Playing with moving pictures

My first attempt at making a video. I am pretty happy with it.

My friend Ryan and I went to Annapolis, MD and Savannah GA, to visit some (of my) friends. I feel the video captures our trip pretty well. A good starting point for my first venture into the moving image.

SPE 2010 Philadelphia, PA

untitled (self portrait), tin type, 2010. Philadelphia

In my attempt to do an SPE round up, I quickly found out one Walker Pickering, professor at the Art Institute in Austin, TX and fellow SCAD grad, just plain out did any thing I could do. To see his SPE Philadelphia 2010 round up video, please go to his student blog Shudder Budder and check it out. There is a great spot with friend Frank Hamrick and an interview I conduct with Tom Fischer.


Edited 3.28.10

The 49th Parallel

The 49th parallel north, the clearing is the USA/Canada boarder

The 49th parallel is the boarder between the United States of America and Canada and the longest unarmed boarder in the world. Being from the US, I have seen Canada as I think many Americans have, a bit of a paradox. It is some what confusing to me how they can still be a British holding but have an entire portion of the country that speaks French. Furthermore, it was Robin Williams who called Canada a loft apartment above a really great party. This about sums up Americans' thoughts on our friendly neighbors to the North. But this may be changing.

Over the past week or so with the playing of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic games, I have come to see Canada and Canadians quite differently. They are a people more welcoming then most and rich in tradition and customs. They are, I guess it wouldn't be a stretch to say, our quiet close friends who always seem to have our back, no matter how much noise we make.

Ours seems to be a symbiotic arrangement. Not being from the boarder states I really can't say but somewhere the line blurs. Our cultures cross and influence one another. This, I feel for many Americans, is seen in the game of hockey. The Canadians call it their game, but the US has the National Hockey League, or NHL, the league most players strive to reach. Now, I don't know much about hockey but it seems the NHL has players from all over the world and it says quite a bit when the league shuts down for the Winter Games and allows the players to represent their home counries. This sets up a situation where NHL team mates will face off on the ice.

That will happen today at 12:15 local time in Vancouver, BC. But it is more then just team mates on different teams, it is two countries connected by much more then an unarmed boarder playing for gold, bragging rights, and who gets to call hockey their game. All of Canada and the US will be watching, even those like me who are not really hockey fans. A friendly rivalry will play out on the ice, and as hockey games in the past (namely the 1980 Lake Placid USA v Russia game) it will mean more then just win or loose. When it comes to one country versus another, it becomes more then a game. It becomes a statement about who is better, at least us very competitive Americans see it that way.

But all reading deeply, jeering and rivalry aside, it is still just a game and I look forward to cheering on Team USA. But more so I want to thank the Canadians, win or lose, for being a gracious host and for letting the US and the world get to know them a bit better.

Now if we could only figure out how the game of curling works. Congratulations to Canada for having the most gold medals and for hosting an unforgettable winter games.

Interview with Jon Cone

Recently, I was ask by my employers Sous Les Etoiles to conduct an interview with Jon Cone to appear in the quarterly newsletter. He was nice enough to reply with some great insight, information and stories. Jon is a very interesting and accomplished man, having worked with many artist over the years and creating a new printmaking system called Piezography which Sous Les Etoiles used in the printing The Cities of Jean-Michels Berts.

Apparently Jon is a lobster man as well.

Here is the interview in it entirety.

Enjoy!

Ever Evolving

Barn and Pond, Dan Burkholder, 2009

Photography has forever been a process that has been done in steps. In the beginning it was time consuming and, given the chemistry involved, dangerous. However, as the medium evolved the steps became few and the time and chemistry involved decreased. With the advent of digital photography, the process became almost instantaneous. Almost, because those pixel pictures still need to make it off the camera and on to paper, or now as it seems in most cases, the Internet. This requires that a photo be sent or uploaded. Since camera phones have been around, that has been easy, but the photos low quality and not so hot. That has now changed. With smart phones becoming smarter and their cameras becoming stronger, the ability to take, process and output an images has be come something that can be done with a single device in a short time.

