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FROM THE LATEST FREESTYLE SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Featured Artist
A Freestyle Interview with Master Printer and Freestyle Advisory Board Member, Gene Nocon
by Stephanie Morey

Gene Nocon is considered one of photography's finest master printers and his three decades of experience includes 15 years in London, England printing for Europe's top photographers.

Gene has won the title of Ilford Printer of the Year, was made a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society (FRPS), founded the RPS Distinction Panel for Photographic Printers, and served as its first Chairman.

His printing expertise has been used by top photographers including Cecil Beaton, C. S. Bull, George Hurrell, Norman Parkinson, Barry Lategan, Terry O'Neill, Terence Donovan, Jeanloup Sieff, John Kobal, Paul Tanqueray, and Howard Coster, as well as HRH Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, and Linda McCartney.

Gene had his own television series in England called "Nocon on Photography," and he has shown his work in a number of photographic exhibitions in London and Scotland including "Personal Points of View," and "The Photographic Print." Mr. Nocon has written for a number of periodicals in the United Kingdom. He is also the author of the books "Photographic Printing" and "Nocon on Photography."

Mr. Nocon is also responsible for formalizing and promoting both Lith Printing and f-stop printing by building methodologies that are comprehensive and easy to apply.

Freestylin' recently spoke with Mr. Nocon who currently works and resides in San Diego, California.

What advice would you give to educators?
Don't let beginners go into the darkroom and experiment. You have to have a systematic method. Without one, students waste their time guessing and really never learn how to print. It becomes a frustrating and wasteful experience. Those who tell me that they spend the whole day in the darkroom and use up a box of paper in order to get it "just right" are telling me that they don't have a good system.

Once you have a method you can control what you are doing and predict your results. It is all so much easier. Creativity is a conscious effort, not a series of accidents.

Would you recommend F-stop printing for schools?
It's a method that provides rhyme and reason in an otherwise haphazard and accidental process. Successful results come so much more readily.

The idea is simple. The f/stop method is based on the principle that doubling the exposure time increases the photographic exposure by one f/stop. So the series of exposures of say 5, 10, 20, 40 seconds represents incremental exposures increasing by one f/stop. These exposure times can be broken down further in fractions of f/stops: 5, 5.9, 7.1, 8.4, 10, 11.9, 14.1, 16.8, 20, 23.8, 28.3, 33.6, 40
. The values represent 1/4 f/stop intervals. This series is exponential.

You may ask what is wrong with 5, 10, 15, 20 seconds. These are linear values. Sure the difference between 5 and 10 is one f/stop. But between 10 and 15 is 0.59 f/stop. Between 15 and 20 is 0.42 f/stop. Should you continue increasing by 5 seconds the exposure difference becomes even smaller. Using these values to produce a test strip will show little noticeable change with increasing linear exposure time.

The exposure strips represented by 5, 10, 20, 40 seconds is definitely noticeable. Using these values to make test strips speeds up the process of determining your base exposure. The beauty of this system relies on your assessment of these strips. You could get lucky and find that one of these exposures is suitable. But if not, or if you want to fine tune the exposure, then assess whether the density needs to be lighter or darker than the 5, 10, 20, or 40 seconds. Say it needs to be ever so slightly lighter than 20 seconds. A 1/4 f/stop lighter is 16.8 seconds. Bingo, it works!

After 30 some odd years in the darkroom I can attest to this method. And those who have been introduced to this method will agree. Beyond this basic technique comes burning and dodging - all using the f/stop method of printing. Different size prints from the same negative - piece of cake. Flashing? Easy. All these techniques are based on the f/stop method.

What is your take on digital photography?
I'm beginning to embrace digital photography. It's still photography. But with digital imaging the computer is my darkroom. And much like the traditional darkroom it's what you know that makes the difference. Like language, the more tools you have at your disposal the more expressive you can be. My current project is a series of photographs called "A Body of Work." I shoot Polaroid film that I scan into Photoshop. From there I can do things that I could never accomplish in the darkroom. In a way it has opened my bank of creativity.

