Lightbender

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T01:03:00.003-06:00

Book Sale

2011-11-03T10:55:00.001-05:00

Damaged by Tyler Hewitt | Make Your Own Book

Blurb is having a book sale through November 30. Enter the code BIGTEN at checkout, and you'll receive $10 off the cost of a book. In case you're interested, my book Damaged is available there.

Google Image Telephone

2011-10-31T01:11:00.000-05:00

A few days ago, there was an interesting post on B, a really great photo blog you should all be reading. It was about using Google's image search to play a game of Telephone (you know, that game where you whisper a phrase into someone's ear, they repeat it to someone else, and so on, to see how the phrase gets changed). On Google image search, you can upload a photo, and it finds images it 'thinks' are similar.
I tried with a couple of my photos. This one first:

Of the 'similar' images it returned, here are the three I found most interesting:

The top one was my favorite, so I fed that one to Google, and picked my two favorite results:

Again, the first one was my favorite, so I did one more round. Here's my favorite from round three:

The Google search engine is obviously picking up on the red/orange tones in the original photo and using that to match images. I decided to try a black and white photo:

And picked these three as my favorite matches:

The top one was my favorite, so like with the color photos, I fed that one to Google, and picked my two favorite results:

One more round, using the first of those two photos, and my favorite is:

I learned two things from this. One, Google image search relies on color of images to find matches. Two, B&W photos on the internet are cooler than color ones.

I do like the randomness in the matches, and how these unrelated images work together. Ultimately, however, it's a fun diversion, but not much more than that. It does give me some ideas. I want to convince some other artist friends to play along with something that could be fun.

Wish You Were There

2011-10-11T01:28:00.000-05:00

I'm going to be having an exhibition in the atrium showcases of the Fine and Performing Arts Center at Moraine Valley Community College. Titled Wish You Were There, it consiste of prints of vintage tourist postcards paired with Google street view images of the same location. The exhibit dates are Oct. 17-Nov. 10. Click on the link above for more info.

Faculty Exhibition

2011-09-21T01:02:00.001-05:00

It's that time again-the annual faculty exhibition at the school where I teach. The exhibition is in the DeCaprio Gallery at Moraine Valley Community College. The show will be up Sept. 19-Oct. 13. The opening reception is this Thursday, Sept. 19, from 2:00:4:00.

I have three pieces in the show this year, all collages. I've posted two of them on this blog before. Here they are again:

Here's the third one:

These collages are part of a larger body of work which explores pareidolia.

Photography Is Not A Crime!

2011-09-12T01:41:00.002-05:00

I shot this photo in May, 2010 near Chinatown in Chicago. I’m posting it now because I returned to this location today to shoot a few photos, and was briefly detained by Metra police (Metra is the Chicago commuter rail network). This area sits just north of 18th St. at Wentworth St. There is a gravel, one lane drive leading uphill to a clearing with great views of the city. Most of this area is about to be developed as part of Ping Tom Park, a lovely park on the edge of Chinatown. For now, the gravel drive is used as overflow parking for Chinatown, which can get busy, especially on the weekend.

That’s why I was there. I had gone to Chinatown for lunch and to pick up a few groceries. It was busy, usual for Sunday, and I ended up parking in this area. After lunch and shopping, my plan was to shoot a few photos with my toy cameras.

I had barely started when I noticed what looked like a police officer a couple of hundred feet away, waving me over. I figured he might have a couple of questions, because cameras seem to make everyone paranoid these days. He motioned me over to his police car, parked across some railroad tracks on what was obviously Metra’s property. He was yelling right from the start. I tried explaining that I was just shooting a few photos, but he kept interrupting, saying I was trespassing. I had read, just last night, an ACLU brief about photographer’s rights (again, everyone with a camera is apparently suspect), and thought I knew what to say. But, trying to say anything seemed to infuriate this cop, and, yelling loudly, he threatened to arrest me if I said another word. He made me drop my photo bag, produce my ID, and place my hands on the police car. He frisked me, and called in my ID. All this time, he was being as condescending as possible, insinuating that I shouldn’t be so far from home (Chicago’s Chinatown is about 20 minutes from my house) and refusing to answer my questions.

When my ID came back clean, he softened a bit, and seemed to realize he had been way too aggressive, but still pawed through my camera bag without my permission and kept going on about the “post 9/11 world”. He finally let me go “with a warning”, but I’ve been angry and troubled by it since.

Here’s a screenshot from Google Earth (click on it to see a much larger version). I was standing at about position A, waiting for the sun to come out from behind a cloud so I could shoot the old iron train bridge, B, framed by the branches of the trees. The cop was at position C when he called and waved me over, and we met at his car, D (there’s a car in the Google Earth shot-the Metra Police must park there regularly). I don’t know if I was trespassing or not, to be honest. The area I shaded in blue is the approximate boundary of land owned by the Chicago Park District that is slated for development. I may have been within the Park District property, or I may not have been. Ultimately, that’s unimportant. If someone is photographing on private property, they must cease shooting photos and vacate the property if asked. That’s the law. The law does not state that police have the right to search your belongings and frisk you for trespassing. They can ask you to leave.

I understand the need for security, but I also know that the law is very clear on the fact that it is perfectly legal to photograph infrastructure and buildings, even private property, from public spaces (the Google Earth screenshot above is proof that photos of a location are irrelevant to a potential terrorist, as better views can be found online). If you are on private property, the law is what I described above. I feel that the officer went beyond his legal rights, and as a result violated my rights. I just don’t know what to do about it. I know that a lot of people have had much worse treatment at the hands of the police (and Homeland Security) for photographing things. This is a big enough issue that Googling “photographer's rights” turns up thousands of hits (including one from me that I posted in June, 2008). What happened to me today was stressful and upsetting, but ultimately such a small event that I doubt anyone would care, even if the cop was out of line. So, do I report it, or let it go? I haven’t decided.

Today, my Facebook status read “Remembering the day Americans started giving up their freedoms and rights in order to cultivate a false sense of security.” Yes, the cop was right about one thing. We certainly are living in the post 9/11 world.

Postcard Collages

2011-08-21T01:47:00.000-05:00

My several month infatuation with making collages has manifested itself in various ways. Recently, I've been making small collages on old postcards. I collect tacky postcards, which I describe as postcards that are kitschy, ugly, in bad taste, or boring. Over the past few months, I've bought large lots of old postcards on Ebay, hoping to find both tacky cards, and some specific types of cards for another project I'm working on (more on that in a future post).

When I buy stacks of unseen postcards online, I tend to end up with a bunch that just aren't boring or tacky enough, or that won't work for my other project. These had been accumulating in my studio for a while, so I decided to start making collages on them.

The first few I made were all from a stack of postcards originally bought at a now defunct Chinese-themed amusement park in Florida. I was envisioning a series of Chinese postcard collages, but that idea ran out of steam pretty quickly, as I acquired more cards, and started developing other ideas and interests.

The collages you're viewing here are all made on the Chinese postcards, and were completed between April and June of this year. I'll post some more recent ones soon.

Yes, It's More Collages!

2011-08-14T23:36:00.000-05:00

Here's a few more of the collages I've been working on this summer. I love this first one, I threw it together in about ten minutes right before bed a few weeks ago, and think it turned out good.

I've explored these themes a lot in the past, but the simplicity of this collage is new.

This collage was made pretty spontaneously. The smoky or cloudy photo with the hand cut out was about to go into the recycling when I realized it looked interesting. From that thought to finished collage was about five minutes.

Mmmmmmm, this ones's ok, I guess. It sat unglued for several weeks in my studio while I decided whether or not it needed something else added, but every time I tried it looked bad, so I finally called it done and glued the figures down to the photo. The figures were leftover from an illustration in an old schoolbook. I needed the background for this collage. I shot the photo behind the figures in Amsterdam in 2007.

The Summer Of Collage

2011-08-05T23:45:00.000-05:00

This has apparently been the summer of collage for me. The majority of my studio work this summer has been spent making some sort of collage. Here are a few more recent ones.

These are all a month or so old. Between traveling and preparing for the upcoming fall semester, my studio production has slowed down. I'm getting the itch to work on collages again, however, so I may be posting more here soon.

Collage!

2011-06-23T01:35:00.000-05:00

Summer is here, I'm not teaching, and have more time to devote to the studio. I've been making collages (among other things). Here are some recent ones. The first two were actually made while school was still in session. I really love the one at the top of this post.

I don't love this one so much, but I don't hate it, either.

This one was actually made after school let out, and several weeks after the ones above. I like this one quite a bit.

Another one I love! This one was made about a week ago. It reminds me of one of my favorite record covers, for The Buzzcocks' Orgasm Addict single (which is the best (and funniest) punk single ever made, IMHO).

My First Book

2011-06-18T02:40:00.000-05:00

Damaged by Tyler Hewitt | Make Your Own Book

I've just published a book on Blurb.com. It's a book of photographs I made back when I was a student, trying a technique on a roll of film and having it come out completely wrong. The images turned out to be pretty interesting, despite the errors. I posted a few images from this project here about a year and a half ago. Follow that link to read more detail about what I was attempting to do with that film.

I'm excited about this book, It's something I've been planning for quite a while. I've got ideas for several more books as well.

Hope you enjoy it!

First Light

2011-05-21T14:57:00.000-05:00

These are my first attempts at lumen printing, made yesterday afternoon. I heard about lumen printing for the first time only a couple of months ago, and after seeing some really nice examples online, I know I would be trying it as soon as I finished school (and had a sunny day, which has turned out to be kind of rare this year).

Lumen printing couldn't be easier. Basically, you are treating regular photo paper as if it were printing-out paper. You take any photo paper (old, expired paper seems to work the best), lay objects on it (online sources claim that leaves and other plant material give the best results), cover it with glass, and let it sit in direct sunlight for a long time. These photos were exposed for about 50 minutes. I used Kodak Panalure paper that is at least 13 years old for these prints.

After exposure, the prints aren't developed normally (which would likely turn them solid black), but are fixed. The reading I did online suggested using highly diluted fix, so I made my fix half strength. Online sources also suggested toning before fixing. The only toner I had in my studio was an ancient bottle of selenium toner, so I mixed that up and threw the prints in for a few minutes.

I like the results, for the most part. Some lumen prints can have interesting shades of pink, purple and blue, but that is dependent on the type of paper and toner used. The deep brown/black tones I have here are more common. There are many variations to this process, and I hope to explore some of them over the summer. One thing I'm really excited about is what's seen in this last image. I had a couple of enlarged transparency negatives from a failed gum bichromate print in my darkroom, so I threw them onto a sheet of Panalure and made a lumen print, just to see what would happen. The results are much better than I expected, and I'm looking forward to trying a lumen print from a transparency negative made just for that purpose.

Still More New Collages (Part IV)

2011-04-11T20:55:00.000-05:00

I've been working quite a bit more slowly on collages lately, but I am still making them. I'm also busy trying to maintain focus while finishing out the school year, and am doing a little shooting for some other projects I have in mind.

I had high hopes for the first collage in this post, but it just didn't turn out as well as I'd have liked. The red one I like much better.

This one's my most recent one, completed just a couple of days ago.

More New Collage Part III

2011-03-25T15:22:00.000-05:00

Here's a few more new collages. The first one was made at the beginning of spring break, after drinking some absinthe. I'm not sure if that influenced the collage, but it might have.

This one was made the same evening, but before getting into the absinthe.

I've I haven't done much in the studio at all this week. Back to school, very busy work week, etc. Hopefully, I'll get some more done this weekend.

More New Collage

2011-03-17T01:48:00.000-05:00

I posted some new collages last week. Here are a few more.

As I mentioned before, these are collages made without any large ideas guiding my work. I did set some rules, however, mainly to keep them simple and avoid storytelling.

Originally, I was only going to use black and white images against the colored paper backgrounds. The green one above was the first of these I made. That rule was quickly abandoned, however.

This one was done on a piece of wallpaper, which adds some interest (and content?), but it didn't dry very flat. I do like it, flat or not, and really should do some more.

I'm still making these, expect to see some more in a few days. Meanwhile, remember my print sale to benefit Japan disaster relief.

Japan Relief Fundraiser

2011-03-15T01:21:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you're aware of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan. In the past, I've made donations when tragedies have struck. Now, I'm trying something a little different.

To encourage donations beyond what I myself give, I will be selling prints and donating all the proceeds to Doctors Without Borders. Doctors Without Borders is an international medical humanitarian organization. They provide aide in nearly 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, while operating independently of any political, military, or religious agendas. They have already send a medical team to Japan, and will need funds to continue work there.

I will be selling ten prints. Each print will be approx. 7.5 X 10 inches, unmatted, on 8.5 X 11 inch paper stock (prints may vary in size-many of the images on my blog are square, which would mean a 7.5 X 7.5 inch print). They will be printed using archival pigments on Epson glossy paper, and signed by me. The cost is $50 per print, the entirety of which will be donated to Doctors Without Borders.

