FAQ’s–“People Ask….”

Why are your prints so expensive?

Answer:  To produce even a single silver halide fiber base photographic print worthy of sale and display is a full day’s work in the dark room and at the mounting table.  The process is highly technical, full of subjectivity and self-scrutiny.  The overarching question Marc Schuman asks himself in the darkroom as a print is being made is, “Am I producing the very best print possible of the negative in my enlarger?”  A simple question that must lead to a technically perfect print that resonates strongly with the viewer…that beckons close examination, study, and, finally….amazement.

Just exactly what is a silver halide fiber base print?  You use this term often on your website, but I don’t know what it means.

The term “halide” refers to a group of elements on the Periodic Table of the Elements.  Fluorine (F), Chlorine (Cl), Bromine (Br), Iodine (I), and Astatine (At) are the so-called “halides,” sometimes called “halogens” as well.  These elements are all highly active and combine with other elements when found in nature. When Silver Bromide Crystals or Silver Chloride Crystals (or a combination of the two, called Chloro-Bromide Silver Crystals) are suspended in a simple gelatin collodion solution, called an “emulsion,” a highly light sensitive medium is created.  

When it was discovered in the nineteenth century that such an emulsion could be coated on glass plates in the dark, exposed to focused light coming through the lens of a camera, and subsequently “developed” in the dark in complex organic liquid reagents to reveal images of subjects in front of the camera, photography was born.   Through countless technical refinements over the subsequent decades, photography grew to a high level of precision and sophistication.

When the same basic type of silver halide emulsion is coated on cotton-based (as opposed to pulp-based or resin plastic-based) photographic papers, these papers, in turn, become light-sensitive.  In the dark room, projecting a light source through the photographic negative, whether it be a glass plate or a more modern flexible film, then through an image-forming lens and onto the photosensitive paper, produces a silver halide fiber base print, once developed in the correct photographic chemicals.  

This is the basic technology that existed in the photographic world from the mid-nineteenth century to the beginning of the digital photography revolution in the last decades of the twentieth century.  It is this technology that Marc Schuman employs in his dark room to produce the  prints he sells to discerning and knowledgeable appreciators and collectors of traditional photographic prints.  When properly processed in the dark room and appropriately displayed away from the harmful ultra-violet rays of direct sunlight, silver halide fiber base prints last a century…….or more.

Does Marc ever offer discounts on his prints?

Answer: No.  To do so, cheapens the value of prints already sold.  There is no need to discount, as there is no inventory tying up working capital.  Marc Schuman produces his prints one-at-a-time to the highest technical levels possible in the medium of traditional film-based black and white photography.  Buyers of Marc’s work are assured that their size print will never be offered at a lower price in the future.

Can’t Marc’s work easily be copied with a screenshot from his website?

Answer:  Yes, a screenshot of a low resolution digitally watermarked web site image can be made by anyone.  However, the quality of a print made from a screenshot image will be awful and entirely unsuitable for any purpose.  

Marc Schuman retains the original negatives of the subjects he photographs in his physical possession at all times.  He completely controls the traditional photographic printing of these negatives in a physical environment entirely cut off from the digital world–the internet.   No individual but Marc Schuman has access to the original negatives of the scenes on his website.  Thus, no unauthorized prints from the negative are possible.  Buyers of Marc’s prints acknowledge at check-out that they are purchasing one print for display in a single location with no publication or duplication rights whatsoever beyond this specified use.  

Even with high resolution scanning and printing of an original negative, there is a generational quality loss when the scanned file is digitally printed.   In other words, the digital scanning of an original black and white negative leads to an inevitable, unavoidable and high predictable loss of the image quality achievable when the negative is directly printed on photographic paper.  

Just as a digital sound recording represents the sampling (and, thus, loss of quality) of an original analog sound wave, something is similarly lost when a scan is made of an analog black and white negative–subtle tonal gradation and sharpness suffer greatly and represent generational loss quickly observed in a side-by-side comparison of digital and traditional photographic prints of the same image.

In contrast to digital scanning and printing, Marc’s black and white silver halide prints are made one-at-a-time by himself from the original negative directly printed on light-sensitive photographic paper in the dark room and are therefore produced under his complete control from start to finish.  Such a process guarantees to the buyers of Marc Schuman’s silver halide prints that they are in possession of original prints, not knock-offs or copies.

Buyers of Marc’s silver halide prints receive a work product that is the antithesis of a mass-produced high volume production item.  Marc’s prints represent the very best of true photographic art.  There is nothing digital whatsoever in the process of producing silver halide fiber-base photographic prints made one-at-a-time in a traditional dark room.  

Given this simple fact, Marc’s prints are unique.  Even if one of Marc’s original prints is copied under the most rigorous conditions with the very best lens, camera, and lighting, the resulting digital file or copy negative will result in a drastic reduction in sharpness, tonality, and contrast range.  At its best a first generation copy will result at a minimum in a twenty-five percent loss in overall image quality–easily seen when compared to the original print. 

Marc is not well known.  How can he expect to charge these prices and sell his work? 

Answer:  What’s the name of the artist whose banana duct-taped to a wall sold for 6.2 million dollars in 2024?  Few know..  More importantly, perhaps, how long did it take to cut a piece of duct tape from a roll of the stuff and then use it to attach the banana to the wall?  Two minutes, and then we have art? There seems to be little correlation between an artist’s name recognition and the cost/price of the work produced.  

Marc Schuman’s photography will become better known as time goes by.  Buyers of Marc’s work will be rewarded over time by not seeing sale prices on prints purchased early.   Marc’s prints are not mass produced.  They are made to order.  There is little financial justification for putting a tangible, non-perishable, non-time-sensitive item on sale if working capital has not been tied up in slow moving inventory.  The make-to-order business model assures the most efficient use of scarce resources and prevents the flooding of the market with discounted inventory that has not sold at full price.