underexposed

On The Walls: Andrea Galluzzo @ Camera Work

Last spring, I met Andrea Galluzzo at Photolucida and have kept in touch since. Andrea’s solo exhibition “Know Myself in All My Parts” opens this Saturday at Camera Work Gallery in Portland, Oregon. The opening reception is this Thursday, February 23 from 6:30 to 8:30pm  The continues until March 23rd and there will be a closing reception on March 22nd from 6:30 to 8:30.

Here’s an excerpt from a conversation that Andrea and I had last week. 

SUSAN BURNSTINE: What were your beginnings as a photographer and when did you realize it would become your chosen form of expression?

ANDREA GALLUZZO: I started photography when I was 20 while getting my BFA in college. I was hooked to the instantaneous quality of photography and the ability to create a scene to photograph, rather than creating straight from my mind on a blank canvas.  Ironically, given my current work, the main teacher that I had through my college education preached two things: 1.  the quality of a good print (he was a protege of minor white and Ansel Adams, and a firm believer in the zone system) 2. Digital was “the Devil”.  Needless to say I kept one belief, and ditched the other.

One of the ways I ditched my inherited preconceptions towards digital photography, and how I  grow as an artist, is continually asking if photography still works as my chosen form of expression.  After graduating I was still working with my medium format camera that I used through school.  I was working on a few projects, but felt unfulfilled about the process.  I never really felt the magic of the darkroom. It was always the process of shooting that I loved, but I did want some way to develop the images that I was shooting.  I feel like it wasn’t until I embraced the realm of digital photography and it’s boundless realms did I fully feel like this was the medium that I had been looking for to satisfy my creative desires and fulfill what I was trying to say.

SB: Who were some of your early photographic influences and who inspires you now?

AG: I have always loved the human form, so Edward Weston’s nudes was an early favorite, and I also loved artists who captured a certain dark or nontraditional sense of beauty.  Robert Mapplethorpe, Joel Peter-Witkin, and Sally Mann all are exquisite photographers that unearth aspects of human nature that are startling and captivating.  

The work of Robert Parke-Harrison is a huge inspiration to me, and his ability to tell such complex stories in a single image.  I am drawn to the surreal work of Josephine Sacabo and Kamil Vojnar.  And, I am not just saying this to suck up, your work Susan, the liminal quality in your pictures continues to inspire me.  

SB: What was your personal impetus for creating your body of work Know Myself In All My Parts.

AG: There was a technical force that drove me as well as an emotional response to what was going on in my life that compelled me to create this series.  Like I mentioned earlier, before this series I was questioning where I wanted to go with photography or if that was still a medium that worked for me.  I had been sketching and painting over my photographs in a journal as a way to loosen up the stifling feeling I was having creatively and it was an outlet to express what I was feeling emotionally at the time as well.  With little experience in Photoshop I looked to one of my photos I had taken in the studio of a friend and model and began treating it like I would one of the pages of my journal, drawing and adding layers.  The result became the figurehead for this series entitled “I am the Queen of My Life”.  This image was the destination that I was longing to get to both conceptually and creatively.  It involved a process that was intuitive and painterly, and represented what I wanted in my own life, to be my own authority, to be a Queen.  As I continued to experiment I realized that the series was turning into not what it is to be the Queen of ones life but the journey to find that place in oneself.  This driving force to create this series started from a place of processing my own personal story, but evolved into a desire to portray the pain struggle, and release that I feel are universally present when we face the challenge to truly be ourselves. 

SB: These images have the appearance of charcoal drawings. Can you discuss how you achieve these effects?

AG: Photoshop has been a great program for my work, and allows me to be intuitive and push certain ideas and then pull them back to a place that works.  I feel that sometimes the danger of working in Photoshop is getting captivated by all that can be done, and images can become a mess. A technique that I have found that works well is combining textures that I scan or have found on the web with photographs.  From there I use a tablet and draw using various brushes.  I feel much of the success of my images is achieved through continual experimentation while at the same time keeping my aesthetic standards from traditional photography.  To give an idea about how much it takes to get the effect, each image consists of more than 30 different layers. 

SB: Is this an ongoing body of work? If so, do you foresee any new directions for this project?

AG: After 3 years I feel like this project is finally complete at 21 images.  I feel that all elements of this journey are represented.  Now I am working on the best way to get the body of work out there.  Shows and individual sales have been great, but there is a certain power when viewing the portfolio as a whole so I am playing with ways to make that available, whether it be a book or a special edition folio.  

SB: Your previous bodies of work were straight nudes without any type of post processing manipulations and are vastly different than your newest series. If you could summarize all of your work over the past years in a phrase or in a few words, what would that phrase be?

AG: The power present in our human vulnerability

SB: What are you working on now?

AG: Much of my energy is going towards making little fingers and toes right now: I am almost 6 months pregnant.  It is extremely exciting, and terrifying, so much of what I am creating right now also looks to themes of what it is to be born into a human body, what is our connection and process of death, and what is our souls connection to the universe around us.  Some of my new work can be seen in the current issue of Diffusion Magazine in their “Muse” feature.

To see more of Andrea’s work, pop over to her website.

In Focus: Walker Pickering

About a year ago, my friend Polly Chandler introduced me to the work of her good friend Walker Pickering. I was instantly taken by his imagery and continued to keep track of his work. Two weeks ago, I was thrilled to meet Walker in person when he and his students attended my talk at TWU. And when I returned home from Texas and opened my mail, I was ecstatic to see Walker’s gorgeous image Camaro (above) on the cover of the 2012 Houston Center of Photography Auction catalog…an image which I am absolutely crazy about. 

This past week, Walker was kind enough to chat with me about his work. Here’s an excerpt from that chat.

SUSAN BURNSTINE: What were your beginnings as a photographer and when did you realize it would become your chosen form of expression?

WALKER PICKERING: I experimented a lot with video in high school. There was never an attempt at anything close to art making, but I started realizing I was strongly attracted to image capture. In college I was a music education major for awhile, but as my passion for that waned I found myself taking lots of pictures with a digital camera that captured directly to a floppy disk. I started with digital photography and worked backwards. I eventually found myself in an introductory black and white darkroom class, and the moment I saw a print appear in the developer for the first time, I was hooked.

SB: You teach full time and you are also a fine art photographer. Can you tell me a bit about how you keep the balance and inspiration flowing?

WP: I started teaching at McHenry County College outside Chicago immediately after grad school, and I’ve spent the past three years at The Art Institute of Austin. My teaching schedule keeps me busy year-round because we’re on a quarter system that goes through the summer. I get about 8 weeks off a year, but only two of the breaks are long enough to travel. It’s during those breaks that I make the majority of my work, although I still manage to shoot when school’s in session. I find it difficult to create work locally—at least with regards to Nearly West—so getting out on the road with no particular destination in mind keeps me stimulated creatively.

SB: What was the impetus for your series Nearly West? 

WP: My thesis project in grad school was called Abundant Living, and part of it had to do with my wife as muse. I was referencing Callahan, Nixon and others, but my heart really wasn’t in the work. I later realized that I was making what I thought was “grad school work”. My problem was that I was creating the work and critically analyzing it simultaneously—two important processes that I think should be attempted separately.

When I moved to Chicago, I started wandering around the South Side and traveling around the lake to Indiana and Michigan. I had no real goal in mind, but I realized that I simply wanted to explore unfamiliar places, and the road trip was the perfect vehicle for that. Returning to Austin forced me to take longer trips because I was already so familiar with Central Texas.

SB: Can you talk a bit about the locations you visited and photographed? Were the locations preplanned or happened upon?

WP: Most of the images were made around West Texas and throughout the American South. There are some oddballs in there from California and the Midwest as well. I generally plan my trips as little as possible. I rely almost entirely upon serendipity. This usually works out, but I’ve taken some particularly poor routes. In December 2011, my wife and I took a trip to New Orleans. After leaving the city, we drove along the gulf coast and up into Mississippi. I’m sure it was the time of year more than anything, but I found next to nothing to photograph. The same thing happened one time in Tennessee, where I decided to take backroads between Memphis and Atlanta. It just turned out to be completely lacking in what I was looking for visually. I still love shooting in Tennessee and Mississippi though.

SB: Can you tell me a bit about the technical aspects of this work?