I highly encourage you to participate. Here's what to do:

1. Go to my Photo A Day blog.
2. Choose any image I've posted to the blog. I've been running the blog for just short of three years, so there are plenty of images to choose from.
3. Email me the following info:
-the title and date of the post with the image you'd like a print of (please list at least one alternate image, just in case). If a post has more than one image, let me know which one you want.
-the address you'd like the print shipped to.

If you're one of the first ten people to respond, I will send you a return message with info on how to make payment to my Paypal account. Once I receive your payment, I will send you your print.

If this works as I hope it will, the end result will be a $500 donation to Doctors Without Borders. It will also result in your receiving a piece of art.

Now go buy art and support emergency relief!

New Collage

2011-03-07T01:26:00.000-06:00

I've been making collages over the past couple of weeks. Here are a few of them.

I didn't have any initial inspiration for these collages, aside from using up some sheets of fade resistant artist's paper bought for a project I finished several years ago.

I did set some rules, however. First was size. I pre-cut 8X10 inch pieces of paper, to limit the size of these collages. Past experience has taught me that smaller collages seem to go together easier. The second rule was to keep things simple. I tried using as few individual elements as possible in these collages to avoid over working them.

The third rule was to avoid any attempt to tell a story or create a narrative. While not exactly content free, they hopefully encourage the viewer to apply their own associations when viewing them.

I'll post some more in a few days.

Brownie Hawkeye Photos

2011-01-24T00:03:00.000-06:00

I've been ignoring this blog a bit, mainly due to the fact that I don't have much to show right now. I'm shooting fairly regularly, but don't really have any goal in mind. Or rather, my ideas are rather amorphous at the moment, so I have random images, but nothing that seems to go together.

I have really been enjoying shooting with my Kodak Brownie Hawkeye with a reversed lens, however. It's currently my favorite toy camera. Here are some photos shot over the last couple of months with that camera.

This one appeared in A Photo A Day, my other blog, right before the holidays. I love it, it's one of my favorite Brownie photos.

My Three Favorites

2010-12-16T17:48:00.000-06:00

My friend Brady has been posting his friends' favorite creative works made this year on his blog. Today he posted the three I chose. Follow this link to see what I chose as my favorite work from this year.
Thanks, Brady!

More Brownie Photos

2010-10-09T16:11:00.000-05:00

A couple of months ago, I posted some photos I shot with an old Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera with a reversed lens. I've been doing some more shooting with this camera, and here are the results.

I'm really liking the look of these photos. As I mentioned in my previous post, they have a look similar to that achieved with a

Lensbaby. Where Lensbaby photos look a little too perfect, however, these feel more organic, and remind me of dreams or memories.

I've also purchased some 620 film spools, making it much easier to run film through the camera. As I wrote previously, 620 film, which is no longer manufactured, is the same size as 120 film, which you can still buy. The only difference is in the size of the film spool, but that makes all the difference in cameras which take 620 film. This makes old 620 film spools, which should be worth about 25 cents at most, more expensive to buy.

I finally broke down and bought five spools on Ebay, at a cost of around $22.00. I roll 120 film onto a 620 spool, shoot it in the Hawkeye camera, then load it back onto a 120 spool for processing. That may sound like a pain in the butt, but it's really quick and easy, and worth it for the photos I'm getting with this camera.

You can see more of these photos on my Facebook Fan page.

Dan Jarvis

2010-09-29T22:54:00.000-05:00

My friend, former student, and artist extraordinaire Dan Jarvis just posted some images to his blog from a body of work he's developing.
Check it out! it's really good.

Permanent Wave

2010-09-21T02:15:00.000-05:00

Here's my entry for this year's faculty exhibit at Moraine Valley Community College. Titled Permanent Wave, it's sixteen letter-sized VanDyke Brown prints pinned to the gallery wall.

I've had the idea for this piece in mind for several years. Inspired by a Laurie Anderson piece from her album United States Live, the writing of Carl Sagan, and by a general appreciation of humor in art (which is supposed to be oh so serious), I scanned several pages from a 1967 book on hairstyles and topped it with the Pioneer plaque (which was co-designed by Sagan).

This piece was completed pretty quickly. The faculty show came early this year, much to my dismay (the beginning of the school year is always very busy), and none of the other work I have in progress was ready for exhibition. So, I decided to try this idea. It was originally going to be done in cyanotype, but I changed my mind at the last minute to VanDyke brown. That process is a little more fussy than cyanotype, and my hurrying through the printing resulted in a few minor flaws in the piece. I was going to reprint, but decided to let them stay. I kind of like the visual noise they add to the piece.

MVCC Faculty Present New Work

DeCaprio Gallery, Moraine Valley Community College

September 20-October 14, 2010

Pareidolia Collages

2010-09-12T01:31:00.000-05:00

Here are some recent collages, made over the summer. I've been playing with this idea on and off for a while, and posted some of them here and here back in April.

These pieces started as a way of paring down collages to essential elements. I'm combining an old snapshot with a face from a magazine to explore ideas of pareidolia.

They aren't terribly difficult to create, but they are more time consuming than you might expect. The 'right' pairing of two unrelated images can be elusive.

I'm not sure where these will end up. A few of them have some annoying wrinkles (thin magazine pages don't hold up well to being coated with glue), so I'm not sure if I want to pursue an exhibition. I'm really enjoying making them, however, so much so that most of my attempts at making more traditional collage pieces over the past few months have failed. The simplicity here is what is appealing to me.

For now, I'm making more of these, and mulling over what the end result will be.

Brownie Doing A Heck Of A job

2010-08-06T22:47:00.008-05:00

Sorry to bring up a memory of an incompetent former president, but that title fits this post. These images were shot using a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera with a reversed lens. The Brownie Hawkeye camera was a popular snapshot camera manufactured in the 1950’s. I had one which I kept in my office at work as a knick knack, but after reading online about reversing the lens, I brought it home to play with over the summer.

Reversing the lens was easy, it just involved removing a couple of screws, flipping the plastic meniscus lens, then reassembling the camera. Doing this restricts the range of focus from about 3-10 feet in front of the camera.

The resulting photos taken with these reversed-lens cameras have a sharp center and increasingly diffuse focus closer to the edge of the image. It’s a really appealing look that works well, depending on the subjects shot.

Unfortunately, shooting with the Brownie Hawkeye camera is kind of a pain in the butt. Brownie Hawkeye cameras were made to hold 620 size film, a Kodak proprietary film format which is no longer manufactured. Luckily, 120 size film, which is still widely manufactured, is basically the same size as 620 film. The main difference is the size of the film spool, which is wider in 120 film. Of course, Kodak knew this, and designed the body of the Brownie Hawkeye camera so that 120 spools barely fit into it, forcing their customers to buy 620 film.

The camera I own had a 620 spool in it, which I use as a take-up spool (A 120 spool will not work for this). With only one 620 spool, however, I have to use use a 120 spool to hold the unexposed film. These spools fit so tightly in the camera that they don’t rotate properly when advancing film. This makes advancing film really difficult. It’s very hard to turn the film advance knob. In two out of the three rolls I’ve shot, the paper film backing ripped while loading the film into the camera, forcing me to open the camera in a film changing bag and repair it with package sealing tape. I also cannot get the camera to advance past 11 shots, leaving a blank frame of film at the end of the roll.

When it works however, the result is interesting shots. They look a little like shots made with a Lensbaby, but have a more organic, handmade feel.

If anyone knows where I can pick up a few 620 size film reels cheaply, let me know.

Real Banksy Or Faux Banksy?

2010-07-22T00:27:00.004-05:00

I was riding my bike today, not too far from home, when I saw this graffiti painted on an abandoned building. I've ridden by this place dozens of times, and it wasn't there the last time I rode by it (sometime before Memorial Day).

It looks like it could be a Banksy. It's known he was in Chicago not too long ago-photos of a piece he did here are on his website.

Here's a closer view:

and a closeup of the figure:

That could be the artist's signature to the right of the figure, or it could be something someone else left. It doesn't look like Banksy's sig, but than again, it looks like most of Banksy's pieces are unsigned.

If you want to check it out for yourself, the building is located in Chicago at 9030 S. Hermitage (corner of Hermitage and 90th place). It's easy to get to if you're not familiar with the area, just get on the Rock Island Metra line. The building is about 1/2 block from the 91st St. station (the graffiti should be easily seen when riding the Metra northbound into downtown).

So, what do you think-real Banksy or faux Banksy? I'm leaning towards faux myself. although it would be cool if it were real.

Market

2010-07-18T01:42:00.003-05:00

I shot this photo outside of a market in San Francisco's Sunset District when I was visiting there a couple of weeks ago. I like the photo, even though it could be better technically (It was hurriedly shot through the windshield of a parked car). I like the colors of the fruit and the green stand, and the blur in the guy walking by.

Pay It Forward

2010-06-22T02:09:00.007-05:00

Here's some recent work, made as part of a Facebook game. One of my friends posted, offering to make something for the first five people who responded, as long as those five people in turn offered make something for five people. That sounded like fun, so I responded (and received a beautiful felted wool bowl from Sara).

I decided to make cyanotype prints for my five pieces. I was in the middle of printing work for my exhibit at McCord Gallery (currently in it's final week-the show ends on Saturday), so it was easy to run a few more prints. These are all approximately 8.5 X 11 inches, cyanotype on Arches cold press paper.

The first one, at the top of the post, was made for Dan Jarvis, who is exhibiting with me at McCord (I gave him his print the day we hung the show). His piece is based on a collage I made back in February. The second one, made for Heather in Belligham, WA, is based on a collage postcard I made about a year and a half ago. The one immediately above this text was made for Kat. The image is one I shot for my show at McCord but didn't use. I couldn't resist making it for Kat, as she's been making really great paintings based on used menstrual pads.

This one was made for my sister Kelly. Her reply to my post announcing this read 'my hovercraft is full of eels', a line from Monty Python that has been stuck in my head like an earworm since I was about fourteen. I just interpreted that phrase literally.

This one was made for Melissa, who teaches Art Appreciation at the same school I do. The original image was made by placing a piece cut from an old Artforum magazine into a slide mount and scanning it.

Are you an artist or creative type, and are you on Facebook? Do your own pay it forward challenge. Making work for specific people is fun and rewarding.
You can also visit my Facebook fan page.

McCord Collaborations

2010-06-14T18:09:00.009-05:00

This is my final post of images from my exhibit with Dan Jarvis currently on display at McCord Gallery. The exhibit goes until June 26, so you still have time to see it.

These pieces are all collaborative pieces between Dan and myself.

The working method was pretty simple. I shot a roll of film, purposefully underexposing it by one full stop. I concentrated on shooting the same sorts of images as my work in the show, images from old magazines.

After shooting, I wound the roll slowly into my camera (to leave the leader exposed), and gave the film to Dan. He shot the same film, also underexposed, concentrating on signs and suburban scenes.

The film was developed, and scanned in long strips. Dan and I chose pieces from these strips of scanned negatives to print.

Keeping with the experimental nature of these pieces, we did minimal adjustments to the scans. Dust, color shifts (it was expired film), etc. were considered part of the images and largely left intact.

We made large (approx. 13 X 19 inch) archival inkjet prints of these images (and a couple more not seen here) and hung them unframed in one of the rooms at McCord Gallery.

These turned out better than Dan and I were expecting. We actually like them quite a bit, and are thinking of doing a similar collaboration in the future.

McCord Gallery II

2010-06-08T18:30:00.007-05:00

Here are more of the pieces I'm currently exhibiting at McCord Gallery in Palos Park, IL. Click on any of these to see a larger version.

I have twelve pieces in the show, along with some collaborative pieces made with Dan Jarvis, which I'll post in a few days.

I didn't get a chance to shoot two of the pieces before hanging them, so obviously I can't post those here.

As I mentioned in the last post, these are all cyanotype prints, measuring 13 X 19 inches.

Tyler Hewitt and Dan Jarvis
McCord Gallery,
9602 West Creek Road (130th St. at La Grange Ave),
Palos Park, IL

May 25-June 26, 2010

My Show At McCord Gallery

2010-06-03T18:46:00.008-05:00

The opening reception for my two-person exhibit with Dan Jarvis was last Friday. Thanks to those who made it out there. For those who didn't, I'll share some of my pieces in the exhibit over the next few days.

These pieces are all cyanotype prints, and all measure 13 X 19 inches. They were all shot the same way, by placing pages from old 1950's and 1960's era homemaker's magazines on a light table and shooting throuhgh a macro lens.

The resulting photos show the interactions between the images and text on both sides of the magazine page. They were edited as little as possible, an element of chance being an important part of the process.

I'll post a few more n a couple of days. Click on any of the images to see a larger version.

Show Postcard

2010-05-25T00:16:00.005-05:00

Here's the postcard for my upcoming exhibit at McCord Gallery in Palos Park, IL. The opening reception is this Friday, from 6:30-8:00. If you're in the area, stop by. If you're not, watch this space. I'll post some of the pieces from the exhibit here soon.

Exhibit Review

2010-05-12T00:49:00.003-05:00

The Chicago Fine Art Examiner published an article about the exhibit titled Common Ground, Diverse Approaches: Works on Paper at the Tall Grass Arts Association. I have three pieces in that exhibit. The article is pretty lengthy, and discusses all the work in the exhibit in detail.

