Diffusion 2010 preview

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UNCONVENTIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY

ARTICLES

ZEB ANDREWS DIANA BLOOMFIELD MALIN FABBRI PHIL NESMITH

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LOUVIERE+VANESSA DON GREGORIO ANTÓN CYNTHIA GREIG MAUREEN DEL ANEY

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ARTISTS

SPECIAL FEATURES “ELEMENTS” GROUP SHOWCASE FEATURING ANNA LANDA, JEFF & SABRINA WILLIAMS & KIMBERLY MOWBRAY + 40 MORE PHOTOGRAPHERS, PLATES TO PIXELS PRESENTS THE “BODY PULSES“ JURIED SHOW AWARDS...

U S A / C a n a d a $ 12

Diffusion

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Diffusion

Contents Article

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THE SERENDIPITOUS PHOTOGRAPHER

Editor-in-Chief

DIANA BLOOMFIELD

Blue Mitchell

How to be a successful photographer.

Sales & Marketing

Article

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Elizabeth Kale

INSTINCT/EXTINCT Interview by Blue Mitchell

Design Consultant

PHIL NESMITH

HOME MADE CAMERA GALLERY Match the camera to it’s photograph.

Diffusion - Unconventional Photography Volume II, 2010 ISBN# 978-0-9844432-0-8

REPRESENTATIONS ZEB ANDREWS

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Interview by Michael Van der Tol

A REAL SENSE OF WARPALITY

Exploring the wondrous effects of omniscope photography.

ARTIST TO WATCH

BRANDON DOLE Pinhole photographer

Profile

THE RULES OF TRAGEDY

Gallery

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PLATES TO PIXELS JURIED SHOW WINNERS Dazzle your senses with Juror Nichole Dement’s picks for Best of Show, 1st Place, 2nd Place, 3rd Place, and Honorable Mentions.

Profile

46 MAUREEN DELANEY

Article

NATURAL ELEMENTS Interview by Aline Smithson

ADVENTURES WITH MULTI-PINHOLES

MALIN FABBRI

Building and testing multi-pinhole cameras.

BOOK REVIEWS

Brian Krummel & Paula Rae Gibson

Gallery

56 ELEMENTS

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Limited Edition of 2,000

Diffusion (ISSN# 1943-8311) is published annually by One Twelve Publishing, LLC. 1631 NE Broadway #143., Portland, Oregon, 97232. Copyright © 2010 Diffusion and One Twelve Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication to be reproduced without written permission of the copyright owner. The copyright for each image or article featured in Diffusion is held by the credited artist or author.

Interview by J Swofford

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Web Site

diffusionmag.com

36 DON GREGORIO ANTÓN

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info@diffusionmag.com

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Profile

Article Spotlight

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E-mail

Rediscovering and revisualizing the archaic plate processes.

26 CYNTHIA GREIG 32

Brent Veak

THE WORLD OF PLATE PHOTOGRAPHY

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Profile

12 LOUVIERE + VANESSA

GROUP SHOWCASE

Featuring Kimberly Mowbray, Jeff & Sabrina Williams, Anna Landa and more awe-inspiring images from 35 other artists.

D I F F U SION UN CONVENTION AL PHOTOGRAPHY

Find Diffusion at:

Photo-Eye Bookstore

376 Garcia St., Suite A, Santa Fe, NM

photoeye.com

Rayko Photo Center

428 3rd Street, San Francisco, CA

raykophoto.com

Blue Moon Camera & Machine

8417 N Lombard St., Portland, OR

bluemooncamera.com

Oregon College of Art & Craft

8245 SW Barnes Rd., Portland, OR

ocac.edu

Diffusionmag.com Alternativephotography.com Check our website for location updates.

Editor’s Corner

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t’s amazing to me that a year has passed since the first volume of Diffusion came out. I’m so grateful to all the support the art community has given this project and I’m looking forward to much more impressive artwork, stories, and surprises in the volumes to come.

There’s so much to be said about Volume II, but it’s best to experience it with all six of your senses. There’s an overwhelming presence of magic embedded into these pages – my hope is that you find this alchemy as inspiring as I have.

