Tag: photography

Rosalind & Joan

Posted on Posted in book shelf, creativity, studio tableTagged , , , ,

Is Rarity or scarcity of greater value . Is a topic Infrequently discussed. A topic with more power of attention. There are two loaded subjects: death and sex ..[topic point in EXS, 1974]. If we add aging, have we multiplied a value by its scarcity.

Most artists are interested in self as youth, after all, that is where and when they began . One of the most common pictures seen in freshman photography classes are self portraits from the women students — common trope is legs in tub; while the male students photograph themselves before a mirror holding a camera. The women have taken the picture from their eye view. Men and women place themselves into different environs, engaged in different actions. These transactional differences seem to apply universally across art schools.

One arc: FROM LOOKING AT OTHERS.. TO LOOKING.. looking to seeing?

Fox Solomon says she knew of only two photographers by name when she started making pictures: Diane Arbus and Ansel Adams.

–[At thirty-eight, while living in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Rosalind Fox Solomon began a new life as a photographer. Studying with Lisette Model in the early 1970s, she honed the photographic voice which would define the prodigious half-century of work to follow. After moving to a loft in New York City in 1984, and travelling to Peru, India, South Africa, Cambodia, and beyond, she became renowned for her unflinching photography of everyday life around the world.

www.mackbooks.us/products/a-woman-i-once-knew-br-rosalind-fox-solomon

With Camera

–[ The With Camera series (2001—06) marked the first time Joan Semmel purposefully posed in front of the mirror with a camera. Like her earlier Locker-Roomworks (1988—91), these paintings celebrate the aging process through their accurate portrayal of the artist’s body. Semmel continued to develop these ideas in her Framed series (2005—2006), which presented images of her taking photographs framed inside a mirror

I want them to be more than they are… they serve as stand ins for something yet to be filled. My understanding is incomplete. They have a presence I failed. Of course, some of their standing is because of the “Big Empty;” things unexplored. Age happens to be the Box they are filling in. No matter how many items they put into it, it will never be filled.

They do what they do well. That they have done so for so long is sufficient reason for engaging their work.

>> Rosalind Fox Solomon (April 2, 1930 – June 23, 2025. In 2007, the University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography acquired Solomon’s archive, which includes her photographic archive, books and video work

>> Joan Semmel (born October 19, 1932…Semmel states, “While my work developed through series, the connecting thread across decades is a single perspective: being inside the experience of femaleness and taking possession of it culturally.

  • Moreland, Quinn (2026-04-15). “‘I wanted my work to be shameless’: 93-year-old artist Joan Semmel on her trailblazing nudes”. The Guardian
  • Richard Meyer, “’Not Me:’ Joan Semmel’s Body of Painting,” in ‘’Solitaire: Lee Lozano, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Joan Semmel’’, edited by Helen Molesworth. (Wexner Center for the Arts, 2008).
  • “Joan Semmel Self-Portraits Offer Vibrant Affirmation of Aging”. Hamptons Art Hub. 2016-09-29
  • You Have to Get Past the Fear”: Joan Semmel on Painting Her Aging, Nude Body, Hyperallergic Magazine September 9, 2016

check batt day

Posted on Posted in art biz, labnotes, overnight notesTagged , , , , , ,

One must from time to time attempt things that are beyond one’s capacity.”-– Pierre-Auguste Renoir 

the first of the month; time to check electronics in the studio and the lab.

in or out? when you put the camera, meter, whatsit away, what is your cleanup and storage protocol? Perhaps you haven’t considered the question. When you’re done, do you leave stuff in the bag or on a shelf.

In my commercial world, the process of ending one thing was prep for the next.

In the age of the professional studio every assignment had a set up and a teardown time. cameras along with all equipment were cleaned at shoots end; repairs needed were noted.. before a shoot the equipment was checked; this included batteries for those portable electric items. items which were stored a long time while being assumed always at the ready were checked monthly; batteries being swapped out, freshly charged ones being put into service. For Equipment cage operations someone in charge of the cage followed the procedure with every equipment check-in and check-out. Schools of journalism instilled the discipline in their students which likely spread throughout that industry.