WP: With rare exception, everything was shot with a Hasselblad and Kodak Portra films. I used to shoot a lot of large format, but even though I liked how it slowed me down and helped me concentrate on each shot, I found I was missing a lot of photos that I’d otherwise shoot with a slightly quicker format. The Hasselblad was the perfect balance between quality and speed.

SB: Is there one image in Nearly West you are most proud of or perhaps one that embodies the complete spirit and intent of your imagery?

WP: Meal is in my top ten, and I think it best represents the series. It was taken in 2009 at a Dairy Queen in Midland, Texas. I don’t even care for the food at that chain all that much, but it’s a staple of my road trips whenever available. Plus, I’ve gone there since I was a kid so it has a certain nostalgia for me. Interestingly enough, I don’t think everyone realizes it’s a Dairy Queen, but I’m fine with that bit of ambiguity.

SB: You shot a powerful series of portraits of a former colleague named Joe K. Can you tell me a bit about that work and what sparked the series?

Joe had worked at the Texas House of Representatives for as long as I’d been alive at that time. He spent the majority of that time as a runner for the photography department, and when I began working there in 2004 we quickly became friends. I liked him immediately because he was hilarious. After getting used to his manner of speaking, I realized most things he said were wisecracks.

In fact, the first time I understood how funny he was, we were walking down a long hallway in the Capitol. The Representatives and Senators all have a tendency to hire very attractive female college students to work for them, and Joe was a fan of all the pretty ladies. A pair of girls walked past us and Joe quipped to me, “Them two is wildcats. They look gooood.”

I only worked for the state for a year, and during that time it became clear that Joe was developing Alzheimer’s disease. He was forced to retire and I wanted to create a set of photographs about that time. I left Texas soon after and I never saw Joe again. He passed away right after I returned to Texas.

SB: What are you working on now?

WP: I still consider Nearly West a work-in-progress, but I’ve started work on a series that has to do with music, but is quite a bit different from an earlier series of portraits of musicians I did in 2003. It’s in the earliest stages and will probably take several years to complete.

SB: Do you have any upcoming exhibitions or events?

I have an image in the Houston Center for Photography Auction next week, which I’d love to promote because HCP has been so good to me over the past year. Their entire staff, along with the folks at Fotofest, are incredible and Texas is lucky to have both organizations.

To see more of Walkers work, pop over to his website. 

In Focus: TWU/UNT MFA Reviews

Last week, I was invited to Texas Women’s University for a whirlwind one day event, which included participating in a panel talk with Mary Virginia Swanson and Kelli Connell, a book signing and a reception for my exhibition. During the morning, Kelli, Swan and I reviewed portfolios for MFA students attending TWU and neighboring University of North Texas. The event was organized by the incredible Susan Kae Grant who is a beloved professor at TWU and one of my favorite photographers.

Kelli Connell and I both have solo exhibitions running simultaneously in TWU’s East & West Galleries until February 15. If you’re in the area, hope you can pop by. More information about the exhibitions can be found here. 

(above: Susan Burnstine, Susan Kae Grant, Kelli Connell, Mary Virginia Swanson)

Today I’m featuring some work from a few of the students I reviewed including Ashley Kauschinger, Teresa Munisteri, Kristina Smith, Arthur Fields and Elva Salinas. 

ASHLEY KAUSCHINGER: Hot Skin

Hot Skin is an investigation of everyday life that reflects upon the past and the present. The series shares  commonplace emotions and moments that overlap with the lives of others and connect those lives in understanding. This connection is created through a set of themes and symbols that are present throughout the    series. Implemented themes include sex, long distance communication, domestic living, relationships, and    moments of transition. These themes are examined through ambiguous, narrative self-portraits and still lives  within personal  environments. Each of these narratives has a sense of tension to create an emotional atmosphere to reflect upon. Tension is formed in each image by pinpointing a moment between two places or times, staging  scenes with layered meanings that pull against each other, and using available light at sunset. Symbols representing a personal mythology such as cloth, food, and hair are also present and repeated throughout the  series to create a sense of familiarity with the viewer. Hot Skin was photographed with a 4x5 view camera and  color slide film in Denton, Texas.

Ashley Kauschinger received her BFA in photography from Savannah College of Art in Design in 2011, and is currently studying with Susan kae Grant in pursuit of an MFA in photography from Texas Woman’s University. She has recently received recognition from Photographer’s Forum, National Geographic and PDN.  Her upcoming exhibitions include, Intimacy and Voyeurism in San Franciso andOnward Compe in Philadelphia, both juried by Todd Hido. She lives and works in Denton, Texas.

To see more of Ashley’s work pop over to her website. 

TERESA MUNISTERI: Vestigial Forests

American identity is closely tied to nature as a birthright. The land in its overwhelming abundance is what the American Dream was built upon – opportunity and prosperity. But as Robert Adams implies, our vision of the ideal American landscape, the Thomas Cole and the Ansel Adams, is no longer true. My work explores the remnants of the primordial landscape in present-day reality. For the past three years, I have sought out isolated landscapes within developed areas that incite my curiosity and imagination. My process involves solitary trips into parks, wildlife reserves, and empty lots. Each spot is chosen for its remoteness and the evocative nature of untamed growth. I insert myself as a performer within the space. By highlighting the duality of the landscape (untamed within the tamed), my character reclaims the primordial landscape through action and gesture. The female figure contrasts and conforms to the unrestrained natural growth, and becomes a non-destructive human presence within the space.

The constant search for wonder in our natural environment is what drives my work. By exposing beauty in the depleted land, it is easy to forget the threat of encroaching development. The landscape in my images envelops both truth and fantasy; these beautiful, isolated locations. 

Teresa Munisteri is a lens-based artist currently living and working in Denton, Texas. She will receive a MFA in photography from the University of North Texas in May 2012. Teresa received her B.A. from Rice University in 2006. Landscape, performance and the figure play important roles in her work which includes film and digital photography as well as digital video. Her photographs are included in permanent and private collections including the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

To see more of her work pop over to her website. 

KRISTINA SMITH: The Place Between Sleep and Awake

The Place Between Sleep and Awake is a body of work created after a return to my hometown after some time away. The title of this project stems from a quote in Peter Pan. It states, “You know that place between sleep and awake? That place where you still remember dreaming? That’s where I’ll always love you. That’s where I’ll be waiting.” This body of work stems from an interest in the point in time where one has awoke suddenly from a dream, and then is unsure of their dreaming or waking state. This work reflects the balance that I am striving to attain between the silence and lonliness of my new home and the comfort and familiarity of my old home, as well as the memories and relationships that these spaces hold. This in-between place is where I find myself longing to be, a place of comfort and home.  

Kristina Smith is an artist that works predominantly in the mediums of photography and installation. Her work is concerned with ideas of loss, isolation, intimacy, home, and the implication of place.

Smith currently resides in Denton, Texas, where she is an M.F.A. candidate in the Photography program at Texas Woman’s University. She received her B.F.A. in Studio Art with a concentration in Photography and Spatial Arts from Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio. 

ARTHUR FIELDS: Technically Connected

Technically Connected uses staged images to explore the process of self-discovery through narratives of behaviors associated with technology use and the roles that people assign personal technology in their lives.  There are three chapters for this work and I’ve posted two. The cell phone images are part of “Profile Portraits” and the environmental portraits are included in the “Screen Scenes” series. 

Arthur Fields completed a MFA in Photography from Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas in 2011. He earned a BFA in Digital Imaging and Photography at Washington University in St. Louis in 2008.  To see more of his work pop over to his website.

ELVA SALINAS: Ashley

Ashley, is a collection of digital color photo portraits inspired during the creation of Vulnerabilities an abstract photo documentation of ten women. The portrait incorporated conversation on how each woman related to their bodies and where their feelings rooted. In turn, I created abstract landscapes of their bodies. During Ashley’s session, there was a series of conversations and emotion that were witnessed and captured, I was moved to continue to photograph Ashley as a way to connect and understand her emotional struggle with her mind and body during her battle with anorexia diagnosis of Bi-polar disease.

After 6 months, I continued to photograph Ashley and the people closest to her: These are the people who she looks to for support and understanding. It led to the documentation of moments of change, where gestures and emotional expression are one’s mind processing feelings of isolation and the dynamics of one’s relationship to others in our environment.           

