Two Moons

Sarah Moon.Beth Moon.

First, they aren’t the same person. Not the same work. Not the same method. They do seem, in some ways, to talk to the same meaning.

Sarah Moon(born Marielle Warin; 1941) is a French photographer.Initially a model, she turned to fashion photography in the 1970s. Since 1985, she has concentrated on gallery and film work. https://www.michaelhoppengallery.com/artists/29-sarah-moon/overview/


“By using the longest lasting photographic process, I hope to speak about survival, not only of man and nature’s but to photography’s survival as well. For each print I mix ground platinum and palladium metals, making a tincture that is hand-coated onto heavy watercolor paper and exposed to light. There are many steps involved in creating the final print and these are as important to me as the capturing of the image,” said (Beth) Moon. A platinum print can last for centuries, drawing on the common theme of time and survival, pairing photographic subject and process.

https://bethmoon.com

How do they overlap? Subject choice. Sure, but how many subjects for the camera are there. What isn’t a prior link. How they are treated? Maybe more-so this. The sensation within me. Yep. that has it, even though that is the least transferable to you. My sensation is a limited exchange system to share.

Being able to find work, to find something to point at is one part of making work. More important to the making is being able to describe it. To translate it is a necessary part of transforming. Absorbing work may mean you don’t have to make anything similar. You don’t need to duplicate the work. That is what the Moons are for me. I don’t have to do this work, nor anything like them. These are sufficient. I can even avoid their process notes, notions, goals, ambitions. Two reasons: I don’t want to do them; I don’t have to do them.

Do I have a preference? Yes. I much prefer Sarah Moon to Beth Moon. They way they think is clear, is different to each other. Sarah talks about the experience of making pictures; the world of camera and subject. Beth Moon spends her words on technique of printing; she is about overcoming process limitations. Her world uses the world of things, but done to make something more permanent than them. Beth converts; Sarah conveys.

Perfect Alibis

Who do you envy? I can’t show you my work on the web because it is so fantastic ; simultaneously Making judgment of photographs I’ve only seen on the web. cake eat 2

Do they show or do they tell. Their perfect alibis for doing so much talking without any pictures is because only the print matters. That is the answer you are to see. See? Only see? It is so present, so magical, you must stand in awe before it. find a gallery to buy from; hunt but you will not find. The alibi set is so exclusive they have no gallery representation. The gallery wasn’t good enough.

finding gods to follow: repeating their phrases, singing seeking their praises.

Do you begin with answerable questions; do you permit answers other than yours. If you gave up by the 70s, do you have anything useful to say in your seventies?

you can buy the print, but only in person.

I have no prints for sale. (catch 22)

Like the old: we could have ham and eggs if we had ham and we had eggs.

he has to defend his commitment. maybe explain his stumble — potential in youth isn’t enough. knowing the weston’s isn’t enough. knowing isn’t enough.

Of course alternatives are okay, if they are “well printed” — and, anything other than silver-gelatin can’t be well printed. Unless it was sanctified in some way — like from my book publisher.

[am in drafting-mode of a Stieglitz post ]