Category: on photographers

Pictures. Captions

Posted on Posted in book shelf, on photographers

Stieglitz. Odette England.

Finding like images is easy enough, even when the photographers are far from alike. Time separates everything. These two pictures come from distinct generations. Stieglitz had very different struggles than England has. Alfred Stieglitz is a canonized name; Odette England isn’t; she is on an ascent a century (2023) after Stieglitz made his picture (1923).

Alfred Stieglitz made the picture whose caption carries the weight of the image. Spiritual America.

Spiritual America. (or Songs of the Sky A1) 1923. Silver gelatin print.

11.6 x 9.2 cm. (4 9/16 x 3 5/8 in.)

in the Alfred Stieglitz Key Set

Odette England has published three award-winning books, including Dairy Character, recipient of the 2021 Light Work Book Award. Dairy Character is published by Saint Lucy Books. These two associations ring a Jungian bell — I was in Syracuse as Light Work formed, and am an alumnus of the arts school of Saint Lucy’s founder. Those two things mean little to nothing other than being the catalyst for my buying the book.

Once released into the world, texts of whatever form, form their ripples in the perception of their keeper. Books are the key stone of photography, writing in all its forms: text, or image. Ms. England is a shaper of words as much as of images. The text of the book, those inner pink pages, [ K04. Pink Dust]

Captions carry meaning. In this century with a flood of photobooks, text expands. Text in art books is usually written by an arts writer. A critic, or curator provides the context and interpretation of the imagery. There aren’t many James Baldwins. There are many well informed, eloquent writers on photography. There are few photographer-writers.

Ms. England is a story teller. This is a story about her place.

I also have her Past Paper Present Marks; more, some other time.

Caption expands to fill the meaning, until it becomes the meaning.

John Chiara: Process

Posted on Posted in A Symbol Life, on photographers, overnight notes, Prints, Theory: landscape

American. b. 1971, in San Francisco, California

 It’s rare for a photographer to push the technical edge of the medium. And rarer still to reanimate corners of the world seen and forgotten by hundreds of thousands of eyes every day. — Ian Bourland

After dedicating an extended period in 1995 to making contact prints from his 2-1/4″ x 2-1/4 inch negatives, John Chiara decided that too much information was lost in the darkroom enlargement process. Over the next six years he developed his own equipment and processes to make first-generation unique photographs without using film. 

Chiara developed a process that is part photography, part sculpture, and part event. It is an undertaking requiring invention in his tools and patience in using them. [from his bio]

Process isn’t the same as procedure. Mr. Chiara has extended his process to such an extent that it has become a featured point in discussions around his imaging.

Large. Tonal inversion. Color inversion. Put paper in the wrong place. Expose paper to the wrong light-type. Use the much seen, the much ignored. Take as much time as needed. These are the procedures that he uses.

It is easy to overlook these works. Easier for those of us who can readily understand the means and methods, the mode of this process. We shouldn’t. We should take his work on his terms, trying to get to where he has gotten — not in recognition of his work, but so we can use it to open our own work… or, for some, renew our efforts.

Find your process within your procedure.