The state of the art has advanced in digital printing:  Epson now makes an
ink set that will last for around 150 years if printed on the proper paper.
I think the resolutions on the prints is now up to something like 5660x2880
dots per square inch or thereabouts. (invisible to the naked eye unless
you're about sixteen) These are eight color printers that use lighter
shades of cyan magenta and black (so its gray) which makes for a very good
print, as the older - four color - printers could only make pastels by
dropping the resolution and mixing white (the paper color) .

The news is even better for black and white photographers:  ink sets are
available that will actually use four to eight different shades of gray to
make B&W photos with no grain at all.  (Google Jon Cone, if you're
interested.)  You need to buy special drivers, but the prints will last
longer than Cibachromes.

It is the digital camera that is the problem:  film, negative and prints
(which are also made up of little dots, just like the pixels on a computer
screen or the drops from an inkjet printer) have a huge resolution compared
to the average photo enthusiasts camera.  The pros use much more expensive
- higher rez stuff.

As to the idea that digital photography is somehow inauthentic, (a
'simulation', I think the term was) the same was said about photography
when it was invented.  Also, it was considered inauthentic for a person to
use those new-fangled, store boughten, pre-mixed paints when *they* first
came out. REAL artists were supposed to mix their own paints - like
Leonardo.  Painting on canvas - instead of a decent wall - was considered a
cheat.  So the only REAL art is painted in caves with charcoal and mud.
All the rest is just new-fangled tomfoolery.

Media drift and storage are the other problems:  the formats are changing
so rapidly (can you say eight track?  Betamax?) that the technology becomes
literally unfixable - which is why really important stuff is still on
microfilm:  you can cobble together *something* to look at microfilm.  The
typical CD is good (read: 'dependable for archival purposes') for about six
years;  archival CDs will last somewhat longer.  But you can depend on a
properly prepared and printed digital print lasting longer than most other
photographic processes printing on paper.

John Moriarty

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