The need to create the project came from the ongoing journey though the struggle of traumatic events in my life in which I have been able to overcome by connections with others in my environment. The camera allows me to channel my emotional connection, document my journey and others struggles.  I photograph with an empathetic eye and heart, creating a world that both subject and I can find comfort, understanding, and beauty, leaving behind Isolation.

Elva Salinas is photographer and mixed media artist currently pursing and MFA in Photography with a minor Concentration in Painting at Texas Woman’s University.  After graduating from Incarnate Word University in 2007 San Antonio, Texas, Elva worked establishing herself in her art community by assisting in the creation of an art gallery for emerging artists, and creating her own work. Her work centers on the human form and emotion creating empathetic portraits of people in her environment to invite connections and understanding. 

In Focus: Fritz Liedtke

In Focus: Bill Vaccaro

Chicago based photographer Bill Vaccaro and I became friends via online forums around eight or so years ago and we’ve kept in touch ever since. Bill has worked with toy and conventional cameras over the years and he has a deep passion for a variety of alternative processes.

Most recently, Bill released a color documentary series about firework venues entitled Boomtown. Here’s an excerpt from a recent chat we had about his work.

SUSAN BURNSTINE: What were your beginnings as a photographer and when did you realize it would become your chosen form of expression?

BILL VACCARO: As a child, I would love going through the family snapshots that my parents and relatives took. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the financial means to get my own camera until I started college and I bought my first 35mm SLR camera. Over the years, I sort of mucked around on and off with 35mm black-and-white street and landscape photography. I had a darkroom or access to one most years and taught myself to develop film and make my own prints. It was a hobby for me but an enjoyable one. 

It wasn’t really until 2004 that I started to get really serious about it as a means of expression. I discovered the photoblogging community and created my own site, which I called Out of Contxt where I posted my photos, sometimes every day. Then a certain photographer from L.A. visited my blog and suggested that I play around with toy cameras. That would be you. From there, I discovered the joys of blur and selective focus. Since then I’ve experimented with homemade lenses and generally settled on medium format photography. With few exceptions, it’s all been one big, happy blur. 

I’ve managed to get my work seen and be in some juried and curated shows. Eight years later, I’m still plugging along. Not bad for someone who’s self taught and has only taken two workshops in his lifetime. Thank Buddha for those Ansel Adams and Time-Life books!

SB: What was the impetus for your latest series Boomtown?

BV: I’ve always been fascinated with fireworks every since I was a boy. I have very strong memories of being taken to the local park for the July 4 celebrations. When I was in sixth grade, I had a friend who managed to get his hands on some cherry bombs and M80s. Pretty powerful stuff for kids to be playing around with. We went through the neighborhood, set them off and then running like hell to avoid getting picked up by the police or, worse, our parents. We never got caught and, fortunately, nobody lost any digits either. 

The project gelled during the summer of 2010 while I was on a road trip through the South to continue work on the Jesus on the Mainline series. The trip started shortly before Independence Day and that’s when I started seeing all the temporary fireworks stands and tents. As the trip continued, it dawned on me that this would make an interesting project combining my love of fireworks with the quirkiness of the stands, tents and stores.

SB: Can you tell me a bit about the road trips that you took for this series and what areas you visited?

BV: I’ve taken two road trips so far. The first one was to northern Indiana in the fall of 2010. Fireworks are illegal in Illinois so Chicagoans get their fix by driving to Indiana where there are dozens of stores right across the state line. In some cases, like Uncle Dan’s in Hammond, they’re literally 100 feet away from the Chicago city border. Besides Hammond, I checked out stores in Gary, Merrillville, Valparaiso, and Portage. I even found several small mom-and-pop grocery stores in Howe, a small town about an hour past South Bend, that have separate rooms in the back devoted exclusively to fireworks. Pick up your bread, milk and bottle rockets. How’s that for one stop shopping?

Late last June; I went on a 12 state, 3500+-mile road trip with my then 18-year-old son who also shares his dad’s pyrotechnic interests. As I like to say, I shot while Chris bought. Our journey took us through the Midwest east of the Mississippi, the mid-South states, the Carolinas and then up through Virginia, West Virginia and the Maryland panhandle into Pennsylvania. We ended the road trip by spending Independence Day in State College where we saw, or should I say experienced, the massive annual volunteer fireworks show on the campus of Penn State.

SB: Is the series ongoing or complete? If ongoing, do you foresee any new directions for this project?

BV: Not quite but close. I’m heading west for a couple of weeks in mid June to explore Missouri and possibility a few neighboring states before I finally put the series to bed. My friend and fellow photographer Ellen Jantzen has been on my case get down to the St. Louis area and visit. According to her, there are numerous temporary fireworks stands that pop up around that time of the year. 

I also intend to spend the night of July 4 back home in Chicago. My home is less than three blocks away from a local north side beach right off Lake Michigan. On Independence Day, the place swarms with locals who detonate all the fireworks that they bought in Indiana and is a great photographic opportunity. The police are there but don’t really interfere that night. I’m also going to try to enlist Chris and some of his friends as well.

I don’t expect to do anything different with the project although I’d love to get more people shots to round out the usual architectural imagery. I had a hard time with that during last year’s road trip. While we met a lot of interesting people, most were reluctant to have their photograph taken for any number of reasons. I think most of it has to do with trust and relationships, as well as the nature of their jobs. And it’s really hard to build that trust when you’re just popping in unannounced, spending an hour or even less at a location, and then hopping in the car to go to the next spot. My plan for this coming year is to bring a small portfolio of images that I’ve already taken and see if that helps break the ice.

SB: It seems your creative inspiration often lies in road trips. Your previous series Jesus Is On The Mainline and Roadside Attractions were also “driven” by the road. Can you talk a bit about this essential element of your process?

BV: I’ve always loved roads trips since I was a kid, mainly because there were so few of them. My parents rarely owned a car, so the trips were always memorable to me. For example, there was the trip to Gettysburg and Washington, DC when I was ten where I can still visualize my first glimpse of the U.S. Capitol Building from the back seat. Another was to visit my cousin’s family farm in West Virginia where I learned to actually milk a cow. So, in some ways, I’m kind of making up for lost time. But then, sometimes, you sometimes just need to go where the visual candy is. And America has lots and lots of visual candy.

SB: Jesus Is On The Mainline teeters on the edges of humor, satire and also exercising your own demons and is one of your most personal bodies of work. Can you discuss the impetus for this series, the years it was shot and how it developed, changed or found its groove as you progressed with the work?

BV: As my wife likes to say, I’m a recovering Catholic. I grew up in a tight knit enclave of devout Italian-American Catholics on the lower west side of Buffalo, NY. I still remember the crucifixes over every bed, the dinners my aunt would make every year for the Feast of St. Joseph, the holy water font that was installed in my grandmother’s apartment so she could say her rosaries and novenas and, of course, the Sunday masses at our nearby parish church. As I grew older, I began to question my faith. By the time I turned 18, I was through with the Church. However, it never stopped my fascination with and respect for the true believers, especially those who wore their faith on their sleeve.

Like most of my projects, the Jesus series sort of happened accidentally. I was attending the Taste of Chicago in 2005 when I took a toy camera photograph of an evangelist who was proselytizing the attendees. He was handing out coins with a biblical quote and wearing a sandwich board that said “Prepare To Meet Thy God.” I still have that coin. The following spring, my family and I hopped into the car during my son’s spring break and drove down I-55 to post-Katrina New Orleans. New Orleans has always been one of my favorite cities in the whole world and I figured that we could help the local economy in our own way by spending a few days there. Both coming and going, we saw a lot of billboards, signs and trinity crosses off the sides of the interstate. I then remembered the evangelist photograph and that was when I began serious work on the project, first locally, then regionally. 

When I attended the Photolucida portfolio reviews in 2009, I showed what I had to Tony Bannon, director of the George Eastman House and fellow Buffalonian. Tony really liked the work in progress but said to me, “You know, this isn’t going to be truly finished until you go to the South.” So, I took his advice and headed out on a 3000+-mile road trip through the back roads of the Deep South looking for Jesus the following summer with my very, very patient wife. It was a pretty amazing journey.

SB: Recently, you’ve been focusing more on straight documentary versus your previous focus on alternative methods. Can you talk about that transition and do you feel there has been a greater shift in your work other than process or technique?

