Past Projects
This is a fun section for me to share with viewers. During the course of my career I have moved in and out of a great many personal projects. I won't revisit them all here, but will highlight some and talk a bit about them. A little personal background first to serve as introduction. I graduated from a State University with the knowledge that there were about a million jobs that I wanted no part of. After 4 years of college I still had no idea where I was going. I started to travel, sound familiar so far? I didn't stop for nearly 5 years. No, I wasn't independently wealthy, just determined. Almost all of this travel took place in Asia before it was on the travel map. Oh ya, it was during this time that I began to photograph. I had a 35mm Olympus rangefinder. I shot pictures like Alamo Texans used ammo, sparingly. I knew the cost of a single frame of film and weighed it carefully before expending. Concurrently, museums were beginning to show more photography and so I was hooked. The black and white prints of the masters stirred me to new heights. I soon realized that much of what I was responding to, couldn't be gotten in 35mm. The large format negatives allowed a rich detail, tonal scale, and hyper real quality that the smaller, grainier format couldn't match. In short it was all about print beauty. I knew where I had to go, and so I went.
Platinum Landscape
An artist is always looking to marry technique with vision. Any chosen subject will open the question of what tools best convey the vision. In photography, one must discover the combination of camera, capture, and display that best express the photographers intention. For me, the decision to photograph the landscape with an 8 x10 wooden field camera and contact print the resultant 8 x10 negative as a platinum print was an easy choice. Photographer pioneers had already mapped this road. It was left to me to work out my own specific materials and technique to contemporize this traditional process.
Photographic printing is an art in itself. Paper varies widely in it's effect. The paper base sheet's color can range from bright white to warm white. This greatly influences the color and tone of the image. You will never get a brighter white than the paper base that you begin with. Sizing is a coating applied in order to float the light sensitive emulsion on the paper surface. Too little sizing and the chemistry sinks deep into the paper fibers like a blotter. Too much and the image will wash away. The platinum/palladium metals are mixed with light sensitve solutions and contrast controls, then hand brushed onto a chosen artist paper. The metal forms the image and has it's own unique characteristics. The primary qualities that drew me to platinum printing, were the inherent warmth, long delicate tonal range, and mat finish. These qualities when combined with a full scale 8 x10 negative produce a print of unparalleled beauty and certainly express the feeling I hoped to convey in my landscape work. That is to say, until the advent of digital photography. After many years of toil to master the platinum process, I disbanded my darkroom, I found it was no longer necessary. Photography has a long history of technological change. The old ways still work, but the artist must choose those which best facilitate his or her vision.
Dead Polaroids
My interest in the "Dead Polaroids" began when working in a commercial studio in the New York area during the 1980s. Shooting 4x5 polaroid type 55 PN in advertising work was de rigueur. This material had both a print component, which required the application of a foul smelling coater stick to preserve it, as well as generating a fine grained, beautifully scaled 4x5 negative (if given an extra stop and a third exposure and special clearing/washing). The prints served as working proofs for the advertising, product photography industry. These were rarely coated or saved. One day I discovered some of these cast offs which had been tossed in a box and long forgotten. Without the coater chemicals, the silver in the print was unstable and oxidized in unpredictable ways. I started to save specimens and experiment with differing storage time, temperature, humidity, and light levels. During this period of time I was shooting large format advertising all week, and 8x10 landscape all weekend. I felt a longing to shake up, free up my seeing from time to time. So I equipped a 1940s hand held 4x5 press camera (see Weegee) with a 4x5 Polaroid back, and a modern wide angle lens. Armed with this large format range finder camera I took one day each weekend and explored the streets of a different area of New York City. I'd walk forever, uncovering the sights, and inhabitants of a truly amazing habitat. The shootings were loose and spontaneous, as I'd hoped. The negatives were discarded (I was contemporaneously dealing with plenty of 8x10 negs from my landscape work). The prints were watched closely as they began their unscripted, freeform evolution from full tone black and white, to something else. Sometimes I must admit, I was tempted to intervene early and coat a smart looking full toned composition, but in the spirit in which I undertook this opportunity to invite more chance into the photo process, I let them go. Sometimes I let them go too far, and had to accept that, other times I was left wondering what would have come if I had let it go further. I learned a lot about patience. I shot hundreds of these and not just New York. I photographed figure studies in the studio, still life, people. I have no trouble amusing myself in this life. Read on.