Enter The iPhone.

This device is used by many people in many ways. With no shortage of applications it can be tailored to fit the individual's wants and needs. In the case of Dan Burkholder that is a one stop photo shop. He captures, processes and, I images, outputs his images to his site all from his iPhone. And now he is even offering workshops to that end.

Where does this leave the purest? Gasping for breath and trying to keep up. Photography has, since it's invention, been an ever changing medium that is constantly reinventing it self. It pulls from other artistic mediums and, since it is seen by many as the place where art meets science, why wouldn't it pull from there as well. In the early days it was with the elaborate chemicals and processes that were utilized to create images. It is as if photographers such as Niépce, Daguerre, Fox Talbot, Herschel and even Bostic and Sullivan, are part artist, part 'mad scientist.' It seems only natural that as we move out of the industrial era and into the digital age, photography should follow. And so it has. We have seen Agfa close and Apple take over; waved good bye to Kodachrome (sorry Paul Simon) and said hello to 50 mega pixels. But unlike the industrial era where bigger is better, in the digital age pocket size is the right size. And so photography has followed. Cameras are getting smaller and smaller while allowing for fine details. The iPhone has allowed that process to go one further. Acting as a mini computer, it allows the user to snap, process and output all with one device. Gone are the days of development, D-76 or Lightroom. It can now be done in the palm of one's hand.

Does these mean it is over for the super computers used to work on large digital files? Never. Thought photography has evolved though it's various stages, none of them seem to be truly gone. There are those still working in many of the antique process such as wet collodion, daguerreotypes, platinum/palladium and others despite the time and harsh chemistry needed. And thought there has been a drop off in the products available for sliver gelatin printing, it like the others, will never be truly gone. So it will be for digital photography as we know it today. Photoshop is in its eleventh revision. Each version of Photoshop could be seen (and is by some) as its own individual expression of the medium. So while we look at those working with platinum/palladium now as working in an antique process, our children may see those working or experimenting in Photoshop versions 7, CS and CS3 as working with past antiquated mediums. Who's to say,but it can be said that the one constant in photography is not 67 degrees but that it is an ever changing medium that never fails to be inspired by current technology and amaze with the collaboration of science and creativity.

Loss of a Great Collaborator

Jeanne-Claude, of the collaborating group Christo and Jeanne-Claude responsible for The Gates, has passed away at 74. Here is the New York Times obituary.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude's work served to inspire many, and not just those in the art community. Their large and involved installations brought attention of the general public the concept of process and instillation art. I am saddened to say that I have never been able to experience one of their works in person, having just missed The Gates. However, I did come to know their work and be impressed by it at and early age. I was first introduced to Christo and Jeanne-Claude's work when I was in high school. I was at a summer program for the arts and we saw sketches of their work for Sounded Islands. What amazed me the most about these work, beyond the shocking pink, was that a single piece of art could be so large. I will never forget seeing those sketches and the feeling that anything could be accomplished.

Jeanne- Claude poetically stated that their worked expressed “the quality of love and tenderness that we human beings have for what does not last.” Christo and Jeanne-Claude's work reminds us that nothing is forever. Much time and effort is spent to enjoy only a brief moment, that moment, as with their works, is all the more special because of it temporary nature.

She will be missed and I hope Christo plans to continue with the works they had in progress.

The Cities

Thursday night was the open of The Cities of Jean-Michels Berts at Sous Les Etoiles Gallery. This is an exclusive series printed in carbon ink. This entire exhibition was printed in house by me. I am happy to say the photograph and many others were very please with my work. I enjoyed printing this images in an edition of 5. It brought me back to my time in the darkroom. The process, thought it is digital, is quite close to working with wet prints in that the 'dodging and burning' is very evident. The difference thou is the amount of control on has with digitally adjusting and image and the tonal range of the process. The 7k ink systems allows for a tonal range close to that of platinum/palladium printing. It is quite subtly beautiful and worth seeing in person. The show will be on exhibit though January 2010.