Journal

Matt Peiken of 3-Minute Egg has produced a nice video interview of Beth Dow, Osama Esid and myself talking about our work in the show The Imperfect Print: The Art of the Handcrafted Print.

One of these days someone will explain to me why it is that people still compare the two processes of platinum-palladium and gelatin silver. Of course, we all know that oils are far superior to watercolours…

What must be understood is that these silver prints and this look is what Penn was after. Some of his silver work was bleached slightly in a solution of dilute potassium ferricyanide, which has the effect of reducing the highlights to a pure white. When used in conjunction with a contrasty print to begin with, this can result in a print with very deep blacks and very little detail in the white areas. Penn was a master printer and could have easily replicated the tones in a silver print to look like a platinum if he’d wanted to. But he didn’t, this was his choice. So to compare Penn’s silver work with his platinum prints is wrong.

Cathedral of Learning, platinum-palladium print, 2008

I have a print in this year’s upcoming benefit auction for the Silver Eye gallery in Pittsburgh, PA. It’s a platinum-palladium print, 8″ x 8″ image size on 14″ x 18″ Weston Diploma paper. The following press release is from their website.

Silver Eye Center for Photography
2010 Benefit Photography Auction and Brunch
Sunday, April 25, 2010 11 pm – 2 pm
1015 East Carson Street, Pittsburgh, 15203

Mark your calendar now and plan to attend one of the region’s signature art auctions! This year’s auction, preceded by a champagne brunch, features an impressive selection of contemporary and vintage works donated by artists, galleries and collectors from around the world.

Join us for a first look at the work at the Auction Preview Exhibition, on view March 30 through April 21, 2010. The opening reception is Thursday, April 1, 2010 from 6-9 p.m. Free admission for members; $6 non-members.

Individual tickets are $45 for Silver Eye members; $50 for non-members.

The Silver Eye 2010 Benefit Auction is made possible, in part, through the generous support of Aaronel deRoy Gruber, one of Pittsburgh’s most honored photographers, and her husband Irving B. Gruber.

The media sponsor is WYEP 91.3 FM. In-kind sponsors are Boyd and Blair Vodka, La Fond Galleries, Esser’s Floral, Sam Berkovitz and Concept Art Gallery.

Beth was recently interviewed by Darren Ching and Debra Klomp Ching of Klompching Gallery for an article by the online magazine At Length.

Black Hill, The Badlands, SD

So here’s another of those “I can’t believe it’s been this long since I last posted” posts. The reality is that I was slightly taken in by the siren that is Facebook and this weblog became even more neglected than usual.

Facebook is great for keeping in touch with certain people, in my case some of those back in the UK, but it’s not enough to keep me happy. I don’t really care if anyone reads this weblog or not, the fact is that I enjoy writing it – when I get the time. I like that I can write posts bit by bit, save them as drafts and publish when ready. So I’m going to try and write and post regularly – or at the very least more often than I have recently.

So, what’s been happening? This summer I’ve been trying to get more of my work finished and printed, with emphasis on the word printed. I still have a lot of images that have got to the edited stage and then just accumulate in a virtual shoebox under the bed. Garry Winogrand reportedly died with over 2000 rolls of film still unprocessed and although I’m not that prolific, I still don’t want anything similar to that as my epitaph. “He died with over 2000 platinum internegatives unprinted…”

Having said all that, we went to the Badlands and the Black Hills at the end of June and although I’ve processed all the film and made scans, I still have a lot of editing to do.

I had a photogravure accepted in the Washington Printmakers Gallery National Small Works exhibition that opened recently. I submitted several pieces and (a little disappointingly) they chose one that had been shown before, Bird’s Nest. It would have been nice if another image had been chosen of course, but I’m really extremely happy because 192 artists entered 740 prints and the juror Jane Haslem eventually chose just 42.

On August the 18th I’m talking at the Minnesota Photo Center as part of the Tuesday Artists’ Talk series, following on from Beth who was just there. I’ll be talking about my photography and how I ended up working with the processes I use and perhaps talking a little about polymer photogravure as well. It won’t be at all technical but will cover how and why combining digital technology with the historical processes from the 1800s, as I am, can be so liberating for photographers today. There are also about 15 prints of ours up on the 3rd floor of the Minneapolis Photo Center – 4, I think, of Beth’s and 11 of mine.