After life
At his particular moment in my life, I was approaching one of those landmark birth years which seemed significant at the time, and a laugh now. I found myself pondering the concept of death. Rather than run straight to the morgue in grisly hope of encountering a dead human, I elected to start local with what I had at hand, enter roadkill. I'd drive the country roads around my Connecticut house ready with black plastic bags and a shovel. Rather than photographing in situ and risk becoming 2nd generation roadkill, I'd scoop, and drive home to examine the remains through the 8 x 10 camera. If you've never styled a dead animal, I don't recommend it. I'm lucky I didn't get rabies. I did however confirm in my mind that when you're dead, the body is a just an empty vessel waiting it's return to the the earth. When I'm gone just drop me in the nearest field and let nature work her magic. Dinner's on Bill. From roadkill to medical specimens was a short leap. Frogs, birds, insects, I didn't miss much. Once when I was leaving town for a spell, I found a dead possum in my Dads back yard. I bleached the bones, and stuck them in his attic (attention parents, do you have any idea of what your kids are really up to)? By this time I was so comfortable working with dead things that they lost any ooiness, and just became interestingly designed artifacts for photo composition. This led to a new series of work, Glyphs and Calligraphy.
By the way, for many years after, even though my attention had turned far away from death, friends would call and tell me that they had a dead bird, mouse, you name it, and that they were saving it for me (often in their freezer). Consequently, my list of accepted invitations for home cooked dinners narrowed considerably. Please If you're holding any dead critters, take my name off them, I'm over it and have once again, moved on.
Iraq War
The photographs in the Iraq War section, were born as a protest. The project began early in the war and ended in 2005 when the U.S. military death toll was 1500 (a fraction of today's total). This project didn't attempt to deal with the fearsome destruction to Iraqis lives. I was totally disturbed by what was taking place, and even more upset at what wasn't, a public outcry. I decided that the best way for me to contribute my 2 cents was to do what I always do, use photography as a means of examining the subject and expressing my resultant feelings. I wasn't about to ship off to the battleground with my large format camera, so I chose to create studio compositions to express myself. I printed detailed lists of the fallen military men and women. I printed 1500 faces, then put them through a shredder. I'd cry as I read of the 19 year old private from this or that town somewhere in America. Their life over before they began. I knew that their kin were racked and would grieve the rest of their days. You can't really get the impact of these large format prints from the small computer jpegs. The large scale prints show just how huge a tally 1500 names is. I really thought that there would be some sympathetic gallery owners that might pick up on this work, or the work of other artist's personal protests. I was sadly mistaken. The fear that had cowed a nation, apparently gripped the arts administrators as well. Remember Michael Jordan's famous response when asked why he didn't use his celebrity standing to foster social change, "republicans buy sneakers too". Need I say more? Only one individual out of the many that I approached with this work, was willing to show it. A New York photography exhibitor and dealer, Mr, James Wintner of Photoarts. I believe he still has the majority of the images on his website. Thank you again James for daring to speak out.
Portraits
Although I've shot portraits in every imaginable format, 8 x 10 has always been my favorite. Stick a sizable piece of wooden furniture with a lens in someone's face, and you've got their total attention. You can't see through the ground glass when taking the picture, so you must watch and anticipate the moment. I often felt this negative was like an intense personal topographical map. The large film richly recorded the details of each face in a way that would be most impolite for anyone, except your dermatologist to view. The result is a truthful physical description that can't be ignored. Many other of my portraits were experimental attempts to break the bounds of the standard, "one shot captures the complexity of the individual" portrait.
Platinum Landscape
An artist is always looking to marry technique with vision. Any chosen subject will open the question of what tools best convey the vision. In photography, one must discover the combination of camera, capture, and display that best express the photographers intention. For me, the decision to photograph the landscape with an 8 x10 wooden field camera and contact print the resultant 8 x10 negative as a platinum print was an easy choice. Photographer pioneers had already mapped this road. It was left to me to work out my own specific materials and technique to contemporize this traditional process.
Photographic printing is an art in itself. Paper varies widely in it's effect. The paper base sheet's color can range from bright white to warm white. This greatly influences the color and tone of the image. You will never get a brighter white than the paper base that you begin with. Sizing is a coating applied in order to float the light sensitive emulsion on the paper surface. Too little sizing and the chemistry sinks deep into the paper fibers like a blotter. Too much and the image will wash away. The platinum/palladium metals are mixed with light sensitve solutions and contrast controls, then hand brushed onto a chosen artist paper. The metal forms the image and has it's own unique characteristics. The primary qualities that drew me to platinum printing, were the inherent warmth, long delicate tonal range, and mat finish. These qualities when combined with a full scale 8 x10 negative produce a print of unparalleled beauty and certainly express the feeling I hoped to convey in my landscape work. That is to say, until the advent of digital photography. After many years of toil to master the platinum process, I disbanded my darkroom, I found it was no longer necessary. Photography has a long history of technological change. The old ways still work, but the artist must choose those which best facilitate his or her vision.