Save The Date

2010-04-26T01:42:00.002-05:00

I'm going to be doing a two person exhibit at McCord Gallery in Palos Park, IL with Dan Jarvis. Dan's a nice guy and a former student of mine. Both of us tend to experiment a lot in our work, both in content and technique. For this exhibit, we found we both were developing work that, although visually dissimilar, shares a similar theme.

Postcards for the exhibit haven't been printed yet (We need to send them images soon!), I'll post one once I get them. For now, here's a sneak preview of one of the pieces I'm exhibiting. It's a cyanotype print, 13 X 19 inches.

Tyler Hewitt and Dan Jarvis, McCord Gallery,
9602 West Creek Road (130th St. at La Grange Ave),
Palos Park, IL
Opening reception Friday, May 28, 6:30-8:00

Common Ground, Diverse Approaches

2010-04-21T01:41:00.006-05:00

I have three pieces in this exhibit, opening this weekend at the Tall Grass Arts Association in Park Forest, IL (click on the postcard to see a larger version). If you're in the far south Chicago suburbs, stop in and take a look. If you're not in the far south suburbs, here are the pieces I'm showing.

These are all cyanotype prints made from photos I shot of the architectural models of the Art Institute of Chicago's new modern wing.

Still More New Collages

2010-04-11T02:38:00.006-05:00

Here are a few more recent collages, made over the past couple of weeks.

These are more of the simple collages made by pasting one or two appropriated images on top of an original snapshot.

I have an idea for these that may or may not come to fruition, but for right now, I'm just enjoying making them.

When I get a few more completed, I'll decide if I want to do something with them.

On Russian Hill

2010-04-07T00:02:00.001-05:00

I shot this photo last summer, standing near the top of Russian Hill in San Francisco. San Francisco is my secret lover, and I've been missing her lately.

More New Collages

2010-04-06T00:31:00.004-05:00

I'm still making collages. I thought I was done, but I guess not.

I've been really enjoying these collages, made by combining an old snapshot with a face from a magazine. These recent ones use faces found in old '50's and 60's homemaker's magazines. The sense of pareidolia comes through pretty well in them, I think.

I'm not sure what I'm going to end up doing with these. For right now, I'm having fun with them.

Another Collage

2010-03-04T21:55:00.001-06:00

I thought I was finished with collage for a while, but I was wrong. I finished this one last week after a little too much absinthe.

New Collages IV

2010-02-26T00:59:00.007-06:00

Here's the last of the new collages I've been working on.

Like the ones in my previous post, these are simple collages made by pasting one or two appropriated images on top of an original snapshot.

These have been fun, so much so that while I really should be working on other things (I have a show in June to prepare for), I keep going back to collages. I have three partially completed collages sitting next to me as I write this.

It had been a while, I'd forgotten how much I enjoy collage.

New Collages III

2010-02-21T00:11:00.006-06:00

Here's a few more recent collages. Like the other collages I've posted here recently, I set some rules for myself before starting work on these.

The rule here was simple: Start with an original (snapshot sized) photo, and add only one or two elements.

The result is collages that are very simple, but I think they are oddly effective.

Unfortunately, I've become busy with teaching duties, and I have to concentrate on making work for an upcoming exhibition I'm doing this June. So, I've put collages aside for now. I do have a few more of these, I'll post them soon.

New Collages II

2010-02-09T23:28:00.005-06:00

Here are a few more of my recent collages. I talked about my inspiration and ground rules in my last post, but to recap, I was using old snapshots and purposefully keeping things simple. After making a few collages with varying degrees of success, I hit upon the idea of pairing an entire photo with an image from a magazine. I had a couple old issues of the New York Times Style magazine lying around, so used those as source material.

My first one is at the top of this post. I’m happy with how it turned out.

Here’s my second one:

I like this one even more. It’s probably my favorite of these collages.

Here’s two more, completed on the same day:

The one with the blue car is my least favorite of these, but even then, I like it. There’s probably a bit of John Stezeaker in these collages, but I think these are more concerned with pareidolia or pattern recognition than Stezeker’s work.

I’ll post more collages soon. Keep looking!

New Collages

2010-02-05T16:39:00.005-06:00

Here are some new collages. I started working on them over my recent semester break, and have continued with them (when I have the time and energy) now that school has resumed.

My inspiration with these was my sorting through a large crate full of snapshots I’ve taken over the past twenty-five years or so. I started pulling out the photos not worth saving; poorly exposed or focused ones, blurry shots, boring photos, etc. After combing through the entire crate, I found I had a stack of at least a hundred prints, and decided to do something with them.

I rarely collage with original photos. I enjoy the influence of appropriation and recontextualization on content in collages, and that isn’t as evident in collages made from my own photos.

Knowing this, I decided I needed to set a couple of rules for myself to make these collages work. First, every collage I made had to include at least one original photo (or part of one). Second, these collages were to be simple, and overly complex compositions avoided. Third, I limited how I cut, preferring geometric shapes to cutting around the contours of objects. Lastly, I worked intuitively, not worrying about content or meaning and focusing entirely on composition and how the collages looked.

The first one I made is at the top of this post. I like this one quite a bit, although my partner referred to it as “Baldessari meets Mondrian”. I can see that, but I still like it.

I made a second, similar piece, and while I don’t hate it I’m not real happy with it:

For some reason I can’t put my finger on, it reminds me of the ‘80’s.

I went in a different direction for the third collage:

I like the idea here, but think this could be a little better. I wish it were a little neater, and the intuitive approach didn’t quite work. I want to think think this through some more before doing any more like it.

My next several collages are quite a bit more interesting and successful to me. I’ll post these in a couple of days.

From The Archives: Damaged

2010-01-15T02:24:00.011-06:00

Here’s another installment of From the Archives, a (very) occasional series wherein I post old work and write some comments about how it was made and what I was thinking about.

Back in 1993, I was a photography student eagerly leaning new photo techniques. I had an assignment for a class that involved exploring a technique, then reporting back to the class on my success. I decided to try reticulation, which is supposed to result in a fine, almost spider web like pattern of cracks over the surface of a negative. Reticulation is achieved chemically (using sodium carbonate) or through subjecting negatives to extremes of hot and cold water. I decided to try the temperature method of reticulation. I shot a roll of black and white film, mostly random landscapes in the countryside around Ann Arbor, MI, as well as some shots in a local cemetery, and a few shots in downtown Ypsilanti, MI.

After developing the film, I heated a pot of water on the stove, and set a bowl of ice water on the counter next to the stove. I had left the negatives uncut, and plunged the entire 24 exposure strip into the pot of hot water. After a couple of minutes, I removed them from the hot water and placed them into the ice water. Nothing happened. I tried a couple more times, but still, no change in the negatives. So, I heated the water until it was just below the boiling point, and tossed the negatives in. Almost immediately, the gelatin began melting and sliding off of the film. I hurriedly grabbed the film with a pair of tongs, but by this time, the emulsion was so soft that the edges of the film base was hitting the emulsion and removing it in large chunks. I figured the film was a lost cause, so I started pressing my fingers into it, leaving fingerprints in the emulsion. After all this, one final bath in the ice water still did not succeed in achieving reticulation.

My mistakes were pretty easy to figure out. First, I likely developed the film using a hardening fixer (many fixers have a hardening agent designed to strengthen the negative so as to prevent damage). A non hardening fixer may have allowed reticulation to occur. Secondly, I should have rolled the developed film back onto a developing reel before putting it into the pot of hot water, This would have prevented the film from hitting itself and removing chunks of emulsion.

I filed these negatives away, chalking it up to a failed experiment (I’ve never actually tried reticulating negatives again myself, although I’ve had students make it work). I have used shots from this roll a few times, however. This is a kwik-print made about a year after the failed reticulation attempt. It’s a collage made using one of the damaged negatives as a starting point.

Here’s the original shot for comparison:

A few years later, I used another of these shots in a mixed media piece. Here’s the original shot: (with my thumbprint in the emulsion):

Here’s what I made with it:

Looking at these shots now, I like a lot of them quite a bit. The layer of visual noise, and the changes in texture and composition resulting from the missing chunks of emulsion make these mundane scenes interesting. Maybe this was a happy accident after all.

Fuji Transfers

2009-12-17T02:28:00.005-06:00

When Tom and Christie were married in September, Christie asked me to make Polaroid lifts of their wedding photos. It sounded like a great idea to me, except for one thing: Polaroid film is no longer being manufactured. I’d heard that Fuji instant film would work, but that the process was somewhat different than when using Polaroid film. So, I did some online research, and gave it a shot.

The basics are the same. If you’re using a Daylab (or in my case, a Vivitar slide printer I bought on Ebay), you need to start with slides. If you have a good quality flat screen monitor, it’s very easy. Load slide film into your camera, set it on auto, mount it to a tripod, open the images in Photoshop, hide all the menus, and shoot. The slides come out perfect. Based on my research, I over saturated the color on the photos a little before I shot slides of them, to compensate for a tendency of the transfers to look washed out.

The fuji film I used is FP-100C. It’s a color instant film the same size as Polaroid 669 film, and fits easily into the slide printer (Fuji also makes an instant black & white film, which I haven’t tried). Exposing the film was a little tricky. The Fuji film has a slightly different ISO than the Polaroid film, and the VIvitar slide printer has limited exposure adjustment. Try as I might, the prints all come out lacking details in the highlight areas, not a good thing when you’re making prints of a wedding dress. I actually think that the Fuji prints are high in contrast, as the dark areas of the prints also lost detail. The next time I try lifts with this film, I’ll try lowering the contrast of the images before shooting the slides to see if it improves things.

Aside from the contrast issue, the Fuji prints looked pretty good. The color balance is much better than the Polaroid 669 film, which always had a very distinct cyan cast (the Fuji black & white lifts show a cyan cast in the blacks, but I kind of like how it looks).

As for making the lifts, Fuji film is similar, but also quite different from Polaroid. FIrst, I found that warmer water to soak the prints in worked better. I did all my Polaroid lifts at 160 degrees F. Fuji film worked better around 180 degrees. The soak time was shorter, it took about 1-2 minutes in the hot water to loosen the emulsion on the Fuji film. After transferring the print to a tray of cool water, the emulsion easily slid off of the backing, with little fuss. That’s a big improvement over Polaroid film, which can be difficult to remove from the backing.

The Fuji emulsion has a very different feel from the Polaroid. It has an almost cellophane like crispness, unlike the mushy and easily damaged Polaroid emulsion. It can be handled quite a bit, something that would have left you with a tray of Polaroid soup. It’s a little less malleable than the Polaroid film, but not so much that you can’t get some good wrinkles and bends into the image. The one thing I really do not like about the Fuji film is that the edges of the emulsion tend to curl, and it can be very difficult to unroll it and get it to lie flat. Many of my lifts of the wedding photos have a distinct dark edge caused by this curling.

The reading I had done on Fuji lifts said that the Fuji emulsion would not stick to paper like Polaroid emulsion, and needed to be glued down. A couple of sources recommended picking up some of the ‘glue’ that held the emulsion to the backing, and spreading it on the receiving paper. I found this impossible. First off, there is no glue, it’s obviously gelatin. Secondly, the shorter soaking time means the gelatin does not dissolve. I found that coating the receiving paper with acrylic medium before transferring the emulsion to it worked much better.

Overall, I mostly liked the Fuji lifts. The color is a significant improvement over Polaroid 669 film, and the emulsion is easier to handle. I do wish it were a little more malleable, however, and the curling of the edges is really annoying. Maybe, if The Impossible Project decides to resurrect 669 film, they can solve the color issues, and we’ll have a great instant film for doing lifts.

Congratulations, Tom and Christie! I have 22 lifts from your wedding photos to give you when I see you next week.

MVCC Faculty Exhibit

2009-11-12T01:33:00.002-06:00

I have a piece in the annual faculty exhibit at Moraine Valley Community College. The show runs November 16 through December 17 in the DeCaprio Gallery in the Fine and Performing Arts Center at Moraine. The reception is on Thursday, Nov. 19, 2-4 p.m.

My piece is a diptych of silkscreen prints I made this past summer. I'll give you a sneak peak: It's the first two images in this post. I titled it Office Romance. Not the most serious work I've done, but I like it. It makes me laugh.

Meet The Faculty!

2009-09-13T19:55:00.002-05:00

I'm going to be part of an exhibit, along with my colleagues in the MVCC Art Department, at Joliet Junior College in Joliet, IL. Show dates are Oct. 5-Oct. 30, 2009. If anyone will be in the Joliet area, stop in and take a look. I don't know when the reception will be, but I'll post it as soon as I know.

The Summer Of Screenprinting V

2009-08-21T23:01:00.006-05:00

Here are the final prints I made as part of my summer silkscreen class. The last day of the class was used to demonstrate monoprinting and finish up prints in progress. I wasn’t really working on anything, so I printed a transparency of this image to expose onto a screen.

