The Darkroom Masters

This is indeed one career within the field of photography, but let us dare to say it: it merits its own exploration. Its function can vary from the production of a simple print, to a true work of art. The masters sign the fine art print next to the photographer.

To print is to interpret, it is far from mechanical: two printers will produce different results from one same image. A little darker here, a little lighter there, adjust the contrasts…

After Gustave le Gray who, in 1855, had already laid the foundations, those who know anything about printing are aware of its strength as a creative tool.

And what of those who keep the pictorial techniques going, with high “added value”: Carbon printing with the Fresson family, Barrantes’ gum bichromate printing, or even (already “vintage”!) Roland Dufau’ Cibachrome or Diamantino Quintas’ black and white.

These masters of printing assert the subjectivity and asperity of what is human.

Defenders of the “Walter Benjaminian” uniqueness, their prints are, as vinyl is to music, the last defence of the object against its dissolution into the digital “flow”.

Film director Thomas Goupille take you on a journey that will help you see that the best days of “the lab” still are yet to come!