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This past Saturday evening, I had the opportunity to see a newly released film about a photographer whose work I admired very much in college, Robert Mapplethorpe. (Thank you, Susi!) I was reminded as I watched this film of his life…his beginnings as a new artist at Pratt Institute, his relationship with poet/singer/songwriter Patti Smith, his growth in the photographic medium, and his premature death. I remember when I learned about his work in a 20^th century art history class, and I remember how I selected his work as my inspiration in a course titled, Developing a Personal Vision.

I went back and read my “Artist’s Statement of Intent.” Yes, I kept it, along with everything else I ever wrote in college! I was reflecting on a body of work created the previous quarter in historical techniques, and what I wanted to do for the next body of work. I talked about images of the figure, and images of flowers, as my subjects. I said, “Much of this work is influenced by Robert Mapplethorpe and his treatment of the figure and flower, and also by Oriental paintings and their simplicity.” Oddly enough, I collect Japanese block prints today! Obviously, things stick.

This was in the fall of 1991, a time when some of you may remember the controversy that surrounded the exhibitions of his work, as well as several other artists that included Andres Serrano. Mapplethorpe died in 1989, and that same year, the Corcoran Gallery of Art (in Washington DC) cancelled a Mapplethorpe exhibit, because, “It did not want to adversely affect the NEA’s (National Endowment for the Arts) congressional appropriations.” They later backtracked and issued an apology for offending many members in their arts community. What you may also recall is Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC), and his attempts to censor art, and decide what art was worthy of receiving grants. He certainly didn’t die prematurely.

The controversy did not have an influence on my choice of Mapplethorpe as inspiration. What I do remember is his work. This was a time before the Internet, so I mail-ordered many of his books in order to do a well-rounded presentation. Yes, his early works would be very provocative, but what I was most drawn to were his figure studies, statues, portraits, and flowers. His work was so clean, and perfect. His lighting, posing, position and framing of the image were so carefully planned. I could certainly tell he put much effort and thought into his vision.

I wanted to do the same thing, and by the end of the quarter, I produced a body of work that earned me an A in that class, and on my final Statement of Intent, my professor wrote, “Final Portfolio – A, Excellent progress – You really pushed yourself.”

Here’s an interesting alternative to a silver gelatin print made from one of my negatives from that course, 25 years ago! I’m not a film critic, but I give the film, Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures, five stars. It’s worth it! And, thanks to Senator Helms for that appropriate title.

I’ve been thinking a lot about projects lately. Trying to define my work, complete projects that I’ve started – preferably before I start new ones, but that never happens. I’ve gone back to the basic definition of “project” to help remind myself of my goals, both long and short term.

            Project:  noun /’prä- jekt/

1. An individual or collaborative enterprise that is carefully planned and designed to achieve a particular aim.

Okay, so that seems simple enough, right? Not really. I have a notebook full of ideas; I have processed film in piles (waiting on me to make the time to print), and so many ideas that pull me in different directions. I often feel that it is tough to concentrate on one thing only. And, that whole bit about “carefully planned and designed,” well, I feel a little scattered and haphazard more often than not, but I get the job done. At least I do know what “particular aim” I want to achieve.

So, what is that one thing I really want to focus on right now? Second Amendment. I talked about this project earlier this year in my February 29 blog post. I mentioned a couple of photographers – one gone, George Barnard (Civil War era), and one living, Robert Adams (contemporary landscape), whose work continually inspires me. I have been back out shooting for this purpose specifically, and I have more trips planned to finish this project off. Or, is a project like this ever really finished?

Maybe I need to set more goals? What do I want out of this project? Well, just to get it out of my system for starters, as I am pretty passionate about this issue. And, I would like a new 20-plus image body of work as I have ideas for an exhibit swirling around.

Oh, and let me explain the title. It’s not mine. It is the title of a wonderful essay by Brooks Jensen, photographer and editor of Lenswork magazine. His essay by this title is a wonderful and inspirational boost to help creative types navigate our way through projects – finding a project, discovering the “angels in the details,” and sticking with a project to see it through. He says, “Moving beyond the obvious is a creative act and one that often is both the challenge and the reward for the artist.” In other words, take those obvious shots, maybe the sweeping views we try to contain in our viewfinders, and then look for the emotion, the details, and continue your pursuit. Sage advice…and a good article!

For this week, here is a stop sign I found battered and shot, while on our recent escapades shooting Second Amendment. Even though this sign signals you to stop, its condition speaks volumes, and tells me to go…keep on going.

