underexposed

In Memorium: Lauren E. Simonutti

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 23:49:16 -0700

Last week we lost a truly great artist and soul, Lauren E Simonutti. When I heard the news I couldn’t take a breath for what seemed to be an entire day. My heart is still in knots… I had just seen Lauren two weeks before and I couldn’t get my head around the fact that this amazing woman was no longer with us.

Lauren was an inspiration. She was one of the most courageous artists I’ve had the honor of knowing and her work never disappointed. She was one of the rare breed of photographers who reached deep into their soul to communicate her most personal thoughts.

This past January, I had the great pleasure of featuring Lauren in my column American Connection in Black & White Photography (UK). In all truth, I feel it is amongst my best columns and I was thrilled that Lauren was more than pleased with my words.

I grappled with what I could do in her honor and since we chatted a number of times about reposting her original Q&A on Underexposed, it’s the only thing I can think of doing. So this one’s for you Lauren. The fine art world has lost a truly great and courageous artist. You are deeply missed.

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

LAUREN SIMONUTTI: I have the first picture I ever took (aged 3 1/2, of my mother). I blew the focus but I still stand by my composition. I began regularly taking pictures at age 12, trying to do photo essays and landscapes with a 110 camera. I have always taken pictures. The decision to embark on the pursuit of fine art photography was decisively made when I was 18. I was a romantic (still am) and had no idea what I was getting myself into.

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

LS: I switched high schools in junior year and was fortunate enough to find a school that had a comprehensive photo program (rare for 1984). 10 enlargers, our own processing and printing, black and white and color. Quite remarkable really. I souped my first roll of film in my New Jersey high school at 14. At 17 I enrolled to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia where photography was my major.

SB: I read that you have been a photographer since the age of 12. How would you describe your imagery prior to creating this body of work?

LS: For all those years, up until the mid 2000’s I photographed externally. The world around me. The people I knew. There was a time in my life when I was quite a social creature. These images seem rather alien to me now. I recognize the faces, I know that was the life I led, but I do not remember much about it. I cannot feel it. If I do not have a photograph of something I cannot be certain it happened. I rely on them for proof. I still take pictures for that reason - proof, that I saw, that I lived, that I was; but after everything fell apart I shifted my focus from the outside, in.

In my past the only photographs I made of myself were self portraits as myself. The girl holding the camera in the mirror. It was only after that life ended did I become a character in my own theater, an inhabitant of a world of my own making.

SB: Would I be correct in assuming you began 8 rooms, 7 mirrors, 6 clocks, 2 minds and 199 panes of glass in 2006? What was the first image you shot for this body of work? (was that Sorry And The End of Sorrow?) Can you talk a bit about that first image and the subsequent series it was part of?

LS: The first image I ever shot that heralded the beginning of where I was heading was ‘Not all books have a happy ending’. I look nothing like myself in that image and while I consider it a stand alone, not part of ‘8 rooms’ it was the impetus.

The first official image of 8 rooms was my 2006 birthday shot - ‘Tomorrow is my birthday and all my friends are here’. I had been getting sicker and the people in my life had been systematically fading away; one day I received an email from my two closest friends, a married couple I had photographed, I spent all my time with, I had loved saying they loved me but they could not handle the way I was sick and d good-bye. (This is not a matter for blame, mental illness is insidious, I was subject to regular hospitalizations/committments-people get scared, they get confused, they get angry, they feel helpless and then they leave.) I felt that if I was going to be left alone with my illness then it would just be the two of us in the house and I isolated myself from the world. My birthday was a day away and I gathered up all the things I could find in my house with a face, I bought myself a cake, I lit my candles, I posed my friends and I took the picture. Thus began a tradition. I do a photograph every year the day before my birthday, in the same room, with the same cake (it has lived in my freezer for 5 years and only comes out briefly on the 1st October then back it goes again. It is beginning to look a little the worse for wear.) These pictures mark time. They mark me.

SB: Following the completion of your first chapter in this body of work, did you realize at that point you would create a greater body of work or did the process of your creations happen organically and unplanned?

LS: There was no plan. The was no method to the madness, the madness was the method. I was taking the pictures because that is what I do. I was taking pictures because I was lonely. Because I was afraid I was fading away. The pictures are what I have.

SB: Can you tell me a bit about each chapter in this body of work?

LS: As I wrote ‘The Birthdays’ mark time, they mark the changes in me. ’Sorrow and the end of sorrow’ was the last time I allowed myself to play the tragic heroine. The Devil’s Alphabet was an exploration, an attempt to save my soul.

The 8x10’s are a lament. In addition to the subject matter, myself or otherwise- the length of the exposures record both the movement of light and shadow and record the passage of time - hours, minutes, seconds, moments. They are also the only images that feature the house as its own subject, not my model, not my backdrop, but my safe haven.

SB: You mentioned that you rarely create self-portraits and that you are conveying visual narratives within each character you embody. How do the characters evolve? Are they literary adaptations or are they based on individuals from your own life?

LS: The characters evolve as I do. Through the ground glass I see a space in the frame where a character needs to be and I insert myself into that space. I have a changeable face. I wear black so my body fades into the background or white so that it stands forth. I frequently move and at the properly intervals many of me record. I do know the characters are not based on individuals from my life, those I have known. I do not know where they come from. I never know who they are until I see them come up in the developer tray. That is when I choose my titles. When I give them a name.

SB: While your style remains consistent throughout all your work, I am curious if the meaning or approach to the work changed, shifted or evolved for you personally at any point in the process? I ask because it’s extremely rare to come across an artist who is so honest about their inner selves and struggles within a creative context. Most would retreat from consistent exposure such as this and either reemerge into something entirely different or fade away completely. But you bravely continue to create bold pieces of work. A true and rare feat I greatly commend you for.

LS: My work has changed tremendously from what I used to be to what I am, particularly over the past half dozen years. For me it came down to a matter of control. Ceding control and running on instinct. A dangerous thing for a woman who has been locked up for hearing voices to say, but comes a point in telling a story where you have to stop trying to direct it and simply do as you are told.

SB: How many handmade books have you created, what are the titles and what years were they produced? Are they still available and where they can be purchased? To the best of my knowledge, you have three: No Such Thing As Silence, Devil’s Alphabet and Drowning. Did you also create a limited edition hardbound?

LS: My first handbound book was ‘Crash’. It was a series of 35mm images I made in hospital and during rehabilitation after being run over and partially shattered by a car on the lower east side of Manhattan. The book is hardbound, complete with cut out pages framing a small toy car and collage of the police report sketch of the stick figure me and my placement in the intersection after the crash. There is only one.

‘A Hidden Monograph’ 1998 my first fictional narrative, a tale of tragic (accidental?) death and what is left behind. I think there may be 2 or 3 somewhere.

‘Not all dolls are pretty’, 2004, accordion book, images, doll head, paint & poem. Sold Out.

‘The Devil’s Alphabet’ 2007 was a hardbound, post bound book of reproductions of the complete alphabet on rag paper with a devious cover. An edition of 26 - Sold Out.

‘Evidence’ - police blotter or sociopath’s sketch book? 2008 Edition of 39 Sold Out.

‘Drowning, not waving’ 2008 (from a body of work created in 1999), offset, hand made cover, spiral bound. Edition of 250. Still available.

‘The Black Book’ portfolio book in all black, 2010, edition of 13. Sold Out.

‘No such thing as Silence’, custom sidewinder binding, 19 images on Indian Petal Paper. This book comes with bells on. Edition of 43. A few copies still available.

‘The Devil’s Alphabet’ is the only hardbound handbound book I have made. I like creative bindings and softbound and fine exotic papers are infinitely more malleable. I do have a print on demand book of ‘The Devil’s Alphabet’ with complete text available through blurb.com in soft and hardcover.

SB: What was the personal impetus for creating your own handmade books, rather than making digital or offset printed books? I assume it is partially because it’s a perfect compliment to your one-of-a-kind, handmade approach to printing. But perhaps there is a greater reason?

LS: The handmade books are something other. The discipline of bookbinding serves as an ideal counterpoint to the restrained chaos of my shooting and printing. It is the closest I have ever come to finding balance. I also make them because they can be closed. As much as I intend to make pictures for the rest of my life there are moments when you want to see the series finished, the project complete. In a book the pictures can be selected, the sequence arranged, the text written, the type set and once the cover is bound in place you can breathe for a moment knowing that you are done. Then of course it starts all over again.

I have designed print on demand books but my marketing abilities are lacking and they languish. I have one offset printed book, my very first visual narrative, ‘Drowning, not waving’. The money for that book was a donation/gift from an individual who I have never met. I live quite literally hand to mouth and offset is beyond my means. My greatest desire is a proper monograph (or several) from a proper publisher. It is that to which I aspire.

SB: Catherine Edelman is your sole gallery representation, correct? How long have you been working with her? How did she come to know your work?

LS: Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago (www.edelmangallery.com) is my sole gallery representation. It was mid to late 2009 that Catherine saw my work online in an interview/feature I did several years earlier with LensCulture and contacted me via email expressing an interest in representing me. She then flew to Baltimore and came to see the house and my work. It was important to her to see the work as well as to know the story was true.

SB: What are you currently working on?

LS: The next picture. Always the next picture. I find myself of 2 minds lately (no pun intended) and am working point/counterpoint - 5x7 dark, very little toning and unsympathetic countered by 8x10, concentrating on light, gentle tones and reflecting a softness I do not feel but do remember. The story continues as long as I do - somewhere between the next 10 minutes and the non-foreseeable future.

SB: Where do you see your work going in the years to come?

LS: It will go wherever I find myself, the location of which (literal or mental). I would not, at this point in time, even begin to hazard a guess. But it has never abandoned me.

To see more of Lauren’s work, visit Catherine Edelman’s website.

There’s also a wonderful artist talk with Lauren posted here.

Rest In Peace, Lauren. Your strength, honesty, courage and visionary imagery will remain with me forever.

In Focus: Tim Hyde

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 01:10:00 -0700

I’ve known Tim Hyde for a number of years and am quite fond of him as a person and as an artist. It’s been wonderful to watch his recent rise to success and I look forward to seeing all that he achieves in the future.

Recently, I had a chat with Tim about his work. Here’s an excerpt from that recent conversation.

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

TIM HYDE: My grandfather was an accomplished amateur photographer—I lived with him growing up—so that probably had some influence. I also studied photography and became interested in its social and political dimensions when I was in graduate school, but it wasn’t until many years later that I took up a camera myself.

It is an odd thing. I used to consider myself a writer, was a journal keeper and perhaps the last daily letter-writer left in North America. For some reason, when I quit drinking a decade and a half ago, I also quit writing. Period. I just stopped and couldn’t find the energy or creativity to keep a journal or write a letter. It was about that time that I began taking pictures. I can’t help but think the events are related somehow. Photography is form of communication, like writing. For me, it’s the same voice, different pitch.

SB: You are frequently drawn to images dealing with the theme of man verses nature or historical, cultural or environmental transition. Can you talk a bit about your personal impetus to photograph this theme?

TH: I have always been fascinated by the complicated relationship between humans and their environment, the battle between man and Mother Nature. When we humans talk about how we are screwing up the planet, it is just another manifestation of our arrogance. This planet is too durable and the human species is too small and too ephemeral to make much of a difference. As Emerson said, “[Our] operations taken together are so are so insignificant, a little chipping, baking, patching, and washing, that…they do not vary the result.” We might pollute our own nest, make it less pleasant for ourselves, but we are not capable of “ruining” the planet.

