ABOVE: Chuck Close's inkjet self-portrait being
prepared by assistant John Hughs for final mounting.
Washington, D.C., master printmaker David Adamson occupies a lofty position in the realm of digital fine-art printing. Considered by many to be the world's highest-quality digital printmaker, Adamson has been on the digital path since well before 1993 when he purchased his first IRIS printer and became one of the first all-digital printing studios. Since then, Adamson Editions has collaborated with some of the best-known and most influential artists of our time, and its inkjet prints hang in many private and public collections.
-- Harald Johnson, 10 February 2004
Q: You've been at this digital printmaking game for a long time. When and how did you get your start? What's the story of Adamson Editions?
A: My background is as a traditional printmaker. I worked for Petersburg Press in London as a stone lithographer, also spending time as a Fulbright fellow at the Tamarind Institute of Lithography in New Mexico. This was my first introduction to the U.S.
I returned in 1978 to set up a printmaking workshop in Richmond, Virginia. Again, this was based on traditional media. The birth of personal computing was about the same time with the original Apple II.
As a technically orientated person I was intrigued with these new gadgets (personal computers), and I used to hang out at the stores and play around with them. At this time the Apple II could display up to eight colors with pixels the size of a postage stamp! Nevertheless, I had a strong sense that these would become important tools in the artist's vocabulary, and I followed the development closely.
In 1984 Apple introduced the Macintosh, and it was the first computer to come ready to use with a graphic interface and a mouse. I purchased the first one to arrive in Washington, D.C. (I had moved there in 1982), and within a month Apple made me a developer, and I had a suite of clip-art-based software on the market. The developer contract allowed me to work closely with Apple and help push this new medium in the direction of the artist's ultimate tool. The development of the Mac was extremely rapid, and in a few years we had machines capable of displaying true photographic images in full color. However, there was still no output device able to generate these terrific images, so that was my next search.
ABOVE: The Adamson Gallery shares the space with Adamson Editions in Washington, D.C.
During this time I was still running a lithographic workshop in the basement of the Woolworth building in D.C. with pretty much a local cliental. It was very difficult to pry loose the top artists from established studios in New York City and L.A. I felt that if I could offer something radically new I would stand a chance, so I set about researching digital output devices. I several criteria: (1) large format, (2) full color, (3) able to print on high-quality substrates, and (4) continuous tone.
All this research led me to the IRIS printer in the late 80s. I made several test images and although it was promising, the results were inconsistent and the price was astronomical. I felt it was to much of a risk for me. A few years passed, and I heard that Graham Nash had purchased an IRIS for his own use, so I called Jack Duganne, who was his printer, and he led me to take another look at the printer as a lot of the problems had been solved. I contacted IRIS, explained my needs, and they put me in touch with John Cone who was their salesperson for the fine-art market (this market consisted basically of Nash, Cone, myself, and maybe a couple others at this early time!).
Cutting to the chase, I made the decision to buy a machine and create a portfolio of IRIS prints by artists with connections to D.C. The proceeds of this venture, which included a show in my gallery in 1995, would then pay for the printer. It was a build-it-and-they-will-come scenario. The funny thing is it worked, and that show was seen and visited by many people, one being Henry Wilhelm, who credited it as the first show of digitally created fine art using archival materials.
Q: Your client list -- Close, Dine, Leibovitz, Wegman, and more -- reads like a Who's Who of contemporary artists. How and why are you able to attract such high-level clients?
A: My next task was to move this idea forward, but you must remember that at this time what I was attempting was sacrilege to many conventional printmakers. In fact, after The Washington Post reviewed the 1995 show, I received the most violent and angry response from this community. I was also running the Adamson Gallery at this time, and when we presented these new prints to museums and other gallery curators, I met with confused hostility.
I realized that the only way to make this work was to start at the high end, so I used my contacts and set up a meeting with artist Chuck Close. Chuck was very receptive to the prints I showed him and agreed to allow me to do a test print for him. The resulting print passed through Peter MacGill's hands, and he called me the next day to arrange a show of photographic portraits by Chuck to be printed as IRIS prints. That show took place in 1996 at Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York, and it was visited by a veritable Who's Who of the art world. From that initial show I was able to work with some of the major art talent in the world and establish close personal relationships with them.
ABOVE: David Adamson (left) and artist Chuck Close review proofs in Close's studio.
Q: You call Adamson Editions a "collaborative atelier." What does that mean exactly? How do you work with your artist-clients?
A: The prints we make are the result of a dialogue between our knowledge of the digital process and the artist's vision and ideas. It's that dialogue that produces the prints and is the basis of the collaboration.
"The prints we make are the result of a dialogue between our knowledge of the digital process and the artist's vision and ideas."
Q: Many consider you to the be top digital printmaker in the world today. Without making you blush, do you think this is true? Why?
A: I think my background in traditional techniques is extremely important. I speak the same language as the artists, and they relate to this. They
trust my eye and my ideas. I think it is all about skill and comfort levels.
Q: You're located in Washington, D.C. Has that helped your business or not? How important is physical location in general for a printmaker?
