sm-02-04-28

A Weekly Column By Mike Johnston
The Glow

Years ago I worked as the Lab Manager at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. The Corcoran School has a fancier name now, but it's still the same good old place, tucked into the basements and attics and other out-of-the-way cubbies and warrens of the Corcoran Gallery of Art building a stone's throw from the White House. Frank Lloyd Wright thought the Beaux-Arts Corcoran building was the prettiest building in all of Washington.
Anyway, one curious phenomenon I noticed while administering the school's darkroom was that every now and then, breathless museum-goers would find their way down to the school with the same question.
"I've just been looking at the show upstairs, and I need to know‚ what exactly is a 'silver print' ?"
They were incredulous when I informed them that a silver print was just an ordinary black-and-white photograph made on ordinary photo paper. Disappointed, too‚ I think they thought they had stumbl...