In graduate school I studied frontiers, which are classic zones of hostility between humans and nature. Natural disasters are another theatre of action in the conflict. Nothing demonstrates the enormous power of nature and the puniness of humans more than an earthquake or hurricane or tornado; the disparity is immeasurable. I am also struck by the implacable ferocity of these natural forces, like Melville’s Maldive Shark, “pale ravener of horrible meat.” Sometimes the randomness is apparent, and it is impossible to figure out why this house or that family was taken and another was left in tact, one village leveled and another untouched. Other times, such as the Japanese tsunami in 2011, the earth is cleansed of nearly all evidence of our habitation—nothing is spared.

SB: Despite the fact that you are photographing places of devastation or impermanence, you have a keen ability to find beauty within the destruction or historical change you are photographing. Can you discuss how you find the balance between two opposing facets to create an image that is uniquely its own?

One of the things that I always notice about these natural disasters is how beauty can be found in the middle of human tragedy, breathtaking sunsets over the most haunting scenes of destruction, for example. I think about it constantly. One must resist the temptation of melodrama, which is why I try to avoid people in my pictures (though it couldn’t be helped in Haiti). Similarly, I don’t want to dwell on the contradiction between beauty and destruction, so I’m cautious about being too overt. Again, all of this can become melodramatic in a heartbeat, which is exactly the effect I most want to avoid. Of course, I’m a photographer, so naturally drawn to the best light and most pleasing compositions; plus, I do want to show the obdurate beauty in nature—pitiless and wholly without remorse—as she dismembers human works.

Sometimes I think that Mother Nature is puckish in a nasty sort of way, and loves to rearrange man’s works and assert her beauty in such situations as a way to tweak our noses, almost as revenge for having insulted her. That falls into the same anthropomorphic, human-centric trap that I am trying to transcend, of course, so I don’t stay in that place for long.

SB: You photographed Repossession between 2008 and 2012 in numerous locations which suffered natural disasters such as Iowa, Louisiana, Texas, North Dakota, Italy, Iceland, Haiti, Japan, New York, Vermont, New Jersey, Kentucky, and Indiana. Is there one image in this body of work that you are most proud of or one that embodies the complete spirit and intent of your imagery? If so, can you discuss this image further?

There is one image taken in Haiti that I like very much. The subject is the cadaver of a bank building, white with bright blue doors and red plinths for the columns. (Color is very important to me; I compose my photographs with color, so it is almost always present.) The building is geometric, but the ragged areas of damage, the cracks, and the carnage around the building are all organic—not geometric. Somebody has written “Viva Aristide” on the front of the building, and just before I made the photo, somebody took a piss in the dust in the foreground—the wet scar is still visible in the dirt. Both the piss and the graffiti are utterly futile acts of defiance but each seems to hold some redemptive power. I actually tipped my hat to the chap who took a leak right in front of my tripod. By the way, he’s still visible in the photograph off to the left.

SB: Is Repossession an ongoing series or do you feel it’s complete?

That is a good question. How does one know? The British novelist Philip Glazebrook, in one of his travel books, talks about the “meridian of a journey.” He said it doesn’t usually occur at the half way point a trip, but at somewhere during a trip a distinct mid-point is achieved. Every thing before that is the journey out and everything after is the journey home, even if that point comes near the beginning or near the end of a trip. It feels to me like my journey with this project is coming to an end, and I’m on my way home. Perhaps I have already arrived.

I recently spent several days shooting the tornado damage in Indiana and Kentucky. Typically, I will wait a month before visiting a disaster scene so I’m not in the way. This time, I arrived on site just as search and rescue were winding up, so I was in the middle of things: the wound was still open and things were in a state of confusion yet. People were wandering around in a daze: their loved ones had all been accounted for, one way or the other, but not their neighbors or pets or possessions. The last photograph I took on that trip was of a makeshift memorial set up by neighbors and survivors for a family of five who were killed in the storm. The memorial consisted of a cross and the few pieces of the family’s home found in an adjacent field. The scene was quite moving, and I spent the afternoon and part of the evening there shooting. To me, it seemed like an ending, the day had the feeling of a period to it, a coda. If so, I can’t say it was a very satisfactory ending.

SB: I am extremely fond of your series Country. It touches an innate feeling of hope, survival and the slow, steady loss that embodies the core concept of the American Dream. Can you talk a bit about the history of this series and detail the initial creative inspiration for capturing these images?

TH: So often a photographer will be well into a “series” before he or she realizes it is a series. I grew up in Iowa, so feel naturally drawn to rural scenes: small towns and the agricultural industry. It is a way of life passing, the way of our grandparents and great grandparents. In the past couple of years, I have realized that small towns aren’t going away, they are just changing, becoming more multi-lingual and full of vibrant colors. Of course, Sherwood Anderson and William Faulkner and Willa Cather showed us that they were changing a hundred years ago, so this isn’t a new process.

SB: How long have you been making these images?

TH: About five years, give or take.

SB: You’ve specified in your Statement that Country is just a chapter or thread in what is to become a larger, life-long project which is to show how human beings negotiate with our physical planet, how we struggle to maintain our precarious and ephemeral perch on its surface. Do you foresee the next chapter of this work taking a new direction, different locations or subject matter or do you work in an instinctual manner that dictates the direction as you shoot?

TH: Yes, I expect it to take some new directions, but the themes probably won’t change. As mentioned before, I am beginning to feel like the Repossession project—the disaster work—is coming to an end. That is only part of the overall story, the most dramatic part. Country is part of it too…in fact, all my work seems to wrestle with the issues around those places where human beings and nature intersect. I’m also taken by how humans maintain their stout dignity in the face of this unrelenting pressure from nature. I’m not sure how long we will reside on this planet—probably not long in the scheme of things—but while we are here, before all evidence of our existence is washed into an oceanic trench to become part of some future mountain range, we exhibit a kind of doggedness. There is a defiant tenacity about we humans that I find appealing, and it takes the theme beyond a simple narrative about nature kicking the crap out of us.

SB: Tell me about Perilous Terrain, where was it photographed and if it is an ongoing project.

TH: That is part of the work I am showing with Susan Spiritus Gallery in Newport Beach—how lucky are you and I in that regard, no? Most of these photos were captured in Iceland and the northern plains, places where human presence provides a stark contrast to the environment. Again, these images show nature as enormous—visually tectonic—while humans are Lilliputian by comparison.

SB: Do you have any upcoming exhibits, events or travel?

TH: I am heading back to Iceland in April, and will spend a few days in the Faroe Islands, plus I expect to make another trip to the Great Plains in June.

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

And be sure to check out his frequently updated blog.

In Focus: Brad Temkin

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 10:31:00 -0700

While attending Fotofest reviews a few years ago, my friend Dave Anderson suggested I meet his longtime friend Brad Temkin. He was certain we’d become pals and as usual, Dave was right. I was instantly taken by Brad’s work the first time I viewed it. Since then, we’ve been talking about working on an article or interview.

Last week, Brad was kind enough to chat with me about his photography. Here’s an excerpt from that conversation.

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

BRAD TEMKIN: I began photographing in high school as a “fluff” class. I was kind of a derelict, and it was the first thing in my life that I had any kind of control of. It directed me to the positive rather than the negative, and kept me out of trouble. My teacher David Currie, was so encouraging and exposed us to all kinds of pictures. He created a community where all kinds of kids came together and all kinds of work were encouraged. I had gotten involved in taking Rock N’ Roll pictures, and I was lucky to have found my way into the hearts of promoters, Creem magazine, record companys and many of the musicians. It seemed I was in the middle of it all and then Currie took us to an exhibit of Minor White’s work in 1973. I was so moved by the poetry of this work that from that time I decided I wanted to make picture instead of take pictures. I quickly stopped taking pictures of the Rock N’ Roll industry and began focusing on making pictures about form, content and the visual poetry I found in the world.

SB: Can you tell me a bit of history about your series Rooftop and the actual rooftop movement as a whole (where they began, etc) ?

BT: Throughout my career, I have always been interested in the environment and how we affect it. We take our planet for granted, and I think it’s funny what we do and how we change it. Often times it can have negative affects (which is not funny), but what we do with it is interesting. I think this is one of my favorite aspects of people…how dumb we can be, yet how we always seem to stumble into grace.

In Private Places, I am dealing with people’s stuff, and how we adorn our spaces. I am making somewhat humble and personal environments unreal and exaggerated. I was always interested in gardening and while making these pictures, I learned how the way we tend our garden is imperative how it will look the following years. In other words, the affects are felt several years, maybe decades later.

In Relics, I am celebrating our folly by looking at the objects we leave behind. My approach builds on the sculptural foundation that integrates theobject and the landscape. The objects become beautiful and monumental “earth works”. My hope is to symbolize the mark humans leave on the landscape by showing our impermanent, yet lingering presence.

The color companion to Relics is Focal Points. Focal Points continues along similar parallels. The sculptural foundation remains, yet it is more about sight and focus; in how and what we look at the world and the act of vision itself. All of this preceded “Rooftop”, but had major impact on how I approached photographing it.

As I was printing and re-visualizing Private Places, for an exhibit with the city of Chicago, and heard a piece on NPR regarding Chicago’s green initiative. It spoke about green roofs and walls, and how Chicago currently had the most green roofs in the US. The green roof and wall industry is actually in it’s infancy in North America (about 10 years) but in Europe it has been thriving for over 40 years. We have taken their (Europe’s) success, and built on it. The industry is growing expediently, with all kinds of new technology being introduced. So I contacted my connections with the city, and asked if they could help connect me with the appropriate people for access. This was a beginning however, I needed to get specific about what it was I wanted from this work.

For the first time in my life I had done research before I went out photographing. I reached out to landscape architects and roofers for help. I was able to gain access to spaces, and people were very generous. It was different because I had many more “hoops” to jump through as well as legal issues. Also, with Private Places I was interested in changing the reality of these small places, as metaphors. In Rooftop I am showing people that these large amazing vistas actually existed. I am making these unreal places, real.

SB: You’ve mentioned that the series Rooftop is ongoing. What cities do you plan to photograph rooftops in the future?

BT: It is ongoing! One thing leads to another, and from there it just gets more interesting. As I make pictures, more situations present themselves. Meeting the people behind the Rooftop’s is also interesting. Most of these leaders have the same goal in mind, the good of common man…and coincidentally, they work on many of the same projects. Some of the cities I am planning on photographing this year are Portland, OR, Toronto, New York, Boston, San Francisco & Vancouver.

SB: In 2005 your series Private Places: Photographs of Chicago Gardens was published in a monograph. Can you tell me a bit about that body of work and how it began?

BT: Private Places began out of my interest in gardening and my exploration into color. I was never really satisfied with color photographic output, and then one day I saw David Adamson’s Iris prints. I contacted David and spoke with him about working together, and what I had in mind. This led to the inception of Private Places in where I “pushed” and exaggerated certain colors to lead the viewer. These Private Places became shared moments…inviting a person to escape into their own mind.

This was an important time for me, and my sense of color. Being able to define boundaries. I feel like this idea is resolved for me.

SB: Is the book still available? If so, where can it be purchased?

BT: Yes. Amazon and Photo Eye Books, besides a few bookstores.

SB: I’m quite fond of your series Focal Points. Can you talk a bit about the genesis of this body of work, where the images where photographed and if you plan to continue the work in the future?

