A Thousand Words

Whether opened by museums, galleries or individual photographers, photo exhibits are showcasing ink-jet prints created with Epson Archival Inks. Photographers and artists can now produce truly archival, photographic quality color ink-jet prints that will last generations. For Paul Outerbridge and Randall Lee Schieber, old and new technology inspires art.The "Outer" limitsPreviously unseen Paul Outerbridge color photos were reprinted and shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles. The collection, "Flight Patterns," was reprinted using Epson archival printer and inks. "Recreated from slides," explains Graham Howe, director of Curatorial Assistance in Pasadena, "the Epson pigment prints of Outerbridge's photographs display accurate, bright color and a 200-year archival permanence that we haven't seen since the photographer created his own prints with the carbro-color process."Outerbridge was first known as a photographer and carbro-color enthusiast in the 1920s, when his modernist abstractions were published in magazines, including Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar and Paris Vogue. During his years in Paris, he counted famous friends among his circle, such as Man Ray, Picasso and Stravinsky—all of whom similarly experimented with modern technique and creative output. But the photographer first experimented with carbro-color prints of nudes and still lifes upon returning to New York in the 1930s. No longer in use, the carbro-color was the last truly archival color process. Each print took nine hours to make and labs charged $1,500 to produce a single print at the time. As a result, Outerbridge only published about 200 color prints. Today, however, the rare vintage prints capture upwards of $300,000 each on the auction market. For the recent show, Howe, who doubles as Outerbridge's biographer and collector, worked with MOCA curator Connie Butler to display the digitized photographs. The collection was taken in California and Mexico in 1955 during the photographer's retirement, but rather than using traditional color chemistry to produce Cibachrome C- or R-type prints, printmaker Randy Green of Muse [X] editions output the Outerbridge photos with the Epson Stylus Photo 2000P ink-jet printer on Archival Matte Paper. Among the subjects are street children in Mexico, carnival carriages of passengers dressed and bound for celebrations and landscapes—all of which required expert attention be paid to pixel and pigment."Epson's new pigment print technology is the first real successor to the carbro-color process," explains Howe, "as it is the first time we've had color pigment prints of such high quality since then. I know that Outerbridge would have applauded this, as the photo quality and longevity of the ink-jet prints are the perfect realization of the photographer's dream of what a color print should be."Focus OhioInstalling archival ink technology on desktops also gives photographers like Randall Lee Schieber control of print creation, freeing him from lab-dependence. When the Ohio-based photographer exhibited his work at a Columbus gallery recently, he, too, put the Epson Stylus Pro 2000P to work."Given the time crunch I had, I probably couldn't have done the show without the Epson printer," admits Schieber. "As a result, I was able to sell more of my work because people knew the prints would last."His "Focus Ohio" show highlighted the best of Schieber's work, namely lush landscapes of Columbus to Hocking Hills and the Amish country. Enlisting a friend to help with matting and framing, the photographer was able to produce 26 prints in one week. The photo exhibit proved to be a success; Schieber sold 10 prints."To sell that many ink-jet prints is quite an accomplishment," boasts Schieber, "given that some people still look at ink-jet printers with trepidation when it comes to fine art, due to short life of most ink-jet prints. But with the Epson Archival Ink prints, I was able to tell clients that the prints were archival and would last several lifetimes."The archival ink may have been an important selling point, but Schieber says he started using Epson ink-jet printers after he discovered he could achieve better quality prints for shooting chromes. "I was never totally happy when printing Cibachrome or R-prints from slides because the prints lacked detail and had too much contrast," Schieber says. The photographer uses a range of cameras, from 35 mm and medium-format to 4x5-inch models. "Epson ink-jets were a big step forward," he acknowledges. But he also explains that the printer is useful for generating client proofs directly from his portfolio.In the long run, Schieber thinks more and more traditional photographers will experiment with Epson ink-jet printers. "The 2000P is a milestone in that it gives photographers even more control," he adds. "Though some still prefer color printing in the darkroom, many of us would rather put the time into shooting or working with Photoshop to match the detail in the original chromes."-Pam Barnett

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A Thousand Words

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