This is an old photograph placed on a scanner and moved while the scan was in process. I decided to print with a blend of two colors of inks, mainly to use up some custom mixed colors. I settled on brown and light blue.
Here’s a print made once the colors had started to blend together.

There was also some red ink, mixed with just a touch of metallic silver, that needed to be used up. I threw some on the screen and ran another print.

Some more red ink added, and a couple of prints pulled to bleed the colors, and this was the result:

This one I like. It’s kind of creepy, the red has a splattered blood look that makes the portraits look ominous.

While making these prints, I had first printed onto a piece of mylar to help with registering the paper under the screen. I forgot to move the mylar with the wet ink while pulling a print onto a piece of scrap newsprint, and found afterwards that the ink from the mylar had transferred to the paper. Here’s the result:

I really like this. I find the wrinkles and visual noise appealing, and I can see myself exploring this idea further in the future. I love happy accidents!

So, that’s it for screenprinting, at least for now. I’ve just set up a screenprinting lab in my basement, and am currently running exposure tests and troubleshooting. Getting exposure times right is kicking my butt a little, but I hope get it worked out and start making more prints soon.

The Summer Of Screenprints IV

2009-08-13T11:26:00.008-05:00

Here are a couple more prints from my recent foray into silkscreening.Both of these prints are remakes of pieces from my Postcard project from last summer. You can click the link for more details, but in a nutshell, these are reworked postcard sized collages from twenty years ago. I'll start with the original, a simple black and white photocopy of the collage made in 1988.

From Lightbender

Here's the digital reworking of the collage I did last summer:

From Lightbender

And finally, here's that reworked collage translated into a two-color screenprint:

While there may not seem to be much difference between this and the digital version, when viewing these in person the difference is immediately noticeable. The screenprint has a tactile quality that isn't present in the digital print, and the pink background is much brighter (I mixed white with a florescent pink ink to get that color).

Here's another of the old postcard collages remade. First, the photocopy of the original collage.

Next, my rework of the original from last summer.

From Lightbender

Finally, here is my revised collage done as a screenprint:

I like this quite a bit. I used two inks, pink and purple, and screened them together. It looks great, I like the colors, and the halftone pattern works really well with this image. I plan on experimenting with putting a gloss coat of a 50's inspired pattern over this, but haven't come up with anything I like yet.

Making these screenprints has rekindled my interest in these old collages once again. They seem to somehow make sense as screenprints. I'm in the process of setting up a silkscreening lab in my basement, I wouldn't be surprised if more of these postcards end up as my first prints once the lab is ready to go.

The Summer Of Screenprints III

2009-08-12T02:08:00.006-05:00

This is the third post in a series looking at my recent attempts at screenprinting. By now, I’m getting used to the process of silkscreening, and starting to think more about what can be done with it. These prints are some of the favorite ones I’ve made as part of my lessons.

The first two are admittedly kind of puerile, but I can’t help but like them. They make me laugh. They started as photos I took when playing around in my studio, which I often do when I’m between projects and looking for inspiration. I had been shooting photos of small toys placed on magazine pages, then switched to office supplies.

It doesn’t show up much in these photos, but the silkscreen prints are done on black ink against a background of metallic silver ink. The black on silver looks really great, and really makes the images pop.

This next bunch of prints were made from a photograph of a huge statue of a Mesopotamian human-headed winged bull in the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago.
The first one is printed with green ink on a piece of newsprint.

The next one is also green ink, but with a mauve background. I did this for fun, and ended up liking the psychedelic feel of the print. The figure isn’t particularly easy to see, but it’s a fun print.

Here’s a third version of the same image. This one is a color blend done by placing blue and yellow ink together on the screen. Several prints are run, the ink becoming more blended with each consecutive print until a gradient results. This is one of the earlier prints in the run, and the colors are sill pretty separated. The newsprint this is printed on had a rectangle of metallic silver ink on it (left over from printing the images at the top of the post) which I thought looked pretty good with this photo screened onto it.

I still have several prints to post, look for more over the next couple of days.

The Summer Of Screenprints II

2009-08-10T21:46:00.006-05:00

Here’s a few more screenprints made as part of my silkscreening lessons. I made a collage of text from 1950’s homemaker’s magazines, and silkscreened it onto wallpaper. These were done using the photo emulsion silkscreening method, which basically involves coating the screen with a light sensitive emulsion, and exposing an image onto it. The printable areas are washed out, leaving a sort of stencil on the screen for making prints.
Here’s the original collage:

and here are several versions of it silkscreened on to various pieces of wallpaper.

I went through some old wallpaper sample books in my studio and chose pieces that I thought would work well with the text. I decided to print with just black ink, because as a beginner, I wanted to keep it easy. I may go back and reprint this while making some of the text red.

The last one is my favorite. It looks much better in person, the photo I took of it looks pretty crappy by comparison.
I'll post more screenprints soon.

The Summer Of Screenprints

2009-08-09T23:43:00.008-05:00

As I mentioned here a couple of posts ago, I’ve been taking lessons in screenprinting. The printmaking instructor at the school where I teach has been giving me lessons in her basement studio. I’ve learned quite a bit in a short period of time, and while I still have more to learn, I’ve been happy with what I’ve been doing so far.

I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about the silkscreening process, but I’ll share images and discuss them a little.

This is the first real print I made. It uses the drawing-fluid method of screenprinting. I was interested in printing over a background image, so I made a 50’s inspired design that had a lot of space. Not the best piece I’ve ever made, but it served it’s purpose. Here’s a test print on newsprint, without an image behind it:

You’ll notice it didn’t print real well-it’s uneven on the left side and along the top. This was a 13 X 18 inch print, and the screen I was using was 16 X 20. What I didn’t know at the time is that you should leave a larger border on the screen around the image you are trying to print. I kind of like the way this looks, however. The flaws in printing add visual interest.

Here’s a few more versions of this print. I printed 13 X 18 inch photos on my inkjet printer, and silkscreened the image on top of them.

This was printed on top of a photo of moss I took while on vacation last month. I like this one quite a bit.

This is printed onto a black and white photo of grass. It’s ok, but I like the other ones better.

This one is printed onto a photo of ferns I took when in Hawaii a couple of years ago.

I added a clear gloss coat over the black, which as you can see in the close up, was out of registration.

I made a second version on the same photo, and on this one, the gloss coat is better registered. It’s my favorite of these prints.

I’ve got several more prints to share, I’ll post more over the next few days.

F-Stop Magazine

2009-08-01T12:14:00.002-05:00

The new issue of F-Stop Magazine is now online. They published two of my photos. To see them, click on the link, then on the group exhibit (titled 'Amusements'). My photos are in the bottom row, on the right hand side.
While you're there, take a look at the work by other photographers. There's some good work there.

Good News!

2009-07-27T19:22:00.005-05:00

Today I received the following e-mail:

"Just a quick note to let you know, one or more of your images will be
included in the upcoming issue of F-Stop Magazine.
Thanks for contributing!"

F-Stop is a well done online photography magazine. I submitted some nighttime shots of a fair, and apparently they liked them. I'll post again once the issue with my photos goes online.

Still Working, Really!

2009-07-27T01:51:00.006-05:00

As I wrote in my last post (was it really a month ago?) I am putting in some studio time this summer, but at a pretty slow rate. I was on vacation for a couple of weeks earlier this month, which I enjoyed greatly, although it kept me away from the studio. Now, I'm taking some lessons in screenprinting (which I somehow missed during my years in school), and hope to have something decent enough to post here soon. I've only made a couple of prints so far, but have more lessons Monday and Tuesday.

Meanwhile, here's a couple of small Van Dyke brown prints I made around the same time as the cyanotype on plywood experiments I posted about previously. These are vintage photographs that I scanned while dragging and sliding the prints around on the surface of the scanner. I made these scans over Spring break this year, while basically goofing around in my studio. I really wasn't planning on doing anything with these, but ended up liking some of them.

The photos came from two sources. One is a box of old photo portraits which has been sitting in a cabinet in the photo labs where I teach for as long as I've been working there (I'll be starting my ninth year this fall). I have no idea where they came from, and no one has ever expressed any interest in them, so I brought them home last year to keep them from getting ruined by splashing chemistry, and to do something creative with them.

The other source is more interesting. About a year ago, I bought a copy of the book LaPorte, Indiana. It was written by one of the people behind the wonderful Found Magazine. The book consists entirely of studio portraits dating from the 50's-70's from a portrait studio in LaPorte, IN. The book details finding dozens of boxes of these portraits in a diner in LaPorte, which now occupies the storefront formerly occupied by the photo studio. I was in LaPorte last fall doing volunteer work for Barack Obama's presidential campaign, and made it a point to stop at that same diner. Sure enough, they still have dozens of boxes of old portraits, which they sell for 50 cents apiece. I bought a couple dozen of them.

These were meant to be test prints, just to test the negatives. My original goal was to try to print onto gold leaf, but my attempts were such a dismal failure that they went directly into the trash. I have a couple ideas to try along those lines, but haven't had time to follow through. I don't know if I'll stick with these images (Van Dyke brown on plywood could be interesting), but they might fit well with other ideas I'm exploring right now.

Recent Experiments

2009-06-25T21:01:00.005-05:00

I’ve been having a relaxing summer, and probably not putting in as much studio time as I should be. I am working on a couple of different things, mainly trying to print alternative process photos on different surfaces. Not a lot of success yet, as you’ll see, but I’ve got more things to try.

Recently, I’ve been working at making cyanotype prints on pieces of plywood. I swear I’ve seen that done before, but can’t seem to find any examples in any of my books on alternative processes.

Here’s one of the images I’m working with, printed on paper. While it needs a little work, I can get a decent print fom the negative I printed. The image, by the way, is something I shot a couple of years ago. I have a bunch of old magazines from the 50’s in my studio, and this part of a page from one of them shot on a light table, so that the images on both sides of the page show.

For my first attempt attempt at cyanotype printing on plywood, I just coated the wood, let it dry (it seemed to take a long time to dry, similar to coating fabric for printing), and exposed the negative. As you can see below, it didn’t work out so well.

It looks a little underexposed (again, like printing on fabric, which I’ve found takes longer to expose than paper). It’s also difficult to read the image. Part of that is from is the roughness of the wood, so I sanded a piece, coated it (the sanded piece dried more quickly) and exposed it. I increased exposure by a couple of minutes as well.

This one came out better than the first one, but still not that great. While it’s easier to see the image here than on the first one I did, it’s nowhere close to where I want it. I’m going to try sizing the wood next, probably with gelatin. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Vacation Photos

2009-06-10T21:25:00.003-05:00

I’ve got at least three different ideas I’m (kind of) working on right now, and will post some of them here once they’ve progressed to a point where it makes sense to show them.

In the meantime, here’s some pieces from a small project I just completed. I was asked (in a semi-joking way) to hang vacation photos in the showcases in the Fine and Performing Arts Center of Moraine Valley Community College, where I teach. I agreed, then had to come up with something interesting, so that the cases weren’t filled with a bunch of boring photos.
I decided to enlarge some panoramic or joined photo pieces, and print them on several pieces of 13 X 19 inch paper, and surround them with more typical scenic photos.

I’ve played with these ‘panoramas’ for several years, shooting them while on vacation, and sometimes close to home as well. I always do them quickly, and while I try to line things up, I don’t aim for perfection. I like the spatial distortions that occur, as well as the changes in exposure in the different individual photos that make up a panoramic image. The one at the top of this post was taken at Zion National Park in Utah in 2001. That one was shot using a film camera. The individual prints were pieced together then scanned.

This one was shot in The Netherlands in 2005. I like how the blades of the windmill are not lined up in the various shots that make this piece. The movement of the blades becomes evident as a result.

I shot this from the 15th floor balcony of a hotel room in San Francisco's Japantown in 2003. The overlapping photos seem to increase the busyness of the urban scene.

These vacation photos, along with several non panoramic shots, are currently on display in the showcases in the atrium of the Fine and Performing Arts Center of Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, IL. They should remain up for most of the summer.

Happy Anniversary!

2009-04-30T01:09:00.003-05:00

Today is the second anniversary of this blog. My first post here was April 30, 2007.

I started this blog mainly to document a sabbatical I took during Fall semester, 2007. My school requires a fairly detailed post-sabbatical report, and I figured that a blog would serve that purpose well (which it did. My post report consisted mainly of a printout of the entire blog, which is why my personnel file in the Human Resources office fills two thick file folders).

After returning to work, I kept the blog running, mainly as a way to show new work as I made it, to share work in progress, and discuss art in general. I've done that, but have posted less frequently in recent months. There's a couple of reasons for that. One, I usually spend much less time in the studio during the school year than I do over the summer. Two, while I have a lot of ideas in my head, I haven't been making too much of them. School lets out soon, and I'm hoping to jump right into the studio (and yard work, riding my bike, cleaning the house, and all the other things that get ignored when I'm teaching).

I've also kind of forgotten about posting work by other artists that I like here. I really want to pick that up again (artists and art lovers: Send me links!).

So there we have it. I like the blog, and plan on keeping it running. If I get ambitious, I'll actually post here more than once a month. While waiting for posts here, you can always check out A Photo A Day, my other blog (which had it's one-year anniversary yesterday). There, you'll find a new photo nearly every day, along with a few comments about it.