Focus on the guts...your gut...your intuition.

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— Vilém Flusser, Towards a Philosophy of Photography, Reaktion Books

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“The magical power of images lies in their superficial nature, and the dialect inherent in them – contradiction peculiar to them – must be seen in the light of this magic.”

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ON THE COVER: OUI, THE PEOPLE (L’ORTOL AN)

BY LOUVIERE + VANESSA

Diffusion, Volume II, delivers another cerebral experience and we’ve deliberately tried to balance the concepts, themes, and processes that makes modern photography so titillating. As always, I’m intrigued by the notion of seeing the artist hand in photography and all of our featured artists do that in some manner. Louviere + Vanessa entice us with shiny gold and silver leafed images – worked and reworked with layers of artistry, sexuality, tumult, humor and lore. Cynthia Greig’s monochromatic still-lives challenge the viewer to reinterpret common objects that fluctuate between 2-dimensional drawing to 3-dimensionally represented photography. Don Gregorio Antón inspires us to think with our hearts, let our souls guide us, and let go of any preconceived notions about art, which in turn allows us to be awe stricken by his visually-stunning narrative acts. The name Chimera (chimeraphoto.com) aptly suits Maureen Delaney’s silvery Platinum/Palladium self portraits – capturing a personal mythology that is so pure and real. I thank these artists for sharing their time, thoughts and hearts with us. I also want to applaud the contributing writers, (articles and interviews) without your contributions Diffusion would not be.

Blue Mitchell

Articles

Theme: Ortus (Latin) — rise, become visible, appear, birth, origin. There are no restrictions to submit to this theme, just take into account we’re mostly interested in unconventional photography methods.

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Writers encouraged to submit story ideas or written articles on Diffusion related topics (e.g. unique photo processes, photography theory, research, how-to, essays etc.) to story@diffusionmag.com.

Also, send us a writing sample if you’re interested in conducting an artist interview for Volume III.

Group Showcase 2011

Submissions

Portfolios

To be considered for one of our featured artists please e-mail us a link of a cohesive body of work to port@diffusionmag.com.

To increase your chances of being published we encourage you to submit work to the annual group showcase for consideration.

Submit up to 5 images. On a CD, include a text file with your name, address, e-mail (mandatory for notification), image titles, process used (e.g. cyanotype) and your website if applicable.

File Specifications: 300 PPI TIFF files, sized to approximately 8” in the longest direction. Please name your files with last name, first name and image title (for example: Last_First_Title.tif).

Submission fees: $10.00 USD, include check (payable to One Twelve Publishing) with submittal or visit our website for online payments — diffusionmag.com.

Send submittals to: Diffusion Group Showcase C/O One Twelve Publishing 1631 NE Broadway #143 Portland, OR 97232

Note: If you would prefer to send us files online please contact us (info@diffusionmag.com) and we will send drop box instructions.

Deadline: All Group Showcase entries must be postmarked by June 30th, 2010.

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Contributors

Michael Van der Tol

was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 1959. He is primarily self taught in photography and has been sharing what he sees through his landscape images for more than 10 years.

Diana Bloomfield Contributing Writer

Phil Nesmith

Contributing Writer

Danielle Hughson

As a child Vanessa Kale believed she was a pioneer in a past life. She even attempted to build a log cabin out of sticks with her sister, but a band of rogue wasps ended their frontier adventure. Vanessa has a Bachelor in Art Studio from UC Davis, and her art reflects her vision of the world around her in simple terms and without the confusion that modern times places on all of us. She lives in Altadena, CA with her husband, Simon, and their son, Nigel.

Diana Bloomfield has been an exhibiting photographer and teacher for over 25 years. Her photographs have been included in the books Pinhole Photography: Rediscovering a Historic Technique and Alternative Photography: Art and Artists: Edition I and the periodicals Pinhole Journal; The Post Factory Journal; Chinese Photography; Camera Arts; and, most recently, The Sun.

Phil Nesmith is a photographer and sculptor who works with a wide array of methods and materials. He has used the camera to explore his experiences with war in both Bosnia and Iraq, border life in Arizona, and extreme sport in the wilds of Montana.