BV: The Boomtown series is sort of a temporary detour from my usual process and a subject that I had to get out of my system before I could move back to my usual processes. I’m really a black-and-white kind of guy. While I’ve dabbled in color here and there in my early work, it never really grabbed hold of me the way shades of grey have all these years. But shooting fireworks stores screams for outrageously vivid color, sharp focus and a documentary style of composition. It been challenging because I had to deal with technical issues I never had to worry about before, especially color balance issues in places whose interiors are illuminated by pretty bad fluorescent lighting. While it meant a temporary abandonment of my usual black-and-white, selective focus style of shooting, I’ve still tried to convey a sense of self in the work.

Boomtown is a time sensitive project because the temporary stands don’t appear until sometime in June. So while I’m waiting, I’m starting to work with handmade processes. I’ve been teaching myself how to use the ziatype printing process that was developed by Dick Sullivan in the mid-1990s. The results are comparable to traditional palladium printing except that chemical development is not required like palladium. It is a printout process in that the development takes place while the print is exposed to UV light. I also took a weeklong workshop with the amazing Jill Enfield at the Maine Media Workshops to learn wet plate collodion last August. My plan is to combine the two while still continuing to work with medium format black-and-white film photography.

SB: If you could summarize all of your work over the past years in a phrase or in a few words, what would that phrase be?

BV: As American as homemade apple pie, worms and all.

SB: What are you working on now?

BV: Besides finishing up the Boomtown series this June, I’ve begun work on two personal series that combine wet plate and other alternative processes. And while I’m in St. Louis this summer, I’ll keep working on a long-term project that I’ve been doing on the Gateway Arch that is shot almost exclusively with toy cameras.

To see more of Bill’s work, pop over to his website. 

In Focus: Gina Kelly

I first saw Gina Kelly’s enchanting imagery in Shots Magazine years back and instantly loved her work. Gina’s whimsical and frequently humorous approach seamlessly combines a delightful sense of childlike wonder with an acute perspective.

Recently, I saw an exceptional image of Gina’s online so I contacted her and she generously agreed to an interview. Here’s an excerpt from a chat that Gina and I had this week. 

SUSAN BURNSTINE: What were your beginnings as a photographer and when did you realize it would become your chosen form of expression?

GINA KELLY: My love of photography began at a very early age, maybe 8 or 9. In the earliest days I would use my mom’s Kodak Instamatic to take pictures of the pets and of my family – the same things I photograph today!  I also spent hours at a time looking at family photo albums, something I noticed my siblings and friends didn’t share the same enthusiasm for. As a child, each time I would visit my Grandma, we had a ritual of pulling out her old trunk full of photos from the closet and looking at each and every one as she told me about the people and places they contained. I would spend an entire day pouring over them.  I think she enjoyed it as much as I did. I loved those old black and white photos, I thought they were really beautiful.

In my early 20s I finally took my first photography class, and the moment I printed my first photo I was hooked.

SB: Did you study formally or are you self-taught?

GK: I took every photo class available at the University where I lived (Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas) and then did several semesters of Independent Study under photographer/teacher Larry Schwarm, who enthusiastically supported and encouraged the work I was doing.  I also took classes in drawing, design, art history and art appreciation, all in an effort to become a better photographer. But I never did get a degree.

In my late 20s I moved to California and met Jock Sturges who became a friend and mentor and was instrumental in helping me to develop my eye.  He also taught me to be a really solid printer and I gained a great deal of confidence in that area with his help.

I shot black and white film solely for 20 years, then around 2006 when it became more and more difficult to find the papers and chemicals that I preferred to use I made the switch to digital and color.  From a technical perspective, I’ve had to learn so much since I made this change.  I’ve taken classes here and there to help along the way, and thankfully there is a lot of information to be found on the internet.  My husband, who is a software developer and is very computer savvy, has also played a large part in helping me to navigate this new territory.

SB: Do you split your time between editorial/commercial/portraiture and personal work or do you consider all of the images personal work that can be used as the former?

GK: I consider most of my work to be personal work that can also cross over into editorial, portraiture and in some cases, stock. I’ll occasionally deliberately shoot something that I might not consider personal work, but that I recognize would be a marketable image. In the past I wouldn’t have done that, but I feel more OK about it now.

SB: Can you tell me a bit about your series Dreamlife? What was your personal impetus for creating this series?

GK: The Dreamlife series didn’t come about intentionally, but rather was the result of sorting through my work and noticing all these images that had a similar introspective or reflective feeling to them.  I love photographing people with their eyes closed! So a lot of these images are simply that – people with closed eyes, which creates a moody tone that I’m really drawn to. In some cases, the photos are of people literally sleeping.  And some of the photos in this series are simply someone in a setting that feels like a dream to me. This dreamy feeling is the common thread that runs between all of these images.  I love the way this series is happening intuitively, without effort, and like a literal sleeping-dream, it’s just fun for me to watch it and see what happens.

SB: How did you select your subjects for Dreamlife?

GK: The people I photograph are almost always people I am around on a regular basis – family and friends.

SB: Have you photographed yourself in any of the Dreamlife images?

GK: I don’t do very many self-portraits, I’m not that comfortable having my picture taken.  However there is one photo of me in this series – it came about one day during my first full winter in Minnesota when I was going crazy from what I felt was my inability to be out in the elements and tolerate the cold (I’ve since learned to love and appreciate shooting in Minnesota in winter.)  But on that day, for lack of any other options, I took my camera to the basement where there were all these great textures and tones and was just playing around with it all.  Not having a model to work with I crawled underneath a crusty old work table, and with eyes closed and hand reaching out opening a drawer, I ended up with a shot I really liked.

SB: When viewing your animal imagery it is clear that you are enamored by the animal kingdom, especially canines. These exceptional images are frequently whimsical, touching and/or humorous. Can you discuss your passion for photographing animals and the thread that connects these images?

GK: Thank you, and yes I welcome the opportunity to discuss this passion.  I love dogs, and animals of all kinds, I always have.  My relationship with my dog, Simon, is a continual source of awe and inspiration to me.  To love and be loved by a dog is one of the most touching and deeply moving experiences of my life.  Simon continually demonstrates unconditional love and forgiveness, and I feel that he teaches me to be a better person.

Besides Simon, I also take care of two beautiful, awesome, and funny greyhounds that belong to friends of mine, and I trade dog-sitting with various other friends as well, so at any given moment there could be any number of dogs in my house.  Part of the reason for so many dog photos is simply accessibility.  But beyond that, I am so in love with these creatures that I just naturally want to photograph them.  I’m interested in shooting what moves me, what I love, what makes me feel something.  When photographing dogs or animals of any kind, I’m totally present in that moment and having the best time. I hope that it is reflected in the photos.

SB: What are you working on now? 

GK: I’m working on a personal project that I’m tentatively calling “Kindred Spirits”.  It’s a series of portraits of people with animal companions that they’ve had a lifelong or nearly lifelong relationship with (lifelong meaning lifespan of the animal).  This started last summer when I found out that the mother of a friend of mine has a pet tortoise that she’s had for 50 years.  She let me come to her home and photograph them together and I was so moved by the experience that I started seeking out other people with long-term relationships with animals.  I’ve been meeting the best people and animals through this project; it’s been a lot of fun, and also very emotional.  It sounds naïve, but when I started out I hadn’t thought about the fact that many of the animals in this series are at the end of their lives (two have passed already since being photographed) so that has added some poignancy to the project that I didn’t anticipate.  I don’t have any plans yet for this series; right now I’m just doing the portraits and will see how it evolves.

To see more of Gina’s work pop over to her website.  

On The Walls: Doug Ethridge @ Lightbox Gallery

Doug Ethridge is a photographer who refuses to get pigeonholed into one style, process or approach. He’s constantly reinventing his visions and has most recently created a body of work entitled 27 Mornings In Winter which is on view from January 14- February 7 at Lightbox Gallery in Astoria, Oregon. 

Doug first gained notice with a series that he shot with a Hasselblad Xpan entitled Solitary Voyagers.

I first wrote about Doug’s platinum series Waypoints in my April 2010 column for Black & White Photography.

I then wrote about Doug’s color series Primordial Seas for F-stop Magazine last year.

Here’s an excerpt from a conversation we had a few days ago.

SUSAN BURNSTINE: What were your beginnings as a photographer and when did you realize it would become your chosen form of expression?