BT: Thank you! Focal Points is the color companion to my Relics work. I’ve always photographed in black & white and color simultaneously because I see things that way, and can’t not photograph both subject matter. You know, sort of a “yin” to a “yang”. They usually relate, but I don’t worry about it when making the pictures. I simply trust they do.

So anyway, as I was making pictures of these obscure, sculptural objects in the landscape in black & white, but I was also interested in just the space of it all. That’s how Focal Points happened! It was simply how I looked at space. I didn’t need an object, but I did need some color - which of course, I muted. These pictures (Relics & Focal Points) still happen for me, but less. I think they were more relevant a few years ago. What is also interesting for me is how I relate these pictures to events happening in my life. My work helps me to do that because it is a time I can truly be mindful.

SB: Your work has an extensive reach from Relics to Christiana to Delta to Irish Stories and your most recent works Rooftop and Private Places. As a whole, your imagery focuses on documenting the human impact on the contemporary landscape. What is your personal impetus for this overriding theme?

BT: That is a good question, and one I have pondered over and over. I don’t want to sound trite, but that question keeps bringing me back to one thing: that the world is a wonderful place! People are good, rather than evil. We are dumb, yet we continue to stumble into grace, in spite of ourselves. Understanding the world and becoming a better person through my art, is my biggest goal. I like to think my pictures affirm how wonderful it is to be alive, and life is a gift.

SB: You are also a teacher at Columbia College? How long have you been teaching there and what types of classes do you teach?

BT: I began teaching because of the teachers I’ve had. It’s sort of a “pay back” for helping me discover my path. I’ve been teaching at Columbia since 1984 as an adjunct. It is a terrific place to teach because of the diversity of students, and my colleagues. I usually teach a few classes per semester, and have taught everything from Photo 1 to Zone System. It’s a great facility, and I’ve been lucky to have the opportunity to share ideas with some great folks.

SB: What are you working on now?

BT: I’m always working. When I don’t work, I get unhappy…so I have to work. It’s like chocolate! Of course, I’m right in the middle of Rooftop and hope to do a book of it in the next few years. There’s so much that I am finding that it’s hard to see the end to it all. It’ll probably just morph into something else. Rooftop has also really gotten me interested in infrastructure, and I am thinking about making pictures about that. I also love to make portraits, and really admire the work of Nick Nixon, Paul Strand and Joel Sternfeld. It’s great to be able to stare at things and when asked what I am doing, say: “I’m a photographer, so it’s OK”.

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

And if you live in Houston or attending Fotofest next week, come by and say hi to both Brad and myself. We’ll both be at the Session 2 Portfolio Walk next Friday night, March 23 at the Doubletree Hotel Ballroom. See you there.

In Focus: Sara Macel

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 00:35:00 -0700

Weeks ago, I happened upon Sara Macel’s work via the amazing website collect.give of which I am a huge fan of. I was instantly taken by the image she’s offering (above) to help raise funds for Camp Discovery, so I contacted her for an interview.

Here’s an excerpt from a chat we 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?

SARA MACEL: I went to high school in Spring, TX, a small town outside of Houston. My friend Nadean’s older brother, Brian Finke, was a photographer for the school newspaper. His bedroom was painted black and covered in black-and-white photos he took, which I thought was so cool. I had taken art classes all my life, so it seemed like a logical step to sign up for the photo class offered at our high school. My teacher, Mrs. Fox, really took an interest in me and encouraged me to stick with it. Of course, Brian went on to become the hugely successful photographer he is today, and his work continues to inspire me. But it really all started when I was about 14 taking that first photo class. My mom and I went to Service Merchandise to buy my first camera: a Pentax P30T. That was it for me, and I’ve never wanted to do anything else with my life other than be a photographer ever since.

SB: Who were some of your early influences?

SM: Well, Brian Finke, as I mentioned was an influence before I was really even aware of it. He left Texas after high school to study at SVA. That was a huge awakening for me to see someone from our town move to New York and not just survive there, but actually thrive. For the first time, I realized that could be me. And I set about making that happen. At 18, I left Texas to study photography at NYU where I studied with Tom Drysdale, Deb Willis, Lorie Novak, Jeff Weiss, and Philip Perkis- all of whom continue to inspire me. Early on at NYU, I saw Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills. I just saw her show at MoMA, which is wonderful. And around that time I was also just getting introduced to and falling in love with Sally Mann, Francesca Woodman, Ralph Eugene Meatyard and Wisconsin Death Trip. I’ve always been drawn to work that has a Southern feel and not just in the geographically sense. I like things that are personal and full of heart and a little bit dark or sad, but also have a sense of humor, albeit a twisted sense of humor.

After college, I worked as Bruce Davidson’s studio manager for two years. He and his wife Emmy really opened their home to me, and it was an incredible experience. I feel such a deep connection to his work. He was working on his re-release of Subway with Steidl when I started working there in 2003. I was with him until 2005, when he surprised me with a Mamiya 7 for my birthday. I was so shocked and touched that I started crying. Then, a few weeks later I got the opportunity to go back to Texas to shoot the Houston Rodeo, something I always wanted to do. So I gave my notice. Bruce likes to joke that as soon as he gave me a proper camera, I ran out to be a photographer, which I guess is true. He was the one who first suggested I do a project about my dad’s life as a traveling salesman, but I wasn’t ready for it then. The seed was planted, but it took years of my own wanderings for me to come back to what ended up becoming May the Road Rise to Meet You.

SB: Your series May The Road Rise To Meet You suggests a strong resonance of personal history and also establishes a resilient sense of solitude and loneliness, which traveling alone on the road can bring. Can you tell me a bit about the history (whether it is real or imagined), the character we are following and your personal impetus for creating the series?

SM: In between the time I left Bruce’s studio and began this project, I worked a full-time job and saved up all my vacation time to travel around and take pictures. It was around that time I got interested in the work of the road-trip photographers: Robert Frank, Joel Sternfeld, Stephen Shore, Alec Soth. Once I got settled into SVA’s MFA photo program, I came to realize that all those years of wanderlust really amounted to me revisiting the same places my dad had been traveling to on business all my life. My dad is a telephone pole salesman with a sales territory that covers almost the entire middle of the country. Once I made the connection between our mutual desire for the road, I began talking to him more and more about his travels over the years. He let me delve into his old files and find notes he wrote to himself on hotel stationary during sales conferences and find the names of places he visited over the years. I began moving in three veins: collecting this ephemeral material of the life he spent on the road, traveling to both actual places he visited and places I could imagine him visiting, and going on trips with him documenting his life on the road now. And over time, the project morphed into this hybrid of a life lived and a life imagined.

SB: Is this series ongoing or complete?

SM: The project is complete in that it encompasses a particular chapter in both my life and my father’s life of us actively collaborating to tell a certain story. But, he’s my dad so as long as we’re both walking the earth, I’ll be taking pictures of him and taking photos on the road.

SB: I believe you created a book for this series. Can you tell me a bit about the book?

SM: With the help of a generous Alumni Grant from SVA, I self-published an edition of 25 hardcover cloth-bound books through a print-on-demand company. I’m using these books basically as a promo to try and find a trade publisher for the work. The book begins with my father in his thirties leaving on a trip and ends with him in his sixties staring out a hotel window; an entire career condensed to a single business trip. Accordingly, the book starts with more nostalgic warm-toned photographs, and then blends into cooler-toned contemporary images. Throughout the book, the images flow back-and-forth from the road, to me, to him. By interweaving visual hints of my presence I have re-written history to be there with my dad all those times he was away from home. Much as a family album is an idealized record of a family’s history, this body of work pretends that we were always together.

SB: You have a number of compelling documentary projects that span the cultures and topics of life in Texas to Burlesque to Rodeos to boat yards. 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?

SM: Auto-biographical. I think anyone who knows me well would look at that list of seemingly disparate subjects and think “Oh, yeah. Those are all Sara.” At their core, all those bodies of work come from a place of curiosity and figuring out who I am as a photographer.

SB: Is there one body of work or a specific image in these series that speaks to you more so than others, perhaps because it cuts to the heart and soul or the core essence of your imagery?

SM: May the Road Rise to Meet You is by far my most personal project and really encapsulates why I am drawn to photography as a medium. At its core, the project is about creating a document or relic of something before it disappears. I wanted to see the road from my dad’s perspective before he retires, while also portraying him as this dying archetype of the traveling salesman. But on a much larger scale, it was my way of dealing with my fears as a daughter about him dying. Roland Barthes, in Camera Lucida, speaks of the “melancholy of Photography” and its ability to “induce belief that it is alive…but by shifting this reality to the past (‘this-has-been’), the photograph suggests that it is already dead.” I think that “melancholy of Photography” permeates all of my work, but never so clearly as in this series.

SB: Your body of work Kiss and Tell reconstructs imagined and real locations where a first kiss was shared. Like much of your work, there imagery creates establishes a sense of absence, memory and perhaps loss…almost like elements photographed at a crime scene, rather than sugar coating what many would consider their fondest hopes and dreams. Can you discuss the unique and remarkable approach you took to photographing these images and how you established or happened upon this unusual ambience (almost anti-romance) for what many would consider a love story of sorts?

SM: Just to clarify, it isn’t strictly first kisses. When soliciting these stories, I try to leave it open-ended to any consensual intimate encounter wherein the location holds some significance in the memory of the person sharing their story. And I love that you bring up crime scenes, because it was inspired in part by Evidence by Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel. Similar to their appropriation of those images, I am, in essence, appropriating other people’s memories and through the visual interpretation of their stories making them my own.

I would agree that loss or absence plays a significant role in the project. When I began working on Kiss & Tell, I was in my early 20’s and had just started dating my boyfriend, whom I’ve now been with for eleven years. I just knew we’d be together for a long time, which is something I never expected to find that at such a young age. And the same goes for him. We both knew that staying together would mean missing out on certain experiences. So, in many ways, the project became an outlet for me to vicariously experience the one-night-stands and random hookups that characterize many people’s lives in their 20’s. It isn’t about regret, but it does explore some of those darker feelings that come with monogamy. I love my life with him and feel so lucky to have this shared history of basically growing up together. He’s my best friend. But there is a small part of me that wonders what my life would have been like if we hadn’t met, and Kiss & Tell is my way of exploring that.

SB: What are you working on now?

SM: I’m expanding the Kiss & Tell project and currently working on a re-design of that book. If anyone feels they have a compelling story about a specific place where they had an intimate encounter, you can email me the story and details/directions to the place at kiss.tell@saramacel.com

I also have a brand new project that I am starting next month. It’s too early to discuss, but I am excited to see where it goes.

SB: You currently have an image that you are offering on collect.give. Can you tell me a bit about the image and the organization you selected to donate all the proceeds to? Also please provide a link.

SM: The print I have available on collect.give is from May the Road Rise to Meet You and is titled “Plane Over Baton Rouge, Louisiana.” It is being offered as an edition of 20, and there are still a few prints still available for sale. All proceeds will go to Camp Discovery which is a week-long summer camp in Texas sponsored by the American Cancer Society for children recently diagnosed with cancer. The camp allows each child to learn different aspects of living with cancer, spend time with other children who have had similar experiences, and enjoy a week without the pressures of a hospital environment. More info on Camp Discovery and info on purchasing a print can be found at: http://collectdotgive.org/editions/sara-macel/

To view more of Sara’s work pop over to her website.

