Walker Evans: Carbon and Silver: The new Evans prints are made by John Hill, a friend and colleague of Evans?s at the Yale School of Art, in collaboration with Sven Martson, who printed photographs for Evans during the 1970?s. They use carbon pigments. [...]
The digital process allows Mr. Hill and Mr. Martson to uncover details embedded in the negatives, outside the tonal range of the old silver gelatin prints [...]
But does this improve the pictures? No. For one thing, it is not possible to improve on the quality of Evans?s originals, only to emulate it. For another, size shifts how we see, both for better and worse. [...]
These latest prints, beautiful though they are, will no doubt be superseded by further technological inventions claiming to extract still more signs of the artist?s genius.
They will come and go. Technology isn?t timeless. Evans is.
