On Saturday I spent several hours with my friend and outstanding photographer, Jim Kipfer ( www.jameskipfer.weebly.com ).  Jim was visiting and brought a clamshell box full of contact prints to look at. Most were made from 8X10 negatives, with a few from 4X10s. Some were made using the beautiful and now discontinued Lodima silver-chloride contact printing paper, and the others with a platinum solution, hand coated by Jim onto watercolor paper.

Looking at his prints was like a breath of fresh air; portraits of friends and family, intimate landscapes and vignettes of small towns.  What did they all have in common, besides being well seen and expertly printed?  They were gorgeous jewels with a depth you could truly reach into and feel! Even the platinum prints that tend to have a “softer” look to them were a sight to behold. And one other thing … they were of the size that I prefer, which forces the viewer to get close and really look into and study the image.

The experience made me wonder for a moment why I ever gave up on large format (actually I know why … snap out of it!).

Don’t let anyone tell you that there isn’t something special about contact prints, or that they can make an enlargement that looks as good or can rival a contact print.  If they do, they’re just flat out wrong or clearly can’t see!

Marveling at the quiet beauty of these exquisite images was something to really savor, as they exhibit something my enlargements from small negatives can never have. That doesn’t mean my 35mm and medium format-based prints are dogs; they’re made with the right tools for the types of pictures I wish to make. Rather in this case the artist has created the best final product he can with the large negatives at his disposal. To me, that’s an important statement and tells you an awful lot!

Now for those that use large format film (even 4×5) and have never tried contact printing, you owe it to yourself to make some contact prints to see what you’ve been missing. If the subject matter is there, the small print will knock your socks off. On the other hand, if your vision is lacking or you have become lazy, then making really large prints will be the way to go. Hey, they fit in well with the current gallery scene and are good for taking up unwanted wall space!