On The Walls: Josh Sanseri @ Santa Monica College

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:31:00 -0800

Last weekend my good pal Polly Chandler visited Los Angeles and introduced me to her longtime friend, Josh Sanseri. Josh is an accomplished commercial and portrait photographer, teacher and he has also created a number of wonderful personal projects.

This Saturday March 10, Josh’s exhibition “Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Not Dead, It Just Smells Funny” opens at the Santa Monica College Photography Gallery and features portraits and live photographs of musicians and bands who are both established and “up-and-coming” in the indie music scene. Included are images of The Flaming Lips, Little Dragon, Deadmau5, Built to Spill, The Avett Brothers and many more.

The opening reception is from 6:00-8:00pm and the exhibition runs through March 30. For details and directions here.

Josh was kind enough to chat with me about his work yesterday. Here’s an excerpt from that conversation.

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

JOSH SANSERI: My first memory of picture making is from when I was about nine years old. I convinced my mom to buy a roll of 126mm film for this old camera I found at a garage sale. She paid to have the film developed at the local Fotomat, and saw that I had wasted the pictures on things like chimneys, doors, and mailboxes. She swore that would be the last roll of film that she would purchase for me. She later failed to keep her promise by helping me pay for college where I studied cinema, photography, and fine art.

I first realized photography was going to be a large part of my life in high school. I was a bit of a trouble maker as a teenager, but my teacher, Jeff Stanek, was very charismatic and inspirational. He knew how to relate to and reach students like myself. He was great at redirecting energy into productive activities like photography. It wasn’t long after processing my first roll of B&W film that I was skipping my English and math classes in order to work in the darkroom processing film and making prints. When I saw that first image magically emerge in the tray of Dektol, I was hooked for life. I soon got a job at the local camera store and have since worked in many areas of the photography business.

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

JS: My list of photographic influences is incredibly long, and it’s difficult to nail down just a few. Arnold Newman was the photographer that I identify with most. His portraits are amazing on every level. He had an uncanny ability to organize the frame while illustrating his subjective point of view about the people he photographed. His acknowledgment of subjectivity in documentary portraiture had an enormous influence on the way I approach portrait making. I’m also drawn to the classic documentary and portrait photographers like Walker Evans, August Sander, and Lewis Hine. They all had an honest but underlying dramatic approach to how they photographed people. Most importantly, they were careful about maintaining their subjects’ dignity while bringing sociological issues to light. They were great at making the viewer care for the people in their photographs. I also really enjoy Garry Winogrand’s sense of humor and prolific nature. The stories you hear about Winogrand are fantastic.

I’m also a fan of several photographers working editorially today. While I was in graduate school, I was fortunate to spend my summers managing the studio at the Santa Fe Workshops in New Mexico. This unique opportunity allowed me to spend a week at a time with some of my favorite photographers like Dan Winters, Frank Ockenfels 3, and Paul Elledge while picking their brain for all things photographic. Those three specific photographers are the ones I learned the most from and had the greatest tangible impact on my photography, but the whole Santa Fe experience was priceless in my development as a photographer.

SB: How did you come about photographing musicians? Do you have a music background or was it just one of those things you fell into?

JS: I’ve always been a huge fan of music and even played the drums in high school, but I first began photographing musicians in college. I worked for the daily newspaper and found that many of the small record labels were more than happy to give a photo pass to a college newspaper photographer in exchange for a little PR. About five years ago I began photographing portraits of the musicians. A great friend and early career supporter of mine, Gretchen Vater, introduced me to her sister Johanna who works for a big San Francisco concert promoter. Johanna soon began hiring me for the two big festivals they produce, Outside Lands and Treasure Island, as the official portrait photographer. If it weren’t for Gretchen and Johanna, most of my musician portraits wouldn’t exist. Those festival portraits have since led to several assignments including a couple of book and magazine covers, as well as a handful of exhibitions.

SB: Did you curate your upcoming exhibition, Rock ‘N Roll’s Not Dead, It Just Smells Funny? Can you discuss the images included in the show?

JS: For better or worse, “Rock ‘N’ Roll’s Not Dead, It Just Smells Funny” was curated by me. I had a few friends look at my selections for the show, but I ultimately put it together myself. Many of the pictures are portraits of my favorite bands, which made it difficult to look at them objectively and critically. Several of my favorites didn’t make the cut. Most of the portraits were photographed at the two festivals in San Francisco. Since the festivals take place in the same location annually, it becomes more challenging every year to create original portraits of the bands. There’s very little time and limited space to shoot, so you really need to be aware of the surroundings and flexible with your ideas. I love the challenge of looking past the obvious and trying to create something new for each shoot.

SB: I’m extremely fond of your series Individual Dignity which focuses on small business owners. What was your impetus for this series?

JS: Individual Dignity is a project that I began in the late ‘90s documenting small business owners around the United States, and later Australia. The inspiration for the series came from my family’s furniture store, Carlson’s, in Southern Oregon. As a child, I would spend vacations in Klamath Falls and very much enjoyed working with my uncle and grandfather at the shop. They would put me to work dusting the tables and delivering furniture to customers. I found it remarkable that they were able to build a business from scratch, support their families, and be a vital part of the Klamath Falls community. Carlson’s is now the oldest furniture store in town with the 4^th generation of family members helping to run the business.

SB: How did you seek out your subjects for this project? Is it ongoing or complete?

JS: This project really began as a way to celebrate and pay homage to endangered small businesses. I was living in Carbondale, Illinois at the time and was noticing that big box stores like WalMart were a serious threat to mom and pop stores on Main Street. As I continued to photograph for this series over several years, I noticed that the portraits were beginning to function as a document for these businesses and towns in addition to celebrating their owners. Many of the proprietors included in the series have been pushed out of business since being photographed. I truly enjoy finding and photographing these people, so I doubt I will ever complete the project.

SB: Is there one image in this body of work that speaks to you more so than others?

JS: The portrait of my grandfather and his brother Gene in our family’s shop is one of my favorites, largely because I’m so close to the subject matter. However, the portrait of Ganelle Bedokis of Rissi’s Bakery means a lot to me for several reasons. Her portrait was the one that helped me discover what eventually evolved into my style of photographing. When I make these portraits, my main goal is to protect each subject’s dignity similar to the way Hines, Sander, and Evans did several decades ago, while celebrating their individuality. At the same time, I hope to add interest and an element of humanity to the portraits by introducing a very subtle sense of humor. Sometimes it’s a difficult balance to strike between humor and integrity without appearing like I’m poking fun at the subject. In the portrait of Ganelle, I feel like I struck that delicate equilibrium, which inevitably set the tone and style for the rest of the series.

My methods for choosing who to photograph for the series are generally pretty intuitive. I’m often a customer of his or her business or just driving by the shop and decide to come in to take a look. In some cases I find the business through referrals of people who have seen the work. Ganelle’s daughter was a friend of mine, so I knew her for several years beforehand. Ganelle’s father was a photographer who ran a studio in the space that was at the time being used as her bakery. In fact, the two portraits behind Ganelle are of her mother and father and were shot in the same space as Ganelle’s portrait. I’m always looking for these subtle visual connections between the subject and his or her background to help relate them to their space.

SB: I’m particularly fond of the image you shot of Ron West. You shared a bit of his story with me personally and I found it fascinating. Can you tell us a bit about that image and Mr. West’s history with the theatre?

JS: I was studying art in Australia in 2004 and continued working on this project while living there. I had heard from several people about this silent film theatre called The Majestic north of Brisbane that showed films a couple of times a week. I found the website for the place and read in its bio that Ron West and his wife Mandy bought the theatre in 1977 and have been entertaining patrons ever since. The theatre opened in 1921 and continued to operate as the last silent film theatre that began as a silent film theatre in Australia. Ron dressed up in his tuxedo several times a week and provided the films’ soundtrack on his beautiful Wurlitzer organ. This sounded like an amazing place, so I sent Ron an email explaining my project and asked if he and his wife were interested in participating. He immediately replied enthusiastically, but explained that Mandy had passed away a few months before. He expressed sadness that she wouldn’t be there to participate, but he would still love to be included in the series. I was ecstatic that he agreed, but felt bad he lost his life partner. A week or so later, I arrived to make Ron’s portrait and we shared some amazing conversation that has stuck with me ever since. There’s more to this story and our specific conversation that I find is best told in person and over a pint of beer…

Two elements of photographing this series that I cherish greatly are the people that I meet and the stories I come home with. It’s truly amazing how people open up and share their stories when you show a little bit of interest in their lives. Photographing these business owners has introduced me to people I never would have met otherwise. I’ve been invited over to their homes for dinner; I’ve been offered jobs; I’ve been offered a place to stay while traveling; I’ve even been introduced to one shop owner’s daughter. Looking back at the photographs, they serve as personal mementos of these experiences, stories, and most importantly the people I met along the way.

SB: You are an accomplished teacher and workshop instructor. Can you tell me a bit about that part of your life and how one can find out about workshops you may be teaching this year?

JS: I currently spend the bulk of my time teaching (and grading) in the Photography Department at Santa Monica College. I absolutely love working with the students there and learn just as much from them as I hope they learn from me. I teach a wide range of topics including beginning photography, introduction to darkroom techniques, a digital asset management and printing class, portrait photography, commercial lighting, and a portfolio course. I’m also teaching an upcoming class at the Julia Dean Workshops in Los Angeles on how to achieve the most out of small and limited lighting equipment. I also teach periodically at the Santa Fe Workshops, UCLA Extension, UCSD Extension, and even a class in Venice Italy. For current course and workshop dates, you can visit the “Workshops” section of my website.

To see more of Josh’s work or find out about his workshops pop over to his website.

And if you’re unable to come to the exhibition in person, Josh has some catalogs for sale here.

On The Walls: Andrea Galluzzo @ Camera Work

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:52:30 -0800

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

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:47:00 -0800

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

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:48:00 -0800

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

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:34:00 -0800

Last Spring at Photolucida in Portland, Oregon I viewed Fritz Liedtke’s stunning series Astra Velum and was instantly taken by the imagery and artistry. Subsequently, I featured Fritz in my September 2011 column for Black and White Photography (UK).

Fritz and I chatted about his work. Here’s an excerpt from a chat that Fritz and I had last Summer 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?

FRITZ LIEDTKE: From childhood, I’ve always been one of those people who loves to make things, and to make them beautiful. From designing and building my own bedroom when I was 12, to drawing and writing and making music, I’ve always enjoyed creating.

When I was 14, my dad and I drove our little turquoise Datsun B210 around the United States, seeing 31 states in 30 days. That’s when I first remember taking a lot of photographs, looking for good composition, going through a lot of film. I kept a journal, and made a large scrapbook of photos and text from that journey. I became more and more passionate about it as time went on, taking classes, winning competitions, filling photo albums and bookshelves with photographs. I was hooked.

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

FL: I took my first photo class in the 9th grade, and enjoyed it. When I was a junior, I had opportunity to drop my math class and take photo again; that was a no-brainer. My high school teacher was very influential, and helped lay a solid foundation for my career as an artist. Eventually, I acquired a BFA from Pacific NW College of Art. But as with any medium, there is a great deal of experimentation and self-teaching involved.

SB: You live and work in Portland? Are you a full-time photographer? Tell me a bit about your life outside fine art photography.

FL: While I shoot professionally, I am diligent to protect my time for creating my own work; this has always been a priority. I’m also married, live in 102-year old house I’ve thoroughly remodeled, and enjoy travel and family.

