Digitalsilverimaging

The Fine Art of Printing in a Digital World

Customer Profile

Ruddy Roye

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Ruddy Roye Image
©Ruddy Roye

Ruddy Roye and Digital Silver Imaging first collaborated at Photoville 2015. As a Photoville sponsor, we printed Roye’s exhibition, When Living is a Protest. This was the first time we had the pleasure of working with Roye and would begin a period of great achievement for this important artist.

Through the preliminary proofing process and production of  When Living is a Protest, both Roye and Digital Silver Imaging (DSI) understood that we could be good collaborators. At DSI we always strive to be a resource for our clients. Knowing that Ruddy often shot with a Leica, we introduced him to the good folks at Leica USA, who instantly took to his warm personality and great talent. Leica asked Roye to lead one of their prestigious Leica Akademie Workshops, which he did in Washington DC the following year.

Roye’s 2015 Photoville exhibition was noted as a “must see” by the New York Times, The Guardian, and many other reviewers. At that time Digital Silver Imaging was also making prints for photographer Thomas Roma, who was exhibiting at Steve Kasher Gallery in NYC. Kasher, one of the foremost experts in New York on civil rights era photography, connected with Roye through DSI and another exhibition resulted.

The exhibition at the Steven Kasher Gallery was Roye’s solo gallery debut. Digital Silver Imaging printed 20 large scale images on metallic paper. The combination of Roye’s colorful, sensitive and bold images were a challenge to print, but the resulting images are luminous and three dimensional due in part to the paper used. The gallery and Roye also had a flash sale of smaller, 8×8, prints also printed by DSI. Roye’s exhibition received accolades from reviewers and the public.

Along with Roye’s exhibition at Steven Kasher Gallery, his work again appeared at Photoville 2016 in a group exhibition by the collective Kamoinge. All the prints in the Kamoinge exhibition were made by Digital Silver Imaging. He was also a featured artist at the LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph.

At the time of this post Randolph “Ruddy” Roye continues to make great work and he was just selected as TIME’s Instagram Photographer of the Year. We’d like to congratulate Ruddy on his well deserved recognition. Working with Ruddy has been our privilege, and we hope to collaborate with him for years to come.

Ben Folds

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"Me n Elvis" ©Ben Folds
“Me n Elvis” ©Ben Folds

When we received our first print order from Ben Folds we were a little star struck. After all, this was the genre bending solo artist, the lead man of the Ben Folds Five, the hip and insightful judge on The Sing Off. With such a diverse portfolio of talent, what would Ben Folds the photographer be like?

Turns out that Ben Folds is a very talented photographer, who has created an extensive body of work much like he has done as a musician. Ben has a long history with the photographic craft. He himself is an excellent printer and often shoots film. When it comes to photography, Ben refers to himself as, “an obsessive freak,”  and he always has a camera close at hand, usually an old Rollie, Leica range finder, or digital Leica Monochrom.

"Door to Nowhere - Savannah" ©Ben Folds
“Door to Nowhere – Savannah” ©Ben Folds

On his web site Ben states, “…my interest in photographs has expanded to equal that of music and I find one art form always informs and inspires the other.”

It makes sense that someone as creative as Ben Folds would bring his sensibilities of composition, contrast, expression, and craft to all artistic endeavors. His elegant black & white photographs do not disappoint.

"Luckiest" ©Ben Folds
“Luckiest” ©Ben Folds

With the release of his album “So There,” Ben produced several versions on vinyl that included signed prints of XX photographs both on RC and Fiber DSI Digital Silver Prints®. We were fortunate to produce the prints for Ben, and we probably should have included an ice pack for his signing hand.

Many people, including myself, are fans of Ben Folds the musician/singer/song writer. As an artist he is always pushing boundaries, and I think that’s a good example for anyone involved in a creative endeavor. As a photographer Folds appears to be exploring a different side of creative expression. But what else would you expect from Ben Folds.

For more on Ben Folds, the photographer and musician, follow this link.

Thomas Roma

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©Thomas Roma
©Thomas Roma

When an invitation from Anna and Thomas Roma for breakfast came we were thrilled. The ritual and pleasure of sharing a meal is often the best way to make new friends.

Thomas Roma is brilliant, funny, outspoken, and above all a passionate artist. He showed us his compact, well organized machine shop, where he makes his own cameras. We then moved on to his darkroom where Tom demonstrated many other ingenious customizations to improve the efficiency and quality of his photographic process. Like any good get together time pasted quickly and we learned a lot about Anna and Tom, and I’m sure they became more familiar with us.

The Romas work as a creative team. Their collaborative approach is inspirational as well as practical. Anna and Tom strike an envious balance. For us this was a good sign, we feel that the best way to work with an artist is in collaboration. Our breakfast with the Roma’s was, for lack of a better term, a business meeting. Digital Silver Imaging was going to create a series of images for the Roma’s show at the Steve Kasher Gallery, In the Vale of Cashmere, and this was our introduction to the project.

“We had a wonderful and productive time working with Digital Silver – the prints are stunning and the process was smooth (not to mention great food next door!). Eric is calm and charming and was willing to engage any adjustments until the prints looked exactly how we envisioned.”  – Anna Roma

The silver gelatin prints we would create needed to match the look and feeling evoked by the images in the book, In the Vale of Cashmere. Translation from one medium to another always involves trade offs, but after some initial proof prints, and a little fine tuning with Christopher in the lab, the images were shipped on time.

