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Nash Editions—The Evolution of Digital Printing
By Lynne Eodice | Mar 1, 2007
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Graham Nash and R. Mac Holbert |
Nash Editions, located in Manhattan
Beach, California, has developed an international reputation for
producing fine-art photographic digital prints. Several times a year,
they put on a large exhibit, do corporate work, and produce display
prints for the yearly American Photography magazine contest. They also
create large gallery prints for the Epson exhibit at Photo Plus East
each year. Nonetheless, Nash Editions has remained somewhat small to
better serve its clientele of artists, including Robert Farber, Lynn
Goldsmith, David Hockney, and David Hume Kennerly. They have also
recently released a new book, Nash Editions: Photography and the Art of
Digital Printing. I spoke with the founders of this business, former road manager R. Mac
Holbert and rock musician Graham Nash. “We’ve always been a boutique
printer,” explains Holbert. “We want to be known for the quality—not
the quantity—of our prints.” The images in this story and accompanying
gallery are by some of Nash Editions clientele, and appear in the new
book.
“I was the tour manager for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young for many
years,” Holbert begins. “In that job, I became very involved with
utilizing computers during the late 1970s—everything from word
processing to spread sheets for financial management of the tours and
projecting profits.” Then in the ’80s, Holbert began experimenting with
early imaging software, which he used in conjunction with scanners to
create covers for tour itineraries. Nash saw what Holbert was doing and
wanted to utilize some of this technology for his photography. “We both
share a love of taking pictures and probably spent the better part of
the 1970s in a darkroom at his house in San Francisco,” Holbert states.
“We were heavily steeped in photographic processes.” Graham Nash says
that to this day, “I’m always taking pictures. I want to document my
world from the way I see it.” He advises, “Always carry your camera
around. You never know when the world is going to change right before
your eyes.”
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Anwar Sadat at the Pyramids © David Hume Kennerly |
Early Technology
Around 1986, Nash and Holbert experimented with scanning some of Nash’s
black-and-white photographs, and used an early image-manipulation
program called Digital Darkroom by Silicon Beach. “One day in the late
’80s, Graham called me and asked how he could get his images out of the
computer and send them to me,” Holbert says. This was a perplexing
situation, as they resided in different parts of California and the
Internet didn’t yet exist. “The only thing you could do was to take a
picture of the computer screen or try to print it out on a dot-matrix
printer. All the printing technology back then lacked an aesthetic
quality that was necessary for what we considered to be fine art.”
After doing a little research, Nash located a company called
JetGraphix, which was specifically created to work with the graphics
department at UCLA (University of California in Los Angeles).
Fujichrome U.S.A. supplied this company with equipment, which included
an early inkjet printer that was capable of large-format output on
fine-art paper. “It was the first time that we were able to see
something that bore some resemblance to what we were working with on
the screen,” notes Holbert. “Graham got very excited about it and had
about 30 to 40 prints done at JetGraphix.” One day Nash went to
JetGraphix, only to be informed by the manager, John Bilotta (currently
the master printmaker at Nash Editions), that they were no longer
supporting the machines and would be closing their doors.
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The Man Jan Sees (David Crosby, 1968) © Graham Nash |
A Welcome Discovery
Around this time, Nash’s friend—folk music legend Joni Mitchell—had
just finished a very successful showing of her paintings at the Parko
galleries in Tokyo, and urged Nash to show his photographs. Although he
was initially reluctant, she persevered and he decided to put a show
together. “It hit him then that he had no negatives,” Holbert says.
“Basically I had lost the first three years of my shooting,” Nash
elaborates. “Most of my negatives from 1968–70 were lost when an art
director friend of mine who was doing a book on Joni Mitchell called to
find out whether I had any pictures they could use for the book.” Not
wanting to go through all of these negatives, Nash sent a box of his
negatives to L.A. for inclusion in the book, and they got lost on the
way back. This left Nash with only a box of contact sheets. “They were
only an inch by three-quarters by an inch and a half,” he says.
Then Nash invited David Coons—a color scientist from Disney
Studios—over for dinner one night. “He asked if there was one photo
that I particularly liked, and on the top of the pile was the proof
sheet with this one small image of David Crosby, one that I wish I had
the negative to print from,” Nash remembers. Coons left with the proof
sheet, and returned about a week later with a stunning 24x30-inch
portrait of David Crosby. When Nash asked Coons about his darkroom
work, he replied, “It’s not a photograph, it’s an inkjet print.” He
told Nash all about the Iris printer, which was designed for the
proofing industry. Nash declared, “This is how I’m going to do my
show.”
