I went out for a gallery stroll last night, and my favorite photographic gallery had a show of some excellent prints (miners) -- I'm very sorry that I've forgotten the photographer's name.

These were some excellent prints -- great B&W tonality; obviously done with film & paper.  Makes me wonder:

>>> Is fine photo printing a dying art? 

>>> Who are current practitioners of the craft?

I'm pretty good in the darkroom, but I don't make world class negatives or prints.  Still, my film & paper prints are gobs better than my digital prints.

Thoughts?

I don't remember who it was, and I am not with my books right now, but there was some famous photographer who chucked it all in when he couldn't get platinum paper anymore.

I agree, there is nothing like silver.  And it is a declining, if not dying, art.  In a decade, we will only be able to get film and paper in art supply shops, right next to the oil paints.  But I won't mind. 

The vast majority of "photographs" never make it past a computer screen.  I am always amused when people talk about this great printer vs that great printer and then give links to web sites.  Excuse me, all you are looking at is a computer screen, NOT a print.  Maybe we should give up photography and learn to paint.

when i started getting serious with my photography, I jumped into digital and thought it was wonderful how I could get such instant gratification.  It didn't take long for me to realize that the entire process form shutter click to paper was far from instant gratification.  I'm still struggling with getting consistant print results. 
And, yes, there's nothing like finely printed photographs...
the tacoma art museum was running an exhibition of 140 or so prints from the estate of Margaret Bourke-White.  What a treat that was... i went twice in two months.