I'd like to quote from my book where I discussed the nature of photography and painting. I think it can be applied to digital photography: "I do not mind the association of painting with photography - I do not like the comparison. Photography should not be compared with the other arts to justify its existence. One art is not better than the other. It is only the process that make them different." This last statement is applicable to digital and film.

You are known for formalizing and promoting the Lith Printing Process. How did you come across it?
Do you remember the film "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?" There was a series of sepia-like photographs in the movie where Robert Redford and Paul Newman are seen riding a bicycle. And I thought, "what kind of prints are those?" and from somewhere I heard a voice answer "lith prints." And that was the last time I thought about it until years later when I was working in London and started using lith paper for a job for an ad agency. Remembering the movie I started experimenting. Lith paper is designed for offset printing where the image is black and white - no midtones. Predictably, at first, sheet after sheet of paper would suddenly go from totally white to completely black regardless of my exposure time.

But I noticed that before to going black, there was a slight, almost imperceptible moment when I could make out a tonal image! But the window was small - so small that I couldn't control the final image. So I started experimenting with the dilution of the chemistry. In normal use the A/B lithographic developer is diluted one part A and one part B to four parts water. Eventually, when I got it to about twenty parts water I had stretched out that imperceptible moment to roughly thirty seconds. Finally I could start controlling the image. And that is what photography is all about: control of the process. Without it you are just guessing.

How would you describe a lith print?
The contrast and tremendous tonal range is controlled by the exposure and the development time. The detail in the highlight and shadows is amazing. And save for aesthetic reasons no dodging or burning is necessary. The A/B lithographic developer is a high-energy developer that creates sharpness at the transitions between black and white. You get an incredibly sharp print. Plus, you impart a characteristic warm tone to the print that can range from a beautiful tan to burnt sienna or burnt umber. All without using a toner.

What made you start making Lith prints after so many years?
Do you know who Michael Walden is? I don't know where I got the title "master printer", but I say Michael is a true master printer.

Ilford used to have an annual contest called The Ilford Photographic Awards emphasizing the quality of photographic prints and the role of the photographic printer. The best photographers and printers in Europe would enter. The prints we submitted were only 12x16 inches. But at the awards presentation these would be printed and displayed up to 20x24 inches by Ilford's in-house printer Michael Walden. He did these enlargements that were amazing - better than the original sometimes and he never had to consult the original printer.

So a group of us took up this challenge: "How can we beat Michael?" We tried for years, but no matter what technique we used, he always figured it out on his own.

One year I submitted this lith print to the contest, and sometime later I get this call from Michael. "Gene..." And there was this pause. "How did you tone your print?" And that was it! We had stumped him!

Will regular black and white papers work?
When lith paper became no longer available we started experimenting with other papers. The paper that produces similar results is Oriental Seagull Grade 3. You get enough of the edge sharpness and the print has a beautiful burnt-sienna or burnt-umber tone.

How did you meet Linda McCartney and HRH Prince Andrew? I went to London in 1974 for a quick holiday. I had an airline ticket that was really cheap but required a forty-day stay. It was expensive in London and I knew I was going to run out of money before my required stay. So I answered an advertisement in the newspaper for a photographic printer. I got the job in a lab called Panic. I was only intending to stay for a short time, but after a few weeks the manager had an argument with the owner and walked off the job. Suddenly I was the only printer. So the owner offered to take care of all the immigration paperwork if I would stay on.

I first met Linda McCartney a few weeks after working at Panic. I continued working with her throughout the years I lived in England .

I met HRH Prince Andrew a few years later when I started my own lab. A policeman came in asking to see me. He introduced himself and the next thing I know Prince Andrew stepped in. He asked me to help with his photography - subsequently becoming his photographic advisor over the next ten years. My little claim to fame is the photograph I took of him and Sarah that became the Royal Wedding commemorative postage stamp. Pretty cool... eh?

Mr. Nocon's studio "In House" prints for customers nationwide. Visit his website at www.genenocon.com.

Our Advisory Board is comprised of some of the most talented and influential professionals in the Photographic Industry. They share Freestyle's passion for the advancement of the creative photographic process. Together, we are committed to offer you only the best in products, expertise and customer service.