In his 1956 application for a Guggenheim grant, Aaron Siskind wrote, "For my material I have gone to the commonplace, the neglected, the insignificant—the walls, the pavements, the iron work of the city, the endless items once used and now discarded by people. In this work, fidelity to the object and to my instrument, the clear-seeing lens, is unrelenting; transformation into an aesthetic object is achieved in the act of seeing, and not by manipulations."
This type of seeing, or photography, is what new Guild member Scott Peters is expressing in his work. When Scott makes a photograph he is showing a new object, complete and self-contained, in a form and presentation that invites the viewer to participate in each image. We welcome Scott as a great addition to our group.
Sandy King shares his thoughts with us this month in our IN FOCUS article. The current issue of Silvershotz Magazine is running the second of a two-part article by Sandy on monochrome carbon printing and featuring his work. (The first part was published in their June issue.)
Gerhard Bock has set up a new link on our website to some photographs of the recent group show at Viewpoint Gallery, if you missed or enjoyed (as the case may be) the exhibit. It was another busy month for photographers Patrick Kolb and Ray Bidegain, who share their experiences from the field in our "Outings" section. And finally, we have a complete listing of our upcoming shows and workshops, so be sure to see if something is coming to your area.
|
Contact Printers Guild Online Store
 Contact prints are universally valued for their remarkable qualities of optical sharpness, fine detail, and sensual textures. Contact printing has evolved to a forceful aesthetic today, one of purity and perfection that is actively practiced by Guild members. The decision to make hand-made contact prints reflects a method of working that necessitates contemplation. It is a time-consuming process that records each detail in the print quality to achieve the unsurpassed graphic and textural form present in each print.
At left you see Jason Miguel Russell's "Green River #1," a 4x5 selenium-toned silver gelatin contact print. 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 well over 400 photographs available for sale. 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.
Click here to visit our Store.
|
New Guild Member: Scott Peters
 We would like to introduce Scott Peters to everyone. Scott uses 8x10 and 7x17 cameras to craft his high-quality silver chloride prints. Based in Scottsdale, Arizona, Scott approaches photography with a focus more on the abstract, using his vision to create order out of chaos. Not for the faint of heart, his images invite the viewer to linger and get involved in the subject. Through common subjects, he communicates a more universal connection to a larger message.
Scott Peters has been actively involved in photography for more than 25 years, and we feel fortunate to count him as an active member of the Guild. Above we feature his 7x17 image "Jerome AZ 2007," printed on Azo paper. Please visit our Online Gallery to see more of his work.
|
IN FOCUS with Sandy King
All of my prints are made by contact printing, either directly from in-camera negatives or from digital negatives. I am a strong advocate of the view camera for the discipline and thought process it brings to the photograph. My favorite camera is a very lightweight 5X7 Nagaoka which I have owned since the early 1980s.
In my work I strive for an aesthetic principle that was known in the earliest days of the medium as the "neutral vision," that is, the idea that the lens is an eye on the world, capable of revealing to us a world that we could not otherwise see. I attempt to capture this world in the most objective way possible, without imposing my feelings or emotions on the scene. In most cases, I see the rough border of the image in my mind by just visualizing the scene. Then, as I compose on the ground glass, the new world slowly unfolds before my eyes as an abstraction of the scene. I am fascinated by the ability of the lens to gather light from objects and expand this image to a detailed and precise rendering of nature. One of the most important characteristics of photography is that it always begins with something that exists in reality. This, for me, is its greatest strength and is what sets it apart from painting and other visual arts that usually begin in the imagination.
All lighting conditions are potentially interesting, but the scenes that tend to attract me most are those that have strong back lighting. In these scenes the light itself becomes a compositional element that is as interesting, if not more so, than the rest of the scene. Look, for example, at the image above, "Casa De Cortes," made in a museum in Oaxaca, Mexico. This scene would have been fairly lifeless in flat light; but in this composition, the sun, which was left just above the arch near the top of the frame, highlights the outside edge of the arch and throws interesting shadows through the railing at the bottom. These kinds of scenes are technically quite demanding because they require very precise control of exposure and development.
Finally, I consider myself as much printmaker as photographer, and my favorite printing process is carbon transfer. Carbon transfer, which was perfected in 1865 more or less as it is practiced today, is a process in which the photographic image is comprised of pigmented gelatin rather than metal salts. Carbon prints can be of any color imaginable, and they often have fascinating textural and tactile qualities that result from the relief of the image, something that one can both see and feel.
