The Importance of Print
Whether photographing weddings or street photography we always demand the highest of standards of ourselves and the simple test we always use is this:
Are these images good enough and interesting enough that we’d be happy to place them on display in a public gallery?
Last week we went one step further and made that question a reality.
Last Thursday our first street exhibition entitled “Human Traces: – Cuba” featuring our work from Havana and Trinidad was launched with its own champagne reception in Newcastle, courtesy of the amazing support of Digitalab and Fujifilm. It was a fantastic night and lovely meeting photographers from so many different fields who came to see our work, we really can’t thank everyone enough for taking the time to be there and for all the lovely comments about our images, and especially to Digitalab for hosting and organising such a great event!
The most exciting part for us though was not the launch itself, not the slightly surreal experience of guiding members of the public through the thought process behind some of our images, nor even the joy of getting such a great reaction from some fellow photographers. The most exciting part actually occurred several hours before the doors opened to the public, when we stepped into the room and saw our photographs as huge, beautiful prints for the first time.
When we started out in photography we loved seeing those analogue images coming to life in the dark room and producing our own prints but, like most people, since the digital age became the dominant force in photography we’ve found more and more of our images sitting on hard drives rather than achieving their full potential in print. Since becoming Brand Ambassadors for Digitalab earlier this year though we’ve been on a mission to change all that and when we stepped into that gallery we were reminded just how special the printed image can be, with vibrancy of colour and levels of detail on that stunning Fujifilm paper that even we, pouring over the images so many times since that trip on our laptops, hadn’t fully appreciated until now. For any photographers reading this it was also great to see the Fuji X-Pro2 images blown up so big and still looking absolutely immaculate!
Photographs take a new life when they’re printed; they pop in a way that just isn’t possible in any other media and there’s something much more magical about seeing something tangible in front of you, something that feels somehow more final and timeless.
Not only did we have the chance to see our Cuba images in a new light but we also took the opportunity to pick up our absolutely stunning new luxurious Tony Sarlo albums freshly handmade in Italy, and boy oh boy do they look great – we’re more than a little bit in love with them!
So the future is definitely print and we can’t wait to share our gorgeous new albums and print options not only with our couples but with anyone who would like to buy a print via our brand new online shop, where you can even buy some limited edition signed prints of some of our Cuba collection. And if you fancy seeing the power of print for yourself don’t forget to drop in to the exhibition; currently running for a couple of weeks in Newcastle and transferring to London later in the year (time and venue TBC!)
Dom & Liam