The Printed Image
I am a very lucky man. Most people get up in the morning, reluctantly leave their comfortable home and travel to a place of work to carry out their daily grind. They spend the majority of their lives doing something that they fundamentally don’t like doing. I, on the other hand, leave my warm bed with a skip in my step and travel just up the road to my studio. I then take part in a pass time that many people around the globe are willing pay large amounts of money to be able to do. I am passionate about photography! That’s not an unusual statement. The difference between me and the other billion or so people taking photographs every day is that I am paid to do it…yes people actually pay me!
When you look at the figures they are simply staggering. Since the very first photograph was captured way back in 1826 up to the year 2018 there were an estimated 6 trillion images taken. That’s a six with twelve zeros after it. If you printed each one as a 10x8 inch print it would stretch from the earth to the moon and back again one thousand nine hundred and eighty two times. Now that is one hell of an exhibition space. The more amazing fact is that in the year preceding 2018 there were 1.2 trillion photographs captured. More than a sixth of all the images taken in the history of the world were taken during 2017. This figure is still increasing. So answer me this: How many of them have actually been printed? How many have ever seen the light of day?
I am not a digital hater! in fact, I love the ease and accuracy that digital camera’s offer us. Gone are the days of waiting for hours, days even weeks for your film to come back only to find that your thumb was over the lens or your model has her eyes closed in that perfect frame that would otherwise have been the cover image for sure. I love the control that digital adjustments made on screen allow me to have and I have a confession to make: I have always hated darkrooms!
The sad thing is that with so many images being taken it is difficult to find the truly great images that have sign posted our lives for the past two centuries. The Ali knockout punch, the first step on the moon the smile of your first baby girl. The digital cloud has swamped us with binary mediocrity. We are losing the craft of image making and losing the ability to create the ultimate incarnation of the photographic art form, the print.
In 2010 I set up a project called The Children Of London. It involves myself and a small group of amazing photographers photographing children in their favourite places throughout London. The result is a beautiful, annual, A3 sized book. A boxed hardback edition that is retained by Her Majesty The Queen amongst many other keen collectors and raises much needed funds for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity.
The idea is to create an archive of images showing how our children live in the capital city during one year and I have chosen print as my medium. The book itself is a gorgeous thing but I also offer hand crafted prints up to A1 size using super quality archival papers and inks. Most of the prints are ordered by the parents of the children and many have hardly ever seen proper prints before. I have lost count of the amount of parents who tell me just how blown away they are by the sheer beauty, the detail, the texture of a hand crafted print. It is so important for us all to all to take time to appreciate the things in our lives that have real meaning. Not the internet selfie shot with a machine gun thumb action of ‘gone in a moment’ flashes. But a finely produced artwork that will stand for generations to come as a true reflection of the way we live and the way we are. The information age has much to offer us all but let’s not forget that without the tangibility of printed paper our imagery will soon become nothing more than a blinked out moment. I for one, believe that you need to take time to capture greatness, skill to develop it and sole to truly appreciate it.
When you look at the figures they are simply staggering. Since the very first photograph was captured way back in 1826 up to the year 2018 there were an estimated 6 trillion images taken. That’s a six with twelve zeros after it. If you printed each one as a 10x8 inch print it would stretch from the earth to the moon and back again one thousand nine hundred and eighty two times. Now that is one hell of an exhibition space. The more amazing fact is that in the year preceding 2018 there were 1.2 trillion photographs captured. More than a sixth of all the images taken in the history of the world were taken during 2017. This figure is still increasing. So answer me this: How many of them have actually been printed? How many have ever seen the light of day?
I am not a digital hater! in fact, I love the ease and accuracy that digital camera’s offer us. Gone are the days of waiting for hours, days even weeks for your film to come back only to find that your thumb was over the lens or your model has her eyes closed in that perfect frame that would otherwise have been the cover image for sure. I love the control that digital adjustments made on screen allow me to have and I have a confession to make: I have always hated darkrooms!
The sad thing is that with so many images being taken it is difficult to find the truly great images that have sign posted our lives for the past two centuries. The Ali knockout punch, the first step on the moon the smile of your first baby girl. The digital cloud has swamped us with binary mediocrity. We are losing the craft of image making and losing the ability to create the ultimate incarnation of the photographic art form, the print.
In 2010 I set up a project called The Children Of London. It involves myself and a small group of amazing photographers photographing children in their favourite places throughout London. The result is a beautiful, annual, A3 sized book. A boxed hardback edition that is retained by Her Majesty The Queen amongst many other keen collectors and raises much needed funds for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity.
The idea is to create an archive of images showing how our children live in the capital city during one year and I have chosen print as my medium. The book itself is a gorgeous thing but I also offer hand crafted prints up to A1 size using super quality archival papers and inks. Most of the prints are ordered by the parents of the children and many have hardly ever seen proper prints before. I have lost count of the amount of parents who tell me just how blown away they are by the sheer beauty, the detail, the texture of a hand crafted print. It is so important for us all to all to take time to appreciate the things in our lives that have real meaning. Not the internet selfie shot with a machine gun thumb action of ‘gone in a moment’ flashes. But a finely produced artwork that will stand for generations to come as a true reflection of the way we live and the way we are. The information age has much to offer us all but let’s not forget that without the tangibility of printed paper our imagery will soon become nothing more than a blinked out moment. I for one, believe that you need to take time to capture greatness, skill to develop it and sole to truly appreciate it.
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