DOUG ETHRIDGE: My first year of college, I borrowed a friend’s Yashica 124 and created a book of b&w prints as a gift for a friend. It seemed like a good idea at the time even though I had never been in a darkroom before. In the process I had to teach myself how to process film and make prints, and I think this really is what got me going. Since then the idea of using a series of images to tell a story has been with me every step of the way. 

SB: You were once a professional jazz musician. Can you discuss how your musical talents have informed your visual talents?

DE: Professional is probably a stretch but at one point I was actually good enough to play in public. I started music lessons when I was five. To me, the entire process of learning music is directly applicable to photography. From seeing patterns, the obvious rewards of practice, utilizing a mechanical device for artistic expression, listening and thinking, and ultimately getting to the point where you are flying on instinct and experience without conscious thought. All these things apply.

The other similarity to music is the performance aspect. If we can agree that music and visual arts are sort of non-verbal languages, then you need a reality check once in a while to see if you are communicating anything. If you just practice in your room all day, then you really have no point of reference. So showing or performing the work is a critical component. Not that we have to value our selves entirely on the response or opinions of others, but if you put a body of work out there and nobody at all responds, then it’s an indication that maybe you need a little more practice. What excites me the most is when I get a spectrum of responses; that tells me I’ve put enough emotion into the work to stimulate some emotion back, even if it’s an entirely different emotion that I put in.

SB: Your recent series 27 Mornings In Winter recently opened as a solo exhibition at Lightbox Photographic in Astoria, Oregon. What was the impetus for the still series and also the original video?

DE: In the Northwest we have these long and sometimes very depressing winters. At some point, it gets to be too much. So a few years ago I decided to embrace that moment and get out every morning to make a little film. Those miserable days turned into magical moments of discovering the uniqueness of each day, even if it was simply a different texture or smell of the rain. As I was editing the film, I kept seeing these lovely new images coming about from layering multiple layers of video, dissolving and so on. I began exporting some of those frames and playing around with making prints from them. It took about two years off and on to find the right way to print them. 

SB: This is your second series printed in platinum. Can you tell me a bit about your history with this process and the creative genesis for these particular images?

DE: I am always up for learning something new. A part of me was really missing the darkroom, and a good friend, Ron Reeder is a master of the digital negative and platinum/palladium process. He also loves to share this knowledge. So it was pretty much a no brainer to sit in with Ron and learn the workflow. The digital part of it is all the same skills I already had after a decade of Photoshop, and the rest is simply being meticulous. I love the sort of Zen quality of tearing the paper to size, hand-coating the sensitizer, tweaking contrast, the whole deal. These particular images were printed with several other methods before I tried them in platinum/palladium and that seemed like the right answer. 

SB: Is there one image with this body of work that you are most proud of or perhaps one that embodies the complete spirit and intent of your imagery?

DE: One any given day I might choose one or another, but they are all favorites or I wouldn’t show them at all. There are many, many more that will likely never see the light of day.

SB: You have shot in a number of your series in digital, some with film, some in color, some in black and white. Can you talk a bit about the variety of work you’ve created over the course of your career and how your process has transitioned from using state of the art digital technology to applying different alternative processes in your work?

DE: It is really important to me to change it up, to grow, to learn. I experiment constantly with different cameras, films, digital approaches, papers, presentation methods, even print sizes. Each informs the other and I rotate through these methodologies based on what I think will work best for specific content. All of my work usually starts with a question, “can I make a picture of …” and the … can be an idea, an emotion, whatever. Then I try to make that image. If/when I am successful, I try to make another one, and then another, and eventually, there is a body of work (or not!). Sometimes the answer is in color, sometimes b&w, sometimes video, sometimes a still. But whatever it is, I have to be able to prove to myself that a particular body of work is best presented in a particular way by testing it out in several different possible methods.

SB: You mentioned that you will be working on additional videos for this body of work. Can you tell me a bit about the approach and concept for future videos for this work and how it may grow or change from the first video? 

My friend John Scanlan at Verve planted the bug in my ear to make 27 Mornings In Winter into a “four seasons” project. I was too busy with commercial work during the summer to shoot then, but I spent a lot of time thinking about the idea. When fall came, I was ready to roll, and I have shot all the footage for a new film. The rough cut is done and needs to marinate a while before I look at it again. I have already made a handful of still that I quite like. The concept expanded from essentially my immediate neighborhood on out to the coast and the rain forest. So far it is more dense, more textural. 

SB: What are you working on now?

DE: I’m working on the second film and the accompanying prints. Thinking about another chapter of the winter film. Working out ideas for a long-standing question about water and clouds. I have some technical experiments to work on for a mixed alternate process printing concept I have. Off to Cuba in February and France in June and new work will come from those trips. The content will be location-driven and probably some combination of digital and film. 

To see more of Doug’s work pop over to his website.

In Focus: Traer Scott

Traer Scott is a wonder. Not only is she a talented photographer, she’s also an active animal activist who donates portions of her book proceeds to the ASPCA… A woman after my own heart.

Her series Natural History was a favorite of mine in Photolucida’s 2010 Critical Mass competition. That series inspired me to feature her black and white work in my column for Black and White Photography (UK) last August 2011, which also earned her the cover shot.

Here’s an excerpt from a conversation we had late last spring. 

SUSAN BURNSTINE: What were your beginnings as a photographer and when did you realize it would become your chosen form of expression?

TRAER SCOTT: I spent my teens and early college years sampling just about every creative media possible. I started college as a theater major but soon switched to Mass Comm and became heavily involved in audio production which lead to an early career in professional radio and voice imaging. I also dabbled in painting, singing, film making and playing music but nothing seemed to fit. 

Photography was one of my very first interests as a child and I took my first darkroom class at 10 and used to stage fashion photo shoots in my house when I was 13, 14. All the teen mags always had model searches and I would enter photos of my friends. In college, I picked up photography again and really began to develop it when I moved to Seattle for a semester. Sitting on the steps of a dormitory facing Mt. Rainier, I had a bit of an aha moment, and suddenly knew that I meant to be a photographer.

As a junior, I won a fellowship grant in radio, The Dick Clark Broadcasting Award where I was also awarded a Radio Mercury Award in NYC. A few days after, I was offered my own national syndicated radio program with the ABC Radio Network. I was flown to Dallas where I sat in the Network President’s office and told him thanks but no thanks, I was moving to Boston to become a photographer. I think my father died a little bit that day. It took almost 10 years to prove to him that I made the right decision. Even I was beginning to wonder… 

SB: I read that you began your journey at age 10 and worked in the darkroom, then owned an SLR by the age of 11? Did you study photography formally or are you self-taught?

TS: I have had lots of random instruction, from my first darkroom classes in 5th grade to Master classes in NYC and a one year program at the New England School of Photography but I do not have an art degree. I actually have a BA in Mass Communication which has served me remarkably well in this profession. In college, I had extensive training in both creative writing and journalism which has armed me with the ability to write all of my own book text, articles, speeches and endless proposals. Years of public speaking and professional radio experience have been invaluable too. Those first book signing speeches weren’t as daunting as they might have been and I didn’t panic when the CBS Early show came calling-although I was still insanely nervous before the taping. I used to lament not having gone to art school but now I’m actually grateful for having a well-rounded liberal arts education.

SB: Am I correct in assuming that you are primarily a commercial photographer, but you have successfully ventured into the fine art and documentary arena with many of your series/books. How do you balance both worlds? Does one feed the other? Or does the commercial work support your passion?

TS: Quite the opposite actually. I am, for better or worse, a fine art photographer through and through and that is where I earn 95% of my humble income. I actually do very little commercial work at all but am actively trying to change that. Even though I feel that I can offer a unique vision and fill a very specific niche, I have found the commercial realm difficult to break into. 

It is definitely my goal to be able to support myself and my more personal photographic visions with commercial work. My struggle with the books has always been to curb the ‘fine art’ enough for them to be commercially viable. If I were to do publish a monograph for The Hungry Ghost say, I would want it as pure as possible even if it meant a tiny print run but all three of my books with Merrell were cause books that we specifically designed to crossover from fine art to commercial. I could have approached the subject matter differently and made really dark books with intensely personal images and the message might have wowed all five people who would have bought it. As it is, Shelter Dogs has over 60,000 copies in print with a new paperback edition and a Japanese edition. The success of the book undoubtedly launched my career but it has also raised tens of thousands for the ASPCA and hopefully delivers a powerful but palatable message. 

