October 2006
— Members' Current & Upcoming Shows
— IN FOCUS with John Wimberley
— Photographers' Outings
— Special Offers
— New Members
Seeing begins with respect. There are so many ways to see, but it is clear that no one can truly see something he has not respected. Respect for the natural world, however, is a tricky thing. With respect comes an overwhelming desire for understanding. We understand, at first, by projecting our own needs and desires into the world that confronts us. Yet, if we are to see on the basis of what is, and not what we wish there to be, our understanding must transcend our own limited experience.
This month, Guild member John Wimberley is featured in the current issue (September-October 2006) of “View Camera Magazine” with a round table discussion on “Staining Developers: A Conversation with Some Experts.”
With our monthly newsletter we try to keep you informed of Guild members’ ongoing shows, presentations, and workshops as they are scheduled. Sometimes an event might seem a long way off, but we want to give everyone a chance to see our members’ work and an opportunity to meet and talk with them. One thing all the Guild members have in common: They love photography!
Ray Bidegain’s platinum print entitled “Dark Tree” is just one of the beautiful images you’ll find in our store. Because we understand the difficulty of seeing the true beauty of a contact print from a scanned image on your computer, we offer an unconditional guarantee. If you are not satisfied with any photograph you have purchased from the online store, you can return it for a refund.
We currently have over 370 photographs available for your inspection; just click on the link below to quickly and easily view our catalog. The store is a secure site that allows you to purchase using your credit card or PayPal account.
John Wimberley
John Wimberley’s work is included in a show of nudes by the on-line gallery Soulcatcher Studio. To see his image, please click here.
Gerhard Bock and John Wimberley
Gerhard Bock and John Wimberley have donated prints to Viewpoint Photographic Art Center's upcoming fine-print auction. The auction will take place on November 8th, 2006 at Viewpoint's space in Sacramento, California. Absentee bids are accepted via e-mail and phone. For more information, go to the Viewpoint web site. There you can see all the auction prints, including work by Ruth Bernhard, Michael Kenna, Jerry Uelsmann, Roman Loranc and many others.
Ray Bidegain and John Wimberley
Guild members Ray Bidegain and John Wimberley will be featured speakers and participate in panel discussions at Photographers Fanfare: A Celebration of Fine Art Photography. The event will take place November 3-5, 2006, at the University of Portland, 5000 N. Willamette Blvd., Portland, Oregon. For more information, go to the “Current Events” section of the Portland Photographers' Forum website.
Patrick Kolb
On January 17, 2007, Patrick Kolb will be the featured speaker at the monthly meeting of Portland Photographers’ Forum. More information will follow.
John Wimberley
From May 1-31, 2007, John Wimberley will be one of three featured artists in a photography show at Ryerson University’s School of Image Arts in Toronto, Canada. The theme of the show is the incarnation of spirit in physical matter. Illustrating this concept is one of John’s images chosen for the exhibit, entitled “Mt. Diablo.”
The display also includes the works of photographers Aubie Golombek and Frank Roddick.
The smell of my first camera is as fresh in memory today as it was in March 1966, when I purchased it at the US Naval Base store in Sasebo, Japan. Picture number one was made, appropriately enough, right in the middle of the bridge to town, looking upriver. By getting a camera I was indeed crossing into a foreign land. It was the start of a rewarding and magical journey.
Within six months that camera was completely worn out.
Photography has shown me that—in spite of our cultures' scientific explanations—the world is an unfathomable Mystery arising moment by moment from an un-nameable Source. From that initial exposure until the present, my cameras have always, like compasses, pointed in the direction of that Source, toward the genesis of everything that exists. This has been the star by which I've navigated in photography for forty years.
For nearly all of this journey, I've used a view camera; and, to the best of my ability, I visualize the final print before every exposure. How ironic then, that in April 1981, the image for which I'm best known came into being as a snapshot with a smaller camera. After persuading my friend Christine to let me photograph her in a swimming pool, I was unable to see anything worth photographing. Not wanting to become frustrated, I gave up and simply stopped trying. At the instant in which all effort fell away, my finger moved without my volition and clicked the shutter.
Perhaps, for just a moment, I got out of my own way, and in doing so, out of the way of the Source. I found that energy expended in any kind of personal effort is energy not available to directly inform and elevate the resulting picture. In fact, it can get in the way. Even so, what Ansel Adams wrote is absolutely true: "Ultimate achievement requires the utmost of the artist." But there are paradoxical moments when it's necessary to drop the "utmost" and offer the great Mystery a chance to reveal itself. The art of this is threefold: to discern when, to be completely present, and to know how to surrender in absolute trust.
From the moment that negative was exposed, my job has been as caretaker of "Descending Angel" (above). It is a picture that has truly led a life of its own; I'm often astonished by the place that image has found for itself in the world. For example, many healers use it in their work. Once, I received a letter from a major university’s divinity school enquiring whether "Descending Angel" depicts a miracle. In reply, I asked: "What isn't?"
After four decades, my experience of photography continues to become deeper and richer each day.
Workshop Recap
This past weekend, John Wimberley held his “Sight and Insight” workshop on photographic seeing. All the participants had a very fruitful and gratifying experience. Discussions ranged from how we see, levels of seeing, and preparing to photograph, to establishing a relationship with the subject to be photographed. Assisting John (left) were the Guild workshop team of Ray Bidegain (right) and Patrick Kolb (center).
What It Means to Me
by Bill Bartels
After more than twenty years of being involved with photography, I have read thousands of magazines and probably a hundred or more books on the subject. Along the way, I have collected quotes that go to the heart of what photography has come to mean to me. Here are some that may explain why I (and many others) make fine art photographs.
“Nothing quite compares to seeing the world on an 8x10 ground glass.” –Calumet Ad, 1998 Fine Art Photographers Catalog.
I have used everything from a 35 mm up to an 8x10 camera, and the 8x10 is the best tool for me to make photographs. Looking at an 8x10 ground glass with both eyes open, at an image that is upside down and backwards, is a very different experience than looking through the viewfinder of an SLR. For me, it becomes much easier to let go of the thing you are photographing.
“The photograph is the only thing that is real, that exists. There is a vast difference between taking a picture and making a photograph.” — Robert Heinecken
Because Heinecken was so far from the straight modernist school of photography that I associate with the most, this statement is certainly open to interpretation. To me, it means that the photograph is the art object.
“I never saw an ugly thing in my life.” — John Constable
It took me some time to let this one sink in. It came from a great book by David Finn titled How To Look At Everything. The key idea is that there is beauty in all things, if you look hard enough and keep your eyes and your mind open. Another photographer once told me that I make good photographs of mundane subjects. Having given this some thought I would now respond, maybe there are no mundane subjects, just mundane photographers.
“Man, if you got to ask what it is, you’ll never get to know.” —Louis Armstrong
Edward Weston is said to have had this quote tacked up near his desk. Fine art photography is not about the thing itself, i.e., a pepper, but more than a pepper.
“The negative is the score and the print is the performance.” –Ansel Adams
Although some tire of analogies between music and photography, the vast scope of both of these media makes comparisons valid. A negative is open to interpretation through printing, and over time a photographer may create several different prints from the same negative. Perhaps Brett Weston did the right thing when he destroyed his negatives so that no one else could print them. Even if someone else could have printed them better, the resulting photographs would not have truly been Brett Weston’s work.
These are a few of the quotes that have meaning to me, and I hope they have given you a better understanding my photography.
Special-Offer Prints by Guild Members
Please have a look at this issue's special-offer prints on our website.
New Members