A handful of months ago, we received a rare phone call. The creator of the world’s largest film camera, Dennis Manarchy, was at the other end of the line asking if we had a printer that was both the largest in the world and printed at the highest resolution.
We told Dennis about HP’s new latex capabilities, sharing with him that we didn’t yet have this technology available. Dennis responded, “So what if I could get you the money to have that printer installed at your shop?”
From that moment on, the story could only get more interesting.
Using his record-breaking camera to photograph detailed portraits of people from America’s dying cultures, Dennis’s Butterflies & Buffalo project makes an impact on all he encounters. In fact, “detailed” doesn’t quite cut it when describing the photography – Dennis’s portraits capture the subject so intricately that they are comparable to a quality of 97,000 megapixels in today’s technologies.
Following his passion to escape urban life and get to intimately know those from the fading subcultures across the U.S. – everyone from the last of the American Indians to those living on crawfish down in the bayou – Dennis not only creates an epic, lasting image that will symbolize these cultures throughout history, but he becomes part of their “family”: living, eating and working just as they do, in order to gain a full understanding of them.
And when Dennis’s exhibit came to Chicago, he recruited us to become part of the team. Using HP’s latex printing technology to create prints from the largest negatives ever recorded, we brought the Butterflies & Buffalo exhibit to life. An outdoor event, during which Dennis’s work graced the walls of Chicago’s Union Station, the large-format prints were displayed right alongside his record-breaking camera.
Said Dennis of the exhibit: “These prints are the most spectacular prints I’ve seen… They blew me away when I looked at them — They’re just so good.”
If you missed Dennis’s exhibit, you can view his spectacular photos and the camera by watching the video here.
We thank Dennis for including us in this outstanding effort, and look forward to what he comes up with next.
And to learn more about how we could use HP’s technology to help boost your project, don’t hesitate to contact us.