SB: When looking at all of your work, it seems you are inspired to find beauty and humanity in individuals who exhibit physical, psychological or social traits considered flawed or against the standard norm. Would you agree? If so, can you explain the impetus for expressing this theme?

FL: A survey of my work would certainly elicit this conclusion. I haven’t set out to do this intentionally, but it’s certainly what I’m drawn to. Recognizing my own weaknesses certainly breeds a compassion for those who struggle, suffer, are on the fringe. Sometimes I think this is also a way of pushing back against the pressure in society to worship those who appear flawless, powerful, pretty. It’s a challenge—but a worthwhile one—to find the beauty in everyone, however weak or ‘flawed’ they may be. Flawed people are just so much more interesting.

SB: You state that some people view freckles as an aberration, but you find them enchanting and exotic. How did you come about photographing women with freckles?

FL: It all starts in San Francisco. I was photographing there several years ago, and I met this girl. She was the girlfriend of a friend of a friend, and we were all out at a bar for food and drinks one evening. She had the most amazing freckles, and I finally asked her if I could take her portrait. She agreed, but the only light I could find was from the sign outside the bar. That was sufficient, and the resulting image was captivating to me.

After that, I would occasionally encounter someone with beautiful freckles, and arrange to photograph him or her. I met people in parks, at weddings, middle schools, and through posts on craigslist. I photographed most of them at my home; It was a simple shoot, generally, and I tried to make each image unique (I’m averse to repeating myself).

SB: How long have you been working on Astra Velum? How many images are in this series? Is it an ongoing body of work or is it completed?

FL: The first image I shot in San Francisco five years ago, and it’s been an occasional project since them. It’s mostly completed, but if the right face comes along and inspiration strikes, I’ll photograph more.

SB: What does the title Astra Velum connote?

FL: I searched for an appropriate title for this body of work for some time. The working title all along was simply Freckles, but I wanted something a little more exotic and haunting, like the images themselves. The term Astra Velum is Latin for “Veil of Stars”, which denotes that beautiful texture these men and women are uniquely blessed with. It also refers to the patterns in the night sky, as if each of these people is imprinted with their own unique set of constellations.

SB: You printed this body of work as Photogravures, which is an extremely labor intensive method. What inspired this decision?

FL: While photographing the images, I was considering how best to present the work in the end. I tried many different media: modern tintypes, collodion tintypes, inkjet prints, C-prints, letterpress prints, and in the end, photogravure.

I settled on photogravure because—like the images I was printing—it’s all about texture: the paper, the ink, the impression, everything about photogravure is subtly textured and tactile.

In the digital age, I feel more and more distant from the handmade quality of photography—the manual labor of developing film and dodging and burning prints. But even darkroom work—which I never particularly enjoyed in and of itself—created a product that was made by hand, but showed no evidence of it. For this reason I’m drawn to processes like tintype, encaustic, book arts, and photogravure, which show clear evidence of the artist’s involvement with the final product.

Until now, I’ve not been a process person; I’d rather shoot and edit, and then have a print magically appear (which, of course, is the draw of inkjet printing). But I’ve found a real pleasure in the process of printing photogravure. While it’s the most complicated printing process I’ve ever pursued, it does have its advantages. I enjoy the craftiness of it—cutting out handmade paper for the chin-collé, inking and wiping the plate just so, the steady rhythm of turning the crank on the press, pulling the print off the plate and catching my breath, stunned by its beauty. I like the rounded corners of the plate, the indentation of the plate in the paper, the traces of unwiped ink at its edges, the occasional fingerprint. Like freckles, these are not flaws, but beauty marks.

Photogravure also offers a final product imitated but not reproduced by any other photographic printing medium: chin-collé. This method of impressing a second piece of paper in between the ink and the backing paper is a traditional technique in printmaking. This creates a unique print, with glowing warm high values (from the warm Japanese paper), placed against the white of the backing paper. The result is a hand-made print whose depth and luminescence is unmatched by any other photographic print-making process. They really must be seen in person to be fully appreciated.

For these reasons, handmade photogravures seemed the perfect medium for a series which, at its essence, explores the beauty of surface textures: human skin and its freckles and scars, like a thin veil of stars.

SB: Can you discuss your unique printing process, the paper, etc?

FL: Making an intaglio chin-collé print consists of cutting a piece of paper—in my case, a handmade Japanese paper—the exact same size as the plate. When inked, the plate is placed on the press bed with the Japanese paper over top of it, and on top of that paper a glue is applied. Finally, the backing paper (which is wet) is placed in register over the plate and Japanese paper. This stack is run through the press, which exerts approximately 45,000 pounds of pressure on the sandwich of plate and papers. In doing so, the ink is pressed into the Japanese paper, which is glued and embossed into the backing paper.

SB: You offer a breathtakingly beautiful portfolio of selected prints from this series in a folio. Why did you introduce this work as a portfolio rather than make a handmade or published book of the images or just offer individual prints?

FL: I’ve always enjoyed making portfolios (this is my third). It’s an opportunity to pull together a tight set of images into a finely crafted, limited edition collector’s item, and I think the whole is greater than the sum of its parts: the custom box, the colophon, any text included, all enhance the viewer’s experience of the work.

I’m open to a book project with this work, and have a number of ideas on that front. But a book and a folio are handled and viewed very differently. I love books, but there’s only one way to look at them: in your hands, one page at a time. However, a museum or collector who purchases a portfolio can handle the prints individually, display the whole portfolio unframed, or frame the prints for display on the wall.

SB: What is the edition of the portfolio? Do you offer individual prints for sale?

FL: Astra Velum is available as a limited-edition portfolio of 12 photogravures, in a custom clamshell box, starting at $5500. The portfolio is limited to an edition of 12. Individual prints are available from the broader series, in a limited edition of 30 per image, beginning at $600 each.

SB: Where or how can people purchase the portfolio or prints?

FL: The prints and portfolio can be purchased from me directly (www.fritzliedtke.com), and from PhotoEye.com. They are also carried by Panopticon Gallery in Boston.

SB: What are you working on now?

FL: Thinking about photography outside of the shoot-and-make-a-digital-print paradigm opens up another world full of possibilities. I’m continuing to explore the many options in photogravure. In art school, I studied both photography and printmaking, but this is the first opportunity I’ve had to marry the two. I’m also working on artist book and altered book projects, and am photographing for several other ideas.

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

In Focus: Bill Vaccaro

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:22:00 -0800

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

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:30:00 -0800

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

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:49:07 -0800

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

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:18:00 -0800

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?

TS: The Hungry Ghost actually represents my photographic origins far better than any of my other work. For years, I shot exclusively with infrared film; very dark, dramatic narrative portraits with a theatrical bent. The Hungry Ghost is an evolution of that early work with better technical skills, water and a deeper context.

I think there are several things that link all of my work including our innate and inextricable connection with the animal kingdom. I also always seem to seek a certain lyrical, romantic grace in my images. I really like your interpretation best though!

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.

I am also huge advocate of volunteerism whether it is with animals, children, a food bank- anything. It is so crucial. The actual work that you do while you are volunteering is only one part of it. Volunteer work inspires empathy and perspective. It’s so easy for all of us to become tragically enveloped in our own individual micro-dramas. Stepping out of that for a little while and doing something purely altruistic is like a breath of pure oxygen. It isn’t just productive for the cause but for our own humanity. If every single person in this world donated just one hour a week of their time, think what we could accomplish.

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?

I have three book projects in the works. Two are about animals, but all are a surprise! Hopefully you will be seeing them on bookshelves soon!

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

Highlights: 2011

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:30:00 -0800

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.

Purchase Ken’s book here or here.

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

Sara Jane Boyers: 2011 was a terrific year for me for it included the first solo exhibition at Craig Krull Gallery in Los Angeles (to great critical review!) of Finding Chinatown, my ten-year+ project photographing in the Chinatowns of the United States and Canada (and featured in Underexposed!)

AND the commencement of a new personal project: Detroit: Definition, an exploration of the city of my birth, Detroit, Michigan, a city that I do not know since I moved from there in infancy to Los Angeles where I continue to reside. With Finding Chinatown, I am so pleased to honor the beauty of history, contribution and continued growth of a major immigration to the Americas and with Detroit: Definition, finding the beauty and energy of the place and the people who populate this oft-maligned city.

Finding Chinatown blog

Detroit: Definition blog

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

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 11:12:18 -0800

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.

In Focus: Heidi Kirkpatrick

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 22:32:42 -0800

Last April I had the good fortune of meeting Heidi Kirkpatrick at Photolucida. I was enchanted by her one of a kind creations and featured her in my column American Connection for Black and White Photography Magazine this past October.

Here’s an excerpt from a chat we had months back.

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

HEIDI KIRKPATRICK: I was a late bloomer to photography. My father in law bought me a “real” camera in 1992. He said he saw something in my “pictures” he liked. After moving to Portland in 1993, I threw myself into photography. I traded one addiction for another. I took every class I could get my hands on, spent copious amounts of time in the darkroom, I found myself. When the first image came up in the tray, I was hooked.

SB: You live and work in Portland? Are you a full-time photographer? Tell me a bit about your life outside fine art photography.

HK: I am a full time photographer, meaning I practice every day. I teach high school black and white photography at The Northwest Academy. I love to walk, whether it is on the beach in the forest or in my neighborhood. I love to cook and garden, also creative outlets. I have an amazing group of strong women to call friends. I am lucky enough to have the greatest husband in the world, if it wasn’t for his love and support I wouldn’t be answering these questions. I also enjoy being active in the incredible photo community we are so fortunate to have in Portland.

SB: How did this body of work come to life? Did the images come first or the process? Was Specimens first? What are the titles for the other approaches for this work? Are there series titles for other bodies of work? Or do all the works fall under one series? Can you explain your technical approach for each body of work, including the materials that were used.

HK: The first three dimensional pieces I made with family imagery about 10 years ago, mostly my female relatives. I started printing on film instead of paper, I love working with film for its beautiful transparent qualities. I was placing the film positives on the same types of materials I am using in my work today, copper plates, books, blocks and tins. In 2004 I moved away from the appropriated family imagery and began working with my own photographs. The overall title for this photo object work is “Lost and Found”. There are several series under this title; Souvenirs, women cramped in vintage souvenir boxes, Cigarette Butt, an image of a woman’s butt over a myriad of illustrations ranging from flash cards to cook books to music scores and biology books in souvenir cedar ashtrays, all complete with original glass ashtrays and some with lighters or cigarettes, Plates, reminiscent of 19^th century tintypes, on copper and brass plates and Specimens, film positives layered over Gray’s Anatomy pages housed in small metal hinged boxes, referencing cased images of the 1800’s.

SB: Can you discuss the selection of images for this body of work and what they mean to you?

HK: I work with my friends and family for my models. A common thread in my work has been the female figure. Most of the images in this series are anonymous and a lot of times I use only part of the body. Hands, lips, the torso and extremities are recurring images in my work. Hands and lips are major sensory parts of the body. Most of my pain is in my back and hips, therefore images of the torso and lower extremities are commonly used.

SB: Can you explain your technical process and also include details pertaining to the found objects you use to create your art?

HK: I’m not a big techie. I don’t have a lot of fancy equipment. All of my work is done in my studio, from shooting to assembly. I process and print all of my own work. I print on film, just like paper, open tray process in my darkroom. I love things, especially old things. I try to breathe new life into these found objects by turning them into playful pieces of art. I mostly work with metal boxes and plates and wood blocks, but nothing is sacred.