I keep batteries out of infrequently used darkroom equipment, but do keep batteries in the actively used cameras. Lightmeters are not stored more than a week with batteries enclosed. When the meter is being stored, it is stored with its battery put into a bag-box with a tag marked with dates. If the meter is going out pn location it is tested with vtvm. Field kits always include tested spares.

Equipment Poor:

It is also a time to prune, to dead-head equipment. If it isn’t being used, since I’m not a collector, and it is a dust collector, I consider passing it along. 

Emergency in the gun-belt states. Most of the US experiences competitive power failures. So the Free Markup has devised the house-batt. I keep batteries in flashlights; along side these are 8-hour candles. And so it goes.

There remains the ground of difference between being awake and being aware

Friday photographers : 5.29 ’26

Posted on Posted in on photographers, studio tableTagged , , ,

uncorrelated link of photographers . they made my curiosity think

The book is not a niche, the book is the main street of Photography.

THEN LINKS === ‘The exhibition will foreground Monroe’s collaborative approach to image-making and her creative agency. De Dienes’ portraits offer some of the earliest photographs of Monroe — Muus Collection

=== ‘Throughout his career Hujar recorded more than a thousand photo shoots in his job books. These documents, transcribed and annotated by Olivia McCall, illuminate the contact sheets, rich in never-before-seen images as well as the earliest iterations of Hujar’s best-known works.’ Hujar:Contact — Mack https://www.mackbooks.us/products/hujar-contact-joel-smith

=== ‘Through extensive research and collaboration with women chasers worldwide, Chaplin Espenon advances a critical visual position in which storm chasing becomes an allegorical terrain through which broader structures of power, visibility, and autonomy come into view.’ risk as a gendered condition through storm chasing, : https://loosejoints.biz/products/blinded-by-your-grace

=== Thirty Cuts, Jim Goldberg. ‘His use of collage has been a mainstay of his practice apparent since the publication of his second book Raised by Wolves, published in 1995 by Scalo. This edition of only 750 copies from the Japanese publisher’ — https://www.dashwoodbooks.com/pages/books/30822/jim-goldberg/thirty-cuts

== OTHER THAN ==’Scholars @ Silver Eye is a year-long, intensive, work-based training program for college seniors from Pittsburgh-area universities with interests in photography, graphic design, arts education, art history, arts administration, and museum studies.’ https://silvereye.org/events/scholars-silver-eye

AIPAD 26 has concluded; press releases are at this link. YT will have public lectures… YouTube.com/AIPADPHOTO

I used AIPAD in the early 80’s as a sales place, a customer finder, a watering hole.. it is a trade organization, a gathering spot for showing wares. A showcase of the stable. As it is these things it attracts young or mid- career photographers. I found people in need of printing I also talked with some gallerists .. these people formed a small part of my contact and mailing list. I knew that if they knew about me but didn’t contact me or only wanted a price list, they weren’t a likely customer. I didn’t know that at first, but I learned. I also learned that going to trade shows and being on the floor isn’t as effective as being outside the trade-show talking with people gathering and discussing non-floor portfolios…

Beginnings1965: MFA fine arts photography within schools of art, and within universities with an art school
had to proceed a trade-show given to selling photography for the wall.
First comes understanding, next comes standing. The studio experience is key to the growth of photography as a wall art. It took approximately 15 years of art schools teaching photography as a studio art before there were enough galleries selling photography for there to be an association such as AIPAD.

The mature market for photographs as collectible items, as museum items, required the university and the educated collector .. The person prepared to treat a photograph as a fine art on paper suitable for putting on their wall.. work that they would live with; not the sterile work found in offices, but the vibrant work found in the home of the dedicated, mature collector.. beyond the sunset and moon-rise… more, some morning soon.

photographs are always colorized, it’s just that some tell better color lies