(To see more of Sandy King's work, please click here.)
|
Viewpoint Photographic Art Center Group Show
The Contact Printers Guild's first group show opened on August 10, 2007 at the Viewpoint Photographic Art Center in Sacramento, California. A very visible presence in the Northern California photographic community, Viewpoint was a fantastic venue to showcase the diversity of the Guild's photographic output. Taking advantage of the Viewpoint's ample wall space, Viewpoint's curator of exhibitions, Dale Crandall-Bear, and the Guild's very own Gerhard Bock selected 80 contact prints from 14 Guild members, representing genres from landscape, architecture, still life, portrait and nude to urban and industrial studies. Equally broad was the range of processes: albumen, printing-out paper (POP), platinum/palladium on paper and silk, gum bichromate over platinum as well as silver on "traditional" gelatin silver and silver chloride paper (Azo).
The artists' reception on August 11 was attended by five Guild members. Gathered for a portrait at the gallery entrance, they are (above, left to right) Patrick Kolb (Portland, Oregon), Susan Huber (Salt Spring Island, British Columbia), Ray Bidegain (Portland, Oregon), Linda Elvira Piedra (Berkeley, California), and Gerhard Bock (Davis, California). Invitations had gone out to subscribers of the Guild and Viewpoint mailing lists, Viewpoint members and the Northern California photographic community at large. The turnout far surpassed our expectations; we estimate that more than 200 people attended the reception.
Viewpoint had prepared a nice spread of food and wine that invited lingering, and the Guild members spent a lot of time talking to visitors, explaining who we are and what we do. Time and again visitors--many of them practitioners of digital photography--told us how surprised they were to see such a variety of (hand-made!) contact prints. More than a few expressed an interest in trying their hand at contact printing themselves. This gives us hope that contact printing, and traditional photography in general, may have a bright future ahead. To see a comprehensive photo story on our show, please visit the Guild website's Exhibitions section.
In addition to its educational aspect, the show also underscored the importance of contact prints as an artistic medium--a fact not lost on the collectors in attendance at the reception who recognized what a good value our prints are. Awareness of the Guild, and interest in our work, is beginning to grow, and the upcoming exhibitions in Portland, Oregon and Phoenix, Arizona will add to the excitement.
For more details on the Portland and Phoenix shows, please check the "Members' Current and Future Shows" section below. For more details about the Viewpoint Photography Art Center, please go to http://www.viewpointgallery.org/.
If you know a gallery (non-profit or commercial) that might be interested in hosting a show for the Contact Printers Guild, please drop us a line at newsletter@contactprintersguild.com.
|
Photographers' Outings
 Ray Bidegain: Oregon Coast Daytrip
Ray talks about the marriage of feeling and technique in his photography.
"Last Saturday I made a trip to the Oregon Coast for a day of photography at one of my favorite places, Hug Point. This day I found myself standing at the edge of the surf, near a large rock outcrop that I have photographed before, so I wondered how to make a new and different photograph of the scene. Just standing there, I was flooded with a sense of quiet and serene beauty. I decided to set up my camera to try to capture this familiar subject in a way that included the feeling of serenity I was experiencing. To give a calmer feeling to the ocean and take advantage of the light fog that was in the air, I decided to make a time exposure. I took some meter readings and determined that the longest time exposure I could make was eight seconds.
"I had made the trip this day with fellow Guild member Patrick Kolb; and having never done a time exposure of water, I asked for some advice. Patrick suggested that if I made a series of three three-second exposures, timed as the wave was going out, there would be less white water in the wave and the effect of the time exposure would be more subtle. I followed his recommendation and was pleased to see in the final print (above) that the sand shows through the water and that the effect of the time exposure truly was very soft.
"When out in the field, I often remind myself to really try to pay attention to the feelings I am experiencing about the place and its atmosphere. It is these times when I am able to bring such things into my final print that I get the most from my photography."
For purchase information of Ray Bidegain's 5x7 platinum/palladium print "Rock and Wave, Hug Point," which is available at a discounted price for a limited time, please see the Special Offers section of our Store.
Patrick Kolb: Along the Lewis River
Patrick's photographic excursion reiterates the importance of adding emotion to craft in each photograph.
"It may seem a little too early for fall, but that's what it felt like three weeks ago along the Lewis River in southern Washington, on a photo trip with fellow Guild member Ray Bidegain. I had been here the year before on a blazingly sunny day, and I was looking forward to spending some time here under overcast skies. What I wasn't prepared for was our famous Pacific Northwest drizzle.
"Rather than packing up and heading home, I set up my 8x10 camera under a very big umbrella, a 200-ft-tall evergreen. While making this photograph, I had no other place to be, so I could spend some time getting in touch with exactly what I felt about this place, with the light rain, and with expressing my intense pleasure at being here.
