Bill Arnold: Itek Prints

Bill Arnold: Itek Prints at Joseph Bellows Gallery. "...Bill Arnold's photographs also represent a unique and creative technological innovation in the photographic printing process. In 1970 Arnold became fascinated with a microfilm reading machine manufactured by the Itek Corporation. The Itek machine was designed to view microfilm on a large desktop monitor and could also produce instant prints up to twenty-four inches wide, from microfilm, using a photographic stabilization process. As a photography teacher at the San Francisco Art Institute, Arnold saw the machine as potential teaching tool, where students could take pictures and produce prints all within one class period. In order to make prints from 35mm negatives, Arnold had to make some modifications to the Itek machine, as it was designed to print from microfilm. He eventually designed, and patented, a vacuum easel for the machine which allowed the full gray scale to be printed, producing prints similar in quality to ones that could be achieved in a traditional darkroom."