Ansel Adams taught that there were ten shades of gray, from pure black to pure white that should occur in a final black and white photograph. He was a master at making great prints with such a varied tonal structure. Of course, so was Weston, whether it was of Point Lobos, near his home where Jacobs used to visit him in the fifties, or Georgia O’Keefe, or seashells, or nudes. The manipulation of light through those switchers in his light box empowered him to control the creation of his black and white masterpieces. Such were the technological tools used by Weston and Adams and others.

These photographers used contact printers that gave them sharp, fine-detailed images, but the turning off and on of individual lights, or banks of lights, did not give them overly fine controls for their creative expression. Obviously, they were fine art artists and had mastered the medium of their day. Just go online and see some of their work, or better yet go to a gallery or art museum where their work is displayed, remembering that viewing their work in person is infinitely better than any computer screen-generated image.

Retired U.S. Navy photographer and commercial photographer Frank Peele, of Redlands, California, recalled using one of these types of printers when he served in the Navy. “The World War II-vintage 10×20 aerial film contact printer (was) known generically as an argon printer, so named because the bulbs were (supposedly) argon lamps, and their purple light supported the possibility. They were small lamps, spaced close together, at least forty in number, each one controlled by a toggle switch. Other toggles turned the lamps on and off in banks, for wide-area control of print density… the printer was also made in a 10×10 version… that could be the version used by Weston.”

…fine art photographers blend their thoughts and feelings consciously in the creation of their final output, just as did Weston and Adams and the photographers of yesteryear.

The modern photographer can use digital-image manipulation software like Adobe® Photoshop® and paint with lightness and darkness, as well as hue, color and saturation. The artist can do this in color printmaking, or black and white. In black and white color conversions, master digital photographer John Paul Caponigro teaches that the manipulation of hue and saturation before the conversion creates the opportunity for greater tonal changes. Greens that become strong reds before the conversion can offer stronger blacks, or grays, or tonal contrast in the final black and white print.

The artist today has far more options than did Weston and Adams, and infinite more control, down to the individual pixel if need be. When you consider that today’s pixel-empowered photographer can purchase a camera with twenty million to sixty million pixels, that’s a lot of options.

But let’s return to my theme: fine art photographers blend their thoughts and feelings consciously in the creation of their final output, just as did Weston and Adams and the photographers of yesteryear. I believe it is an important distinction and the term fine art artists can never apply to those of us who grab our cell phones and use their built in camera to capture a moment in time.

I was reminded of this as I watched a woman the other evening during a church service. She illustrated this idea perfectly, even though she didn’t realize it. I watched as she swayed with the music and singing and then dug into her purse and whipped out her cell phone and began shooting away. She wasn’t creating fine art, but she was attempting to capture her feelings. She was emotionally driven by the moment, her feeling component overdriving her thought process — I say that because there were signs about the hall that declared “no photography during the service.” She ignored the signs and as she clicked away in an attempt to capture the feelings that dominated her during the service. She was not practicing fine art photography, and I don’t believe she would have claimed she was.