"Above you see the first image I made that day. The excitement I felt at seeing the final print exceeded my expectations. It rekindled in me the emotions I had the day I made the image. To me, the print completely expresses that, in a way that doesn't happen often enough."
Patrick is offering his 8x10 platinum/palladium print "Lewis River" at an introductory price during the month of September. Please visit the Special Offers page of our Store for more information.
|
Special Offers
 Be sure to check out the changing gallery of specially priced prints offered by Guild members through this newsletter. Using this link, you can buy selected photographs that we have discounted for a limited time.
At left is Gerhard Bock's 7x10 hand-made platinum/palladium print entitled "Road/Sky Study 3," just one of several prints available in our Special Offers section this month. Some of the prints are also featured in the current B&W Magazine advertisement. Please visit this issue's special-offer prints on our website.
|
Members' Current & Upcoming Shows & Events
Guild Group Show in Portland, OR
If you weren't able to get to Sacramento for our show there, we hope to see you in Portland at the Guild's second group show this year. It opens October 20 and runs through November 23 at Camerawork Gallery. The Artists' Reception has been moved to Saturday, October 20 from 2 to 4 PM. The gallery is located in the lower level of Peterson Hall at 2255 NW Northrup. Normal open hours are Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5 pm, and Saturday 1-5 pm. However, the gallery is often open evenings and other unscheduled times, so please check on access or get directions by calling 503.245.1784.
Guild Group Show in Phoenix, AZ
Our final group exhibition this year, at 422 Gallery in Phoenix, opens November 16th and runs through middle of January 2008. The gallery is located at 4115 North 44th Street and can be reached by phone at 602-957-3122. To visit their website, please click here. More information on this show will follow in our next newsletter.
John Wimberley
The Paul Paletti Gallery will exhibit John's work during September, October, and November this year. The gallery is located at 713 E Market St., Suite 100, in Louisville, Kentucky. Please call 502.589.9254 for hours and directions.
To see John's images available through the Guild Store, please click here
|
| Members' Workshops
Ray Bidegain: The Art of the Studio Nude, October 6-7
We're pleased to announce Ray's first classes that share his expertise in capturing the beauty of the human figure. His next workshop this year is set for October 6-7 in Portland, Oregon. Small class size guarantees one-on-one time with the instructor and the model. Space is very limited so please sign up soon to be assured a spot.
Tuition is $395, with a discount to $325 for those also enrolled in the October platinum-printing workshop below. To sign up or get more information, visit Ray's workshop page.
Ray Bidegain and Patrick Kolb: Platinum Printing Workshop, October 12-14
Platinum/palladium prints are valued by photographers, collectors, galleries, and museums for their inherent beauty and archival stability. This workshop will demystify this process and give students the basic skills necessary to produce very fine platinum/palladium prints at a reasonable cost.
As we did earlier this year, we will meet at the Washington State University campus in Vancouver, WA. Space is limited to only ten students for this very popular workshop. Cost is $295, all-inclusive (price covers chemistry, paper, etc. for hands-on lab sessions). Contact Ray or Patrick via the workshop page if you have questions or wish to sign up for this workshop.
John Wimberley: "Sight and Insight"
John's next workshop will be September 21-23, Medford, OR. "Sight and Insight" is a workshop that examines seeing from a number of perspectives, including peripheral vision and the intuitive "third eye." It is open to anyone with a camera, film or digital. October 3-8, Virginia City, NV An expanded five-day "Sight and Insight" workshop will be held at the St. Mary's Art Center. The center has lodging available for workshop participants in newly renovated rooms. In addition, a darkroom with eight enlargers and a print-finishing room will be at the disposal of students. The workshop will include both classroom instruction and field trips to beautiful and fascinating locations in the area.
Michael A. Smith and Paula Chamlee: "Vision and Technique"
Alfred Stieglitz once said the hardest thing about photography was learning to see, and that is one of the major topics of these workshops. Both Michael and Paula freely share their talents with each participant and create an environment conducive to learning to see.
These weekend workshops are offered several times a year in varying locales and are open to intermediate and advanced photographers. Their next scheduled workshop is set for October 12-14 in Tuscany. Please check their web site for the latest updates to their schedule and for further information. To enroll, call them at 610.847.2005 or email them at workshops@michaelandpaula.com.
For purchase information on Paula's work in our on-line Store, please click here. To see Michael's work, follow this link.
|
New Members
The Contact Printers Guild is always interested is seeing work from contact printers throughout the world. We have set up some guidelines for submission of work and consideration for becoming a Guild member. If you are interested, please click here to see the details.
|
|