SB: You are also balancing a career in the gallery world with print sales and exhibitions? And you teach also? Where do you teach and can you discuss some of your ongoing involvement in the gallery world?

TS: Every day I feel like I am trying to balance about a dozen vaguely incompatible aspects of my career, each needing its own special set of skills. It’s exhausting. My involvement in the gallery world thus far has been rather schizophrenic and disappointing. My name is somewhat known, but I appear to be stuck in limbo. The book portfolios are too commercial for the galleries and my fine art work is too personal for the publishing world. I assumed that the success of the books would inevitably lead to success in the gallery world, but it has not.  I have had a lot of wonderful responses to The Hungry Ghost as well as my new color series Natural History but only sporadic, group exhibitions so far. Gallery representation has always been a primary goal of mine but so far it has remained elusive. I sell prints directly through my website and now in the case of Natural History, through Photo Eye’s Photographer’s Showcase. I teach an animal photography course of my own creation at Rhode Island School of Design.

SB: The Hungry Ghost is somewhat of a departure from your work with animals, but is strongly linked to your breathtaking color series Natural History. If I were to try and connect all of your work, I’d say they were touching on the metaphorical desire for freedom of spirit, regardless if human or animal. Does that ring true? If you were to summarize your work… What do you think links all of your series?

SB: What was the impetus that inspired you to begin shooting your first series Shelter Dogs?   Did you always intend for it to be published in book form? 

TS: Shelter Dogs was born directly from my volunteer work at Providence Animal Control shelter where I am still heavily involved. At the time, it was my job to photograph all of the dogs for internet adoption sites and as the months went by, I would sit at night and stare at the growing number of images I had of dogs that never made it out of the shelter. It was devastating. Those photos seemed to be the only record of their existence. These dogs were completely innocent victims who had suffered one bad turn after another until their lives were abruptly ended. I couldn’t delete them and began wanting to put together a project which would memorialize their short lives. I aspired for it to become a book but never thought it would happen so quickly or be so successful. I have Joan Brookbank, my former editor at Merrell and current agent to thank for that. I met her in portfolio reviews at Review Santa Fe. Fortunately she saw potential in the project (which was only a handful of photos at the time) and took a chance on me. After the boom and strong sales of Shelter Dogs, I had a lot of freedom to choose and mold my next project which I felt absolutely had to be Street Dogs. It was an project I had been aching to pursue for years and finally has the backing to do it. 

SB: What was the impetus for Street Dogs and Wild Horses? Did you shoot the series first, then pursue a publishing deal. Or did you complete the body of work then get a book deal? 

TS: Street Dogs met with a lot of critical acclaim and great press but has in no way been the commercial success that Shelter Dogs was. It’s harder to digest and more harsh in its visual reality. It is my favorite of the three books -perhaps because of the epic journeys that I underwent to shoot it and the intense emotional toll they took on me. 

Wild Horses was a different kind of struggle for me because I had to rely on other’s expertise. Where I consider myself extremely knowledgeable about almost all aspects of dogs and their behavior- I am not in any way, experienced with horses and I think that comes through in the book. It was also the first time I had to “stalk” my subjects. I soon learned that all horses spend about 99% of their lives grazing so you have to be unbelievably patient in order to capture that exciting 1%. I spent many, many hours driving through all imaginable terrain trolling for horses and then many more hours sitting in half frozen Nevada fields, mosquito riddled marshes and sand dunes with howling 25 degree winds waiting for movement. 

SB: You are an avid animal welfare activist. Can you discuss your personal and ongoing involvement as an activist?

TS: I’m not sure that I can even separate activism from my life anymore it has become so ingrained in my every thought and action. This dedication started when I was a child and my passion (as well as anger)  has only grown with time. When I was younger, I felt very hopeless and overwhelmed by the amount of suffering and cruelty that I saw and learned about- but photography has given me a powerful voice.

On a personal level, I have been a strict and fairly militant vegetarian for 25 years now. When I was a teenager in the south, I was literally mocked for not eating meat, but the world has changed quite a bit since then and now we are seeing things like animal welfare ratings in the butcher case at Whole Foods. It’s a small thing that represents a slight but significant shift in public consciousness. My hope is that people are slowly beginning to realize that perhaps animals are not just here to be used and exploited by us. 

SB: What is your personal link to water in this body of work?

TS: I am so much happier in water than I ever am on land. It seems to vanquish all of my insecurities and inhibitions as well as bring about a kind of quiet that is usually very elusive in my mind. I think it has a similar effect on my models because they seem to transform in the water. These photos are not just about creating a successful final image but experiencing the reality of the art if even for a minute - actually witnessing and/or respectively becoming the subject and the myth. I could create all of these in Photoshop but then I would be robbed of the incredible pleasure of seeing these characters come to life, completely formed, in front of me. That is what photography has always been to me- a way to make the world look like I want it to. I am an escapist and rarely interested in reproducing stark realities. 

SB: Can you discuss the technical beginnings of this series? I read you began this series while playing with your used canon underwater camera purchased for snorkeling. How did the visualization of this body of work come together? Is it film or digital? 

TS: The Hungry Ghost is digital but has been shot with a succession of inexpensive hobbyist underwater cameras, the most recent of which is a little Pentax Optio. I am often actually in the water shooting and also usually carrying a lot of props and supplies to semi-remote locations where we are able to shoot the models nude in a natural, clear water environment with no gawkers. Even if I had housing for my Nikons (my next purchase, btw) I’m not sure if I would use them for this series. There is a certain innocent, organic grassroots feel to the whole thing that I love. I don’t want to turn it into a Vogue shoot. Someone’s dog is almost always swimming through one of the shots- we leave with filthy, water logged costumes, cuts and scrapes and sunburns- but the images have this raw alchemical beauty. 

It really just started with a cheap little camera and a fascination with underwater photography and costumes. Water allows for endless body positions that are completely impossible on land without rigging or now, completely digital construction. I would go swimming with my friends and snap shots of them which eventually developed into this. All of the models are just my close friends and we make a day of it. I’m fortunate to have such gorgeous, transcendent friends who are not afraid to bare all. I, on the other hand, refuse to be photographed clothed or otherwise. 

SB: Looking back on all of your accomplishments, what are you most proud of today?

TS: I am immensely proud of my books because I feel that each one was a completely unique offering rather than a regurgitation of what has already been done ad nauseum. Hopefully each one also marks a small step forward for their respective causes. Most of all, I am very grateful that I had the blind determination to hang on and keep struggling when everyone around me was hitting 30 and giving up. This is a brutal profession and trading noble aspirations for security becomes almost irresistible at a certain point. I have been rewarded with an unbelievably fulfilling life but I’m very lucky, without the unyielding support of my husband, I would probably be selling insurance now.

SB: What are you working on now?

Highlights: 2011

Less than six months ago, I hatched an idea to begin a blog that showcased talented photographers discussing their work in their own words. Rather than rewriting source material or interpreting what has been said in the past, it was my hope to dig a bit deeper and create a compelling conversation with some remarkable visionaries. And so it was, Underexposed was born.

This blog would not exist without the artists who generously agreed to be interviewed. And it’s my hope to keep you in touch with what their doing yearly by having them report back with their highlights of the year. So without further ado, here are their personal highlights. 

(note: names of photographers are linked to their original features)

Antone Dolezal: 2011 was the year I made the leap of showing my work to the greater photography community and the support from so many others was much more than I had expected. I am naturally inclined to wander the landscape with my camera and watch the birds fly by rather than promote my own photographs. So between David Bram inviting me to show my work in Fraction, my pals at Finite Foto taking me under their wing, the emails of support from a few of my photographic heros, and being featured on Underexposed, my understanding and focus of my own work has certainly changed. A big thanks to my friends for continuously poking me with a stick and helping bring my work to light.

Jane Fulton Alt:  2011 was been a splendid year, one in which I deepened my spiritual life and rediscovered my love for encaustics (beeswax).  

S. Gayle Stevens: In 2011 i have found my voice. it sang out in, through my looking glass.

Leon Taylor: A short cold snap in October followed by a long and mild Autumn meant that I was able to continue my Wild Mushrooms project for much longer than I hoped this year. They were abundant in the woods near to where I live.

