HP is working with a UK-based photographer - whose work will be displayed at an exhibition in London - in order to demonstrate the possibilities for art reproduction using large format digital inkjet technology.
Award-winning photographer Chris Floyd looked to HP for help with his "One Hundred & Forty Characters" project to reproduce his images as large format portraits. Floyd worked with the HP Bracknell-based team who used both the HP Designjet L25500 Printer - which runs aqueous-based HP Latex Inks - and the HP Designjet Z6200 Photo Printer to output the prints.
Inspired by Floyd's interaction with the photographers, editors and other individuals he follows on Twitter, One Hundred & Forty Characters bridges the gap between traditional relationships and those increasingly formed through online communications.
"The project essentially puts faces to 140 of the online names I have become familiar with and I wanted to show a mixture of around 100 portraits comprising both individual and group shots," said Floyd.
"I knew that, due to the strong, harsh tones in this particular project, inkjet technology would deliver a far better result than would be achieved with traditional photographic prints."
Floyd subsequently worked with the HP design team on the proofing of the artwork files to prepare the images for printing.
"The images are very stark, saturated black and white prints on white background, which required lots of heavy black ink", he said. "HP were great at being able to bring this out, adjusting the contrast to ensure it was reproduced faithfully in the printed portraits.
Using the HP Designjet Z6200 Photo Printer, HP produced 100, 16 x 20in prints on HP Matte Litho-Realistic Paper. This smooth, fine-art paper was selected thanks to its ability to successfully reproduce the strong black tones within Floyd's images. Thanks to the fast speed achievable with the Z6200 printer, the team were able to output the entire job in just half a day.
Similarly, the specific attributes of the HP Designjet L25500 Printer proved critical in meeting the requirement to produce an additional 12 life-sized portraits measuring 6ft in height.
"Using HP Latex Technologies ticked an additional set of boxes to ensuring fantastic output quality," said Victoria Walton, UK & Ireland manager, HP Designjet Supplies. "We used recyclable HP PVC-Free Wallpaper substrate with our water-based, HP Latex Inks which, importantly, enabled us to produce odourless prints.
"Photo reproduction exemplifies the capabilities of each of the two HP printers deployed on this job, particularly the large format aspect," continued Walton. "This is indicative of the increased demand by photographers to be able to display their work as wall coverings and effectively promote their skill behind the lens."
According to Floyd, the printed results are exactly what he was hoping for: "I am absolutely thrilled to bits with the fantastic results achieved," he concluded.
Chris Floyd's One Hundred & Forty Characters www.100fortycharacters.com project will be displayed from 3rd to 17th November at the Host Gallery, 1 Honduras Street, London EC1Y 0TH.
Wallpaper Tweet Life at Multiplied, Christies
HP also worked with Chris Floyd at this year's Multiplied contemporary editions fair (October 13th -18th at Christie's South Kensington, London), which enabled visitors have their photograph taken at Chris' pop-up photographic studio. The images were then printed by HP Indigo customer, F.E. Burman, as a high quality A3 portrait, before being posted to each subject. The HP ElectroInk technology and wide, accurate colour gamut of the HP Indigo Digital Presses enables F.E. Burman and other HP Indigo customers to deliver consistent, high quality photo applications while maintaining high levels of productivity.
Chris Floyd was born in Hertfordshire in 1968. He began working as a photographer's assistant in 1989 before starting his own photographic career, primarily working in the editorial field for The Sunday Times Magazine, Guardian Weekend Magazine, Esquire, GQ, The New Yorker, and Wallpaper* amongst others. Floyd has exhibited his photography in the 2008 Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize show and the 2008 and 2010 American Photography collections.
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