One last thing: The image at the top of this post was something I found stapled to a telephone pole in Ann Arbor, MI, sometime in the late '80's. I've always thought it funny. I have no idea why it was there, or what the original source was.

Expiration Notice

2009-04-28T01:15:00.002-05:00

I just had a piece published in Expiration Notice, a new photo blog for photographers over the age of 35 who are making good work but aren't famous.

Unfortunately, it looks like the blog will be going away for a while. They are taking the summer off, while looking for some sort of sponsorship. They say they will publish again in the fall. I hope they do, I like the idea a lot. I have nothing against younger artists, but it can be frustrating seeing so many opportunities that limit the age of who is eligible.

From The Archives III

2009-03-13T22:29:00.007-05:00

I’m nearing the end of spring break, which has been quite productive. I’ve worked a great deal in my studio this past week, and have a lot of work in progress (and a lot of thinking to do). I don’t have anything ready to post here, however, so it’s a good time for the third installment of From the Archives, wherein I post an old piece of work and write some comments about how it was made and what I was thinking about (you can read the first installment here, and the second installment here).

Doppler #1 was made in the summer of 1997, after finishing my first year of graduate school. Nearly all of the work I made my first year at Cranbrook reflected an interest in scientific structure and notation. After school let out, I was determined to continue the momentum in my studio practice and work throughout the summer (which was the first time since 1981 when I didn’t have a job over the summer). Carrying the ideas of structure and notation into the work I made over that summer, Doppler #1 was an attempt to visually recreate and diagram Doppler effect (changes in pitch of a moving object's sound). In this piece, the photographic fragments, the objects in the photographs, and the spaces between the strips of photographs get wider as they move from left to right across the composition. References to motion and sound occur throughout the photographs used to create this piece. Here’s a close-up (excuse the fuzziness, it’s a scan of an old slide, and I couldn’t get it to turn out well).

I shot the photos on a warm summer evening. I had my partner Kevin put on dress clothes, and I shot him playing his violin near a freeway overpass in a semi-wooded area close to where we were living in Ann Arbor. I waited until large trucks or other vehicles were on the overpass, as I wanted to emphasize motion and feature things that produced sound in the photos.

After processing the film, I scanned the negatives, and manipulated them in Photoshop by stretching and squashing the images. These manipulated images were taken to a digital imaging lab, where they were printed onto pieces of photographic film. I used this film to make the prints. There are three 20” X 24” photographs in this piece, all printed in a traditional wet darkroom on photographic paper. These prints were cut into strips and reassembled onto a large sheet of heavy paper (approx. 36” X 80”).

Doppler #1, along with a second doppler piece (with the unimaginative title Doppler #2), are the culmination of my lengthy exploration of scientific structure and notation. Upon finishing the two doppler pieces, I felt I that this direction for my work had run it’s course. I returned to school in the fall of 1997 determined to work in a different direction. Which I did, after a couple of false starts. I don’t think I did much with these pieces. I’ve never exhibited them anywhere, and I don’t remember ever critiquing them a Cranbrook. I liked them at the time, but they were lost in the shuffle of wanting to do something different with my work. Now, they’re in a closet in my studio.

Update

2009-02-20T01:28:00.000-06:00

I found this today and thought it fit well with my last post. It's a time lapse video of tourists on Abbey Road in London posing like the cover of the Beatles album.

Original Ideas?

2009-02-18T00:29:00.005-06:00

I shot this photo in London in 2003 (you can read the details here). This sort of shot isn’t unusual, and it isn’t difficult. It’s done quite often. As ideas go, it’s not the most original one, even if it is fun.

The other day, I found this photo on a blog I read:

I like this quite a bit. Instead of shooting someone holding up the Tower of Pisa, the photographer (who wasn’t credited on the blog) shot people posing for other photographers who were taking the ‘holding up the tower’ shot. The first time I looked at this, I thought it funny and original. The second tilme I looked at it, I thought it looked a lot like the work of Martin Parr. It looked so much like Parr’s work that I did a Google image search for ‘Martin Parr Pisa’. What I found is that the photo isn’t Martin Parr’s. He did do a photo very similar to that, however. You can see it here, along with a short discussion on his work.

Of course, that same Google image search turned up several other examples of people ‘doing a Martin Parr’, and shooting people in a similar manner as in Parr’s photo (you can see several interesting ones by the same photographer here). Parr has, in fact, done an entire book of photos of this sort, titled Small World. I haven’t seen it, but it’s probably great. Most of his work is.

Turns out, I’ve done this type of shot as well. This was shot in 1999, in Rocky Mountain National Park:

Above the treeline in the Rockies, the grasses and mosses grow at an extremely slow rate. Walking on them can cause irreparable damage. Signs are posted everywhere warning people to stay on the paths and to avoid any wildlife. These tourists selfishly ignoring those signs and trodding on the delicate grasses while chasing after the wildlife made an interesting, if annoying photo.

Looking at and thinking about these photos raises a question. When a subversion of a typical tourist photo itself becomes typical, do we accept the seeming scarcity of originality, or merely chalk it up to independently occurring ideas? Or, do we look for the next way to be subversive, even though we know that someone else is probably thinking the same thing?

New Polaroid Pieces

2009-01-18T00:50:00.008-06:00

I returned to teaching this week after a semester break that was shorter than usual (and felt like it). While on break, I kept busy by making some Polaroid lifts and transfers. I tried something different with these. I took clippings from various magazines and comic books, stuck them in a slide mount, and used these as the slides I made my Polaroid prints from. I must admit that’s not my original idea. An independent study student of mine was doing the same thing last year while learning how to do Polaroid processes. I will say, however, that I’ve done a pretty similar thing for years. When I’m between projects, I take old magazines and comics, throw them on a light table, and photograph what I see. Here’s a page from a magazine I shot back in 2005.

While making these manipulated Polaroid prints, I tried doing both lifts and transfers with the same images. Here’s a Polaroid lift:

and here’s the same image done as a Polaroid transfer:

I expected the differences in the surface between the two pieces. What I wasn’t anticipating was the difference in color between them.

Here’s another lift:

and the same image done as a transfer:

Again, there’s a big difference in color between the two.
I think I know why this occurs. Polaroid lifts start with a fully developed Polaroid print. The photographic emulsion is removed from it’s original backing, and placed onto a new surface. Because the print is fully developed, the color is pretty accurate (for a Polaroid, that is. Polaroid prints aren’t known for having good color).

Polaroid transfers, on the other hand, are made from the negative half of a peel apart Polaroid print. The negative is peeled before the print fully develops. Because the color layers of the film transfer one at a time, depending on how long you wait before pulling the negative off, some of the color layers may have transferred to the print surface, and therefore won’t show up in the transfer.

Here’s one more set of prints. The Polaroid lift is first, followed by the transfer.

While this was fun and kept me busy for a few days, I’m a little ambivalent about the results. I like them, but I’m not sure how much I like them. I made about fifteen prints total, and I’m not sure if I’ll be doing any more like this. My favorite is the Polaroid lift you see above of the face with text on it. I’m considering trying a gum bichromate print of that image. If that turns out, I might make more of these (provided I can get Polaroid film, which just stopped being manufactured).

Words Of Advice

2009-01-17T01:50:00.004-06:00

I was surfing the web just now and found this, purportedly a quote by filmmaker Jim Jarmusch. I liked the message, and given what it says, it seemed appropriate to take it and post it here.
Click on the image to see a larger version.

Facebook Fan Page

2009-01-13T22:02:00.003-06:00

I've just set up a fan page on Facebook. My intent is for it to be similar to this blog, a place to post examples of my work. There will likely be more work there (including some older work) and less discussion of work in progress.
Check it out! You don't need to be on Facebook to look at it.

The Zombie JPG

2009-01-05T20:47:00.004-06:00

It looks like JPG magazine might be back from the dead (more accurately saved from impending death, but I really wanted to title this post "The Zombie JPG"). After my previous post, my friend Brady sent me an email with some interesting information: Apparently, the news on JPG's impending demise generated enough interest that some interested buyers came forward. According to the JPG blog, which you can access on their site, they "are hopeful that something can be worked out with a number of potential last minute acquirers who want to help the JPG community live on...The good news is that this interest has bought us a little more time, so we are now looking to keep the site open at least through next week".

If you're interested in following this more closely, a new blog, Save JPG, has just opened.

Meanwhile, I've found another photo blog that has the potential to be interesting. Aiming to combat the widespread belief that all emerging artists are young and fresh out of art school, Expiration Notice will showcase work by photographers worldwide over age 35 and with no current gallery representation. There's nothing up on their site at the moment, they are currently taking submissions for the first edition which will go live in February. I've submitted some work, specifically images from a series of cyanotypes made a couple of years ago of photos of architectural models (one of them is at the top of this post). I'll be sure to let you know if they use them.

Goodbye JPG

2009-01-02T13:49:00.003-06:00

I received an e-mail yesterday informing me that JPG magazine is ceasing publication and shutting down it’s website effective 1/5/09. They cite the current economic mess as their reason.

What I admired about JPG is also what drove me nuts about it: As a site dedicated to creative photography where anyone could join and post their photos, it leveled the playing field by avoiding distinctions between professionals and amateurs, commercial and fine art photographers, etc. Unfortunately, that philosophy resulted in an incredible number of trite, unoriginal photos being submitted.

I had some disagreements with JPG’s curatorial choices. While they claimed to be looking for unique and creative work, much of what was chosen for publication seemed pretty tame and expected to me. Also, they were capricious at best with how they enforced their policy banning digital manipulation. That said, I saw a great deal of really good work by unknown photographers on that site, and it will be missed.

Luckily, online photo sites appear to be on the increase. I’ve found several over the past few months that I like. None of these sites allow unmoderated uploading of images, and so are not as egalitarian as JPG, although several are dedicated to showing emerging artists. Having a more active curatorial role seems to largely eliminate the trite, uninteresting work that made up so much of what was found on JPG.

Fraction is a bi-monthly online photo magazine that shows work from established and emerging artists side by side. They also publish a blog.

F-Stop is also an online bi-monthly photography magazine featuring contemporary photography from established and emerging photographers from around the world.

Shots Magazine is an independent, reader-supported, quarterly journal of fine art photography, which presents work by a variety of photographers from around the world. Published online as well as in paper form.

Lenscratch is an interesting blog showcasing contemporary photography and photographers.

Notpaper is a blog about collage. Lots of interesting collage work, both digital and traditional, is featured.

New Postcards

2008-12-27T17:37:00.007-06:00

I’ve just returned to Chicago after visiting family in Michigan for a few days. Rural mid-Michigan isn’t the most exciting place, so while I was there, my sister and I entertained ourselves by making collaged postcards. Armed with several old magazines, we worked without any goal besides making something.

We made these postcards intending to use them for Postcrossing. Postcrossing is a project where you send and recieve postcards from random people around the world. I’ve been doing it for several months, and my sister and mother have done it as well.

Afer making several poscards, my mother joined in. Her contribution was to supply us with bits of text, which then became the theme of a postcard.

What started as a way to pass time resulted in some interesting work. Some of the cards came out pretty well. I’ve scanned some of my favorites, and may clean them up and list them as prints on my Etsy page.

My Top Five

2008-12-06T14:01:00.008-06:00

My friend Brady recently posted an interesting challenge to “artists and artist wannabes” on his blog. He asks “If you were to go through your work from the last year, could you identify five that, for one reason or another, you like best?”
I love that question. I personally find that in my studio work, I tend to move from one idea or project to another, without much reflection on what I’ve accomplished. Looking back at what I’ve made over the past year is probably a good exercise for that very reason.

2008 was kind of an odd year for me, art-wise. It started at the tail end of my sabbatical, as I was working feverishly in the studio exploring alternative photographic processes. After my post-sabbatical exhibit opened in the spring, my studio work slowed to a trickle as I concentrated on teaching duties. The summer wasn’t as productive as it should have been. I shot a lot of random photos, but a large, stressful, remodeling project (with long delays-the 2 1/2 week estimate turned out to be an 8 week project) kept me from the basement workspace I used for making prints. The remodeling finally was completed (and I got a new darkroom as part of it), but by then I was back in school, and my attention and energy were focused elsewhere.

So, here are my picks. It was difficult narrowing it down to five, but ranking them was even more difficult. I’m not sure the order would stay the same if I rethought it, but what’s most important is that these are my five favorite pieces made this year.

#5

This past summer, I started making cyanotype bookmarks as a way to use up some scrap paper and keep busy in the studio between projects. I ended up designing and printing over twenty different bookmarks. They were a lot of fun, and some of them came out pretty well. This one’s one of my favorites. It’s a little surreal, but more fun than weird. I’m currently relisting this one and my other bookmarks for sale on my Etsy page. I'm also listing a larger version, approx. 3.5" X 18.25“ in a limited print run.

