Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Who Printed For Whom?

At the end of last year, many of you might remember a lively discussion that we had about digital craftsmanship and how we might go about evaluating it (original post here). At many points during the course of that conversation and the subsequent comments, names of people who printed for various photographers (or who were key darkroom assistants, apprentices, outsourced commercial labs and the like) came up in the context of the separation and specialization of different skill sets.

For quite a while now, Lorraine Davis has been working on a thorough updating of the 1979 classic The Photograph Collector's Guide by Lee Witkin and Barbara London, to be published by Marquand Books. When she noticed that this topic of who printed for whom was coming up tangentially, she contacted me to see whether she could seek help from our readers to gather more detailed printing data on a larger list of photographers/studios.

Below is an edited list of photographers (a subset of all the artists who will be included in the revised guide) that she would like to get better information on, in terms of who assisted with printing, either during the photographer's lifetime or posthumously. She has added a few comments to some of the names to guide the search. Should you know definitively who helped out with printing, have a more uncertain idea of who might have lent a hand (that she can then follow up and confirm elsewhere), know for sure that there were NO assistants, or know that something here is clearly wrong, please add the information to the comments, or email Lorraine directly at lorraine@lorrainedavis.com. I have no idea why some names are on this list and not others; take that issue (and any other objections or criticisms you might have) up with Lorraine directly if you must. Think of this as an experiment/exercise in photographic crowd-sourcing, that might be of interest to us all along the way.

Aarons, Jules
Adams, Shelby Lee commercial lab digital large prints/2009
Adams, Robert
Adams, Ansel John Sexton (?) Alan Ross
Alvarez Bravo, Manuel Lola?
Araki, Nobuyoshi
Arbus, Diane Posthumous: Neil Selkirk
Arnold, Eve
Avedon, Richard Laura Wilson (dates?)
Baldessari, John
Becher, Bernd & Hilla
Bellocq, E.J. Posthumous: Lee Friedlander
Bernhard, Ruth Michael Kenna
Bourke-White, Margaret Posthumous by estate (who)
Brandt, Bill
Brassaï
Breitenbach, Josef
Burtynsky, Edward
Capa, Cornell
Capa, Robert
Cartier-Bresson, Henri
Clark, Larry
Clergue, Lucien
Close, Chuck
Coplans, John Postumous edition
Crane, Barbara
Cravo Neto, Mario
Crewdson, Gregory
Cunningham, Imogen
Davidson, Bruce
diCorcia, Philip-Lorca
Disfarmer, Mike vintage: local labs in Heber Springs Posthumous prints?
Divola, John
Doisneau, Robert
Drtikol, Frantisek Posthumous: Suzanne Pastor
Eggleston, William Commerical dye-transfer printer?
Erwitt, Elliott
Essaydi, Lalla
Evans, Walker Digital enlargements by ?
Faurer, Louis
Fontcuberta, Joan
Franck, Martine
Frank, Robert Sid Kaplan (dates?)
Friedlander, Lee
Funke, Jaromír Posthumous portfolio, Suzanne Pastor
Fuss, Adam
Garduño, Flor Platinum from digitized analog negs?
Gerlovina/Gerlovin, Rimma and Valeriy Commercial
Giacomelli, Mario
Gibson, Ralph
Gohlke, Frank
Goldin, Nan Commercial (?)
Gonzalez Palma, Luis
Graham, Paul
Gursky, Andreas
Halsman, Philippe Studio
Heath, Dave
Hine, Lewis W. Late lifetime and posthumous, Walter Rosenblum, Strand (?)
Ho, Fan
Hockney, David Commercial (?)
Höfer, Candida
Hosoe, Eikoh
Ishimoto, Yasuhiro
Iturbide, Graciela
Jackson, William Henry
Kahn/Selesnick
Karsh, Yousuf Studio - who?
Keetman, Peter
Keita, Seydou
Kertész, André Robert Gurbo
Klein, William
Klett, Mark
LaChapelle, David Commercial
Lange, Dorothea
Lartigue, Jacques-Henri Late prints?
Leibovitz, Annie Studio - who?
Levinson, Joel
Levitt, Helen
Lux, Loretta Commerical?
Lyon, Danny
Lyons, Nathan
Man Ray Berenice Abbott
Mapplethorpe, Robert Martin Axon, Tom Baril
Mark, Mary Ellen
Matta-Clark, Gordon
Meiselas, Susan
Metzker Ray K.
Meyerowitz, Joel Studio/Commercial?
Michals, Duane
Ming, DoDo Jin
Minkkinen, Arno Rafael
Misrach, Richard
Model, Lisette Aperture
Modica, Andrea
Modotti, Tina Manuel Alvarez Bravo
Morath, Inge
Morell, Abelardo
Morgan, Barbara
Muniz, Vik
Munkacsi, Martin
Newman, Arnold
Newton, Helmut
Nicosia, Nic
Nixon, Nicholas
Orkin, Ruth
Outerbridge, Paul
Papageorge, Tod
ParkeHarrison, Robert & Shana
Parks, Gordon
Parr, Martin
Penn, Irving
Plachy, Sylvia
Polidori, Robert
Porter, Eliot
Prince, Richard
Ray-Jones, Tony
Renger-Patzsch, Albert
Riboud, Marc
Richards, Eugene
Rio Branco, Miguel
Ritts, Herb
Rogovin, Milton
Ross, Richard
Rubinstein, Eva
Ruff, Thomas
Ruscha, Ed
Salgado, Sebastião
Samaras, Lucas
Sander, August Postumous Gunther/Gerd Sander
Schneider, Gary
Serrano, Andres
Sherman, Cindy
Shore, Stephen
Smith, W. Eugene
Solomon, Rosalind
Sommer, Frederick
Soth, Alec
Starn, Doug and Mike
Steichen, Edward late prints?
Strand, Paul Jon Goodman gravures, Richard Benson
Struth, Thomas
Sugimoto, Hiroshi
Sultan, Larry
Tseng Kwong Chi
Uelsmann, Jerry
VanDerZee, James
Vishniac, Roman
Walker, Todd
Wall, Jeff
Waplington, Nick
Weems, Carrie Mae
Wegman, William
Weston, Edward Posthumous prints: Brett and Cole (dates?)
Weston, Brett
Winogrand, Garry Posthumous
Witkin, Joel-Peter 21st century
Yavno, Max

