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But you are fingering a photo book and it has been printed "superficially". So where can we actually see these wholesome gelatin prints? In the museums? Robin bell hqw q lot if things to say bluntly as they are.

wow, what romantic BS, what can be done in a darkroom is rather crude and primitive compared to working with a digital file so in reality BW work is much more sophisticated and improved today than in the glorified past. the only characteristic which still can't be replicated is the aesthetic quality of the film grain itself when it becomes visible in large prints, the grain of fuji neopan 1600 was absolute beautiful.

Black and white or colour digital prints don't have the depth, take a digital print and a bromide or Ctype from neg into a bright light and the shadows will have more detail. Digital prints are more 2d. Robins great!

I remember Robin very well from the 80s. He was the No1 Printer certainly in London, but probably on the planet. It's an absolute delight to see he's still going. I do my own darkroom work to a reasonable standard, but for a very special job it goes to a "pro". I'm very much looking forward to sending some work in Robin's direction...

About the “lambda print” fujifilm has the frontier LP9700. Which is a silver halide paper printer.

You can't polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter...

Was just looking at the De Vere website. They have a digital enlarger just like he’s suggesting - projects a digital file onto paper. No negatives involved. Probably costs a bomb, couldn’t find a price. But sounds v cool.

It exits now. They use a special silver gelatin paper that responds to a laser burst of light. BUT, and it is a big but, it is not the same as an enlarger that puts light through a silver negative. That light bounces and scatters as it passed through the silver layers giving a tone and sense of depth that cannot be emulated by 1's and 0's. I can almost always, instantly differentiate an actual B&W image made by traditional materials from some digital emulation.

I've just been given this book and watching this documentary will make looking at the photos even more interesting. Stunningly beautiful work!

Fantastic, thanks for sharing! I can't find that other video you are referring to, were Bell is supposedly printing your taxi driver portrait. Any chance I could watch it somewhere?

What is the thing he comments on that is on the dangling camera? Thanks for sharing!

Could someone inform me what the name of the book was they kept showing photographs from please.

I am a little late to the party, but just found this interview with Robin, which I very much enjoyed. I had the great pleasure of meeting Robin during his Silver Footprint exhibition in Lucy's gallery, which at the time was situated in Battle. The exhibition was a real eye opener, exhibiting the silver print in its rawest form. I found Robin to be very open about his printing technique, and he very kindly shared his formula for his thiourea based toner with me, which I am still using today. If I ever need inspiration, Robin's book of the exhibition is still the one I reach for off the shelf. A Silver Footprint '2' Perhaps? Thank you very much for sharing.

What a great, relaxed interview.

I love his reaction to digital. I too love printing in a darkroom, would love to be able to learn from him. :)

I thoroughly enjoyed watching this video when it was first posted 9 months ago but have just watched it again ahead of a trip up to Chanonry Point to photograph the dolphins next month. Fingers crossed that they and the weather decide to cooperate with me !

Absolutely beautiful! Wow!

I agree with Brunhide Vink. There is nothing like a beautifully developed black and white photograph. But if you have a passion for photography, then you shoot film, digital, black and white, and color. It depends on what you are doing. The first camera I ever bought was a Canon AT1 match needle, NOT the Canon AE1. Why you may wonder? The AT1 is manual NOT automatic. But it has a through the lens exposure meter. With the AT1, I can do more things. That is I have control as to what I'm setting. Also, if I'm going to compose a picture (red barn, white fence, and blue sky) I can take my time. Also with the metering, I can decide where to meter. If I want a very deep depth - of - field, I can set my camera to a small lens opening, then adjust my shutter speed accordingly. Now if the shutter speed is too slow, then I can mount the camera on a tripod. I can take a meter reading from the palm of my hand.....I can do all kinds of things. But not with the Canon AE1 which is automatic. Now then, depending on what you're doing, you may need an auto camera. So photography is everything.

I've made a darkroom print from a digital image before, I inverted it then I printed it out on special transparent sheet with a special high-fidelity printer and made contact prints of that on 8x10 paper, you could also use it as an 8x10 negative. it has different characteristics to a standard negative so you need to adjust some things but it works pretty well

The dodge and burning technique was so cool, specially the burn in using hand gestures 🤯

For some reason, I can't get sound while watching this. Is there a glitch with my smartphone?

