Scott B Davis is a Director of Exhibitions and Design at SanDiego Museum Of Photographic Arts. Along
with doing a fabulous job at that post he is an accomplished photographic
artist working in platinum prints and teaches that technique in private workshops.
Earlier today it was my great pleasure to visit his home and take a tour of the
darkroom, which he built over this summer. The work there is still
continuing (show me an artist whose vision is done and finished and I’ll show
you a dead artist) and you may see a few construction tools in some of the
images here. His platinum prints
are among the finest that I have personally seen. His work and
accomplishments can be found by visiting http://www.scottbdavis.com. You can aslo find contact information there in case you are interested in purchasing a print or taking a workshop.
Here is a transcription of our chat, which was conducted in
a loose interview format:
(Scott B Davis in his darkroom)
Q. What was
your first darkroom experience and how did you become a photographer?
A. Well, I took
photography in high school in the ‘80s and I thought photography was purely for
dorks and dweebs and I thought it was not for me. Took a class, passed it and forgot about it. Then I moved to California from D.C.
area when I was 18 and I remember a moment when I was driving on the freeway
and had an epiphany that I wanted to take black and white pictures. There was no reason for it, but I just
knew that’s what I wanted to do. I
got my fathers camera, took some pictures, went to community college to gain
darkroom access and just kept going.
That was 1991 and by ’97 I sold every piece of darkroom equipment I
gathered because I was printing solely in platinum by that time.
Q. What equipment
do you use to create your work?
A. I use a
Burke & James 8x10 and a 16x20in camera that I designed and built in 2002. I use a 19in Dagor and a
30in Artar, but mostly I’m a wide-angle guy. I used the 16x20 full time for 5 years, but after switching
to 8x10 and starting to scan the negatives I found the experience to be a like working
with a 35mm – it’s just that much easier.
(16x20in camera custom made from cherry wood - folded)
(Meticulous plans for the above camera)
My 16x20 prints are all direct contact from original
negatives, while for larger 20x24 prints I scan the 8x10s and make a digital negative
to print from. I print the 16x20s in an
edition of 10 prints and the big enlargements are
editions of 5.
I process my film by inspection method using a number 3 Kodak
safe light.
It is very accurate – as soon as you see the highlights you know you
have about 45 seconds more in the developer. There is still work to be done in the darkroom like building the light baffle, print viewing rack for the 20x24 triptychs and lots more.
For a long time now I have used a UV exposure unit for printing - it's a lot more consistent than the sun and I can print at any time.
For a long time now I have used a UV exposure unit for printing - it's a lot more consistent than the sun and I can print at any time.
Print washer – 22x28in was also designed and built from
scratch. I use it mostly when I am
making the larger prints and when I’m in full production mode, which means that
at most I make three of four final prints a day. Platinum printing is a very meticulous and time-consuming process.
Q. What about
your history with platinum printing?
A. I got into
platinum in 1996 when I bought the 8x10 from Nelson Photo here in San Diego. I taught myself the process, but after
a year or two of printing I took a workshop with Dick Arentz who wrote the book on platinum printing.
That workshop taught me two things. One was how to make a platinum print – because there is
‘making a platinum prints’ and then there is ‘Making A Platinum Print’. And also it taught a lot about using
the right side of the brain and interpreting work and making more personally expressive
prints rather than simply making prints by the numbers.
Q. What makes
you stick with platinum through all these years?
A. Truly – I
love the actual process of making physical prints. It’s a process that, not unlike print making proper,
requires a lot of knowledge and experience to master the technique. I love the fat that it has a rich
history and heritage. I also like
to exploit platinum for the things that most people don’t exploit it for – most
printers are interested in the mid-tones and the glowing, singing whites, and I
love to get a nice white as much as anybody but I love to get these juicy,
mysterious, heavy dark tones.
I’ve had master digital printers tell me that they can make a print that
looks “exactly” like this pint in front of us, but personally I don’t want my
next print to look exactly like the last one – I want the next print to be a
little different because they stopped making the paper, or I was having a bad
day, or I was having a good day and it’s the best print I’ve ever made from
that negative. I love the fact
that these prints are artifacts that are unique things onto themselves.
The other part
of it is that, in essence, nobody can take these materials away from me. Epson can stop making 7800 K3 inks
tomorrow, or they make a new printer that doesn’t use those and they stop
supporting your printer’s technology.
And, sure, miners in the Ural Mountains can stop mining platinum and I’d
be out of business, but really, it's like making your own D-76 developer – the
materials are there, in theory I must emphasize again, nobody can take them
away and I can continue making prints that I love and work with a historic
process that has a lot of character and integrity to it.
Q. What subject
matter inspires you most?
A. I shoot at
night primarily and LA is where I have done most of my night work. There I make photographs that suggest a
different story of a city that is loaded with iconography and are in opposition to people’s
perceptions of what that city is. LA as a city is very different from what "the
industry" and Hollywood wants you to see.
For example this image of an alley and a ramshackle house
behind a tattered fence – no wealthy people or stars live here, real Angelenos
live here and that’s what my work is about.
(two 20x24in prints)
Q. Who is your
top influential photographer?
A. That would
have to be Mark Klett – I took a workshop from him once and that taught me more
than three years in a university. I
really love what he has done – from the photographic survey project all the way to
today. He continually explored the
medium, and fused it with history well.
He’s a really smart visual thinker. What originally drew me to his images is his innovative
approach to landscape. For example
he started including power lines in his landscapes because that’s the landscape
of the world we live in today. He
painted the most accurate picture of the American West that I have seen – from
petroglyphs to graffiti, cars on highways and power lines and all that is the
definition of our culture today.
Q. Do you think
there is a benefit to new aspiring photographers in learning to use film?
A. I do, I
definitely do. That benefit is
actually in understanding how to use Photoshop on a much deeper level. It’s a slow road to learn, as you
know. There’s not a lot of people
today who have the patience to learn what the film curve is, how to manipulate
it by development and do all the testing.
However that knowledge the toe and shoulder of a film curve can give
people a huge leg-up in understanding what a natural curve looks like in
Photoshop. A sensitive eye of
someone who went through the process of learning film, ‘practicing the scales’
is what I call it, will have an understanding of the proper relationship of
zone 4 to zone 5 as an example
Q. Do you think
film will survive in 25 years?
A. I doubt
it. I like to think so, because I
like the materials I use and I like the process, but we have already seen it
decline to a point that there are very few good films now being made. Even the companies that have their
heart in it 100% will come to a point when they will only fire up the coating
machine three or four times a year and at that point the quality control will
drop drastically, the chemistry will not be fresh and there’s not going to be
that consistency. It’s like
making scrambled eggs – if you make them only a few times a year they are
probably going to be mediocre, but if you make them every morning you’re going
to have a good technique down. So
that’s what I see – there’s probably going to be film around, but is it going
to be any good? That’s anybody’s
guess. I do think there is a
chance of digital resulting in a greater appreciation of a physical print, but
whether even that is true I don’t know – very few people appreciate newspapers
any more…
