|
The galleries are organized roughly around the camera I used to make
the images. I usually work with one camera and one lens until I get
restless and want to change the kind of picture that I am making or
until some new subject matter forces me to change my working methods.
The early 35 mm work was done with a Nikon
SP, the rangefinder Nikon that, for my money, beat the Leica.
One night a friend and I, in a moment of drunken stupidity, decided
to 'baptize' our cameras (it seemed like a good idea at the time). He
had a Leica M4 while I had my SP. We were drinking beer and poured a
glassful over each camera. The next day I woke shuddering with a hangover
and scared to death that I had destroyed my camera. I broke it down
as far as I could and wiped clean as much as I was able. After putting
it back together, I fired the shutter and damned if it didn't work fine.
My friend had to take his into the shop for a very expensive cleaning.
I loved that camera!
Those 35mm pictures were all shot
on Kodak Recording Film, an extremely high-speed film that is loaded
with silver. In conjunction with lots of exposure and a rich development,
you get images that are heavily grained. I loved that grain. For me,
it was light crystallized. The film also had an incredible latitude.
I never had to worry about exposures no matter the light conditions.
This work got me a National Endowment for the Arts Photographer's Fellowship.
With that money I went to Japan the first time.
After coming to Japan, I tried to
continue the same style work but discovered that I needed access to
my old darkroom to be able to work that way. I needed the chemistry,
the enlarger (Leitz Focomat) and the paper (Agfa Portrega), none of
which I had in Japan. I sold my SP and got a twin lens Mamiya. I started
using Tri-X film and doing everything in a more conventional way. I
was happy with the change as I really wanted to get away from the grain
in my pictures. I felt like I was seeing that grain all the time. I
used that camera until I returned to the USA when I traded it (and some
money) for a Hasselblad. The pictures didn't change much as the cameras
are essentially the same. At least, I used them as if they were.
The next big change for me was going
back to a rangefinder but keeping a larger negative. I traded my Hasselblad
in on a Makina Plaubel which gives a 6x7 (2 1/4 x 2 3/4) negative. I
also began shooting color.
Until I returned to Japan, I worked
in darkroom, continually fascinated by the process. I became, I think,
a skilled printer both in black and white and color. I eventually taught
myself the dye transfer color process but teaching photography and coming
to Japan both conspired to make me change. When I was teaching, I had
to spend all day and many evenings in or around the darkroom. When it
came time to do my own work, I couldn't drive myself back into the dark
any more. In Japan, there simply wasn't space for a separate room in
which to work.
That brings us to, more or less,
today. I have not been in a darkroom in several years. All my work is
now digitized using a Nikon 8000 film scanner and then printed with
an Epson 7600 printer. I use archival inks and paper (Ultrachromes and Moab Entrada) and can thus make
prints that rival black and white silver prints for long term stability.
Photoshop has replaced the darkroom.
There is one gallery, the Digital
Images one, where the pictures are all either done with a digital camera
(a small Fuji) or are scanned prints or negatives. The pictures are
then opened and manipulated in Photoshop and combined with my poetry.
Since early in my work, I have wanted
to print with ink. I tried photogravure and photolithography while I
was art school. Both of them were technically too demanding at the time.
Darkroom printing was tough enough. Now that digital photography has
matured sufficiently, I feel reconnected to image making.
I hope this work is of interest
to you. It is available for exhibition and for sale. Contact information
is as follows:
|
