The displays of our Computers and TVs have gone through an incredible evolution. In recent years, we have been confronted with advanced technology to present our work – tablets with high resolution displays as colourful, sharp and shiny as we could wish for.
I remember – years ago – when I bought my first digital camera and asked the vendor, if the resolution would be sufficient to compete with my work that I have done on slides at that time. The reply was:
Sure- but how would you like to present that resolution?
There was no equipment available to do that. The TV sets or beamers of that time simply could not compete with the capability of slide projectors.
That was years ago, today the answer to my question would certainly have been a different one. We now have those tools. Like me, I am writing this blogpost on an iPad mini. I can switch to my Lightroom mobile app and go through my lates favourite pictur s with ease and speed. I can even include them in this post with just some clicks and you – assuming you have an equally advanced tool and screen available – could be part of the show.
With this technology, there seems to be no (logic) need for prints anymore to share your pictures.
And yet – I have the strong need to print my work and have the pictures shown and displayed in a frame. Why is that?
The print – once it is mounted to the wall – unfolds the magic of its own. I find myself looking at those prints quite often and longer than I do on my iPad. They are always there, like friends reminding me of the process that as required to get them there in the first place. They have a different presence in my life than their virtual brothers and sisters. It is their physicality that makes them special.
The texture of the paper, their size, their tonality, the way we explore them. They resonate much stronger once they are printed. than they would on the computer screen.
This is why I believe I will never stop printing. This magic is by far too seductive, especially when you get a whole body of work together, mounted on a wall like a small exhibition. Prints are simply beautiful.