The images, like all the work of Thomas Roma, eloquently tells an important story beautifully, and with subtle impact. It was a true pleasure to work with the Romas. The experience we had printing In the Vale of Cashmere is why we love what we do. A big “thank you,” to Anna and Tom for letting us contribute in small part to this exhibition, and thanks also to Tod Papageorge for the introduction.

To see the images and read more about Thomas Roma and In the Vale of Cashmere follow the links below.

http://www.thomasroma.com/

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/05/opinion/sunday/exposures-men-of-the-vale.html?_r=1

http://www.stevenkasher.com/exhibitions/thomas-roma-in-the-vale-of-cashmere

http://sicilianocameraworks.com/.

http://www.amazon.com/Vale-Cashmere-Thomas-Roma/dp/1576877159/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1447862236&sr=8-1&keywords=IN+the+Vale+of+Cashmere

Debi Cornwall

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©Debi Cornwall
©Debi Cornwall

Most profiles of photographer Debi Cornwall start something like this—Harvard educated civil rights lawyer. That intro causes most people in the arts to read on and wonder. For most of us who attended art school, sloshing photo paper in trays of developer, or pushing paint around a canvas, cannot conceive of leaving such a high-powered career to become an artist. The fact that an individual would commit the time, effort and dedication to reach the highest level of a professional career and make such a dramatic change in course is perplexing.

However, once you get to know Debi Cornwall it all starts to make sense. Our paths crossed when we sponsored a container of her work at the Photoville 2015 in Brooklyn. We printed her exhibition, Gitmo at Home, Gitmo at Play (Gitmo on Sale). Her work is a nexus of environmental portraiture and landscape, amazingly captured at what is arguably the most secure and bizarre prison camp in the world, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba (Gitmo).

Debi Cornwall’s bio states, “…having returned to creative expression in 2014 after a 12-year career as a wrongful conviction lawyer. Now, my values as an advocate and trained mediator, as well as my background representing innocent DNA exonerees, inform my visual work. My photographs marry empathy and dark humor with structural critique.”

How does a photographer gain access to one of the American military’s most controversial facilities? I guess having the drive, and intelligence of a Harvard educated civil rights lawyer doesn’t hurt. But there is far more to Debi Cornwall and her images than there unique perspective on a world few get to see. The images show a humanity and empathy for both the detainees and the military, even though we never see a prisoner or the face of any US soldiers. The seemingly banal scenes are full of subtle detail that tell a powerful story that no government sensor could eliminate.

The political football of Guantánamo Bay continues to bounce back and forth with little regard of those impacted on either side of the razor wire. As of the writing of this post we continue to work with Debi, and we hope that her import work gains the exposure that it deserves.

 

 

Photoville – Roman Siromakha

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©Roman Siromakha
©Roman Siromakha

We value Photoville because it gives us a chance to meet hundreds of people that love photography, people like Roman Siromakha.

This year at Photoville, Leica and Digital Silver Imaging co-sponsored an exhibition by photographer Mark Mann. In addition, Leica had a tent where they were loaning cameras for 90 minute blocks.

During the event I met an enthusiastic young man, Roman Siromakha.  I told him that he could borrow a Leica, free, for 90 minutes. His excitement was not diminished when he discovered that the Leica he wanted most, the M Monochrom, was out on loan.

Roman, a lover of black & white, said he would return the next day to give the M Monochrome a spin. Roman did return late in the afternoon of the following day. Still enthusiastic he completed the necessary paperwork and departed with the M Monochrom.

As night fell Roman returned more thrilled than before. We spoke with Leica’s Renee Perez and Antonio Di Benedetto about the virtues of the M Monochrom. Roman was full of superlatives and promised to show us the images. True to his word he did show us the images, and including a blog post with his experience. To read about his experience with the Leica visit his post on the blog Exposure. You can see more of Roman’s images on his website www.romanshotthis.com .

Roman is a talented young photographer, but what really impressed me about him was his positive energy and love of the art. Photography needs more people like Roman Siromakha. Yes, he has skill, but more than that Roman Siromakha has passion. His joy is inspiring, I just want to say that meeting Roman was truly our pleasure.

Thanks Roman and thanks Photoville!

Herb Greene, Led Zeppelin & The Grateful Dead

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Portfolio shown in custom case
Portfolio shown in custom case.

In a limited edition portfolio, photographer Herb Greene tells an interesting tale of an afternoon spent photographing Led Zeppelin and The Grateful Dead. Digital Silver Imaging founder, Eric Luden, shows viewers these amazing images, in a video created by BeTerrific.

As Eric states, things between Led Zeppelin and The Grateful Dead did not go as well as photographer Herb Greene would have hoped. The  1969 encounter makes for a legendary rock and roll tale and an exceptional collection of beautiful black & white prints. The images that Digital Silver Imaging created were scanned from Greene’s original black & white film and printed onto DSI Digital Silver Prints®. These images have never been included in a single collection. The limited edition is available for sale through Rock Paper Photo.

Special thanks to BeTerrific for creating this video. Visit their site or download the BeTerrific app for news on all the latest and greatest.