Speaking of photogravure, I’m also writing an article for Ag on the process that will be published in the autumn. Photogravure, or more specifically polymer photogravure, is a process that I’ve been working with for ten years now and absolutely adore, but it was never this easy. When I started I knew of no photographers/printers that I could call or email and ask for help with any one of the myriad of problems I encountered. And at that time I was still using film, an enlarger and chemicals to make the film positives. Nowadays with digital it’s all a lot simpler but over the years I’ve formulated a workflow that is very consistent for my work. And the non-toxic aspect makes it very suitable for the classroom environment.

Coaster from the series Ruins – platinum palladium 18.5×16″

Next month, Beth Dow will be exhibiting work from her new series Ruins at the Jen Bekman gallery in New York, which opens on April 9th and will continue through to May 16th. In New York this weekend though, you can see some of her work at the Joseph Bellows Gallery booth at AIPAD (the Association of International Photography Art Dealers), being held through Sunday at the Park Avenue Armory (67th Street and Park Avenue).

She has a portfolio of work in the current issue of Black and White magazine too, along with fellow Minnesotans and friends, Tom Arndt and Richard Copley.

On this trip to New York, I’ve been invited to have my portrait taken for a project that I’m really excited about. I’ll explain more later, and although I usually hate being in front of the camera, this is special and I’m actually looking forward to it. I’m also going to find time to visit some galleries and museums, something I rarely get the chance to do usually, given the length and purpose of my visits.

It seems there are a couple of Steichen shows going on, at Howard Greenberg and ICP, but the ones I’d really like to see are the Henri Cartier-Bresson images at Edwynn Houk and a show of work that includes E.O. Hoppé, Kertesz, Cunningham, Stieglitz and Weston at Bruce Silverstein. At the other modern end of the spectrum, Greenberg Van Doren and MoMA are both showing the work of the British photographer Paul Graham, who has just won the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, while at the Robert Miller Gallery is work by Patti Smith.

UPDATE I almost forgot Richard Benson’s The Printed Picture at MoMA.

The Printed Picture, a book by Richard Benson that traces the changing technology of picture making from the Renaissance to the present, focusing on the vital role of images in multiple copies. In conjunction with the publication of the book, an educational installation of the material will be presented in the The Edward Steichen Photography Galleries.

The White House – Platinum palladium, 18.5×16″

Beth has recently been told that she’s been nominated for the Santa Fe Prize for Photography, organised by Center.

The Santa Fe Prize for Photography recognizes and rewards a gifted and committed photographer who has completed, or is near completion of, a meaningful body of work. This prize was initiated to bring new work to light, and international photographers are eligible.

The award process is by nomination only; photographers cannot apply independently. The prize includes $5,000 and participation in Review Santa Fe; the cash award must be used to complete a body of work or to introduce a completed project to a larger audience.

Her body of work In the Garden is currently being shown at the Joseph Bellows gallery in La Jolla, CA and will be extended for three weeks until the end of March.

On the east coast, Beth will have work at Jen Bekman‘s booth during the Pulse art fair in New York, March 5 – 8th, and an exhibition of images from the project Ruins at Jen’s gallery April 9 – May 16th.

Leaning Tower of Pisa, Illinois

It’s been a busy year.

Early in the year Beth went to Portland, Oregon for the opening of her show at the wonderful Blue Sky Gallery, while I travelled to Pittsburgh to speak at the f295 Symposium and then twice to Florence with Cy DeCosse, organising things for his 2009 show there.

In the summer, Beth and I spent some time driving around the small towns in west-central Wisconsin, gathering material for a collaborative project we’re working on, finally ending up in Chicago for yet another of her projects.

One of the highlights of the year for me had to be in June, when my image Bird’s Nest was published by Jen Bekman‘s 20×200, while for Beth it was probably being flown out to San Francisco for a few days by the nice people at Blurb to receive her $25,000 check for winning the first Photography.Book.Now competition.

As for exhibitions, I had work included in several group shows in Phoenix, New York and Pittsburgh, while November saw Beth’s show open at the Photo Center Northwest. That same month saw Beth and I having a joint show at the Iris Gallery in Boston, which then travelled to their other gallery in Great Barrington, where it will remain until early January 2009.

Beth is already organising several shows for 2009 for which I’ll have to start printing soon, as well as finishing the 100+ 3-colour gum dichromate prints for Cy’s show in Florence. That show will open in October 2009 and will be accompanied by a 3-colour catalogue. And yes, we’ll be there…