Just saw the exhibit today. It's a big exhibit by MMA photography exhibit standards (they usually give short shrift, despite a huge photography collection).
There is a very wide range of photos of varying quality. Some beautiful, some mundane. But it definitely gives you a wonderful feel for what can be done with salt prints, papaer negs, etc. They have a wonderful warmth and a beautiful softness.
It also gave me a true appreciation various format sizes, knowing that they were all contact prints. Whole plate looks very exciting. Makes me want to get to work on fixing up mine. The (now) ULF formats are also well represented. WOW. Couldn't figure out their exact size, however.
There's also a very nice sliding box camera on display with a contact printing frame that looks like it was used by Torquemada. Interesting. Not a design I would copy. |