The Online Photographer

We had a fantastic first day of the sale yesterday—well beyond our highest expectations. More than 15 photographs that were available yesterday are now sold out. And that's just the half of it. Overall, it was a red-letter day—in neon, with fireworks and a marching band playing "The White Rose March" by John Philip Sousa. Ctein has his work cut out for him trying to keep up. Note: He's swamped and behind with logging orders, so confirmation emails might be later than first promised. Please don't worry if this is the case for you! A couple of people who ordered multiple prints aren't getting everything they wanted, but most customers will.

Opportunities like this to own a dye transfer print for a reasonable amount of money truly are dwindling down to nothing. I heard a rumor that William Eggleston's printmaker recently (end of '24, thereabouts?) finally ran out of dye materials. Not sure if that's true. Kodak discontinued the materials in 1994, but Ctein and others stockpiled large amounts before the end. Ctein remortgaged his house in the '90s to buy dye transfer paper and matrix film.

If you've never seen Michael Reichmann's video of Ctein demonstrating and explaining how to make a dye transfer print, it's fascinating, and well worth watching.

Red Spatter Cone, Mauna Ulu, Hawaii, 2000

These are among the photographers whose work I have seen as dye transfers: Helen Levitt, Charles Cramer, William Eggleston, Joel Meyerowitz, Eliot Porter, Jim Marshall, of course Ctein (I saw his entire portfolio back when it had 104 pictures in it), and Phil Davis. Phil, who was a friend I knew well, was the de facto Technical Editor* of Photo Techniques magazine during my tenure there. He used to be an advertising photographer for Detroit in the 1950s and '60 and had some gloriously "period" portraits of then-new cars—often with models, often on location—that were printed as dyes for reproduction. I recall seeing a rare Paul Caponigro color picture at the Corcoran in the '80s that was a dye. (I often remember specific pictures from exhibitions and where they were in the galleries.) I'm sure I've seen other dyes as part of mixed shows hither and yon over many years. I don't see many exhibits any more but, for instance, when I lived in D.C. in the '80s I would make a regular monthly circuit of all the galleries and museums, along with sporadic trips to NYC on the train to make a circuit of selected galleries and museums there. On one jam-packed day trip to NYC we saw photographs in 25 different locations. Of course you are going to be able to continue buying dye transfer prints of photographs by famous photographers such as Helen Levitt on the secondary market, but not for bargain prices of course.

I won't ramble (yeah, right!), but a great big engraved thank-you note to everyone who has ordered a Ctein print. May you receive what you want—in all things, not just prints.

Mike

*He refused to take the title formally because he said he didn't want to be responsible for the errors and opinions of other experts, of whom, in certain cases, he took a dim view. It's common for professional jealousy to rear its head among duelling experts, too, and Phil was understandably upset when other authors and experts built on his work and claimed it as their own, which happened a couple of times. He would not have wanted to vet those people's work in the magazine. Let's call that...an understatement; yeah, that's it.

Original contents copyright 2025 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

William Giokas: "I was amazed how much labor Ctein puts into his work. A true master printer!"