Just met Ed Burtynsky in London!

[Julian Boulter]

Went to see this exhibition in London tonight as I heard there were some Ed Burtynsky prints there:
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibiti ... eason-2009

Went in there with a non photographer mate having just picked up some of my 10x8 contacts from Metro in London and he was interested in the format and the process, I took him to the book shop and he marvelled at the Burtynsky prints in the books on sale and wanted to know more about large format.

Then we attended the exhibition but it was disapointing to me at least as there were only 3 Burtynsky prints and there were a load of people in front of them attending a talk. I waited for the talk to end and it suddenly dawned on me that the man himself was there for the talk but I had missed it, had no idea that a talk was on the agenda, had only gone for the prints, in fact he was standing literally right in front of me!!

I couldnt resist asking him a few geeky questions mainly about the printing of the books by Stedil, I have always admired the quality of the printing and wanted to know if the plates were scans from contacts or negs. I found out he mainly shoots on 5x4 (occasionally 10x8) and he scans from the neg, (all C41 no E6). The print he was talking about in the exhibition was actually shot digitally, I think Hasselblad with 60 meg back but he said he used digital in this instance as it was an aerial shot which could not be achieved with large format.

I found him to be a very interesting guy, and he spoke to us literally for 20 mins and was in no rush to get away. How wonderful to meet someoune you admire who turns out to be a really nice bloke.

Julian