#4

This cyanotype print is made from a Holga photo shot in San Francisco’s Japantown in October , 2007. The print was made sometime late last winter. I love the composition in this image, and the prominent use of negative space. It didn’t fit well with the other work I made at the same time (much of which was in my post-sabbatical exhibition last spring), and as a result hasn’t been seen publicly aside from this blog.

#3

In my original post for this piece, I wrote that it looks like a still from a Guy Maddin film. It’s a duotone gum bichromate print, and it really should be printed a couple more times (gum bichromate prints are made by printing a series of layers of different colors. The more layers, the more intense the colors become). I stopped here because I really liked the gray and light yellow in the print. I made a second version of this print which I exhibited in my show last spring. That version was made with metallic gold acrylic instead of the standard watercolor paints used to make gum prints. It turned out much darker, and has a slight metallic sheen. I still like the faded look of this one, however. The photo was shot in Chicago’s Chinatown with my Holga camera.

#2

My most recent piece, currently hanging in the gallery at Moraine Valley Community College as part of the faculty exhibit. Scroll down a couple of posts to get the full story. This shot, quickly snapped after pinning the piece up to my studio wall, really does not do the piece justice. It looks much better in person.

#1

This gum bichromate print was actually finished in the afternoon last December 30. Close enough to be considered work I made this year. The photo was taken in Chinatown here in Chicago on the day after Thanksgiving. I like this piece for a number of reasons. The photo itself is interesting, I like the subject matter (knickknacks in a shop window) and the use of short depth of field. The print came out really well. It was the second ‘real’ gum print I made after several weeks of running tests to control exposure and color balance in a notoriously picky printing process. I was really happy with the color I got here, and it encouraged me to go further with gum printing.

San Fran Polaroid Tran

2008-11-30T23:37:00.003-06:00

I made this Polaroid transfer last week while demonstrating the process to some of my students. I like how it came out, and decided to post it here. The image this transfer was made from was created in a Photoshop class I took a couple of years ago as a refresher. It started as a photo of brightly painted houses in San Francisco. I manipulated that photo, adding the paisley to the sky and changing the color. I had taken a slide of that image last year, but didn't do anything with it until now. I like how it came out, even if it is backwards. I could flip it easily, but it really doesn't matter in this case.

Self Portrait as a Drowned Man (After Bayard)

2008-11-07T01:29:00.007-06:00

Here’s my latest piece. I finished the last bit of work on it a few days ago. I made this piece specifically for this year’s annual exhibit of faculty work at Moraine Valley Community College, where I teach, although I’ve had the idea for this piece for several years. It was one of those ideas that was too good not to pursue, and with the theme of this year’s faculty exhibit being self portrait and autobiographical work, the time seemed right.

The piece is made of twelve cyanotype prints. The prints are made on copies of rejection letters I’ve received from various galleries. Here's a close-up of the piece so you can see the letters the piece is printed on (click on the photo to see a larger version).

This piece is based on a well known historical photograph by Hippolyte Bayard. Bayard was one of the first inventors of photography, but was given duplicitous advice which allowed Louis Daguerre to receive the French patent for the invention of photography (that’s why you’ve heard of daguerreotypes, but not bayardotypes). Bayard’s response was to pose as a corpse, an apparent suicide due to the injustice and lack of recognition for his invention. Ironically, the image became famous as the first staged photograph, and can be found in nearly every book on photographic history. Here’s the original Bayard photograph I based my piece on:

I originally wanted to print directly onto the actual rejection letters, but that proved to be unworkable. Many papers use bleach in the manufacturing process, and residual bleach in the paper bleached the cyanotype prints. I made several test prints that looked great when first developed, but when dry, had bleached so much that the image was very pale.

I wanted the piece to look as much like it was printed on the actual rejection letters as possible. After trying a few experiments, I arrived at a solution that worked (for the most part). I scanned all the rejection letters, and printed them on a matte surface Epson inkjet paper. I generally like Epson papers, and was very surprised that the ink held up to the cyanotype process. These prints were washed in a tray of water for about 20 minutes, and the ink did not run at all. Epson claims their ultrachrome inks (the type my printer uses) are water resistant, but I never expected that I could expose them to this much water without the ink running. There was one drawback to using the Epson paper, however. The cyanotype solution stained the white areas of the prints yellow, and no amount of washing would remove that color. I decided I could live with it.

This work is obviously a self portrait, but it is autobiographical as well. By printing the piece on rejection letters I’ve received from galleries, I’m not just referencing the rejection Hippolyte Bayard felt when he lost the patent. I’m commenting on my (lack of) success in the world of commercial galleries (in a lighthearted way). I have an ambivalent relationship with commercial galleries. While exhibits in commercial galleries are often considered the primary goal of the working artist, I just do not enjoy the smoozing and ass kissing that often accompanies them. I also know firsthand (I worked briefly in a gallery when I first moved to Chicago) that decisions in these galleries are made based on commerce, not artistic merit. I’ve done really well at academic galleries, non profit spaces, etc., but my work doesn’t have seem to have much commercial appeal. I’m comfortable with that, although I still dutifully leave discs of my work at galleries whenever I finish a new body of work. At least, my efforts have provided me with the letters used to make this piece!

innerview
Autobiographical works and self-portraits by Moraine Valley faculty
Nov. 17-Jan. 8
Reception: Thursday, Dec. 4, 2-4 p.m.

Robert F. DeCaprio Art Gallery
Fine and Performing Arts Center
Moraine Valley Community College
9000 W. College Pkwy.
Palos Hills, IL

The Postcard Project

2008-08-31T02:34:00.009-05:00

Recently, I’ve been revising some work I made twenty years ago.
In 1988, I participated in a mail art project. The project involved making 35 original postcards and mailing them (in an envelope) to someone who was collecting all the cards, and sending back 35 cards from different artists. It sounded fun, and I threw myself headfirst into the project of making the postcards. At the time, I was mostly making collages, and I labored over these 35 cards for about three weeks, clipping images and text from 1950’s homemaker’s magazines, old textbooks, and religious books bought at garage sales, and painstakingly assembling collages out if them. I put a lot of time and effort into these postcards, and I sent them off just before the deadline, then anxiously awaited my package of postcards from other artists.

When the package arrived, I was pretty disappointed. I received 35 cards, but most of them were pairs of cards from an artist, instead of cards from 35 different artists. Much worse than that, however, was that many of the people involved obviously put no effort whatsoever into their cards. One person scribbled on a piece of poster board with several differently colored markers, then cut the board into 4 X 6 inch squares. Another glued whole pages of newspaper onto a sheet of poster board, and cut that into squares. I even received two of my own cards back (which I can’t seem to find right now). Receiving two scribbled pieces of board seemed pretty bad after pouring so much effort into the project. While there were a few decent photo cards in the package, many of the 35 cards ended up in the trash.

When I made my collaged postcards, I ran up against the deadline for mailing them and had to send them off before documenting them (this was years before I owned a scanner or a copy stand). Figuring it was better than nothing, I had my sister take them to work and make B&W photocopies of all 35 postcards. These copies have sat in a folder in my file cabinet for 20 years, until now.

With the home remodeling project (which just passed week five of the supposedly three week project-and it’s still not finished) I’ve been without my basement workspace for making alternative process prints. Tired of sitting around waiting to return to the studio, I pulled the 20 year old grainy B&W photocopies out of the filing cabinet, scanned them all, and have been digitally revising and coloring some of them.

Here’s the original photocopy of the revised card seen at the top of this post, for comparison.

Of the 35 cards, probably a third of them really aren’t very good and are best left buried in the file cabinet. I remember running out of steam about 3/4 of the way through making them, but forcing myself to push out a few more. Another third are ok, but nothing much can be done with them. That leaves about a dozen or so postcards that hold up decently well after 20 years, and that might benefit from being reworked and updated. I decided not to try and recreate the cards as they originally looked. After 20 years, I can’t remember how they looked in their original state, and in some cases, it’s hard to recreate anything from a grainy photocopy. Besides, it’s more fun making something new out of them.

Here’s another one, the original first, followed by the revision.

As of this writing, I have four of the cards completed, and two or three more in progress (including one that I’ve done two versions of, and don’t like either one). I enlarged a couple of them and printed them, and they look great. So good, in fact, that I’m thinking of listing them as prints on my Etsy page.

I’ll post more of these postcard revisions in a couple of days.

Adventure Time

2008-08-29T09:51:00.002-05:00

This quirky, offbeat, and totally charming cartoon short has just been picked up as a series by the Cartoon Network. I can't wait. I was laughing out loud watching this. It's bizarre, in a good way.

Watch This Space

2008-08-26T19:45:00.001-05:00

I'll post some of my own art here soon. Meantime, check out this great PSA about art education:

Photo Essays

2008-08-14T21:51:00.006-05:00

Still not much happening, art-wise. The remodeling project in my house keeps dragging on and on, so I am without my basement space for making prints right now. I start teaching classes on Aug. 25 after having the summer off, and it's looking like the remodeling won't be finished before I resume teaching. I was hoping for a small break between the time the project is finished and school starts, to regroup and start working on my new darkroom (which is part of the remodeling job). That's not going to happen, so I'll have a few weeks of teaching while simultaneously putting the darkroom together. Should be nice and exhausting!

I have been doing some shooting, and have some ideas for things I want to start working on. I also have a few negatives for more bookmarks ready to print, which I probably won't be able to do for a few weeks.

I've also uploaded quite a few photos to JPG magazine, including a couple of photo essays. These are basically groups of thematically linked photos with a bit of writing. The first one I titled The Institute. It's several photos I took of the models for a new wing the Art Institute of Chicago is constructing. I've made cyanotypes of several of the photos I shot of these models, some of which I posted to this blog over a year ago.

The most recent photo essay I posted to JPG is titled Night at the Fair. It's a selection of photos I took at a small carnival back in 1996 using color saturated film.

Posting to JPG magazine and making bookmarks haven't really replaced making art, but it has kept me busy through a summer in which my studio work has taken a back seat. I know from past experience that as soon as I return to teaching, having a structured work week will likely push me back into the studio.

Yay! More Bookmarks!

2008-08-02T18:36:00.007-05:00

OK, I really wasn't planning on posting any more bookmarks on this blog, but I really don't have anything else to show right now. Work has been going really slowly this summer. Several attempts at gum bichromate prints haven't turned out well (I have a couple that need one more layer, but I've been avoiding finishing them, because I know I won't like them when I do).

Meanwhile, my basement work space has been torn up due to a remodel/construction project we're having done to the house. Eventually, the construction will be over, and as part of that project involves building a real darkroom in my basement, I'll soon have a nice space to work in that I don't have to share with the washing machine and that I can make light tight. I'll be able to develop film and print B&W photos, not just alternative process photos.

Until then, I'm stuck, as far as printing is concerned. I probably could attempt some alt process prints, but I'd have to move junk and rearrange stuff for an hour in the basement before starting, then put it all back before the construction resumed the following day.

I've actually been doing a decent amount of shooting, especially with my Holga camera. Some of those will likely turn up on my Photo A Day blog pretty soon.

So, it's more bookmarks. These have been on my Etsy page for a while, but are making their first appearance here.

Animation News

2008-07-20T23:34:00.005-05:00

I'm a huge animation fan. Some of my all-time favorite movies and tv shows are animated, and there's always a couple of cartoons on my Tivo's to do list. This weekend saw a couple of animation related events that I'm excited about.

First, here's the trailer for Ponyo On The Cliff, the latest film by Hayao Miyazaki, which opened this weekend in Japan.

I'm a huge fan of Miyazaki's work, his Studio Ghibli is arguably making the best animation in the world right now (OK, maybe it's tied with Pixar). If you haven't seen any of Miyazaki's work, drop everything, run to your nearest video store, and rent a copy of Spirited Away. Ponyo On The Cliff looks like another great film. I haven't heard when it will be released in the USA, but I'm hoping it won't be too long.

As long as I'm on the subject of animation, the final episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender aired this weekend on the cable channel Nickelodeon. I was out of town, and didn't catch them, but I have them on my Tivo and will finish them soon.

I must admit I'm a total Avatar fanboy. I could go on at length (and have, just ask my friends), but let me just say that it's no hyperbole that Avatar: The Last Airbender is the best animated series in at least a decade, and will likely be considered one of the best animated shows of all time. Trust me, it's that good. I wouldn't have named this blog after it otherwise!

If you haven't seen this show, I can't recommend it highly enough. The animation, writing, and art direction are of a quality rarely attempted in a children's cartoon program. Even the music is exceptional (I'm hoping for a soundtrack cd). Start with the first season, and watch the episodes in order. The story builds over the three seasons, and some of the characters go through significant development as the series progresses.
Avatar wasn't cancelled, by the way. It was planned from the beginning as a three season series with a finite number of episodes.

One more thing: If you haven't yet, go see Wall-E. It's excellent.

From The Archives II

2008-07-11T13:55:00.002-05:00

I have a couple of gum bichromate prints nearly finished (I’m hoping to print the final layer today). I’m pretty sure they won’t turn out well, which has been the case with all the gum prints I’m attempting this summer. I have a few more images I’m working on, but they are still in the digital stage, and haven’t even been printed as negatives yet.