SB: What inspired you to dissect a copy of Gray’s Anatomy and layer it under your images?

HK: I have experienced a lot of physical pain in my life. Dissecting Gray’s Anatomy helps me work through that. The pages find their way under those closest to me. The images clothe, bind and wrap the body.

SB: Do you select the pages of Gray’s Anatomy for each image in a random or intentional fashion?

HK: Honestly, a little of both. The pages are selected after the image has been printed. I sit at my work table and “work my puzzle” until I find what works visually for me.

SB: What are you working on now?

I am currently working on Plates, Specimens and Mah Jongg tiles. I have some new negatives to process; we will see what comes next.

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

On The Walls: Michael Levin @ Photo Eye

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:10:00 -0800

I first met Michael Levin in 2008 while attending my first Fotofest. Michael was visiting Houston to attend the opening of his solo exhibition at Watermark Gallery, which represented both of us at the time. After getting to know Michael, I wrote a feature about him for Black & White Photography Magazine (UK) which also earned him the cover.

I thought it would be great to have a chat on Underexposed with Michael in honor of the opening of his exhibition Continuum at Photo Eye this Friday December 16^th from 5-7pm. So here’s an excerpt from a chat we had this past week.

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

Michael Levin: I first picked up a camera in the summer of 2003 and it was at this point my focus shifted from classical guitar to photography. Until then I had spent 20 years diligently studying Flamenco and Classical guitar as a passionate hobby. Once I realized the possibilities of photography I was hooked and decided to commit to understanding the art form full time. Within a year of shooting I had a small portfolio of work that I started showing and this led to a number of galleries representing me. It happened quite quickly and it just seemed like everything aligned in just the right way…. with a lot of work.

SB: Is there a particular element or aspect of long exposure work that continues to drive you to make photographs?

ML: The aspect of long exposure work that most interests me is the idea of the extended experience captured on a single negative. All the subtle shifts in the sky and water impress on the film over time and the results are never predictable. I also think long exposures elevate the literal translation of a scene into something more and unexpected. During the time that I’ve fired the shutter I have an elevated sense of awareness as I’m trying to anticipate the outcome of what will be impressed on the negative. It seems to me that long exposures have a way of capturing emotions in a given scene that appeal to my senses.

SB: For years you were shooting with 4x5 film cameras, but you recently made the switch to digital. Can you talk a bit about the transition?

ML: Initially I was a little reluctant to even consider the possibility of shooting digital. I started in 2003 with a Canon D60 and within 6 months I had abandoned it for film. Since 2003 I’ve never had the inclination to explore the advances in digital camera technology. In January 2011, a Hasselblad dealer sent me one of their new H4D cameras to try out for a couple of weeks. I did some tests and I was simply amazed at the quality of the files that rivaled my 4x5 negs and surpassed my Hasselblad film negs. Since I travel overseas a considerable amount I always have to deal with the challenges of film and x-ray, which I no longer have. There are a number of other beneficial factors that working with digital has provided for me.

SB: Your first book, Zebrato, earned a multitude of awards (IPA and PX3) and was a tremendous seller. Do you have plans to do another book in the future?

ML: I was very fortunate with the book Zebrato, as it seemed to resonate with quite a large audience. I think there were a number of factors that contributed to its success and I can only hope that my next book does as well. I’m just putting the finishing touches on the new book and we’re looking at a release in late 2012.

SB: Can you discuss the collection of images that will be displayed in your exhibition at Photo Eye Gallery?

ML: The images in the show are a mixture of new and old. I tend to let negatives sit around and “mature” for a few years before I’m able to see their potential. In this show there are “new” old images in the sense that I shot them in 06/07 but am just getting around to printing them in 2011. Initially something pulled me to the water’s edge and this is where the majority of my images were shot. In more recent years that stage has expanded as I find my curiosity is taking me in different areas. For the past couple of years my images have taken on a more contrasty, graphic look, bold structures and industrial sites. These new images are balanced between some of my older images and will be exhibited at Photo- Eye.

SB: What are you working on now?

ML: For the past 6 months I’ve been working on a completely new body of work that I’m still developing conceptually. The use of the digital camera has enabled me to see the results immediately and this had lead me in a new direction, in terms of possibilities that I didn’t have with film.

In August I traveled to Berlin to photograph and explore the urban environment. While I was there the ideal changed into something else and became another project which is now my central focus. It actually started with one image that gave me a visual direction and a narrative to follow. Going forward these new ideas will take me through China, France and South America over the next 10 months.

Several months ago filmmaker Brad Kremer traveled to Japan to film me for a project that I was working on which also turned into something more. He released a short video on Vimeo http://vimeo.com/24665710 several months ago and we’re now going to expand on this idea and make it a much larger project. So, there are a number of interesting things to look forward to in the near future.

Continuum will be on display from this Friday December 16th until February 4, 2012. For details and directions pop over to photo eye

Purchase Michael’s book Zebrato at photo eye bookstore

And to see more of Michael’s work pop over to his website

In Focus: Lauren Henkin

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 09:10:37 -0800

Last September, I featured Lauren Henkin in my column American Connection for Black and White Photography (UK). At the time, we chatted mostly about her newest handmade book release at the time, Silence Is An Orchard. Since then, Lauren has been extremely busy with her newest releases, Deck of Chords and The Lookbook Series: Volume I: Growth.

Our conversation below primarily took place last Spring, but Lauren was kind enough to update the latest details about her two newest projects.

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

LAUREN HENKIN: I started photographing while studying architecture in college. That education afforded opportunities to learn a variety of artistic mediums—painting, drawing, sculpture, furniture design, graphic design—and photography. I had access to a tiny darkroom and was lucky enough to be able to work one-on-one with an architectural photographer, who, for some reason, saw a spark of talent, and took me under his wing.

I had been photographing casually on and off since college, but things changed when my dad took me to see a retrospective of Harry Callahan’s work at the National Gallery of Art. I had given a presentation of Callahan’s work to a group of architects in college and, after learning so much about him, felt that he was the epitome of artistic ability. I knew, when I finally saw his prints in person, that I didn’t care how long it would take, but I wanted to make photographs that would equal his in beauty. They left me breathless. From there, I started taking intensive workshops and reading whatever I could find to hone my technical abilities, especially in printmaking. I took intensive workshops with George Tice and Tyler Boley, both of whom are master printers, one with silver, the other with pigment. Once I had the foundation and skills to be able to make the kind of prints I wanted, I began to build the conceptual foundation for my work—stories of impermanence, loss, and what survives.

SB: You live and work in Portland? Are you a full-time photographer? Tell me a bit about your life outside fine art photography.

LH: Yes, I’m a full-time photographer. I’m also a full-time graphic artist. I seem to work all the time. Between making images, printing photographs, scanning, writing, speaking, interviewing for Photo Radio, and now publishing books, any pre-existing boundary between work and life is extinct. My life is my work. I grew up in Washington, DC, but moved to Portland nearly 3 years ago. What little time there is outside of the arts is spent getting to know the Pacific Northwest.

SB: How long have you been creating handmade books? How did you learn the art form? Can you briefly discuss your previous books?

LH: I’ve now published three of my own books and two with collaborators. My foray into book arts began in 2009 when I prepared a book dummy for Photolucida’s portfolio reviews. I was presenting a body of work, Displaced, which was a series of photographs I took about coping with the end of my marriage. It was an extremely personal series, and I knew, once I saw it in book format, that the book was the most effective presentation medium for the photographs. I felt, from the beginning, that I didn’t want to publish a print-on-demand book. I wanted my abilities as a printmaker to become part of the story and for the hand-binding and letterpress printing to convey the feeling of a personal diary more than a traditional photographic monograph.

With a boost from the feedback I received at Photolucida, I applied for, and received, a large grant to publish Displaced in an edition of 60. From that point on, I spent a great deal of time figuring out the details by going outside the photography community and talking to other book artists and bookbinders. Inge Bruggeman, a very accomplished printer and book artist in Portland was of great assistance to me as was John DeMerritt, an incredible bookbinder in the San Francisco area.

I haven’t been trained at all in book arts. But, I can look back, on the history of my working life and trace the steps I took, the jobs I worked, the books I studied, and see how they each offered some small skill that led to my current interests. I used to be a book designer at a small museum in Washington, DC. I designed mostly academic publications there, but the process of laying out text and images day-after-day, choosing appropriate typography, and preparing files for pre-press was invaluable. As an architect, you are continually challenged with material considerations, scale, and problem-solving. I have continually drawn on those experiences as well.

After a long production process, Displaced was completed in the middle of 2010. Between the grant, corporate sponsorship, and pre-sales, I was at a break-even point right when the book was completed which enabled me to start on my second book, Silence is an Orchard.

SB: How did Silence is an Orchard come to being? You mentioned that the first image was shot in Maine and you subsequently went back to shoot. Can you detail the origin of this project?

LH: This series was born in 2008. I visited Acadia National Park in Maine and while walking on one of the many carriage roads, I found an unusually beautiful and sculptural tree (Silence 14), which is the last image in the series. The image of that tree lingered, and I knew that I wanted to return. I went back in the summer of 2009 and instead of photographing more images of that tree, I decided to study the field around it, I guess as a way of selecting one object and investigating it, to tell its story through its surroundings. Native American writer N. Scott Momaday wrote, “Once in his life a man ought to concentrate his mind upon the remembered earth. He ought to give himself up to a particular landscape in his experience; to look at it from as many angles as he can, to wonder upon it, to dwell upon it.” Silence is an Orchard is about my surrender to that land.

I’ve spent a significant amount of time in Maine. It is the place that, for me, most evokes the idea of “home.” It has been a place of personal growth and a comfort in times of despair. It was where I learned to see, and where I want to be consoled someday if my vision fades.

It felt natural to go back there and photograph. It was extremely quiet, where the sound of reeds blowing in the wind was like a river—a burial ground but also full of life. When I returned to the spot I found in 2008, I decided to build a small portfolio of images by documenting the perimeter of this solitary place. In and out of the light and grasses, a place for quiet. I knew that it would end up being my second book—I wanted to take others on the path I had followed.

For this book, I wanted to do something a little different from Displaced. Displaced is a novel, a long, slow-building story of loss and renewal. Silence is a short story. I wanted it to feel more organic, less of a conventional case-bound photographic portfolio and more of an artist’s book, which led, for example, to my printing the images on Japanese kozo paper along with other design and aesthetic decisions.

SB: What does the series Silence is an Orchard mean to you personally?

LH: It means many things. Personally, artistically, and even financially, it was a turning point.

I make quiet work, photographs of the ordinary. If I can convince a viewer that it’s worthwhile to invest in looking at images of one field, to challenge them to see the beauty that I do, then there is great satisfaction for me in that, both for artistic growth, but also from cultural and environmental understandings as well.

When I started publishing, I chose to make handmade books because I felt, conceptually, that it fit my work perfectly. I have realized, since going down this path, that there really aren’t many photographers out there making handmade, fine press books. Unbeknownst to me, I was doing something more unique than I realized and that has enabled me to widen my audience further than I anticipated. The attention given to the books both from the photographic and fine press communities has brought my work more notice, more shows and access to other artisans working in this medium that I may not have had.

