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Notes and Thoughts on Black and White
Photography and Fine Art Photography
What is Fine Art Photography?
"..creative art, especially visual art whose products are to
be appreciated primarily or solely for their imaginative,
aesthetic or intellectual content" according to the Oxford
English Dictionary.
This black and white photography has no value outside that of the aesthetic
and should be looked upon as stand alone entities, created purely
for the indulgence of the viewer, and, lest we forget, the black
and white photography enthusiast.
This portfolio is brought to you in digital format, though
the real black and white photography prints are entirely
different. All of the black and white photography is made by
hand, from the start of the process to the end. The process
starts with the capture of the image on the negative, to do this
I use a variety of cameras, my favourate being a Mamiya 645
Super. I prefer manual cameras, in fact I don't own an automatic
camera. The Mamiya does not have a light meter so I read the
light for my photography with a Pentax V analogue spot meter
which has a one degree viewing angle. For studio photography work
I use a fairly basic flash meter.
The film rolls are processed by hand and then contact
printed. The photographs which I think will come out well are
then enlarged using an old Meopta black and white enlarger and a black and white
photography paper which is suitable. As each black and white photography print
is made manually with a degree of dodging and burning, no two
photographs ever come out exactly the same, which gives
individuality for each photograph. I like to print on fibre based
black and white photography papers which are the traditional papers but the
handling, washing and processing is very time consuming, so only
the best photographs ever get printed in this method. The bulk of
the black and white photography is rendered on resin coated
paper. Every fine art or black and white photography purist has
his or her own favourite papers and chemicals for producing what
they regard as the best black and white fine art photograph
possible. My own personal choice is Ilford black and white
multi-grade developer and Kentmere Art Classic. My choice of
film is Ilford Pan F - a fine grain slow film, or Kodak Technical
Pan which has very fine grain indeed. I generally only indulge in
black and white photography, finding colour photography a bit
soulless, however some of the photographs were shot with a
digital camera, which is lighter and smaller.
That said, I am enthusiastic for as many people as possible
to start producing their own Black and White photography prints or Fine
Art Photographs so I have produced and continue to update
technical areas of the site, which include 'Introduction to black
and white photography' and 'starting photography'. Over the next
few months, I expect to add fine art printing and alternative
processes.
I hope you enjoy looking through the site.
Dan Massey
Old version of the starting Black and white photography can be
found here
Go Back the front page of Fine Art
Photography and Black & White Photography from Dan
Massey
Check out my lith printing website at www.lithprint.com,
another artistic method of producing black and white photography.
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