JOURNAL

One of my images, The Third Bridge, has been accepted into the show Photography Re-Imagined at the Tilt Gallery in Phoenix, AZ and has been awarded 2nd Place! But I’m especially pleased as the juror was Christopher James.

Christopher James is an internationally known artist and photographer whose paintings and alternative process images have been exhibited in galleries and museums in this country and abroad. His work has been published and shown extensively, including shows in The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The George Eastman House, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

His book, “The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes” (Delmar, 2001) has received unprecedented critical acclaim, was the winner of The Golden Light Technical Book of the Year award, and has become the standard reference text in alternative process image making. His second, and significantly expanded, edition of “The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes: 2nd Edition” was released in February 2008.

Christopher, after 13 years at Harvard University, is currently Professor and Chair of Photography at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University.

The image, quite small at 5″x5″, was printed as a polymer photogravure in an edition of 10 on 11″x14″ Hahnemühle paper. There seems to be something about small prints that some people like, as this has become one of the more popular of my images - not that I’ll ever be accused of being a prolific artist - since it was exhibited in the Fine Arts building last year at the Minnesota State Fair. I’m close to selling out the edition! Let’s hear it for small prints…

Beth has just published a Blurb book on her project In the Garden. It’s 78 pages and 13″x11″ in size with a hardcover, and although we haven’t seen a hard copy yet, every Blurb book I’ve seen has been well produced.

It’s been a weird week and one that seemed to revolve around many of the London printers I used to hang out with in the pubs of Shoreditch and Clerkenwell. It’s as if I’ve been in a time warp or an episode of Dr. Who.

Now, I’ve just been pointed towards the website of Richard Nicholson who has photographed many of the last remaining professional darkrooms in the city including many of the printers that I mentioned in an earlier post. Maybe it’s because I’m a printer, but I LOVE these images. And you’ve got to love that speaker balancing precariously on Adrian’s 504…

Debbie Sears

Adrian Ensor

Klaus Kalde

Mike Spry

Roy Snell

All images copyright © Richard Nicholson.

Jen Bekman Gallery Presents: Ornithology from Derrick Tan on Vimeo.
Here’s a video tour of the current Ornithology show narrated by Jen Bekman, where she says really nice things about Beth, myself and our work. Thanks Jen!

The sad news about Bill Rowlinson on Friday was preceded by wonderful - but stunning - news from 20×200 on Thursday.

20×200 is a project from Jen Bekman whereby two editions a week are released as inexpensive inkjet prints in three sizes for $20, $200 and $2000. My image that’s currently in the Ornithology show, Bird’s Nest was chosen for a special edition released on Thursday. It went live at 2pm ET, but within minutes both the small and medium sizes had sold out!

The original print on which the image is based is available as a hand-pulled photogravure in an edition of 10.

Contact the Jen Bekman Gallery at info (at) jenbekman (dot) com for more details.

Image © Nikki Gibbs, print by Adrian Ensor

It’s hard to believe but I have been printing for other photographers now for nearly 30 years. The time hasn’t always flown by, but I have - and I really believe this - had fun for most of that time. And some of the best times were in the 1980s and early 1990s when I was fortunate to know (and of course socialise with), many great printers in London. Roy Snell, Klaus Kalde, Mike Spry, Steve Walsh, Ron Bagley, Adrian Ensor, Barbara Curtin and Debbie Sears amongst others. And of course, Bill Rowlinson. Sadly, I have just learned that Bill died last week.

When I started to print exhibitions and portfolios way, way back then, there were three printers who greatly influenced my career. Ron Bagley, Roy Snell and Bill. In their own styles, they were, and are, all great printers, but each of them gave to me something different.

From Ron I learned about the commercial aspect of printing. Not always in a this is how it should be done way, but sometimes more of a how not to do it way. And I think anyone who knew Ron will laugh and agree. I worked for Ron for about 4 years, although it seemed like 10, because we had so much fun and so much happened. And Ron’s handling of clients was something to behold. Whatever words were exchanged, amicable or unprintable, the clients usually left laughing.

From Roy I learned how to print. Not in the most basic sense, as I’d been printing for years before I met Roy, but he taught me how to make a print that had feeling. To watch Roy work and produce such stunning prints with apparent ease was so inspiring; suddenly everything made sense. It’s hard to put into words, but even today, when I have that gut feeling of knowing a print is right, that’s what I learned from Roy. A day in the darkroom (which was too infrequent) with Roy was always a joy and something to look forward to.

And Bill. He gave me the courage and advice not only to constantly strive to produce excellent, award-winning prints, but to really do what you believe in, do it from the heart and not sell out. And to go out on a limb occasionally, because “if you’re not the lead dog, the view never changes”. In later years he became quite a private man, and I lost contact with him some years ago, but when I left London for America in 1996, Bill quietly gave me some advice and words of encouragement which I still treasure and follow to this day. Those words have always been very personal and special to me and I have never really discussed them with anyone else, but he was right. He always was.

UPDATE There’s an obituary in the British Journal of Photography by its former editor Chris Dickie, now publisher of Ag, here.

Bird’s Nest - photogravure

Jen Bekman’s upcoming group exhibition Ornithology will include my image Bird’s Nest (shown above). The print is a hand-pulled photogravure, 6.5″ x 5.75″ on Hahnemühle Copperplate paper and printed in an edition of 10 plus 2 APs.

The show will run from June 25th through August 2nd at the Jen Bekman Gallery, 6, Spring Street, New York, NY, 10012. For more information and opening hours: (212) 219-0166 or online at www.jenbekman.com.

The Diana arrived this morning, fresh out of the mould from the Lomographic Society. I still can’t believe I paid $50 for a plastic camera, but then again, when I think about how much I spend on platinum, palladium and polymer plates, the thought of a nice photogravure from a Diana negative balances it out.

One of the reasons I was persuaded to buy it is that it has the ability to function as a pinhole camera as well as a regular camera, and even then you have two choices. You can either set the aperture to pinhole and keep the lens in place or remove the lens to give you a true 120 pinhole camera. Quite versatile!

According to the wonderful little book that came with it, Diana + True Tales & Short Stories, Wolfgang Möbius even designed the Porsche 928 with the Diana’s smooth lines in mind.

And on a lighter note - should you ever take this camera seriously - they even produce special editions. There’s The White Stripes Meg edition in red and white, and the all-white Eidelweiss. Now, how about a Jesus and Mary Chain version in all-black? Oh, that’s right. It’s called the Holga.

New York I - Polymer Photogravure

The f295 symposium in Pittsburgh is over and I’m back in Minneapolis after one of the best symposiums I think I’ve attended in a long time.

The event was well organised and honestly, I’d be happy with a fraction of the energy that Tom Persinger, the organiser, displayed while I was there. Tom’s a great guy, very personable and on the ball at all times. How can you not like him and his humour?

I went in having never really used (nor, I think, appreciated) the pinhole camera, but I’m now a convert. And the creativity and open mindedness that was exhibited by all the attendees was incredible - I even ordered a Diana camera that’s on it’s way via UPS as I speak.

Along with the symposium there’s an exhibition that’s up until July 5th at the 707 Penn Gallery that’s showing the work of the speakers from this year and last year. I have three photogravures in the show; two from a series shot in New York and another titled The Third Bridge.

Tom and Jesseca Ferguson, one of the speakers, are both showing work at the Silver Eye Center for Photography, a beautiful gallery. Thanks to Linda Benedict-Jones, the Executive Director there, for making us feel so welcome.

So, my thanks to Tom and everyone, new acquaintances and old, that I met in Pittsburgh and who made it so much fun.