The White Rabbit and Alice at Prof. Agostino Dessi’s.

I’ve just got back from a 12 day trip to Florence, where I had the unique opportunity of working with bookbinder, restorer and artist Enrico Giannini, thanks to Cy DeCosse. Cy and Enrico met back in the 1950s when Cy was studying in Florence on a Fulbright scholarship, and the two have remained friends since.

Enrico’s the fifth generation of a family that has bound books for all the Popes, most Heads of State and royalty since his great-great-grandfather established the business opposite the Pitti Palace in the mid 1800s. His daughter Maria is the sixth generation running the shop, leaving Enrico to now concentrate on teaching and passing on his considerable wealth of knowledge to others.

The past year of working at MCBA meant I had a good grounding in the basics of bookbinding, so this trip was all about picking up tips, tricks and techniques from a master craftsman. During the two weeks we casebound a couple of books, sewing the signatures onto ribbons and finishing the covers with book cloth and marbled endpapers. We worked at marbling paper and paring leather, discussed the differences between various leathers and tanning, and covered embossing and gold tooling with both leaf and foil. We made slipcases and portfolio boxes, and bound two photo albums for a client. And, of course, there were plenty of examples of restoration that he has undertaken and those that he’s preparing to work on.

In the gaps, we ate well.

What I found most encouraging was that he isn’t necessarily committed to doing things the traditional way. If there’s a modern material or technique available that makes life easier, then he uses it. He also explained the reasons and the science behind using a particular adhesive or paper or material and, like platinum printing, most if it has to do with humidity and moisture content.

As an aside, Enrico’s studio is small, really small. He also has a wicked sense of humor. By his own admission he’s an XXL artist in an XXS studio, and when a street vendor came around peddling cheap items, which happened regularly, he countered by trying to sell her his books and boxes, much to her frustration and our amusement.

I also got to spend some amazing time with a couple of Cy’s other friends and their families. A day out in the country at painter Mario Fallani‘s villa, in the Tuscan countryside mid-way between Florence and Siena, and a memorable last evening at the home of mask maker Prof. Agostino Dessi.

Grazie mille, Enrico and Cy!

Paring leather.

Burnishing the leather on a half-bound book.

Tools.

Hand illustrated upper case letters from a book published by the Giannini family in the 1800s.

Marbling paper.

Enrico and his studio.

A pen and ink drawing dated from the 1500s, found after separating glued papers during a restoration project.

Lunch in the Tuscan countryside.

Bistecca alla Fiorentina, cooked on an open fire in the kitchen of Prof. Agostino Dessi.

Back from another trip to Santa Fe, this time to attend the opening of the show Do Process at Verve Gallery.

The exhibition is a showcase for eight of the gallery’s artists who use handcrafted techniques in their work – Brigitte Carnochan (hand coloured silver prints), Cy DeCosse (3-colour gum dichromate), Joy Goldkind (bromoil), Jennifer Schlesinger (albumen), Caitie Soldan (mordançage), Henrieke Strecker (photogravure), Maggie Taylor (digital manipulation) and Kamil Vojnar (multi-media).

The show runs through April 14th, 2012.

Verve Gallery of Photography,
219 East Marcy Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501.
Telephone (505) 982-5009.

On the way to Santa Fe this week I stopped at the University of New Mexico Art Museum in Albuquerque to see the exhibition Reconsidering the Photographic Masterpiece. What immediately grabbed my attention was how much depth the silver prints had, especially this image by Paul Caponigro. The stones in this image glowed. The next day I visited the Andrew Smith Gallery in Santa Fe and vintage silver prints by Caponigro, Weston, Adams (Ansel and Robert), Friedlander and Lange were crammed into every conceivable space in that house. Of course I love photogravure and platinum-palladium prints, but the smoothness and luminescence of these glossy silver prints made me want to start working in silver again.

The opening reception is on January 28, 2012 and the exhibition runs through May 20, 2012.