Nash and Holbert went to downtown Los
Angeles, where they first saw the very high-quality, large-format Iris
printer. “It was originally designed as a proofing device,”
Holbert remarks. “They came up with an idea that you could make the
print look great on this digital printer and have the client sign off
on a print. It was the job of the master printer to make it match.” It
saved the client thousands of dollars in terms of hours and materials.
“We sat there for 10 or 15 minutes while this thing spun around, then
it stopped and they opened it up and there was this absolutely
spectacular photographic image of a bride holding a bouquet of
flowers,” Holbert remarks. “The feeling was akin to the first time I
was in the darkroom and watched an image come up in the developer.
Graham and I turned to one another. It was unspoken, but we both knew
we were looking at the future.”
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Norma Shearer & James Stewart in Boat, 1938 © John Swope |
A New Chapter
In 1989, Nash purchased an Iris printer for $126,000, and the gallery
images were completely printed two years later. They printed 30–40
prints in limited editions of 35, and all were 24x30 inches or larger.
“I think that was the first digital portfolio ever created in
photography,” notes Holbert. The exhibit toured Japan, and appeared at
the Lewinsky gallery New York and G. Ray Hawkins Gallery in Los
Angeles. Everyone raved about the quality of the images. “A lot of what
I’ve done in my life has been a selfish endeavor, whether it’s writing
a song or starting Nash Editions,” says Nash. “I had to print the
finest images on the highest-quality paper.” This prompted a
conversation between Holbert and Graham about the possibility of
starting a business and altering the Iris printer so that they had the
ability to print art on heavier paper. “We realized that this machine
was something completely different than any technology we previously
had,” says Nash.
While Holbert was with Nash on tour in Australia, they discussed the
possibility of starting a print business back home. “I had been on the
road for over 20 years,” says Holbert. “I missed my family and was
really looking for a way to get off the road.” He suggested quitting
his job as tour manager for the band when they got back to L.A. “We had
just bought this expensive machine, and Mac said, ‘we can’t just let
this sit here for two or three months,” recalls Nash. “We decided to
let some of our friends use it and see what happens—and that’s
basically the beginning of Nash Editions.” Nash offered to fund Holbert
for a year to get the business started. “I moved to Manhattan Beach
where the printer was in 1991, and opened the doors on July 1st,”
Holbert says. “I didn’t know a raster from a pixel back then.”
Via the kindness of strangers—and friends like David Coons—Nash
Editions slowly began to develop a reputation for producing the finest
in photographic digital prints. “My idea from the beginning was not to
start an art reproduction house,” asserts Holbert, adding that his
salary was reduced to about a third of what he was paid as a rock ‘n
roll tour manager. The only way he wanted to make the transition was to
do something that he loved. “What I enjoy is the collaborative
experience of working with photographers and artists, and helping them
realize their vision on paper.” He says that what set Nash Editions
apart from the other early digital studios was their concentration on
photography. Holbert points out, “I can’t say that it’s been a huge
financial success—but in my mind, it’s been a very rewarding, artistic
success.”
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6th Street Bridge © Hotace Bristol |
The Book
Holbert describes Nash Editions: Photography and the Art of Digital
Printing as “The culmination of three years of work. People have always
suggested that we do a book because they want to learn how we do our
work, but I’ve spent the last 18 years talking about process. To me,
that’s the least important thing about what we do. I think the focus is
on the art of what people are creating.” Thus, the book is a kind of
“scrapbook” of some of their clients’ work and what they’ve done with
digital printing technology. Nash adds, “It’s not a how-to type of
book. It’s more of the overall history of digital printing, and how we
two hippies from California stumbled upon this technology.” In addition
to the collection of images by an impressive client list, Graham Nash
has written the introduction to the book, and Richard Benson, Mac
Holbert, and Henry Wilhelm present essays. “I wanted the book to be a
celebration of digitally produced fine art, and I think that we’ve
really pulled it off,” says Holbert.
The list price of Nash Editions: Photography and the Art of Digital
Printing is $50. However, it can be purchased at
http://www.nethebook.com for $31.50. For more information on Nash
Editions, go to http://www.nasheditions.com.
Members of Photoworkshop.com are entitled to 15% off printing services at Nash Editions.
Let us know if you found this article useful, and tell us what kinds of articles you'd like to see in upcoming issues. Send your comments and ideas to Lynne Eodice.
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© Copyright 2008 by PHOTOWORKSHOP.COM
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Last Updated: Oct 2nd, 2008 - 16:03:15
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