Journal

Emmet Gowin’s developer tray by John Cyr

Two years ago I wrote about a series of photographs by Richard Nicholson called “Last One Out” that documented the disappearance of the professional traditional wet darkrooms in London. Now, in a nicely complimenting project, John Cyr has been out and about photographing famous photographer’s developing trays.

Aaron Siskind

Neil Selkirk

Ralph Gibson

Sid Kaplan

This morning I heard from the Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA) that I’m one of the six recipients of their MCBA/Jerome Foundation Book Arts Mentorship programme.

Awarded to six artists from different disciplines (Literary Arts, Visual Arts, Music, Film and Video, Theatre and Dance), it offers them the chance to combine their work with the book arts. Recipients receive a stipend to help with materials, a year’s worth of book arts training at MCBA, free tuition for three workshops and the ability to meet with a mentor and attend master classes there on a regular basis. The end result is a show in November 2011.

I’m so excited about this opportunity because it means that the series I’ve just started working on will now form the basis of this project, and that I’ll be able to incorporate letterpress text and bookbinding with my photogravures. Thanks MCBA and the Jerome Foundation!