Honoring Personal Aesthetics

Honoring Personal Aesthetics

As my lab partner and I prepared for the process of letterpress printing, I was reminded of Vivian Maier, a famous film photographer who—when she died—abandoned thousands of questionable prints in cardboard boxes. Left with virtually no traces of her identity, John Maloof, who purchased around 80% of Maier’s prints at a yard sale, was able to unravel hints of her life simply by observing the technical execution of her prints. Akin to letterpress printing, film photography is highly artisanal, meaning that achieving the desired outcome involves great skill and consideration of the process at hand. In the darkroom, one carefully selects the amount of time the negative is exposed to light, the clarity of the enlarger, the amount of time the negative is soaked in the developer—the list goes on. Similarly, in a letterpress workshop, one selects the thickness of the spaces to be used, the style of the font, the length of the printed text, and so on. This meticulous consideration of composition naturally results in a sense of individualism; one’s personal and artistic aesthetic will shine through depending on distinctive preferences executed during the creation process. Maloof has written documents detailing Maier’s exquisite attention to lightness and contrast. If Maier wished to elicit a nostalgic mood, she would print her photos light and faint. If Maier wished to display a livelier mood with a sense of edginess, she would print her photos with high contrast. Her personal preferences in the darkroom have shaped her into the esteemed street photographer she is today. Her attention to lightness and contrast, among other darkroom variables, has allowed her to form a distinctive identity that inevitably stands out in her photography.

While forming sentences on the composition stick, I was able to draw connections to Chris Gayomali’s article “How typeface influences the way we read and think” and our class discussion on fonts. When questioned on our favorite fonts, my classmates stated different fonts for various reasons. One classmate said she liked her font because it was sharp and edgy. Another said he liked his font because it was unique and original. What I find interesting about this discussion is that it underscores the notion of preference and artistic identity, which relates to the conversation I was having earlier. Different people have different aesthetics, so they will select fonts that reflect those aesthetics. As Gayomali states, “Typography is the detail and the presentation of a story. It represents the voice of an atmosphere, or historical setting of some kind. It can do a lot of things.” Variables such as typography in the printmaking process undoubtedly illuminate the aesthetics and identities of those composing the medium. The font, the size of the letters, the size of the spacing, and the special characters I selected to use in my medium are what helped personalize my medium as mine. My combination of fonts, sizes, and special characters are unique in comparison to other mediums. This has helped me understand that although letterpress printing can be a laborious process in which the individual selection and placement of the letters on the composition stick is painstakingly annoying, the outcome is a medium that is completely personalized to one’s liking. In this day and age where digitalism has caused texts to look basic, boring, and quite similar to one another, the artistry of the printmaker is needed in order to create a text that reflects a certain aesthetic or message.