A: Well, for a long time I felt that I had to be in New York City. However, many of the artists that I worked with preferred to come from New York to Washington. They felt that they were able to work without the constant interruption of being in the City. It finally dawned on me that I had all of the work that I wanted, and I was already working with the best artists. A move away from here may, in fact, endanger the status we have achieved.
Q: What is your current range of imaging and printing equipment? Can you tell us basically how your studio is set up? How about employees?
A: The studio is located in the same space as our Adamson Gallery. The computers and scanners are in a loft overlooking the gallery, and the print production and shipping area is below in an area closed off from the gallery. There are three main workstations made up of two Mac G5 dual 1.8 MHz machines and one Mac G4 dual 500 MHz machine. One of the G5s has an Apple 23" LCD Cinema display, and the other G5 and G4 have LaCie 19" Electron Blue CRT displays. Our scanners are a Creo Eversmart Supreme flatbed and a Phase One FX 4x5 scanning back that fits in our copystand camera or our Toyo 4x5 view camera. Both use Schneider lenses. The Eversmart Supreme is run by a G4 dual 500 MHz machine, and the Phase One is run by an old G4 450 MHz machine.
All are running OSX Panther, although the Phase One software only works in OS 9, so we use
it on that computer to run the scanner. We also have a Dell server that we use mainly to archive files and administer the network. Frankly the ins and outs of the networking are somewhat of a mystery to me. We have a technician who comes in, does maintenance, and troubleshoots when we have a problem.
As far as printers go, there are two of the original IRIS 3047s and three newer IXIAs, which are newer redesigned versions of the IRIS 3047 machines. Of the five, three are using the IRIS Equipoise inkset and two the AIJ Pinnacle Gold II inkset. There are also three Epson 9600s, two with the matte black pigmented inkset for printing on coated watercolor papers and one with the photo black inkset for printing on the Epson photo papers and canvas. The last printer is a Mimaki JV4-160 which prints up to 60 inches wide and uses the Mimaki 6-color pigmented ultra-gamut inkset.
We use a couple of different RIP systems for the Epsons and Mimaki depending on the job, but mainly Ergosoft PosterPrint. A Dell PC runs the Epson and Mimaki printers. Each IRIS and IXIA has its own Mac to run them using the IQ Pro RIP.
ABOVE: Assistant Bryan Whitson removes finished Annie Leibovitz prints of
Lance Armstrong from one of three IXIA drum-based inkjet printers.
In addition to myself, John Hughs (also my stepson) and Bryan Whitson work with clients, and Wade Hornung runs and maintains the printers as well as does most of the shipping and ordering.
Q: What is a typical printing project for you? Also, have you had any unusual or atypical projects? If so, describe them for us.
A: An artist will typically start out with a negative, transparency, print, or object. That is then scanned and proofed by us and sent back to the artist. They will take a look at the proof and discuss changes or corrections. We then make them and re-proof until they are satisfied. When they are, we run the final prints.
There are also times when someone will come in with a very specific idea and ask for our opinion and technical expertise to make it happen. Usually these are the most satisfying situations. Examples of some are: figuring out how to scan the mirror-like daguerreotypes by Chuck Close, scanning and printing 84x48-inch and 84x96-inch images by Jack Pierson, and scanning the butterfly and moth cocoons that Adam Fuss brought in. The last one in particular was a challenge as they were still alive, and the heat from the scanner would wake them. We kept having to run them back downstairs to put them back to sleep in the freezer because if they "hatched," they might not have made it.
ABOVE: (left) Adamson recently finished scanning and archiving nearly all of the B&W images photographer Joel Brodsky shot of The Doors. This included over 500 frames of 6x6 and 35mm film, 80 of which were painstakingly retouched and restored. (right) A recent solo show by Adam Fuss at Cheim & Read Gallery in NYC featured new work including seven large pigment prints of butterfly and moth cocoons printed by Adamson Editions.
Q: What equipment are you missing that you'd love to have? Is there a perfect printer, RIP, or workflow somewhere out there that you're waiting for?
A: There is only one item I do not have that is actually a real product. It is the Cruse flatbed scanner from Germany that is capable of scanning up to 6 x 10 feet.
"I speak the same language as the artists, and they relate to this. They trust my eye and my ideas."
Q: What's your latest project, and what's next for you? I understand that you have a big project coming as a retrospective. Tell us about that.
A: We are just finishing a wonderful handmade book with Chuck Close and a very successful show of prints by Adam Fuss at the Cheim & Read Gallery in NYC as well as a Jim Dine retrospective.
The studio has been offered a retrospective at The Museum of Photography in Paris in June of 2005. I am very excited as the venue is such a beautiful museum.
Q: Any final words of advice for those who aspire to be a high-quality digital printmaker?
A: It's all about dedication to perfection, constant research, and the need to satisfy the demands of the client. And one last word: Patience.
(All images are courtesy of David Adamson, Adamson Editions. The Jim Morrison and cocoon images are copyright © Joel Brodsky and Adam Fuss/Cheim & Read Gallery, respectively.)
CONTACT INFO:
David Adamson and Adamson Editions can be reached at:
info@adamsoneditions.com
Visit the website at: http://www.adamsoneditions.com
