The Importance of Printing
Today in the world of digital photography, it seems that printing has become less popular among photographers. The trend toward sharing our images on digital devices and via social media platforms has taken over from the printed image as a finished photograph. However, due to this digital world we now live in, there has never been a more important time to print your work. Today we see so many images in our day to day life that we don't spend enough time properly appreciating them - flicking through Instagram posts, a split second per image.
A print is different. When you put a print into someone's hand, they will take the time to look at it in detail. Having more time to reflect on one photograph allows us to fully appreciate its beauty, composition and the story the photographer was trying to tell. Subtle images alongside ones that rely on small details within the photograph often work great as prints. These images can hold our attention and make us look deeper into the photograph and appreciate its fine details. This is something which is very hard to achieve when sharing images via social media since every photo requires a strong initial impact to gain attention on the tiny generic screens they are presented on. Moreover, a print is a tangible object: something we can hold, put into a beautiful portfolio or get it framed for our wall.
Printing has always been a hugely important part of my photography, right from the beginning of my journey as a landscape photographer. When I started to print my work, it quickly turned into the end goal for most of my photography in the form of fine art prints for exhibitions and gallery sales. I feel a digital image never truly becomes a ‘photograph” until it is in a printed form, and nor is it finished being worked with until it is printed. Yes, I share my work with others via digital forms, we must nowadays! Alas, one of the biggest problems with them is the lack of consistency when viewing digital images, with each image looking different depending on the device they are displayed or a differently edited version of the same file. When I print an image, it is final, it will stay in that form (as long as the right archival substrates are used). I can share it with others safe in the knowledge that they are seeing my image being represented in the way that I intended. When I sign a finished print, it is my way of saying that I am happy with this a finished piece of my work.