The DARKROOM COOKBOOK, Third Edition

Preface xi
Which brings us to the question, why work with black and white fi lm at all? What we are
witnessing today is not much different than the transition from platinum/palladium printing
to silver printing in the 1920s. In fact, it was oft said that silver-based emulsions could never
replace platinum printing because of the inherent beauty of the platinum print. Yet it was
not long before platinum/palladium printers of the stature of Edward Weston were printing
on silver-based emulsions.
This is not to say that silver printing will disappear. Platinum/palladium printing is still
with us, even if Weston did jump ship. As is gum dichromate, cyanotype, albumen, and printing-out
paper, among other alternative processes. But is the digital print better than silver?
Is it as good as platinum? Gum? In every case, it’s not a matter of one being better than the
other. It is simply a matter of difference. And as our French counterparts would say, vive la
différence!
For the artist, it comes down to how do you wish to spend your creative time? Those of
us who work in silver choose to spend our time in the cool quiet of the darkroom, under the
subdued otherworldly glow of an orange light, hearing the fl ow of water, experiencing the
solitude which is near impossible to fi nd outside of the creative darkroom space, padding
softly from the enlarger to the trays and back again, watching the miracle of the image appear
on the surface of the paper . . .