Jennifer Schlesinger: Collecting eggs one day in 2011 I thought about how we always have too many, and while my 5 year old’s egg business is booming, we are still left with a plenty. So as I was in a daydream, it occurred to me : ALBUMEN! I have spent the entire year honing the handcoated, 19th Century albumen process and I am excited to debut the beginnings of my new series, “here nor there” in 2012. (However, after losing 5 out of our 11 hens to a hungry, lurking, intruder last week - I will have to almost immediately start the hen raising process all over again come Spring - ah the life cycle). 

Michael Kirchoff: 2011 was an incredible year with solo exhibitions in Los Angeles and New York, as well as my first international exhibit in China. 2012 holds the promise of personal and professional growth that I look forward to embracing with open arms. 

Brigitte Carnochan: I’m happy to say that 2011 is the year I learned to print with platinum/palladium, a process that is so congenial to me I wish I’d started it much earlier. On the other hand, it’s lovely to come to it now because my enthusiasm for the process has charged a whole new body of work: Natural Beauty. The full portfolio can be seen here

Elizabeth Opalenik: I shifted gears in January 2011 and volunteered with a team of eye doctors in Colombia.  It was great to collaborate with two former students, Dr. Joe Fammartino, heading the team, and Rita Villaneuva, who photographed along side me and acted as translator. It is great to give back, especially around sight. Going back to the Amazon this January. More images here.  

Rania Matar: 2011 was a pretty important one for me. A Girl and Her Room received a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist grant, and won the Legacy Award at the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Half the year was also consumed in producing this body of work into a book due to come out in the spring of 2012, published by Umbrage Editions and with texts by Anne Tucker and Susan Minot.  Here is the book website. And I started a new body of work titled La Femme-Enfant. Above image titles: Lucy 13, Brookline MA, 2011 and Maryam 12, Beirut, 2011

Jonathan Blaustein: 2011 was a crazy year, one that I’ll certainly remember forever. If I had to pick one highlight, it would probably be dropping off a portfolio of my work at the Library of Congress on a great summer day in August. It was such a tremendous honor to have “The Value of a Dollar” project be included as a part of American history, and I got to spend a couple of fascinating hours chatting up the curatorial team as well.

Brad Moore: These three images visually sum up 2011 for me.

Michael Crouser: In 2011 I was incredibly honored to be included in Tim Mantoani’s book Behind Photographs - Archiving Photographic Legends.

Mitch Dobrowner: The personal highlights for 2011 for me would have to include:  

1. Two (2) new limited Edition books published by 21st Editions: Deluxe & Prism. 

I’ve always wanted to have at least one book published at the highest quality possible before I died (for my kids and grand kids to have). These 2 books are just that… my dreams came true. And note: I’m not planning on dying anytime soon!!
2. The acquisition of prints by 3 museums:  Santa Barbara Museum of Art; Portland Art Museum; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
3. Four solo exhibits: Blue Sky Gallery, Portland; John Cleary Gallery, Houston; Wall Space; Santa Barbara; GADCOLLECTION, Paris
4. Being published by Time Magazine 
5. Having Google (Creative Labs, NYC) create a 2 minute spot for their Search Stories Series. The spot is being shown on their Youtube Channels and broadcast/cable TV: 
6. Most important to me is the creation of new work. The two images that I capture 2011 for me are the shot of an F3 tornado in Regan, North Dakota and the super violent storm cell over Mobridge, South Dakota (images above). I feel very lucky.  

Damion Rice: My personal highlight of 2011 was the night I took this picture: 12th May 2011.

This picture has helped me out this year - it got accepted into the NYPF: Audio/Visual exhibition at the Brooklyn Powerhouse in October and also more recently it got featured in the Jan 2012 issue of B&W Photography (UK).   Beyond that  I love the image - it was from possibly the best gig I went to all year  Iron Chic & Bangers. When great music, friends, beer & Polaroid combine….its hard to beat. 
 

Lydia Panas:  It has been an exciting and busy year with the publication of my first monograph The Mark of Abel and the beginning of a new set of pictures (yet unpublished) that continue my exploration of relationships and love.  In pursuit of leisure, I found unexpected pleasure by turning my camera towards a piece of fabric and making a series of images about movement, dance and grace.  

Jennifer Shaw: This has been a wildly beautiful year with the release of my first book, Hurricane Story - a long time dream/goal realized thanks to the amazing team at Chin Music Press. And I am honored to have a second book now in the works through North Light Press. But community is really important to me, so I’d like to include the coming together of the photo community, both local and national, to create an amazing PhotoNOLA festival this December as one of my treasured highlights of 2011.

Ken Rosenthal: While 2011 has been a very memorable year for me, the release of my first publication, Ken Rosenthal : Photographs 2001-2009, has been the main highlight. I am very pleased that prints of mine have been added to the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego.  

And I commenced work on and have begun releasing prints from a new series, The Forest (selections of which are currently on exhibit at Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe.

Polly Chandler: My highlight for 2011 was landing a spread in the PDN Photo Annual.

Lauren Henkin: This year has been one of freedom—to create, to see, to record, to share, and hope.  I couldn’t have asked for any more.

Susan Barnett: As the Holidays are upon us we are often told that the Holidays mean “family”. Sometimes a Holiday is in fact the absence of family. I found this gal in Union Square Park where she had set up camp as she was homeless and had been on the road for 6 months. Finding this image occurred at a crucial time for me as I was reevaluating my project “Not In Your Face” . It said to me if there are people out there like this they need to be in the series

Michael Sebastian: Without question, the highlight of my photographic year was representing Fraction Magazine at the Lishui Photographic Festival in China. I’m only just beginning to process what I experienced there, and I hope what I saw and learned will be reflected in future work.

Tom M. Johnson: There were two highlights in 2011, and it’s very difficult to choose between the two.  In October I had a solo show in Paris, however what was most exciting as well as a terrific honor was being featured in the New York Times Lens Blog.

Beth Dow:  I’m working on “Here, Nor There”, a 2-volume book project that messes with space and time, merging images of Greek and Roman antiquities with the local contemporary landscape. The first book, “Roam”, is finished, and I just returned from Greece a few weeks ago with images that will fit into “Polis”. This work is funded by the McKnight Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board, and I am deeply grateful for their generous support. When I’m not fabricating a classical history of Minneapolis, I’m distracting myself with several other artist books that I hope to complete this year.

Aline Smithson: 2011 was a wonderful year—some of the highlights included receiving the cover of PDN and being recognized for my teaching, and traveling to China to be part of the Lishui Photography Festival.

Loli Kantor: I was honored to have a solo exhibition last week at PhotoNOLA in new Orleans. The show is at Antenna Gallery at the By Water. The PhotoNOLA folks are all volunteers and are a fantastic and dedicated group of photographers/ artists. 

Tomorrow morning I leave to Ukraine for a solo traveling exhibition and a workshop I will be giving in Kharkov to local photographers in Ukraine during Hannukkah. I was asked after the Chernihiv festival. You can find more info here and here. 

Stella Johnson: I was honored to have work from Portrait of a Greek Landscape included in: Re-Framing The Feminine. Curated by Dinia Mitrani at Girls Club Collection, Fort Lauderdale, Florida from November 5 to September 30, 2011. I also had photographs exhibited from my monograph Al Sol at National Public Radio, Washington DC during Hispanic Heritage Month, 2011. 

Douglas Stockdale: 2011 was another wonderful year in which I was able to continue developing existing relationships, while making some new acquaintances.

My primary photographic accomplishment for 2011 is the publication of my first trade photobook, Ciociaria by Edizioni Punctum with the photobook launch at FotoGrafia Festivale Internazionale di Roma last September. In early 2012 I hope to have available a limited edition book and print set.

Pivotal for me in 2011 was a deeper understanding of an extended project that I have been working on since 2006. Although I initially developed this as an Aftermath project, I now realize that this project delves much deeper; to help explore memory and its preservation and how that concept relates to my family history.

Brian Kosoff: 2011 was not a particularly productive year for me when it comes to the creation of new images. It was a year of distractions and obligations that kept me from shooting as much as I like. However I did create a few images, and the one posted here relates to why I have chosen to shoot landscape work over other genres.