Dead Polaroids
My interest in the "Dead Polaroids" began when working in a commercial studio in the New York area during the 1980s. Shooting 4x5 polaroid type 55 PN in advertising work was de rigueur. This material had both a print component, which required the application of a foul smelling coater stick to preserve it, as well as generating a fine grained, beautifully scaled 4x5 negative (if given an extra stop and a third exposure and special clearing/washing). The prints served as working proofs for the advertising, product photography industry. These were rarely coated or saved. One day I discovered some of these cast offs which had been tossed in a box and long forgotten. Without the coater chemicals, the silver in the print was unstable and oxidized in unpredictable ways. I started to save specimens and experiment with differing storage time, temperature, humidity, and light levels. During this period of time I was shooting large format advertising all week, and 8x10 landscape all weekend. I felt a longing to shake up, free up my seeing from time to time. So I equipped a 1940s hand held 4x5 press camera (see Weegee) with a 4x5 Polaroid back, and a modern wide angle lens. Armed with this large format range finder camera I took one day each weekend and explored the streets of a different area of New York City. I'd walk forever, uncovering the sights, and inhabitants of a truly amazing habitat. The shootings were loose and spontaneous, as I'd hoped. The negatives were discarded (I was contemporaneously dealing with plenty of 8x10 negs from my landscape work). The prints were watched closely as they began their unscripted, freeform evolution from full tone black and white, to something else. Sometimes I must admit, I was tempted to intervene early and coat a smart looking full toned composition, but in the spirit in which I undertook this opportunity to invite more chance into the photo process, I let them go. Sometimes I let them go too far, and had to accept that, other times I was left wondering what would have come if I had let it go further. I learned a lot about patience. I shot hundreds of these and not just New York. I photographed figure studies in the studio, still life, people. I have no trouble amusing myself in this life. Read on.
After life
At his particular moment in my life, I was approaching one of those landmark birth years which seemed significant at the time, and a laugh now. I found myself pondering the concept of death. Rather than run straight to the morgue in grisly hope of encountering a dead human, I elected to start local with what I had at hand, enter roadkill. I'd drive the country roads around my Connecticut house ready with black plastic bags and a shovel. Rather than photographing in situ and risk becoming 2nd generation roadkill, I'd scoop, and drive home to examine the remains through the 8 x 10 camera. If you've never styled a dead animal, I don't recommend it. I'm lucky I didn't get rabies. I did however confirm in my mind that when you're dead, the body is a just an empty vessel waiting it's return to the the earth. When I'm gone just drop me in the nearest field and let nature work her magic. Dinner's on Bill. From roadkill to medical specimens was a short leap. Frogs, birds, insects, I didn't miss much. Once when I was leaving town for a spell, I found a dead possum in my Dads back yard. I bleached the bones, and stuck them in his attic (attention parents, do you have any idea of what your kids are really up to)? By this time I was so comfortable working with dead things that they lost any ooiness, and just became interestingly designed artifacts for photo composition. This led to a new series of work, Glyphs and Calligraphy.
By the way, for many years after, even though my attention had turned far away from death, friends would call and tell me that they had a dead bird, mouse, you name it, and that they were saving it for me (often in their freezer). Consequently, my list of accepted invitations for home cooked dinners narrowed considerably. Please If you're holding any dead critters, take my name off them, I'm over it and have once again, moved on.
Iraq War
The photographs in the Iraq War section, were born as a protest. The project began early in the war and ended in 2005 when the U.S. military death toll was 1500 (a fraction of today's total). This project didn't attempt to deal with the fearsome destruction to Iraqis lives. I was totally disturbed by what was taking place, and even more upset at what wasn't, a public outcry. I decided that the best way for me to contribute my 2 cents was to do what I always do, use photography as a means of examining the subject and expressing my resultant feelings. I wasn't about to ship off to the battleground with my large format camera, so I chose to create studio compositions to express myself. I printed detailed lists of the fallen military men and women. I printed 1500 faces, then put them through a shredder. I'd cry as I read of the 19 year old private from this or that town somewhere in America. Their life over before they began. I knew that their kin were racked and would grieve the rest of their days. You can't really get the impact of these large format prints from the small computer jpegs. The large scale prints show just how huge a tally 1500 names is. I really thought that there would be some sympathetic gallery owners that might pick up on this work, or the work of other artist's personal protests. I was sadly mistaken. The fear that had cowed a nation, apparently gripped the arts administrators as well. Remember Michael Jordan's famous response when asked why he didn't use his celebrity standing to foster social change, "republicans buy sneakers too". Need I say more? Only one individual out of the many that I approached with this work, was willing to show it. A New York photography exhibitor and dealer, Mr, James Wintner of Photoarts. I believe he still has the majority of the images on his website. Thank you again James for daring to speak out.
Portraits
Although I've shot portraits in every imaginable format, 8 x 10 has always been my favorite. Stick a sizable piece of wooden furniture with a lens in someone's face, and you've got their total attention. You can't see through the ground glass when taking the picture, so you must watch and anticipate the moment. I often felt this negative was like an intense personal topographical map. The large film richly recorded the details of each face in a way that would be most impolite for anyone, except your dermatologist to view. The result is a truthful physical description that can't be ignored. Many other of my portraits were experimental attempts to break the bounds of the standard, "one shot captures the complexity of the individual" portrait.
