NYT: "The Analog Allure of Photographers' Contact Sheets"

[cgw118 143]

Worth a look if you can worm your way through the paywall. Easier if you subscribe. A look inside the NYT photo archives. Always fun to see which out of 36 made the cut. Contact sheets? Seems I accumulated a pile from my late entry in the dying days of the film era. My old coaches insisted I get them--along with a pricey loupe. Hah!

 

[smoke665]

You know we never used contact sheets at the newspapers. Maybe because even before film made it through the darkroom, production was screaming for prints to shoot halftones. We were lucky if we got a glance at the film on a light table before printing. When it's bumping midnight on press night and your slot for press is 5:30am, quality control takes a back seat.

 

[Rickbb67 5]

Finished scanning all my negs just a few months ago. After looking at the contact sheets, and then the neg strips, with a pricey loupe, on a light table. Sigh, I'm old.

 

[cgw118 143]

Finished scanning all my negs just a few months ago. After looking at the contact sheets, and then the neg strips, with a pricey loupe, on a light table. Sigh, I'm old.

Jeesh, it's those Kodak E100SW 35mm and 120 slides embalmed in Gepe glass mounts...Then there are the stunning Agfa Scala b&w 120 slides--so pretty! Late 2000 teens, some of the crew would occasionally stage "Jurassic Night" with 120 slides, a biggish screen and a Mamiya Pro-Cabin slide projector. Abundant food and drink. Dumb fun while Toronto's E-6 labs breathed their last.

 

[webestang6413]

Funny, two weeks ago I was looking at some of my BW c-sheets to find some negs to print in the darkroom.

 

[cgw118 143]

Funny, two weeks ago I was looking at some of my BW c-sheets to find some negs to print in the darkroom.

Yup. They served a valuable purpose, especially in busy newsrooms and photo depts. Pre-digital, filing these by assignment, date, photographer, event/subject was as good as it got. It worked--mostly. Sometimes, though, things got muddled and all-but-lost. Same went for the recording industry with missing/mis-filed session tapes that surfaced decades later. Sorta like that great scene in the Indy Jones movie where the Ark of the Covenant got crated and deposited(lost?) in some dimly-lit federal warehouse.

 

[webestang6413]

Same went for the recording industry with missing/mis-filed session tapes that surfaced decades later.

Jimi Hendrix and Prince come to mind. Both those guys recorded so much that each estate has been releasing "new" music. I have bought several double LP's and one 8 LP set of Hendrix material.