Printing

Homework #8 (1) We started to discuss this in class. Go back to your notes and share your thoughts on your experiences with the printing process. Try to respond to those 2 or 3 questions: What are you learning about printing (as a process)? Where do you see its creative potential? And what did you learn about photography?

This experience of exploring printing as an art form and as process was definitely beneficial for me. Prior to our printing lesson I had never thought about printing as anything more than a technical act of transforming a digital document, image or graphic onto paper. After studying advertising in my undergraduate education and receiving instruction as to how to print I assumed that I understood printing and how setting up a photoshop document for print works. It turns out what I knew was merely the intro to the basics of printing, which shocked me because I thought I knew a lot about printing.

After listening to the presentation in class I realized that there is so much more to printing than the basic printer settings, and after exploring printing myself I realized that printing can make or break a piece of printed art work and can be an artful process. Printing can enhance a visual bringing out details and excentuating colors if done correctly. If done incorrectly printing can butcher a visual. Although many parts of the printing process are technical and the use of settings and adjustments it is also a visual experimental process, seeing what settings and what types of paper are best for the print.

I believe that printing has limited creative potential. Although printing can enhance an existing image or detract from it, the image is the point of focus and printing can only do so much to an image or graphic. Possible manipulating printed pieces could result in a new creative piece but physically printing as a process is too restricting.

Through exploring printing I ended up learning a lot about photography. I realized that in my life photography that I experience is primarily digital on social media (Facebook, instantagram) or in libraries on google. No matter how much I love photos in my iPhoto library I never print them. The act of printing photographs seems pointless to me unless they are going into a scrapbook or are to be framed. Regardless of my aforementioned disregard for printing as a creative process I must admitt that printing an image really changes the image's aesthetic. It truly transforms the piece, yet it really only transforms how the viewer experiences the piece not the underlying aesthetic of the work.