Why do you print photos?

lars · Dec 4, 2011

Hi! Im doing a project on photography's place in the world today and I was just wondering what reasons you all have for printing photos? what kind of satisfaction/pleasure does it give you? what kind of photos do you print and how often? and what do you do with them afterwards?

thanks, Lara

MLeeK · Dec 4, 2011

I print photos for clients twice a week. Satisfaction comes in being paid, obviously. But also in seeing them love the images I produce, seeing them in their homes on display and knowing I did that and not only am I proud of my work so are my clients!
For me? I print family portraits and artwork for my walls. I love having my work displayed on my walls and I love the ability to change the artwork as often as a whim strikes me.
I have an album made each year for each of my children of our entire year of images. Why? Memories, accomplishments, show them off. The albums are all in a cabinet here for them to pull out at any time. My two older children have taken theirs with them out into life.

Already.used · Dec 4, 2011

Because I shoot in film and there is no loss in information between the less-than-drum scanners I can use.

Railphotog · Dec 4, 2011

I need something to put on the fridge - grandkids and family.

maris · Dec 4, 2011

Until it's "printed" it's not the final photograph except in the case of a camera-original display transparency. Negatives, while they are photographs, are rarely of interest to non-photographers so they need to be re-photographed (= printing) to generate a lookable positive.

Cruzingoose · Dec 6, 2011

History is being "lost" with the consumer digital camera. According to the Smithsonian, we have lost about 20 years of documented history. Most Digicam users do not print the images they have taken. Others have been lost due to computer and other storage medium failures. Writable CDs are NOT archival as the dye image fades with use temperature and time. Then there is the computer aging syndrom. The images stored on older computers are forgotten as hardware is replaced with newer equipment and not transferred to the new hardware.

A lot of users don't even download the images to the computer and simply keep them on the storage card in the camera. While convenient, any loss or failure of the camera will also include the images. Then there is the obsolesence of the camera and media itself. Several types of media are no longer available. I know as I bought into the first Sony Mavica using 2" Video Floppy disks, yes TWO INCH floppies. Camera works fine, images unreadable, disks no longer available. Even though I "upgraded to FD71 using conventional 1.44MB floppies, even they are esentially gone from the mainstream. No computers have them installed as standard equipment or even have a place for the installation.

My Digicam is now a tool for quick documentation of parts assemblies and visual notations. I use film and print everything in the darkroom. If I need the image on a computer I will simply scan it with my Microtek I700.

MichelleDavis · Dec 21, 2011

I print my photographs because as Cruzingoose said, it's history we're losing when we don't -even if it's our own personal history.

I like decorating my room with the pictures I take. Before I couldn't get that much access to a dark room to develop things myself and I've only begun to afford some of the equipment to do it at home, but that's never stopped me from wanting the real thing.

It's important to me, I can't imagine a world where Carter-Breson was hidden away in a digital file.

I do feel it's important not to waste prints, because it's the "green thing to do", but areal photograph is invaluable.

RobertDarasz · Dec 21, 2011

Because I like my shadows dark. Really dark. Not illuminated.

Big Mike · Dec 21, 2011

Welcome to the forum Laura. Nice to see another member from the great city of Edmonton.

Photography is a visual medium, and prints are one way of viewing photos. It's a way of sharing images, so that others can see them as well.
Of course, this is 2011, and digital sharing and display of images is the norm now, but it wasn't that long ago that prints were really the only way for most people to share their photos with other people.

I was reminded of this just the other day. My wife's uncle has been a hobbyist photographer since the 60s and they have boxes and boxes of prints. They keep 16 photo albums in their coffee table, to share his most recent photos.
To them, sharing photos is still a social process. They show you the photos and tell you about them (most are from their world travels).
To a younger generation, photo sharing is done via social 'digital' networks....Facebook, Mysapce, Flickr etc. The intent may be the same, but the interaction is usually not in-person, so it's quite a different experience.

Another point, is that prints are a tangible object. You can hold them in your hands...you can give them as gifts etc. I often give prints as X-mas gifts etc. A framed print is a much better gift than an E-mail with a digital version of the photo.

c.cloudwalker · Dec 21, 2011

Cruzingoose said:
History is being "lost" with the consumer digital camera. According to the Smithsonian, we have lost about 20 years of documented history. Most Digicam users do not print the images they have taken. Others have been lost due to computer and other storage medium failures. Writable CDs are NOT archival as the dye image fades with use temperature and time. Then there is the computer aging syndrom. The images stored on older computers are forgotten as hardware is replaced with newer equipment and not transferred to the new hardware.

A lot of users don't even download the images to the computer and simply keep them on the storage card in the camera. While convenient, any loss or failure of the camera will also include the images. Then there is the obsolesence of the camera and media itself. Several types of media are no longer available. I know as I bought into the first Sony Mavica using 2" Video Floppy disks, yes TWO INCH floppies. Camera works fine, images unreadable, disks no longer available. Even though I "upgraded to FD71 using conventional 1.44MB floppies, even they are esentially gone from the mainstream. No computers have them installed as standard equipment or even have a place for the installation.

I've talked of this problem a few times here but it's not taken very seriously. I was made aware of it not because of photography but because of a much older form of communication: letter writing.

When the Clint Eastwood movie about Iwo Jima came out a few years back, the historical record part of letters was talked about quite a bit because a movie like this will probably not be made about more recent wars. Who's going to keep the emails they got? And even if someone did we would deal with the obsolence problem of gear you mentioned.

Now, I haven't kept up with it but the Library of Congress had a project in the works to help photogs "save" their work. From what I remember they were talking about pros but maybe the ideas could be used by amateurs too...

To the OP:

I printed (past: I rarely print anything today) for several reasons.

1/ I used to do scrap books for my family shots and that's hard to do with just a neg.

2/ I printed for shows. Here again, it is hard to hang a neg

3/ Some photo jobs I did, it was a print that was delivered to the customer/client.

ann · Dec 21, 2011

Printing out my photos brought a whole different attitude and feeling about the digital world.

My background and education has been with traditional analog darkroom work and holding a print in my hand is like coming home.

My prints are stored in archival folio cases, with each print covered with interleaving for protection.

Since I tend to work in project forum each project has it's own folio which can then be presented to the viewer.

Recently I just purchased a brush aluminum case and will use vellum as the interleaving. Why, just because it is a beautiful case and I feel the way we present our work indicates how we feel about the work. The work for this case will be a series of black and white images from Cuba.

DiskoJoe · Dec 21, 2011

lars said:
Hi! Im doing a project on photography's place in the world today and I was just wondering what reasons you all have for printing photos? what kind of satisfaction/pleasure does it give you? what kind of photos do you print and how often? and what do you do with them afterwards?

thanks, Lara

I print them to hang them on my wall or to give to family and friends. the usual - family pics, vacation pics, art pics for nice things to stare at. i do not print often.

GreatPhotoRace · Dec 21, 2011

I started printing my photographs as an art student in college for critique sessions. It's rarely a good idea to have someone critique a final image from a computer screen, especially if 20 people are looking at it at the same time. Once I got into the darkroom and started thinking about the fine art aspect of photography, I started printing because it was necessary to my artistic voice. The process became just as important for images that I knew were not show quality as it was for images I planned on showing in a gallery. The act became part of the art and took my craft to new heights. I have snapshots of my friends and I that took with my Holga and developed in the darkroom that are far more important to me than any other images of us. Printing your photos yourself adds history to them. You were involved in every process required to get the image from beginning to end (minus making the paper.)

TLDR: I print because it's just as much a part of the process as taking the image.