6 comments:

J. Wesley Brown said...

Well, Rico Sands is Crewdson's lighting guy and his assistant at one point, at least, was Cosi Theodoli-Braschi.

Source: http://www.jpgmag.com/stories/1194

Pascal Dangin does Phillip-Lorca diCorcia's processing (printing too?).

Source: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/12/080512fa_fact_collins

Anonymous said...

Lorraine Here - Not anon. just can't access my google password from on the road. This list is a distillation of the 440 photographers who we are working on. This was just an educated guess of the photographers who used printers. I.e. George Tice prints his own work - so he isn't on the list.

Any information about these photographers that you might think would contribute to a better understanding of their work in order for a collector to make an informed choice would be most appreciated by everyone. Even if it is a commercial studio - this information might help conservators in the future

Many, Many thanks for taking the time!

All best - Lorraine

J. Wesley Brown said...

I had a gallerist tell me here at a fair in LA last year that Salgado focuses on books, which is why he does "few prints," which meant to me that he does them himself or maybe with an assistant. It was not an answer that was sufficient for my question, "So how many of each are in existence?"

Stuart Alexander said...

It would be great if it was so simple. And for a few photographers, a very few, it is that straightforward. Some photographers simply never allow anyone else to print from their negatives. Full stop. But many in this seemingly steadfast category have been known to make exceptions for a particular size or type of print or for a particular job or body of work.

Among photographers who work regularly with printers, and there are many, it is often extremely complex. It might change from one day to the next, or one printer would make one type of print while another printer would make another kind of print. Or two or three printers might be working at the same time. A quick glance at the list and dozens of examples of photographers with complicated printing histories stand out.

Of course, this kind of in depth research is needed for all photographers but it is only going to be worked out slowly over a long case by case basis.

nathalie belayche said...

Since the 50's many photographers used to work with Picto, a lab founded in Paris by Pierre Gassmann (who was a printer as well).From then to his death, Henri Cartier Bresson always had his prints done at Picto.
Actually Pictorial Service (former name for the lab) was very closed to Magnum founding members' Capa, Seymour, Chin and HCB.
Joseph Koudelka (not on your list!)has also a long term relationship with Picto. His former printer was Voya and then Payram (until now).Danny Mordac printed for Cartier Bresson
Those 3 men are a golden mine, they are all based in Paris...
I know both of them, so feel free to contact me
Best, Nathalie Belayche - Paris

Anonymous said...

Lalla Essaydi, prints with Color Services in Needham, Mass

Jeff Wall has his own darkroom etc see that nytimes article during his MoMA show, i am sure with assistants

Bechers also inhouse, whether or not they have used assistants I am sure has varied throu