When I was in Nova Scotia photographing Displaced, I had in my mind that I was gathering materials for a book. At that time, self-publishing was not as viable as it is today, so I wasn’t really sure if I was kidding myself. With the publication of Silence is an Orchard, I have reached a level of certainty that I can produce books of my own design, my own imprint, and know that there will be an audience for them. That knowledge, and security, now affords me more liberty to take risks and to publish more frequently. There is no greater gift an artist can receive than that of freedom to do what they want, and this book has given me that.

SB: Can you discuss the involvement of the four other women in this project and how you all came to work together?

LH: I am a strong believer that working with other artists, who share your design aesthetic and possess high levels of artistic capabilities, inevitably elevates your own art. At this point, after working with others so closely, I can’t imagine not collaborating in some way. I know my own limits. I’m a good writer, but not a great one. I’m certainly not a qualified bookbinder or letterpress printer. I knew I wanted to incorporate the best of these disciplines and when the time came to enlist the four other women who participated in this book, it felt like a natural undertaking because I already had a clear idea in my mind of who these other artists were.

When starting, I didn’t know there would be so many artists involved. I definitely wanted to work with Inge Bruggeman again and she was the first person I requested be involved. Then, I asked Sandy Tilcock to bind the books. Sandy is a phenomenal box-maker, binder and printer. Kirsten Rian is a Portland poet, curator and a good friend of mine. We’ve worked together on numerous projects and she offered to write a poem which became “Fieldnotes,” the only text in the book.

I struggled with what to do for the cover. Something didn’t feel right about putting one of the images on the front. What I wanted was to imply what was to come, but not give it away. Inge had introduced me to the work of printmaker Sarah Horowitz. I had followed her work for some time, and felt that she shared my love of the organic. I met Sarah, and after talking with her about the project, I felt comfortable about having her draw and print an original etching for the covers. I gave her one image (Silence 14) as inspiration to work off of. There were no proofs to see, no edits, no changes. She had one shot to get it right as she was drawing directly onto the copper plate. It was a risk and I’m sure some wonder why I would have a book of photographs with an etching on the cover. But, I feel now, seeing what she printed, that it was the right decision.

SB: I have noticed a large amount of photographers making handmade books in the Portland area. There is even one of the few galleries dedicated to book arts (23 Sandy). Do you feel there’s a reason for this particular art form being frequently practiced in your area?

LH: I do, yes. First, there is a large books arts community here and it’s growing. In fact, I believe 23 Sandy is the only gallery in the United States showing book arts that has such an emphasis on photography, and Laura Russell, the gallerist, has been instrumental to educating us all on this art form. Second, Portland itself is large enough to have the resources to support it’s artistic community (Powell’s Books, the largest used and new bookstore in the world, is in Portland, along with wonderful independent book shops showing contemporary art books like Ampersand Vintage and Monograph Bookwerks), but small enough to where I’m pretty aware and know personally many of the other artists working in this medium.

Raymond Meeks, who has been very inspiring, helpful and encouraging to me, moved to Portland almost exactly when I did. Having him here, as available and giving of information and resources as he is, and having access to his books is a huge advantage to those of us who are trying to learn and push this medium forward. Our community is small, but talented and active, enabling us to talk, share and in many ways, push each other farther than if we were each working independently.

Finally, I would add that much of the inspiration I’ve had has come from book artists that aren’t photographers. I quickly ventured out of the photography world to talk to other book artists in Portland like Inge Bruggeman and Rory Sparks, both of whom have helped me tremendously. There is a very active book arts community in San Francisco as well which adds to a wider regional influence and opportunity for education.

SB: What is the edition of the book? Do you offer individual prints for sale?

LH: Silence is an Orchard is an edition of 30. Yes, I definitely offer individual prints for sale. I treat my prints and books as almost two different mediums. What works for the book (size, paper, toning) might not be appropriate for the prints. For example, with Displaced, I printed the images in the book at 7” x 7”, but the prints start at 12” x 12” and go up to 30” x 30” which offers a very different viewing experience.

SB: Do you always photograph with a book in mind as the end result or do you create images for other purposes?

LH: I thought that after completing these two handmade books that I would inevitably photograph with a book in mind. And that’s probably how most of my projects will be. The more difficult question for me now isn’t whether a body of work should be a book, but what kind of book should it be. I think it really depends on how dependent the individual images are on being seen in the context of an entire series versus independently.

SB: What have you been working on since Silence is an Orchard?

LH: I’ve been working on a new body of work called Growth which recently showed at Newspace Center for Photography. Like my previous projects, this series, which began in 2009, connects an internal experience with the external. It focuses more on the urban landscape, with images of trees, weeds, shrubs and other vegetation growing in places where they shouldn’t be. At times invasive, at times, reclaiming, it’s hard to know whether to champion these subjects or whether to get out a pair of garden shears. For the last eight years I’ve struggled with health issues related to invasive growths in my own body. By photographing these plants growing, thriving and struggling to renew some part of the urban landscape, I’m finding an unexpected beauty and peace with the unwanted growths in me that have prompted two major surgeries over the last two years and most likely more in the future.

I just published the first of a new series of small books. The Lookbook Series will serve as an introduction to new portfolios as I intended them to be seen—in print. The first in the series, Volume I: Growth was just completed and I’m really happy with this format for presenting new work.

I also partnered with Kirsten Rian again to produce Deck of Chords, a playing deck of cards that combines my images from another unpublished body of work titled The Lines Between Us and her poems. This was an incredibly fun project to work on together and the response has been phenomenal.

In addition, for the first time I published the work of another artist. Under my imprint, Vela Noche, I published a book of black and white images of Dale Schreiner’s titled Thereafter about his struggle in coming to terms with the unanswerable questions that follow a violent crime and the forced acceptance of events beyond our control. This was a huge accomplishment for me. I’ve never published someone else’s work before, so there was a different and exciting challenge to bringing that work to life, with the end result being something I am extremely proud of.

SB: Do you have any exhibitions, events or upcoming books/projects?

LH: I have a solo book show (my first ever) coming up in May of 2012 at 23 Sandy Gallery (http://www.23sandy.com/) here in Portland which I am preparing for. Hopefully, I will be able to present two new handmade books, one of an existing series called Still Standing, Standing Still, and another of completely new work.

I will also be doing more teaching in 2012 which I really love. I have two how-to self publish workshops coming up, a two-day version in April at Lúz Gallery in Victoria, BC and a week-long experience at the Maine Media Workshops in July. I’m also teaching an intensive portfolio building workshop at Newspace Center for Photography which begins in January.

SB: Where or how can people purchase these books?

LH: Lúz Gallery, Wessel and Lieberman in Seattle, and Ampersand Vintage here in Portland have all of my books available for viewing and purchase. Carte Blanche in San Francisco, also carries Deck of Chords and The Lookbook Series Volume I: Growth.

Buyers can also purchase directly from my imprint, Vela Noche.

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

In Focus: John Cyr

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 10:06:23 -0800

John Cyr’s Developer Trays is a fascinating series that makes me long for those glorious days in the darkroom. When reviewing John’s portfolio in this year’s Critical Mass, I found myself returning to view it several times. What I found particularly compelling was that each tray symbolized a fingerprint as such, offering clues into the psyche of the artist that used it prior.

A bit about the series…

Developer Trays: From the mid nineteenth century until today, silver gelatin printing has been one of the most utilized photographic processes. From classic reportage to fine art photography, the majority of it was performed in a black and white darkroom until the mid-1970’s. As recently as 2000, black and white darkroom classes still served as the location for introduction to photography courses. The digital advances in photography over the past ten years have been remarkable. I am photographing available developer trays so that the photography community will remember specific, tangible printing tools that have been a seminal part of the photographic experience for the past hundred years. By titling each tray with its owner’s name, I reference the historical significance of these objects in a minimal manner that evokes thought and introspection about what images have passed through each individual tray.

Here’s an excerpt from a recent chat John and I had about the work.

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

JOHN CYR: It all started for me as a freshman in high school. I was fortunate enough that my school had a strong arts department that offered three photography classes. By the end of my sophomore year, I had taken all the classes and then continued with two years of independent studies. This was in the late 90’s, and all the classes were taught with black and white film. I had always been interested in creating art, but I was never as technically proficient as I wanted to be in the mediums of drawing, painting and sculpture. This limitation drew me deeper into photographic explorations. I quickly realized that I was comfortable creating work by picking up my camera and choosing my personal vision that I was then able to share with my peers through a photograph. The more I excelled technically and creatively, the more I wanted to continue photographing. By the time I was in college, I knew that photography was going to the medium that I would pursue for the rest of my life.

SB: You are a master silver printer. Was this part of your motivation behind shooting this series? If not, can you discuss what your personal impetus for photographing developer trays?

JC: This was a major motivation for my project. As we all know, most photographers today are working digitally. I wanted to create a body of work that could represent the transitory state of photography over the past fifteen years: the shift from analog to digital. I began this project while I was getting my thesis at the School of Visual Arts. While struggling to develop a strong concept to pursue for my thesis, I was spending a lot of time printing some silver prints in my darkroom for a few clients. I found myself staring at my developer tray for countless hours. I took my tray out of the darkroom and photographed it, first as a flat abstract, and then as the entire tray. When I included the whole tray as opposed to just a fragment of it, I discovered that the image would take on an entirely different meaning. The tray represents an important and conceptually significant tool that is used in the chemical process of silver gelatin printing. After I had photographed my own tray, I decided to try and contact other photographers that have printed for many years in a darkroom. As unique as the photographers that have used them, each developer tray that I have photographed has its own colors, scratches, stains and silver deposits that are present as a direct result of how the artist has handled them through the years. I see each image that I have taken as a photographic fingerprint of the disappearing process of silver gelatin printing.

SB: Is this series ongoing or complete?

JC: My Developer Tray series is near completion. At this point, I have photographed 65 trays. I have a few more appointments one the next month, but for the most part, I am working on putting together book proposals.

SB: You were able to photograph trays from some of the most notable contemporary photographers. How did you gain access to photographing all of these trays?

I started by using all the connections that I had to get as many emails, phone numbers and addresses that I could. Then, nearly every visit to a photographer’s studio would end with me sitting down with the photographer for a conversation where they would often list off a few of their friends and colleagues that they may be able to connect me with. I would not have been able to photography many of the 65 trays that I have amassed without the help and support of all of the photographers, historians and archivists that I have worked with. Once I had gone through all of the readily available connections, I did a lot of research that led me to families of deceased photographers, the names of the last assistants that photographers worked with, and various obscure studio locations. The deeper I got into this project, the more photographers agreed to be part of it. Once I had a respectable list well known photographers that had allowed me to photograph their trays, I think that the photographers I was contacting realized the vast extent of the archive that I was creating and were generally enthusiastic about being part of it.

SB: You photographed each tray much like a museum might catalog archeological finds of such (which I loved). Was this the intent? Or perhaps your aim to keep the images regimented in a manner to communicate a consistent typology?

Consistency is essential in this project. I wanted to create an archive of historical trays that could be viewed either individually or in a group. By shooting them under the same lighting conditions and perspective, viewers are able to compare and contrast the similarities and differences inherent in each developer tray. I also decided early on that I would make the size of the trays the same in my photographs, regardless of what the original size may be. As a result, 8 x 10 inch trays are presented the same size as 30 x 40 inch trays.

SB: Did you travel to photograph the trays or were they sent to you to photograph at your studio?