Plains Art Museum, 704, First Avenue North, Fargo, ND 58102. (701) 232-3821.

Magnum Photos has announced that the photographer Eve Arnold has died at age 99.

I had the great pleasure of working with her back in 1995, in conjunction with the imminent release of her book, Eve Arnold: In Retrospect. To promote the book, there were to be two travelling exhibitions, one in the UK and one in the US, and a third set for a museum collection. Magnum, whose offices were around the corner from where I worked, didn’t have the facilities to print the large size fibre prints she wanted, so I was asked by her to make the three sets of exhibition prints, while they made those for the book.

The first time I met her I was so nervous. Here was a legend in photography and I was in her apartment, sitting at her kitchen table, eating cake and drinking coffee. Subsequently though, I always looked forward to those times I’d have to visit her. Every few days I would go to her flat in the West End to deliver the prints I’d finished and collect another batch of negatives. She had given me a set of unbound galley proofs of the book to match the prints to, and she knew exactly what she wanted in the prints, but if there were reprints to be made, she asked in a way that made you want to rush back to the studio and immediately start printing, and with enthusiasm. She was one of the most gracious photographers I have worked with.

Soon after I’d emigrated to America she contacted me again with a project in mind. Unfortunately she didn’t want to risk losing the negatives shipping them to the US, and I wasn’t in a position to move back to the UK so soon. Now, of course, digital technology and scanning makes that so easy. The project was a portfolio of 13 images of Marilyn Monroe, A Baker’s Dozen.

I’ve been fortunate to have Andy Adams select one of my images for his Flak Photo winter pictures series. More than 500 entries were submitted over a three week period, but only 20 were selected to run weekdays in January, so I’m very fortunate.

My image is scheduled to run on Monday January 16th, but until then, take a look at the other work on the nicely redesigned Flak Photo website.

MCBA
The big thing throughout 2011 has been my MCBA/Jerome Foundation mentorship. It’s been a really satisfying opportunity and the experience of working with the other five recipients, everyone at MCBA and our three generous mentors is one I’ll treasure.

A year ago I knew nothing about letterpress printing on the Vandercook, lead typesetting, silkscreen printing, case making, multi-signature sewing, book binding, pressure printing and many other techniques. Today, I’d like to think I know a little more.

It wasn’t necessarily an easy project and I didn’t see anything of the spring, summer and autumn because I was busy working at printing the images, laying out and printing the text pages and making the case, but that’s the kind of environment I love to be in. The results of my labour can be found here on my website.

SANTA FE
A short break came in July, when I got to make an unexpected trip to Santa Fe and the Land of Many Uses for the opening of Cy DeCosse’s show at Verve Gallery.

GREECE
After the MCBA opening in early November, I flew to Greece with Beth to assist her with the images for her McKnight Fellowship. We did a lot of walking and a four day road trip; Athens – Corinth – Nafplion – Patras – Delphi – Athens. I even managed to drive through the morning and evening rush hour traffic in central Athens, eventually parking the rental car in the tiny parking space outside our hotel like a true Athenian. Read into that what you will…

I realised I had to be one of the few Britons who had never been to Greece before, but I absolutely fell in love with the people, the landscape, the food and the temperament of the country. The trip also gave me the opportunity to catch up with my old friend and photographer Martin, someone I hadn’t see in sixteen years but who I’d spent many, many days and even more evenings with in the 1980s and 1990s. Back then I was printing in London and Martin was one of those photographers who had started as a client but quickly became a close friend. We only got to see him again briefly as he was passing through Athens on his way back to the UK, but it was as if we’d only seen each other the day before. I guess wine has that effect.

Beth using her iPad as an 8″ x 10″ point-and-shoot.

As I write this it’s 7pm CST, so I guess that’s about it for 2011. Here’s wishing for a wonderful 2012.

In the next few days I hope to find time to copy all twenty of the photogravures and put them up on the website. I had hoped to have done this sooner, but it’s been a little chaotic recently.

UPDATE – All twenty images are now online here.