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Spotlight

Why These Professional Photographers Still Print Their Photos

Chris Gampat
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11/20/2017
3 Mins read

Last Updated on 11/20/2017 by Chris Gampat

All images used with permission. Lead image by Victoria YoreFor some photographers, printing is the ultimate way of displaying their photos. It brings the image to life, manifest, makes it tangible and ends up just making the photo a thing that you can cherish for forever. It isn’t lost amongst a giant number of other images in a gallery on your phone, but instead it’s just there. It’s a much different experience that commands someone to sit there and look at the photo. That image is the one that stands out amongst the rest.

So with that said, we talked to a number of professional photographers about why they print.

First, while I am always grateful that the world of social media provides one a chance to share images with many, many people, the photos one shares are frequently left hovering in the ones and zeroes of the cyber-ether— until, by chance, the images are seen by a person who scrolls by with an often-distracted engagement. Second, most photographers who seriously dabble in black and white photography expend a lot of effort to find the best possible tones and contrasts for their images, and those nuances are often lost in the sharpening that most social media site uploaders force on the uploaded image. Third, there are so many monitors, so many settings for those monitors, that an image will often look very different from what the creator intended. The print allows one the opportunity to control all those variables (especially if the photographer prints his or her own work), and, for me, the print represents the final stage in a photographer’s process of bringing to light whatever he or she wishes to express. A print is tangible, a memento, an artifact, a something. Of course, the print then might never find a viewer either … and, I would imagine that most photographers share my desire to have the work seen by others…

– Nathan Wirth

Why do I print?

I like to be able to touch my images, move them around, hang them on my walls. It helps when I edit projects to be able to look at forty or fifty prints on the floor and move them around, change the edit, look at things in a different way. It’s something that’s nearly impossible to do on a computer screen.

– Michael Rubenstein

‘Printing images brings them to life in a way seeing them on a digital screen simply cannot. When printed and hung on a wall, an image leaps off the page and grabs an onlookers attention with ease. Unlike a computer screen, onlookers cannot easily scroll past or flip to another page. They are confronted head on with a story and it is up to them to figure out how to interpret it upon first sight. Instead of a flick of a finger to scroll on, they must make the conscious decision to view a printed image or walk away. If the art is speaks loud enough, the print will captivate an onlooker in ways a screen never could.’

– Victoria Yore: One Half of Follow Me Away

“I print for nuance, detail and impact. My images really sing when they are printed large so that they are experienced, not just viewed passively. Prints give you the ability to see deeper into the details, shadows and tonalities, really giving you the ability to really explore the frame.”

– Lindsay Adler

A print is something that can be held, cherished, given and received. A digital file can’t be shared in the same way. With a print I can control the final result completely, color, brightness, contrast it is all what I make it. A digital file may look perfect on my color calibrated system, but can be off a little or a lot on someone else’s screen.

– Tony Gale

I print my work mostly for the same reasons I sometimes “go analog” and shoot film: it forces my often-distracted mind to pause and reflect on the image, and because it’s an intimate celebration of photography with which the digital experience can’t yet compete.

– Jonathan Higbee

Jonathan Higbee lindsay adler photographers Photography printed images printing tony gale victoria yore
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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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