Sheep magazine Archive 2: issues 10-17

towards a printer offering a very cheap price. Obvious to me that, if left to
market concerns only, materials and print quality will be suffering in this choice.
26
Compromise: To reprint a photobook printed in 1990, using that book
as a source, is a compromise. In this instance the offset Litho printing in
1990 used a coarser screen of dots to print than today’s offset litho printing
process. Page scans will need some fiddling with to descreen the the book’s
photographs and then to try to keep some of their integrity. For an artist or
photographer to be ‘precious’ about their work, is possibly understandable
in other circumstances (maybe), but when being reprinted using an old book
as source material is ‘foot-stomping’ crazy! To add pressure to this process by
also wanting to keep costs down while wanting quality is one of those ugly and
purely capitalist vices. Compromise is needed from all to achieve a reasonable
product at a price that will be feasible in today’s ‘Amazon’ marketplace.
Compromise: Reprinting a book of colour and black and white photographs
using a book printed in 1990 as source may, with some great effort, fiddling,
magic …, give a reasonable end result, but it is a compromise. To also be
pressuring the manager of the project to use a ‘cheap’ but good printer …
and get the end results to please a ‘precious’ photographer is a nonsense.
Compromise: Its a fucking compromise, I’ll do my best, the printer will do his
best … a compromise will have to be accepted for this project, in its present
constricted configuration, to see the light of day.”
Interestingly, since its publication, the reprint has received some healthy
praise in that it has boosted (and revived) the reputation and standing
of its photographer/author. And well, that’s probably how it should be,
SHEEP IN THE ROAD : NUMBER 13