Friday was a great day! I had the opportunity to work with two friends, Don Jones and Dan Russell, with an historic photographic process! We created wet plate collodion positives, or today, called Alumitypes. Some of you may recognize these as being very similar to Tintypes (or Ferrotypes). You may even have a Tintype or two of your ancestors buried in old boxes of photographs.

Frederick Scott Archer (1813-1857) is the inventor we credit with describing the wet plate collodion process. This process consists of coating a plate with a mixture of guncotton, ether (the smelly stuff) and ethyl alcohol. Fair warning…you need some major ventilation here! I discovered that I must add an additional exhaust fan, or two, to my darkroom! We then sensitized the plates in a silver nitrate bath.

You can use this process on sheets of glass, thus creating a negative, or on sheets of black coated metal, which is what we did, creating Alumitypes. (The sheets of metal are black anodized aluminum.) And, like I always tell my History of Photography students, what makes this process so unique, is that it must remain wet throughout the whole process – the coating, sensitizing, shooting, and back into the processing. So, I ask my students what is another requirement when using this process? They learn that a mobile darkroom in the field, or one very close by, is necessary. On Friday, we had my basement darkroom, so we made images in my living room, and outside in the front yard.

Once the image is made, via some major calculations because the ISO is three, or I think we decided by late in the day, ISO ½, we took the plate holder back into the darkroom. Now, this is where things get hairy, because as part of our development and fixing process we use KCN, otherwise known as potassium cyanide! Don’t worry, it is well diluted and we “double gloved” like surgeons!

We set out with six plates, and finished the day with five usable images! The first two portraits made indoors with strobe lighting taught us a lot about the quantity of light, and contrast. And, the final three portraits made outdoors, in the beautiful soft lighting of a cloudy day, also taught us about how this process adds contrast. We watched our exposure times progressively get longer. Dan’s first portrait of me was ½ second, my portrait of Don was 4 seconds, and Don’s final portrait of Dan was 9 seconds! What fun!

I want to give a big thank you to Dan for letting us use his beautiful 8×10 Deardorff camera. A camera any photographer would be envious of! It is a work of art on its own. And, that Kodak portrait lens! I have sat and marveled at how sharp Don’s nose is in my shot! Just amazing!

I thank my friend Don, for sharing his newfound knowledge of this beautiful process and his excitement to include us in his discovery and learning process!

I hope you all enjoy my portrait of Don. Even though it is an image of a modern man, sitting in my driveway on Friday, March 25^th, 2016, the image looks like it could have been taken in the remote, far northwest regions of our country on March 25^th, 1856! That would have been a Tuesday. Imagine 160 years!

 

Don’t we say that about life in general? Timing is everything. Sometimes you’re lucky and sometimes you’re not. Sometimes you have to anticipate what is going to happen and sometimes, we get distracted and miss it.

The images I’ve posted this week are a celebration to the end of winter and the beginning of spring! This weekend, on Sunday, we reached the Vernal Equinox, the first day of spring and it felt glorious! I’ve enjoyed these past several weeks of unseasonably warm weather here in the Rockies, although, we did have that quick snowfall late Saturday.

This brings me to timing. Late Saturday, I noticed my daylilies actually coming up through this new fallen snow! No, no, no! Not yet, it’s way too early in Colorado. Don’t these daylilies know the rule? We’re not to plant until after Mother’s Day, so it stands to reason, they should stay buried until then. Oh, well…here they are. And, beautiful I might add – that young, bright green color against the pure white snow. Well, I said, I’m going to have to make a photo of those when the light is just right tomorrow, before it all melts.

My window of time was slim to none. I watched and waited all morning for the sun to travel from the east to the south, and finally to the southwest sky and cast a beautiful light on these new seedlings. I grabbed my camera and shot and watched as the snow melted before my eyes. I got what I wanted and stepped inside to download my images. About an hour later, I peeked out, no snow. Wow, this time of year the seasons begin to move fast. So, that said, anticipate what you want in a photograph and give yourself the time to watch and wait, and watch and wait, then pounce. Then it’s all over but the shouting soon thereafter!

So, as a photographer, you should know how the light is going to change throughout the day, and anticipate exactly what will happen. And, make your move…don’t hesitate or you’ll loose the light! Pay attention to sunrise and sunset, and watch the sun as it travels the sky in between.

With that, I give you a couple images I enjoyed making on the first day of spring, in my humble front yard! Happy Spring, and to my students, Happy Spring Break Week! Here’s to a beautiful, colorful season in store to set your sights, and viewfinders, on as we see Mother Nature explode with color!