There's a guy on TH-cam - The Naked Photographer - who has used his mobile phone as the enlarging lamp and negative (negative image on the screen), projected through the enlarger lens and make a decent black and white image from it. I think this answers both your questions. The trouble is the pixels pattern shows up on the print.

This guy comes across really bad. I’ll be he’s terrible to work for.

Top job!👍!! Promotion that works = Promo SM!!!

Thank you . Negative film developing is a craft of its own. Photographing with film is an art creating. .

Of course "it" exists - the great British enlarger manufacturer De Vere make such a machine (you can find them at Odyssey Sales).

Heard about this on the Photography Online episode. I received it for Christmas. Working through the book now. It's wonderfully done.

This was incredibly interesting. Great interview

Devere builds a digital enlarger that accomplishes what the interviewer is looking for.

Anybody know what that book is in the first part of the video, the one they're paging through?

I enjoyed this interview so much i've ordered the book. Can't wait to read it

This isn’t meant to be snarky but in light(pun intended) of his comments about sumptuousity of silver gelatine prints and they having a visual depth to them, isn’t reading(actually looking at) Robin Bell's book Silver Footprint with lots of images something akin to listening to a discussion with audio examples of stereophonic sound on AM radio? Wouldn’t the books images need to be printed on photographic paper otherwise what’s the point?

Pity not in Bristol or Bath --- The Royal Photographic Society in Bath would have been a good place to show the work :)

In Awe of this work ---- i remember the landing on the Moon and Apollo 13 especially

Brilliant interview on a brilliant collection of photographs. I saw the cut version of this interview over on PO, but was delighted to hear to there was an uncut version here. This book has just made it's way up to the top of my Xmas list. Love photography, love space. Happy days. :-)

I just watched this after the segment I saw on Photography Online, and I cannot stress how fascinating this interview was, or how appreciated it is. Cheers Andy for agreeing to the interview, and to Marcus, for taking the the time to do the research to conduct the interview. Just Fantastic!!

Good information but too much ego!

Awesome thanks for showing

Definitely worth listening in the the full interview. Very insightful

Utterly fascinating!!! Thank you both. I truly enjoyed this.

FPP Super Positive? :)

Interesting to see the printer has a bit of snobbery regarding sprayed on prints that an oil painter would have towards the printer.

I just watched this video and checked De Vere website to see what enlargers they have to find out that they’re actually making an enlarger to print from a digital file. DE VERE 504DS Digital Enlarger 12:43

Good on you Robin Bell. The difference between a SGFB print and digital inkjet print in a side-by-side comparison is the proverbial ‘chalk and cheese’, and if you prefer the flat, murky, depressed tones of the digital inkjet print then you should certainly qualify to buy it at its deservedly reduced price tag. In shutting down darkrooms everywhere and throwing the old projection SG enlarging technique away we are forgetting that the print processes themselves, whilst initially beginning with a camera capture and ending with a print in the hand, are two completely different production methods involving different skills, techniques and materials. It’s a bit like saying ‘let’s scrap watercolour painting because we’ve got oil painting instead’ when in fact they are different art forms with quite different ‘looks’ to say nothing, in the case of the SGFB-vs. DIGITAL photographic comparison, about matters of archival longevity. Fortunately the world of product marketing and proliferation won’t ever let this happen; if you look at evolving technical trends and developments we always see a trend toward technical and product diversification rather than consolidation. (For example, first came the lead pencil, then the woodless or wood cased pencil, then various grades of leads, then coloured pencils, then fountain pens, then biros, and even now the stylus for our tablets) so we should always be able to buy film and print paper, and in fact nothing much has changed with these products in the past 150 or so years. People will make their own decisions about print appearance and quality, and some people just won’t care, and that’s natural too. If Robin is an Apple iOS user he should check out my app enLARGE on the Apple AppStore which will help him to conserve those interesting older packets of FB that are cowering up there in the corner… so afraid and alone…

Given I am returning to film after a dithery and disaster strewn distraction with digital, I loved this. Insightful but also laugh out loud funny at times. He has one of those strong minded but faux grumpy, naturally humoures personas!

Robin Bell is a master printer.

A wonderful interview. Thank you!

Great interview with one of the last remaining great Masters of the art. And he's kept all his own hair too. Quite remarkable.

We also had a quick turnaround time with film in Los Angeles we could even get a snip test done in a half an hour before we dumped the days film in the chemistry! Great video power to anybody that can work in the dark room it’s a talent!

Hi Harry, I enjoyed the interview with Charlie. His image's of the Dolphin's were amazing.