The Contact Printers Guild

Viewpoint’s August exhibit (August 10 to September 1) features photographs by members of the Contact Printers Guild, an international association of fine art photographers dedicated to the traditional process of contact printing.

As defined by the Guild, “Contact printing is a process for making photographs where the negative is placed in direct contact with the photographic paper, exposed to light, and then developed in chemicals. The contact print represents a return to an older, hand-made process, which yields beautiful photographs unsurpassed in detail, resolution, and tonal scale.” The process of contact printing has become quite rare, as most photographers still working in the darkroom make prints by enlarging smaller negatives.

Some of the Guild’s members print using traditional gelatin silver paper, while others use Azo silver-chloride paper, printing-out paper, and alternative processes such as platinum/palladium and cyanotype. Although the work of the Guild members spans a wide range of styles and genres, ranging from landscapes to still life to portraits and nudes, the end product is always a contact print.

Members of the Contact Printers Guild include:

Michael A. Smith and Paula Chamlee are honorary members.

For more information about the Guild, check out www.contactprintersguild.com.