I ask this question in response to a question often asked of me, why film? Well, why not film? I thought about this today as we drove up into the mountains to do a little shooting, and yes, I was shooting film. I’m working on my Second Amendment project, and I have elected to do this entire project on 2 ¼” square format because I love the symmetry of the square. And, while out and about, I thought about my answer to the question, why film?

I love the process, especially the thought process that I go through. I have to decide what format to shoot, whether I choose 35mm, medium format (and for me, that can range from 645 to 6×9), or 4×5 large format. I have to decide on black and white or color film, or both. Black and white usually wins. I have to decide on the film of choice, and what ISO I need for the type of shooting I’ll be doing. I then think beyond the camera and into the darkroom. What developer do I want to use with this film, and from there, determine my process to the final print stages. It is all very hands on. The word tactile comes to mind often when I describe to others why I like the film process. I also still love some of the simplest things.

I love the feeling I get when I open a brand new roll of film, or box of film, especially when I tear into that foil or paper wrapper on a roll of 120 and load the magazine. I love the sound my camera makes when I click the shutter, and wind the film forward. I love the anticipation I feel when a roll of film is finished and ready for the soup. And, when I don’t immediately get into the darkroom, I love the wait! It’s like a waiting, wrapped present.

I love that feeling of opening a freshly developed tank after the fixer to see the images on the spool, or floating in the tray. I can never wait; I turn the light on just when I know I’ve been in the fixer long enough. To have that level of excitement for images today, that anticipation, seems a little antiquated in and of itself since we are in an era of immediate and instant gratification.

One of my favorite photographers describes it so beautifully. In an interview with Jerry Uelsmann, he describes the following quote from his book, Other Realities.

“I am sympathetic to the current digital revolution and excited by the visual options created by the computer. However, I feel my creative process remains intrinsically linked to the alchemy of the darkroom.”

He says, “I see the incredible options that Photoshop provides. But the bottom line is the technique has to fit with ideas and images. I fell in love with the alchemy of the photographic process and to this day, watching that print come up in the developer is magic for me. I still find it a wonderful, challenging experience. It’s also a kind of personal therapy for me just to engage in that process.”

Magic? Yes! Therapy? Yes! I couldn’t agree more, and I, too, fell in love with the alchemy of the photographic process, and that is probably why I love to teach the history of this medium as much as I love to shoot film.

Here is a look at another Second Amendment image. I’ve added a new portfolio on my website, and I will be loading images over the next couple months. That is, of course, once the film has been through the soup!

“There are no uninteresting things. There are just uninterested people.” – Jerry Uelsmann

Often I pull from older negatives to do demonstrations for my darkroom classes at the Bemis School of Art. By now, I have a couple go-to negatives that fit the demonstrations really well, and, I really just enjoy printing them each time I do it. For split-filter printing, I have a 35mm negative of the Tiber River in Rome, Italy. Split-filter printing is basically the sequential use of a high-contrast and a low-contrast filter to produce a print on variable contrast paper. It is a wonderful technique that allows me to control the density of the shadows separately from the highlights in my image.

For some cool Sabatier demos, I have wonderful negatives from Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia. Sabatier is a technique that allows me to get a part negative/part positive effect in my print. I continually use these negatives for Sabatier because I feel like the subject matter just fits the process so beautifully.

Oh, and a side note, that cemetery I mentioned in Savannah? Well, that is the one where the bird girl statue stood for years until the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was released. (Oh, and the book…way better than the movie!)  The statue had to be moved because of the hoards of people coming to see it, and in classic human nature, vandalizing it along the way. And, who are Bonaventure Cemetery’s most famous guests? Well, that’s probably Johnny Mercer, the great singer-songwriter and Conrad Akin, the novelist and poet.

And, I love to use a negative I made in New York City with one taken in my very own backyard for a combination print demonstration. For this, I combine two negatives in printing for one final, interesting image.

 

So, to my point of this blog…hidden treasures. I have found that when I pull numerous sheets of negatives from years back, I often find new and wonderful images. And, sometimes, I sit and scratch my head and say, why didn’t you print that one already? Or, seriously, that’s a cool shot and it has been hidden all these years? Yep, for one reason or another, an image doesn’t make the cut, but then, years later, it does! With that, my sage advice to all my students out there – whether you’re shooting film or digital – don’t trash or delete images, as you might find 26 years later, you actually like the shot!

I’ve included one of those here to end this blog, because, well, it reminds me of growing up in Savannah, Georgia, where I spent hot summer nights drag racing down the long road into Bonaventure Cemetery with my friends and hanging out by the river’s edge. Late nights, teenage antics, and yes, we are the reason there is now a gate at the entrance!