With work progressing slowly, it seems like a good time for the second installment of From the Archives, wherein I post an old piece of work and write some comments about how it was made and what I was thinking about (you can read the first installment here.

Altarpiece was made in the fall of 1996. It’s the first piece I made while in graduate school at Cranbrook Academy of Art (technically, it’s a revision of that piece. When first made, it was prints only, I didn't have the bowling ball and pins yet). While it looks like a first graduate school piece (it’s a little overambitious, and could have been thought through a little better), I still really like the piece. It’s one of the few times I’ve ventured into installation-type work, which I appreciate, but don’t feel very compelled to produce. It’s also funny, and the humor in the piece seems natural and isn’t forced.

Here’s a short statement I wrote after completing the piece:
Altarpiece unites the iconography of two very different American cultural institutions, religion and sports. Bowling is the quintessential American sport, being a pastime for the masses and recreation for the non-fit and non-elite. The imposition of bowling imagery onto the basic triptych form of an altarpiece comments on the fervor and passion felt for sports in general and also on the elevation of sports in our culture to an almost religious station.
Altarpiece is a mixed-media work, combining hand-colored black and white photographs with gold leaf, a wooden pedestal, bowling ball, and bowling pins. The negatives used to print the photographs were created digitally from various appropriated and original source images.

The digital negatives made for Altarpiece aren’t like the ones I make now for alternative process photography. Back in 1996, inkjet printers did not lay down enough ink to make a useable negative. For this project, I had to take my digital files to a commercial printer and have 4X5 transparencies made (at about $15 each). I used those transparencies to print real photographs. The images came from a book on bowling instruction, and a history of altarpieces checked out of Cranbrook’s library. The photo of the bowling trophy I took myself (see below).

I’ll finish with a couple anecdotal stories about gathering the bowling paraphernalia.
I needed a bowling trophy to photograph for the center panel, and couldn't find one anywhere. At the time, my sister was living across the street from a thrift store in Chicago, and went there to look for one. She misunderstood what I needed, and ended up buying about 15 bowling trophies that happened to be in the store. I used them to decorate my studio at school, and all year long, people thought I was a bowling fanatic. I kept the one I used for the center panel (It’s still in my studio, on top of a bookcase), but I don’t know what happened to the rest of them. They’re probably still decorating student studios at Cranbrook.
I also had trouble finding a bowling ball (I didn’t want to spend money on a new one), but a friend at school said she would bring one back when she went home for the holidays. Turns out, home was Fresno, CA, and the purple bowling ball (in a tacky baby-blue case) was her carryon luggage for the flight back to Michigan. I wonder if you could carry a bowling ball onto a plane today with all the ridiculous new ‘security’ measures?

Altarpiece won a juror award at an exhibit titled Myth America at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art in Grand Rapids, MI in 1997. I also exhibited it at the annual faculty art exhibit at Moraine Valley Community College in 2006 (the show’s theme was showing older work alongside current work), where it received many interesting comments.

Road Trip To Milwaukee

2008-07-02T00:20:00.003-05:00

If you read the last post, you'll know that I'm busy with home remodeling this summer. Not so busy that I can't take a couple of weekend trips, however, and one of those weekenders is going to be to Milwaukee. The Milwaukee Art Museum has two exhibits this summer that look really interesting. Gilbert & George are a British art (and life) partnership that make immense, brightly colored photo mosaic/collage pieces with provocative content. Some of their work is really great, and it's all worth seeing.
The Sensory Overload exhibit of Kinetic and Op art looks interesting as well. Both exhibits look infinitely more interesting than the Jeff Koons show at the Museum of Contemporary Art here in Chicago.

Return Of The Son Of Bookmarks Strike Again Part IV

2008-07-01T23:45:00.010-05:00

I haven't done much with my gum prints in progress for the past few days. I haven't been terribly motivated, to be honest, after getting crappy results every time I try lately. I'm also busy with other (non-art) things.

We're adding a bathroom to the house, to replace a tiny one off of the kitchen that will eventually become a pantry. I've been to more tile stores, bath fixture shops, and Home Depots in the past couple of weeks than I'd like, and I'm not done yet. Part of that project will be adding a darkroom to my basement, which is great, but the construction is likely to shut down my basement workspace (and the ability to print) for a couple of weeks.

It's not all been tedious trips to look at sinks and toilets. An old friend from college, whom I haven't seen for ten years, passed through Chicago while taking the Amtrak to visit relatives in Michigan. I met her at Union Station downtown last week (her train was over five hours late-mass transit really sucks in the US), and again yesterday when she was making her return trip to South Carolina.
I have friends coming into town for July 4th weekend as well, which will be fun, but I won't be doing much in the studio while they are here.

So, here's more of the bookmarks I've been making and selling on Etsy.com. I've actually been selling a few-right after my last post, someone bought four of them. I've got a few more ready to print, but probably won't do so for a little while.

Still More Bookmarks

2008-06-26T11:58:00.010-05:00

I’m still working on some gum prints, and still having some trouble with the yellow and magenta layers being too intense. Gum prints are notorious for being fussy, even changes in the weather can cause them to turn out differently. That’s the only thing I suspect at the moment-most of the gum prints I’ve made in the past were done in the dead of winter. Now it’s summer, and my basement, where I’m printing, is much warmer and more humid than it was when I was successfully making gum prints. Why heat and humidity would only effect yellow and magenta, however, is a mystery.

Meanwhile, I’ve been making more cyanotype bookmarks, and really enjoying it. I think it’s the ability to do whatever I feel like without regard for creating a cohesive body of work and the creative challenge of working in a tight, narrow format that I find appealing. I also can work on them when I have spare time or don’t feel like doing anything else.

I wasn’t planning on making more of these. But then, someone bought a couple of them from my Etsy shop, and that inspired me to design some more. I now have 29 different bookmarks for sale there.

I’m also experimenting with making larger prints from my bookmark designs. I enlarged a couple of them to 18” X 3.5”, printed the digital negatives, and made prints from them. They came out beautifully, so I listed those on my Etsy shop as well.

These prints are editioned, I’ll only make 25 of each design. Rather than print them all off, I put a note in my Etsy listings for people to contact me if there’s a specific one they are interested in.

Photographer's Rights

2008-06-22T21:48:00.007-05:00

I took this photo in front of a church on the southwest side of Chicago last fall. I had gone there to shoot photos of the rides at a parking lot carnival, but a guy walking around with a camera at a place where children congregate was too much for the college-age security team to bear. At one point I spoke with the pastor of the church, and showed him images I had shot with the digital camera so he could see I wasn't interested in photographing children. He gave me permission to shoot at the carnival, but the 'security' still tailed me so closely that I got uncomfortable and left. On my way back to the car, I spotted this chalk drawing a child had done on the sidewalk in front of the church, and snapped a photo of it. It's more interesting than the shots I made at the carnival. I like how it's kind of charming and funny (and maybe a little creepy) at the same time.

I've heard several accounts recently of people getting harassed for taking legal photos in public places (a student of a colleague of mine was stopped by Homeland Security for shooting a photo of an oil refinery). Here's a short article on the legal rights of photographers. Not surprisingly, you have the right to shoot almost anything you want. There's some useful links at the bottom of the article, be sure to check them out.

Recent Gum Prints

2008-06-21T17:31:00.004-05:00

Here’s a couple of gum bichromate prints I’ve been working on recently. They’re not that great, but it’s an issue with printing, not with the images themselves. For some reason, the yellow layer seemed really overexposed in both of these prints (I printed the yellow layer exactly like I always have, and don’t know what caused it to be so intense). I soaked them in water with a splash of ammonia to remove excess exposure, but that didn’t really work. So I decided to continue on with the other colors, thinking I could print multiple layers to correct for too much yellow.

However, when I printed the magenta layer, everything seemed strongly orange tinted, something that was not improved when I printed the cyan layer. After printing the black layer, I gave up. On one of the prints, I managed to print the black layer out of registration. I tried removing it (usually easy to do when the layer is still wet), but it wouldn’t budge.

I’ll try again with these in a few days. I’m working on two different gum prints right now, and want to finish those before redoing these. I’m trying something different with one of these new prints, and if it works, I might apply the same idea to these images (more on that when I post those prints in a few days).

About these images: They were taken in the Washington, DC metro last summer. They are both photos of subway trains moving through stations. I copied the photos and flipped them, to create semiabstract, impossible spaces. I actually made these images, and the color separations for them, last fall, before I had even started making gum prints. By the time I started printing my first gum bichromates, the themes I was working with for my exhibit last spring were much more concrete, and these pieces just didn’t fit. All of the pieces in that exhibit (many can be seen if you look through old blog entries) were straightforward shots with minimal manipulation. Now that the show has come and gone, I’m interested in exploring how color and image can be manipulated, and how those manipulations work with various alternative processes. These two images fit nicely into that exploration.

More Cyanotype Bookmarks

2008-06-13T12:31:00.008-05:00

Here's a few more of the cyanotype bookmarks I've been making.

As you will see if you look at the column on the right side of this page, I've now got a bunch of them listed for sale on the Etsy page I set up.

I also printed 12 more bookmarks from new designs last night. A few of them didn't turn out like I wanted, but leaving them aside, I now have 26 different bookmarks.

I'll be posting the new ones to the Etsy page sometime today or tomorrow.

I'm about done making new bookmark designs for now. At least I have no plans to produce many more of them. I do have some ideas I haven't tried yet, and I want to rework a couple of the ones I've already made that didn't work out. I'm also in the middle of making several gum bichromate prints, however, and don't want the bookmarks to grab all of my attention.

Cyanotype Bookmarks

2008-06-11T02:34:00.013-05:00

Recently, I’ve been making cyanotype bookmarks. I got the idea when I was cleaning my studio a couple of months ago, and found a bunch of scraps of paper left over from making prints. They were too small to do anything with, and to be honest, I don’t know why I saved them.

I made a few designs, then got busy with other things and forgot about them. Wanting to return to studio work after a long absence, I started working on them again this past weekend. As of this writing, I have fourteen different designs printed, and have digital files of about a dozen more that I’ll make the negatives and prints for soon.

I wasn’t planning on doing much with these besides giving them to friends. They’ve turned out better than I expected, however, and the couple of people I’ve showed them to were pretty enthusiastic. So, I’m going to try selling them. I’ve just opened a shop on Etsy.com, and I’ll be listing some bookmarks there soon. I’m planning on selling them for $5 each. I won’t get rich, but it’s fun making them, and I might sell a few.

These are all bookmark sized (about 1.5” X 7.5”) and will be an unlimited run. I’m considering selling larger versions of these images as well. These would be prints (about 18” X 3.5”) and would be in an edition of 25 for each image.

Working in such a long, narrow format was sometimes challenging compositionally, but I’m happy with the designs I’ve come up with. Because I wasn't treating these like serious work, I had some fun and did things I probably wouldn’t have done otherwise.

I’ll post more of these bookmarks in a couple of days.

Back In The Studio

2008-06-06T17:03:00.003-05:00

A quick post to let you now that I've finally started working in the studio again. I've got two gum bichromate prints in progress, with different subject matter than I have been working with. I also have several small cyanotypes that I may be printing this weekend.
I'll post this new work as soon as it's completed.

From The Archives I

2008-05-28T02:26:00.005-05:00

I've been working on everything except art since finishing school for the year. I've been doing lots of yard work, reading, riding my bike, even some dreaded housework. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm not suffering from artist's block, I'm just taking a little time away from the studio while taking care of a lot of other things I've ignored while teaching and on sabbatical. I actually feel too busy right now-I wish there wasn't so much that needed to be done.

I don't have any new work to show you, so I'm starting something that I've been thinking about doing for several months. Every once in a while, I'll post an old piece of work and write some comments about how it was made, what I was thinking about, etc.

Changes During Growth was made in 1999, a few months after I moved to Chicago. It’s the first of about a dozen pieces made the same way, by collaging colored paper onto black and white photographs.

The body of work that Changes During Growth is part of is a further exploration of ideas I was working with while still in graduate school. Much of my second year at Cranbrook Academy of Art was spent exploring the potential in appropriation. In particular, I was appropriating images from 1950’s-1960’s ‘Dick and Jane’ type children’s schoolbooks, exposing the propagandizing function of these archaic educational materials by ‘uncovering’ a new, previously hidden agenda. While at Cranbrook, I altered these images as little as possible. I photographed the pages of old books, and recontextualized them by arranging them with similar illustrations. No other alterations were permitted; to alter the images would destroy the hidden messages I felt they contained.

When I started the work you see above, however, I no longer felt it important to leave the images unaltered. I was interested in communicating similar ideas as before, but I wanted to break from pure recontextualization into more expressive, even autobiograpical work. I had become interested in traditional ideas of color symbolism, and had also returned to an interest in the basic rules of collage as practiced by the Dadaist artists. In the old Dada collages, quotation plays an important role, as does the friction created by placing unrelated elements in close proximity. In this new work, I was attempting a deliberate layering of image and content. I achieved this by copying illustrations from old textbooks onto colored paper, cutting them out, and collaging the resulting solid color shapes onto a black and white photo. The photographs, most of which were also appropriated, have some illusion of depth or mass, which contrasts with the deliberate 2D flatness of the colored paper shapes.