In my Developer Tray project, the production of the images is an experience unlike any other project that I have produced in the past. While a few photographers have mailed me their developer trays so I could photograph them in my Brooklyn studio, all of the other trays have been photographed either at the photographer’s home or studio. I have been fortunate enough to photograph Bruce Davidson’s developer tray by the natural light of his New York City apartment, Sally Mann’s developer tray in the backyard of her farm in Virginia, Abelardo Morell’s on the floor of his Massachusetts studio’s darkroom floor, as well as numerous others in various locations throughout the country. Nearly each visit came with an intimate discussion with the photographer or one of their surviving family members in reference to the importance of silver gelatin printing in regards to their work, creating unique exchanges that I have enjoyed thoroughly.

SB: Was there a one image with this body of work that you are most proud of or perhaps one tray that embodies the complete spirit and intent of this series?

JC: Each tray is important to me for for its own unique reasons, but the tray that I knew I had to get ahold of was that of Ansel Adams. Early on this this project I was able to get in touch with Michael Adams, Ansel’s son, and he invited me out to his home in Carmel, California. I subsequently set up a trip to California where I photographed the trays of ten West coast photographers in ten days. Setting foot in the house that Ansel lived and walking in his darkroom, which is still set up as it was when he passed, was a magical experience for me. As far as silver printing goes, no one was more proficient than Ansel. He is also one of the most well known american photographers. I knew that being able to include Ansel’s tray could broaden my project’s appeal to those that do not have an extensive history of photography.

SB: Was there one tray that you wish you could have photographed, but weren’t able to? Or if the series is ongoing, are there any trays you hope to photograph in the future?

JC: There are a few photographers have said that they do not want to be part of my project. Other photographers or photographer’s archives have either thrown away their darkroom equipment or do not know of its whereabouts. The latter is true for the trays of Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus, Irving Penn, Berenice Abbott, W. Eugene Smith and many more. While I am in the process of finishing up the shooting aspect of my project, I don’t think that I would ever turn down the opportunity to photograph a historical tray whenever it may be.

SB: What are you working on now? Can you tell us a bit about your personal works other than Developer Trays?

JC: At the moment, I am not woking on any other photographic works. I am just working on putting the Developer Tray project in a book. I am excited about starting a new project, and have a few ideas, but it is just a matter of time. In my professional life, I am making silver gelatin prints for an exhibition for the photographer Barbara Mensch that will be at the Robert Anderson Gallery in New York in January.

I have always make photographic documents of subjects that interest me. In my earlier work, I found an importance in focusing on what is close to me. I documented the area around the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, NY because I was living in the neighborhood and witnessed a historically polluted commercial zone unsuccessfully attempt to shift to residential zoning during the midst of the housing crisis. I also created a project titled All the For Lease Storefronts on 14^th Street on April 6^th, 2009 while I was working a few blocks away during a time when my employer, a black and white photo lab, was forced out of a space they had for the past 15 years due an extreme rent increase. This project also served as my first attempt to deal with the demise of analog photography. Shot on expired film and printed on expired paper, this work referenced both the financial collapse of the time as well as what seemed to be the gradual disappearance of analog photographic materials.

SB: Do you have any upcoming exhibitions?

I have an exhibit at Connecticut College in New London, CT titled Distinguished Alumni that is in honor of the college’s centennial celebration and runs from January 27th to February 24th. I will also be showing in Catherine Edelman’s booth at AIPAD from March 29th to April 1st in New York City.

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

In Focus: Lydia Panas

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:33:00 -0800

Late last night, I returned from teaching a weekend workshop at Luz Gallery in Victoria BC and was thrilled the new book by Lydia Panas, The Mark of Abel, arrived in my mailbox while I was away.

I’ve known Lydia for many years and I adore her as a person and artist. Her exceptional portraiture is compelling, honest. timeless and powerful. And her first book delivers on every level.

In celebration of Lydia’s wonderful new book, here’s an excerpt from a chat we had about her career and the recent release of The Mark Of Abel.

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

LYDIA PANAS: After graduating with a BA in Psychology, I went back to art school for graphic design, hoping to work in the art field, and took a class in Photography. I studied with a professor who helped me realize that I had something to say, and this changed everything. I found that with a camera, I could express my vision with a directness that I had previously been unable to communicate. It was a sea change in how I saw myself, and my sense of worth as an artist. This also speaks to my interest in teaching. Students tell me that important changes happen for them in my classes. I imagine they feel something akin to what I felt.

SB: You created a number of series prior to your seminal body of work The Mark of Abel, which focused on portraits of family members and their relationships. What was your personal impetus for creating this body of work?

LP: I worked in Black & White photography for about twenty years and had no experience in color to speak of. I wanted to spend less time in the darkroom and more time shooting, so I tried color film, mostly to get out of the darkroom, and to give myself a challenge. I had also recently seen the Diane Arbus show at the Met, which is where the title quote comes from, in which Arbus speaks to the idea of success and failure. The series came together partially, because I was conscious of doing something that was frightening for me. Namely, inviting people to pose for me, taking the time to look at them without a preconceived notion of what I was going for, and allowing myself the luxury of simply looking and shooting what I felt in the context of people who were not immediate family. As simple as it sounds, this was a challenge for me at the time. It was also exciting and I allowed myself to go for it. Each time I got the film back, I experienced a thrill on many levels, so I continued. It took me a while to understand exactly what I was doing.

SB: You have written in your statement for The Mark of Abel. “The photographs ask that we look deeper than the surface for what lies underneath; that complex part of our own personalities we often don’t see.” What does family mean to you (or how do you personally define “family”) and how do you think your perspective about family orchestrated this incredible body of work?

LP: Family is important to me. My parents came to this country from Greece, just before I was born, then we moved back to Greece for a number of years, and finally came back to the states. I felt like an outsider both here and there. I did not fit easily into either culture. These experiences taught me to watch to see who people were, and how they communicated. I became fascinated by how people choose to present themselves. My mother often spoke to the importance of family, as did my cousins who watched us come and go every summer. I think our move to the states was complicated for everyone.

Family relationships can be complicated. Sometimes loyalty puts us in positions that are not in our best interest. I was often motivated by what was good for others, and not necessarily for myself. I had to learn to do things for me. This body of work speaks to how complex family histories are, and how we wear our devotions. The following series “Falling from Grace…” speaks more directly to the idea of how deviating from someone else’s expectations can sometimes be our own grace.

SB: Is there one image in this body of work that speaks to you more so than others, perhaps because it cuts to the heart and soul of what The Mark of Abel means to you?

LP: My images are like my children. I have the same amount of love for all of them. Each one however speaks to a different feeling, and together, they speak to a greater whole. When seen collectively they converse, and give the viewer a fuller experience of my vision.

The first image I made in the series is “Tatiana”. I cherish that picture for how easily it came about and how it inspired me to begin this series about family relations. This image is ambiguous and telling, loaded and subtle at once. Another image that especially speaks to me is “Portrait of a Young Man”. It articulates how some members of a family wear the complexity of the family more explicitly than the others. Another noteworthy picture is “Aimee Lubczanski and her Sister”, which speaks to the things we close our eyes to. One sister looks at us directly, while the other closes her eyes. As significant as these specific images are to the series, all of the images work together to fill in the gaps and tell a larger story.

SB: Your newest body of work, Falling From Grace “presents a feast; fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, cake. It is not clear whether they provide nourishment or taunt us with the gifts. They appear to offer and withhold at once.” The tone and meaning has greatly shifted from your last body of work, which focused on relationships between individuals versus a single relationship with the metaphorical complexities of nourishment. Can you discuss the shift toward this quieter, more personal and secluded body of work?

LP: The pictures from the “Mark of Abel” series ask the viewer to interact with them, the “Falling From Grace…” series, even more so. I not only look at the model, but I work out a relationship with them. When there is only one model it becomes more personal, maybe more intimate. I necessarily fall kind of in love with the person I am shooting, I feel very close to them. I feel protective of them, careful not to abuse the power I have as photographer, but still remain true to my own needs.

This series is about connections, relationships, and trust. The portraits have a tentative connection to the viewer. This leaves the viewer in an un-comfortable position, not knowing how to respond to the serious person holding a strange piece of food.

The models seem to offer (when images are seen together they offer a kind of feast) but also withhold the food. One is not quite sure. Are they offering nourishment, or are they taunting us with the offer?

The series is called “Falling from Grace..” and seems to refer to forbidden fruit and what we are entitled to.

This work moves more into the realm of conceptual work, like some of my earlier Black & White series.

SB: Congratulations on your much-anticipated release of your first book The Mark of Abel published by Kehrer Verlag and due out March of 2012. Can you tell us a bit about the design process, cover selection, sequence edit and choices you made for the book?

LP: I wanted to make a book about this work for a long time. It has a kind of narrative, My influences are more literary than photographic, and seeing this work in a book with 52 images, helps make sense of my vision. The entire process was a lot of fun, albeit extremely stressful, with so many decisions that felt very final, and often not sure which direction to go with. I had many sleepless nights worrying about if I had made the right decision, including title, cover image, selection of images to include, sequence edit, back cover image, and so on. The designer at Kehrer, Katharina Stumpf, was wonderful, really sweet and a good listener. She was patient and eased me through the process.

We thought a lot about the typeface and layout of the essays, which are an integral part of the book. The two essays approach the series in very different ways and help fill in much of the nuanced aspect of the work. I was very lucky to have both Maile Meloy a well known author, who writes very sensitively about families, speak to the work, and George Slade who wrote an interesting essay about the directness of the work, and how the models seem as empowered as the photographer.

SB: Did you work directly with the designer in Germany? Where you able to be on press? If so, do you feel it was a worthy experience for the process?

LP: I worked directly with the designer. We sent pdf’s back and forth and were in constant contact during the design process. I went to Heidelberg, Germany for a week to be on press. It was a great experience and the reproductions are beautiful. Being there made a big difference. I highly recommend it.

SB: You have a trade and Limited Edition book available with a choice of three prints. You are offering the limited edition at a very affordable price of 150.00. Most limited edition books fall in the range of 350.00-750.00 USD. Can you discuss why you opted to offer the limited edition at such an incredible price?

LP: The economy mostly, and the holidays coming up. It is a slow time for print and book sales these days, and I would like to make the set affordable to the people who have been so supportive of my work. I did not opt for a box set at this time as it would have been expensive to produce, though it may be an option in the coming months if this edition sells out.

SB: You are offering a pre-sale of the book currently. Can you give me links and details about how long the pre-sale will be available? Will the price of the Limited Edition increase after the pre-sale is complete?

LP: Yes, the price will go up as the Limited Edition sets sell. It may be before the pre-sale ends if they continue to sell the way they have so far. Pre-Sales are going through WallSpace Gallery in Santa Barbara, Fraction Magazine and through my website.

SB: You have a number of upcoming shows to support the book. Can you list the details?

The Mark of Abel, Allentown Art Museum. February 11 – April 15, 2012

(Lecture and Book Signing on February 24)

http://www.allentownartmuseum.org/exhibitions/upcoming

Falling From Grace… WallSpace Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA. March 1 – April 1, 2012

http://wall-spacegallery.com/displayShow.php?showID=140&collection=3

The Mark of Abel. Athens House of Photography. Athens, Greece April 1 – May 2012.

(Portraiture Workshop, Lecture and Book Signing)

http://www.phototheatron.com/ourspace/

Falling From Grace… Inter-Art Foundation. Aiud, Romania. August 2012

(Lecture and Book Signing)

http://www.inter-art.ro/

The Mark of Abel. Rayko Photo Center, San Francisco, CA. September 2012

http://raykophoto.com/

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