The image “Dixon Cemetery” was shot in October on a road in New Mexico. The image itself is not revelatory to me in any way but the experience of capturing it was a reminder of why I love landscape. As I usually shoot with a view camera it is necessary for me to arrive at a scene while there is still light sufficient to focus. Once I composed and focused I then waited, and waited, until the sky became dark enough for the stars to appear and for the Moon to provide some illumination of the scene. So I had the opportunity and time, some 9 hours of standing around, to look at the world around me, and better still, to look up at the unfolding sky full of stars, so clear from a 7000’ elevation, that I so rarely see from my sea level and light polluted home sky of New York. For all the travel I have done I cannot recall ever seeing so much of the Milky Way and with such detail. It was better than any planetarium show I had ever witnessed and I was thankful that I was no longer constrained by a life spent in my studio. That all the discomforts and inconveniences of landscape photography, were as insignificant as but one small star in a sea of galaxies.

Peter Liepke: I have had many highlights this year. But quite simply I’m just grateful for the opportunity to continue doing what I love to do, and being able to continue selling work in a very difficult economy. My family, my friends, good health, & doing what I love to do, those are truly the only highlights that really matter to me.

Bruce Haley: “I got to spoil my Australian kelpie for another year.”

photo by Isa Leshko

Susan Burnstine: I’ll second Bruce’s highlight as I also got to spend another year spoiling the love of my life, my twenty year-old Australian Kelpie, Blue… who is the reason why Underexposed exists. Since she became so ill, I’ve spent countless sleepless nights awake caring for my girl. And as a means to keep myself awake in the wee hours of the night, Underexposed was born.

Two of my biggest highlights of 2011 were both firsts. The release of my first book,  Within Shadows which earned PX3’s Fine Art Book of 2011…  

And my first album cover & interior booklet for The Guillemot’s Walk The River. When I was a kid, I loved spinning 33’s in my room, reading liner notes, getting lost in cover art and dreaming of creating my own album cover one day. Thanks to designer Mark Tappin, Geffen Records and The Guillemot’s one of my childhood dreams came true.

Sincere thanks and a big hug to all the wonderful photographers who have allowed me to interview them for Underexposed and Black and White Photography (UK). 

Wishing you all great light and happiness in 2012. 

 

 

In Focus: Brad Moore

Over the years, I’ve found that often I admire work by artists that I later meet and personally adore. And that’s precisely what happened with my pal Brad Moore.

Brad’s images always lighten my day, make me smile and help me see the world through his wonderful, off-beat perspective.  And with the news of the world mostly sounding grim, Brad’s images are a welcome reprieve. 

Earlier this year, I wrote a feature about Brad for F-stop Magazine which I’m reposting here in honor of Christmas as he has a rare and remarkable gift for capturing the personality of trees, pine and otherwise.  

Susan Burnstine: What were your beginnings as a photographer and what makes Brad Moore the photographer he is today? 

Brad Moore: When I was 12 years old, my mother gave me two old Kodak cameras she had as a child. Later in high school, I assembled a darkroom in the bathroom and learned to print black and white and color. I received a Bachelor degree in photography, then I continued school, attending Art Center College of Design. When I was 27 I started a company called Aperion, which made color calibration systems for photo labs. During this time I also had a commercial photography studio, mainly doing advertising work, and my personal work was primarily people. I sold Aperion in 2005, and now focus on fine art photography.

SB: You were born in Southern California and continue to shoot there. Can you discuss why you were personally drawn to photographing 1950’s and 1960’s post-war buildings? 

BM: I didn’t really set out to shoot buildings. About five years ago, I started driving around in some of the areas I had lived in my youth (mostly North Orange County, California). It was strange because my memories didn’t match what I was seeing, it was a bit surreal – so much had changed in the last 20 years. In this context, I started seeing things that interested me. At first, it was buildings, then I began shooting surrounding shrubbery in the same formal, symmetrical compositions. The buildings and shrubs seemed to work well together, and that’s how the project evolved. 

SB: What do you consider your first successful image in this body of work and why? What year was that image photographed and how did you come to shoot it? 

BM: There really isn’t a first single image. In the beginning I photographed aimlessly. I just shot whatever interested me, almost randomly. After I had a group of images, certain common ideas surfaced. I just built on those ideas. Some photographers get an idea first, and execute it. My work is about discovering rather than preconceiving. In this case, the ideas came afterward, from a collection of images. The first images were shot in 2006, primarily in Stanton, California. 

SB: Being a dedicated film user it strikes me that your work impressively appears to be shot on film by a 4x5 but in fact it’s either shot with a medium format digital camera and a DSLR. Can you discuss your technical approach to shooting these images? 

BM: Yes, my earlier images were shot with a DSLR with a shift lens. Later I moved to a medium format digital, which gives me about the same resolution as 4x5. I shoot everything deliberately, on a tripod, really no differently than if I was shooting film. I imagine if I did shoot film, my prints would look pretty much the same. My photographs are shot straight with no special tricks – no clever angles or dynamic lighting. It really forces me to find a great subject. I use Photoshop as a darkroom replacement. I dodge and burn, color correct, and do general image clean up. I don’t digitally construct images. I don’t like post production much, so I try to do as much as possible in the camera. Perhaps spending 20 years working with film curves had a little influence in the way I work with digital files.

SB: You formerly owned a company that created color calibration systems. Has your former professional life informed your present life as a photographer? 

BM: I’m sure it has. We spent a lot of time zeroing out film and paper curves, to get the best possible print from a given film. I suppose I still do this now, but digitally. Basically, I am just trying to get everything to a neutral place, in order to truthfully reproduce the subject. Even though it was highly technical career, it helps me today with non-technical thinking. By developing strong technical habits, there are less variables to worry about, and it frees me to concentrate on the imagery. 

SB: Your photographs almost always contain a humorous or offbeat slant. Some viewers may look at a single image for a moment and fail to see the irony and wit right away. It just sneaks up on them. Is this subtle twist intended or just an organic byproduct of your personal vision? 

BM: You’re right, some people see more than others. Well, any humor is completely unintentional. I think it’s something characteristic in the subjects I find interesting. It just happens, I don’t think about it, and it’s definitely not premeditated. I think it’s amazing to discover quiet subjects with a slight twinkle in their eye. 

SB: By returning to neighborhoods that represent the terrain of your childhood, are you are attempting to recapture or rewrite your romanticized or bright-eyed youthful views and ideals through these images or are you focusing on these neighborhoods for another reason? Can you discuss? 

BM: It’s not entirely clear why I ended up going back to areas where I grew up. Perhaps curiosity, maybe some submerged nostalgic feelings - I’m not quite sure. But, I definitely don’t set out to romanticize or judge the subjects. I never want to insert my past into the subjects – they already are part of my past, and I just want to show the way they are when I see them.

SB: When did you start integrating shrubbery into the terrain you photograph? 

BM: Very early on. Probably on my second or third day shooting I photographed the shrubbery next to a building I was shooting. Initially I thought the buildings and foliage might be two bodies of work, but as I added more and more images, it seemed stronger when the two subjects were intertwined.

SB: Do you scout locations before shooting or do you just drive around and find a location that speaks to you? 

BM: It’s a lot of random driving around. A lot. I shoot mainly on overcast days, so when the weather is right I try to get out to photograph. It’s kind of like surfing, you have to drop everything when surf’s up. Sometimes it’s possible to see something on a sunny day and revisit it when the weather cooperates. But things look and feel different on overcast days, so most often I scout as I shoot, on overcast days. The biggest problem is there are not enough cloudy days in Southern California.

SB: You have a unique color palate and use of light. Can you discuss how you achieve this? 

BM: Well, I do what I can to neutralize the camera and printer, so the palate is true to the subject. Since I shoot on overcast days, the white sky provides a simple background as well as a shadowless, giant softbox-like light. It’s a beautiful light and it helps isolate the subject. The colors are muted and everything appears flattened. Even though I shoot mostly with wide-angle lenses, this soft light gives the images a beautiful depthless quality. In Southern California, where blue skies and harsh shadows are far more common, seeing typical California architecture and foliage with overcast skies is experiencing it out of context, which I like.

SB: You’re working on new images now. Can you tell me a bit about them? 

BM: Yes, I am working on a new series. The project shares a common thread to my previous images, but they look and feel much different. The palette is completely new. However, I’m keeping things under wraps until it’s ready to show.

To view more of Brad’s work pop over to his website

Wishing everyone a very Happy Holiday.