These ideas kept me busy in the studio for quite a while. I made similar work in a variety of mediums, eventually shifting focus to work which asked questions and challenged assumptions about photography as a medium. But that’s best left for discussion about another old piece of work.

Photo links

2008-05-20T01:25:00.003-05:00

My studio work is still progressing slowly. I have ideas, and am working, but don’t have anything finished enough to show. In the meantime, here’s a couple of artists doing photographic work I think is interesting.

Yeondoo Jung has made a series of photographs based on children’s drawings. They’re a little surreal, but with a pop sensibility that keeps the mood light.

Jan von Holleben is a German photographer who did a fun series titled Dreams of Flying. The idea is pretty simple: He has children lie on the ground, surrounded by various props, and shoots them from above. The result is lighthearted photographs without a visible horizon line, giving an obviously fabricated, yet visually believable illusion of depth.

Pineapple Baby And Friends

2008-05-09T01:29:00.007-05:00

Here are three cyanotypes I made really quickly earlier this week. They are greatly enlarged scans of parts of small collages I threw together quickly a few months ago at school.

The original collages, and these prints, are meant to be a joke and not serious work (although I kind of like the faux Dada look of these cyanotypes) . This semester, myself and a few of my students have been making collages out of notepads bought at a dollar store. These note pads are decorated with tacky-creepy photos of babies dressed as pineapples and grapes (a sort of bargain basement Anne Geddes look). As the collages are made, they get taped to the computer monitor in the photo classroom at school, to the delight or annoyance of everyone that uses the computer.
I’ve been working with a few independent study students on alternative photo processes this semester, and we had end of semester critiques of their work on Wednesday. I made these prints and put them with the work being critiqued as a joke.

So, my first semester returning to teaching post-sabbatical is nearly at an end. Final exams are next week, then I’m off for the summer. It’s been a busy semester, with my exhibit last month and my usual teaching duties. I’m looking forward to a relaxing summer, and a return to focusing on studio work, which has been pretty much nonexistent for the past month or more.

A Photo A Day

2008-04-29T02:42:00.004-05:00

I’ve started a new blog, which I will be running along with this one. It’s called A Photo A Day. The title tells you exactly what it is. I plan on posting a new photo (nearly) every day, and writing a few comments on each photo.

As anyone who works in the photographic medium knows, for every photograph you end up using, there are several that never get used, and exist only as an unprinted negative stuck in a binder or a digital file on a hard drive. I say ‘several’, but really, it could range from just a few unused photos to literally hundreds. The point is, there’s a big drop-off between what is shot and what is used. It’s not an issue of quality. Many of these shots are interesting or good. It’s more an issue of editing.

That’s where this blog comes in. By posting a new photo every day, some of those ‘orphaned’ photos get seen and appreciated. Yes, I know I could just open a Flikr account and post my photos there. I may still do that at some point, but I have several reasons for not doing so now (I won’t bore you with the details). We’ll see how the new blog works out first. I’m considering selling prints of the photos I post in A Photo A Day, but haven’t worked out the details yet. If you see something you’re interested in, let me know.

Lightbender is still, and will remain, the place where I show my more serious work, discuss work in progress, and post about art in general. A Photo A Day will keep me focused on regular posting at times when my studio work is going slowly (like right now).

Comments and suggestions are always welcome. I appreciate hearing from you.

Slow Going

2008-04-20T02:28:00.003-05:00

A couple of months ago I posted about a horrible print I made where everything went wrong. I made a cyanotype from the same negative a couple of weeks ago, and got much better results.

My studio wrk is progressing pretty slowly at the moment. I have several ideas I want to pursue, but haven’t made much progress on any of them. I chalk this up to a couple of things. First, after working steadily during last semester’s sabbatical (and most of last summer), then mounting a large exhibition while teaching full-time, taking a bit of a break from constantly working feels good. Also, I’m just entering the final busy phase of the semester at school. The next few weeks will be hectic ones at work, as the semester wraps up.

This isn’t artist’s block (which I’ve experienced, and believe me, isn’t fun). I have more ideas to explore than I can use at the moment. I’ll be returning to the studio soon. Although taking a break feels good, I’m beginning to get the urge to start working on something. Having this blog will keep me working as well. I know some of my friends read it regularly, and people I don’t know pop in from time to time as well. Knowing that people are expecting to see something new here is a good motivator.

Once I get back into the studio, I will hopefully have something to post before too long. In the meantime, I’m bouncing around a couple of ideas for this blog that I may try out soon.

Gallery Talk

2008-04-14T12:22:00.002-05:00

I will be giving a talk this Wednesday, April 16, at 12:30 pm, in the DeCaprio Gallery at Moraine Valley Community College, where my show is about to end (this Thursday is when it comes down). I'm mainly talking about the various processes I used to create the work in the exhibit. I'll have slides of work, most of which isn't in the exhibit, and much of which hasn't been seen on this blog. I'll also have demonstration photos showing how various alternative processes work.

Hope to see you there.

Links

2008-04-07T01:23:00.001-05:00

Here’s a few interesting links:

Unblinking Eye
A poorly designed website, but it has a lot of info on alternative process photography, and lots of links to other art and photo sites.

The American Museum of Photography
This visually busy but interesting site contains thousands of (mostly old) photographs arranged in galleries of various themes. Included are galleries of manipulated and trick photography, including spirit photography and photomontage, a collection of carte de visite, photos taken in Japan from 1850-1890, and many other themed collections.

Digital Photography Review
If you’re thinking of buying a digital camera, make sure you check out this site. You’ll find reviews of hundreds of camera models, and they are the most detailed reviews I’ve read anywhere.

Postcrossing
Not photo or art related (although it could be). This is the website for a postcard exchange project. You send postcards to random people around the world. For every one you send, you get one in return. It’s like having a short-term pen pal. Some people make handmade postcards to send (that’s how it becomes photo or art related).

Check out all the links at the right side of this page. Hopefully you’ll find something that interests you.

Evanston Art Center Biennial

2008-04-05T00:39:00.006-05:00

I received notification a few days ago that this cyanotype print, which I made in the summer of 2006, has been accepted into the 19th Evanston Biennial. The exhibit is at the Evanston Art Center in Evanston, IL, and runs from June 1-July 6, 2008.
I was in the Evanston Biennial once before, in 2000. The two pieces I exhibited at that biennial led to a solo exhibition at the Evanston Art Center in 2001.
I'll post a reminder before the show opens, I just wanted to share the news now.

Thanks!

2008-03-28T01:54:00.009-05:00

Today was the opening reception for my exhibit. There was a pretty good turnout, despite it being yet another crappy weather day in Chicago. Several colleagues and friends came, and lots of students were there as well. Thanks to everyone who came, and I hope you enjoyed it.

Here’s a few shots of the exhibit.

The exhibit runs through April 17. I’ll be doing a talk in the gallery about alternative process photography on April 16 at 12:30 pm. It’s free and open to the public.

My Show is Open

2008-03-25T01:33:00.004-05:00

My exhibit, titled Constructed Realities, is now open in DeCaprio Gallery at Moraine Valley Community College. Tuesday is the official opening day, but it was open on Monday, because we got all the work installed pretty quickly last Thursday.

The show looks pretty good. I'll take some photos in the gallery and post them here soon. I'm showing 38 pieces total, which fills the space nicely. The number of pieces to include was a guess. Because I hung nine prints of photos taken at the Musee Mechanique in San Francisco in a salon-style grouping, and had frames of varying sizes, I really had no idea how many pieces it would take to fill the space. I was thinking that I would have too many, but while laying out the show, I thought I would need to quickly frame a couple more pieces to fill the space. It turns out that I got it just right.

The opening reception is this Thursday, March 27, from 2-4 PM. Good food, live music, rubbing elbows with artists and students, how can you refuse?

Much (although not all) of the work in the show has appeared in this blog over the past few months, so it seems appropriate to post the artist statement I wrote for it. Understand that I hate writing these things, and procrastinated it for as long as I possibly could. It's not a bad statement, all things considered. It does what a good statement should: Explains the underlying ideas without revealing too much.

Constructed Realities
Artist Statement

The work in this exhibit reflects an interest in how information is organized and presented, and how the display of information effects our interactions with and understanding of that information.

From museums to shop windows and even parks and public spaces, displays are created with the aim of guiding our thoughts, feelings and interactions with these created spaces. These displays strip away some aspects of the world while heightening others. In museums, an attempt at education is made by focusing on specific bits of information to heighten or emphasize scientific narratives. In a similar manner, retail window displays are designed to emphasize the psychology of desire.

I photograph these spaces, created to elicit a particular response or to communicate a specific concept, not as a straightforward documentation of how materials are used or displayed or information conveyed. Rather, I examine them in an expressive manner, achieving a subtle subversion of their intended function. The camera and photographic processes I use obfuscate the motivational or instructional intent of these displays, allowing the viewer’s reactions and responses to recontextualize and create content. Through this recontextualization, new realities are constructed which question the authority of informational and commercial display.

Experimenting With Polaroid Transfers, and The End Of Polaroid?

2008-03-19T11:49:00.010-05:00

I spent the last couple days of spring break trying some different ideas with Polaroid transfers. I don’t think anything turned out that great, but I do see potential in some of it.

First up, I made a transfer of an image, and then put a Polaroid lift of the same image on top of it.

OK, it’s pretty uninteresting, but at least I tried something different!

Next are a couple of panoramic pieces made by putting three transfers in a row. These are both made from images I shot in the Field Museum.

The same panoramas were also both done as Polaroid lift panoramas last summer, with less success. Here is my post from last summer on the lift panoramas. You can compare both of these panoramas, made from Polaroid transfers, with the ones I made from Polaroid lifts if you click on the link.

These came out ok, but didn’t thrill me that much either. As I wrote about the lift panoramas last summer, I think the geometry and perspective present in the original photos gets lost when treating them in this manner. The transfers don’t suffer from this as much as the lifts do, but the visual noise that the transfer process brings to the panoramas (one of the desired results of the transfer process) is a little distracting here.

One more try. This one, instead of a panoramic image, is more a mosaic made from four separate photos I shot at Fairyland in Oakland, CA last October.

I like this one, even though it’s honestly not that great. It works much better than the panoramic images shot in the Field Museum. I like it because out of everything I tried, this seems to nave the most potential. I’m considering shooting some more mosaic scenes to try a few more of these. Polaroid images are always going to be much lower in quality than other photo processes, but I like the look of this and think some interesting work could be done with it.

Speaking of Polaroid, you may have heard that they are discontinuing the manufacture of most of their films at the end of 2008. That means no more lifts or transfers, unless someone decides to buy the patents from Polaroid and continue manufacturing the film. While Polaroid processes can be a little gimmicky and predictable, there has also been a lot of interesting work made with them. Check out the work of Lucas Samaras to see manipulated SX-70 prints (Time Zero film for SX-70 cameras was discontinued by Polaroid a couple of years ago).

There’s a website, Save Polaroid, for people trying to convince another company to begin producing the film after Polaroid stops producing it. I personally think these processes are worth saving, although I don’t know how effective the campaign to save the film will be. We’ll have to wait and see.

Lightbender

Happy New Year!

Book Sale

Google Image Telephone

Wish You Were There

Faculty Exhibition

Photography Is Not A Crime!

More Postcard Collages

Postcard Collages

Yes, It's More Collages!

The Summer Of Collage

Collage!

My First Book

First Light

Still More New Collages (Part IV)

More New Collage Part III

More New Collage

Japan Relief Fundraiser

New Collage

Brownie Hawkeye Photos

My Three Favorites

More Brownie Photos

Dan Jarvis

Permanent Wave

Pareidolia Collages

Brownie Doing A Heck Of A job

Real Banksy Or Faux Banksy?

Market

Pay It Forward

McCord Collaborations

McCord Gallery II

My Show At McCord Gallery

Show Postcard

Exhibit Review

Save The Date

Common Ground, Diverse Approaches

Still More New Collages

On Russian Hill

More New Collages

Another Collage

New Collages IV

New Collages III

New Collages II

New Collages

From The Archives: Damaged

Fuji Transfers

MVCC Faculty Exhibit

Meet The Faculty!

The Summer Of Screenprinting V

The Summer Of Screenprints IV

The Summer Of Screenprints III

The Summer Of Screenprints II

The Summer Of Screenprints

F-Stop Magazine

Good News!

Still Working, Really!

Recent Experiments

Vacation Photos

Happy Anniversary!

Expiration Notice

From The Archives III

Update

Original Ideas?

New Polaroid Pieces

Words Of Advice

Facebook Fan Page

More Holiday Postcards

The Zombie JPG

Goodbye JPG

New Postcards

My Top Five

San Fran Polaroid Tran

Self Portrait as a Drowned Man (After Bayard)

More Postcards

More From The Postcard Project.

The Postcard Project

Adventure Time

Watch This Space

Photo Essays

Yay! More Bookmarks!