’t need to send it to a framer, or frame it at all. I might just leave an 8x12 on a table (or on top of the printer) to see as I pass by. In this way I get a better idea of how my photographs are perceived by others, and it helps me to improve my craft.
“The refrigerator is a good place to display work that you’re thinking about.”
Occasionally I put together portfolios of my work. Each portfolio is built around a theme, and each contains about ten prints. From my catalog I select about twice as many images as I need for the portfolio, and I use those to evaluate the print quality and to sequence the collection. These work prints are often smaller than the final product. I’ve made 5x7 prints as the starting point for a 13x19 portfolio.
A print is more than an object, though. It’s also a discipline and a craft. Printing requires the artist to make a series of choices that are simultaneously creative and technical. And these choices, made at the final stages in the process of one image, feed back on the decisions made at the beginning of the next ones.
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