Danielle Hughson is a

Copy Editor

Bloomfield has curated several pinhole and alternative process exhibitions, including “Pure Light: Southern Pinhole Photography,” shown at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) and “Old is New Again: Alternative Processes,” shown at the Green Hill Center for NC Art as well as the Pingyao International Photography Festival in China.

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His work has been published in The Stittsville News, Ottawa Sun, Due West Magazine, the Ottawa Citizen, Photoshop Magazine, Photolife Magazine and Canadian Camera Magazine. In 2008 Michael’s work was recognized by Photolife Magazine and he was named as one of the Emerging Photographers of 2008. In 2009 Michael received top honors from the Canadian Association of Photographic Arts. His work is represented by Arts & Architecture Gallery in Ottawa, Ontario.

Vanessa Kale

Michael makes his home in Stittsville, Ontario, Canada.

michaelvandertol.com

Vanessa is a painter/ printmaker and uses her home as her studio. She periodically has projects drying throughout the floors of the house or hung on the back yard clothes line. vanessakale.com

A native North Carolinian, Diana currently lives and works in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she is represented by Adam Cave Fine Art. Her work is also represented by Tilt Gallery, located in Phoenix, Arizona. dhbloomfield.com

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D I F F U SION UN CONVENTION AL PHOTOGRAPHY

Copy Editor

veterinarian, photographer and writer living in Portland, Oregon.

Her adventures in photography began when she was 12 years old and picked up her family’s 110 film camera.

Her love for the written word was inspired even earlier and encouraged by a grandmother who used to beat her unrelentingly at Scrabble.

Since moving to the Pacific Northwest three years ago she has acquired seven film cameras, but the simplest — a Zero Image pinhole and a toy Holga — have taught her the most.

She can often be found on primitive trails in the Columbia River Gorge, on rocky ledges overlooking the Pacific Ocean, or somewhere in between. She dreams in color, and when not out photographing, she’s definitely thinking about it.

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Contributing Writer

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Michael Van der Tol

His current photographic practice is anchored by the plate methods of the 19th Century, which he uses to investigate the past and rekindle a sense of wonder lost in the modern world. It focuses on the contemporary world’s disconnection with the natural world and the dismissal of human impact on the environment. He currently lives and works in Richmond, Virginia. philnesmith.com

flickr.com/people/manyfires

A special thanks to the gracious artists that make Diffusion possible.

Zen Andrews

After a career as a New York Fashion Editor and working along side the greats of fashion photography, Aline Smithson discovered the family Rolleiflex and never looked back. Now represented by galleries across the country and published throughout the world, Aline continues to create her awardwinning photography with humor, compassion, and a 50-year-old camera. Her work has been featured in numerous publications including the PDN Photo Annual, Communication Arts Photo Annual, Eyemazing, Artworks, Shots, Pozytyw, and Silvershotz magazines. Aline has been the Gallery Editor for Light Leaks Magazine, writes and edits the blog Lenscratch, and has been curating exhibitions for a number of galleries and on-line magazines.

She was nominated for The Excellence in Photographic Teaching Award in 2008 and 2009 and for the Santa Fe Prize in Photography in 2009 by the Santa Fe Center of Photography.

Nichole DeMent

is a photographicbased artist and educator. As gallery director of ArtsWest Playhouse and Gallery and co-owner of Rock|DeMent visual art space in Seattle, she is committed to the art experience, both for the artist and the viewer. She steadfastly pursues the voice of the artist and a space within contemporary discourse in art exhibitions of her own and others’ work.

She has taught fine art photography at institutions such as Pacific Lutheran University and Photographic Center Northwest. Her personal artwork exploring human nature has been awarded, published and can be found in numerous private collections internationally.

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has lived his entire life in the Pacific Northwest, so it is therefore of little surprise when he became interested in photographing its many natural splendors. Bitten by the photography bug a little over six years ago while hiking in the Columbia River Gorge, Andrews combines his love for the outdoors with his passion for photography.

Nichole Dement

Contrib. Writer/Juror

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Andrews is always mindful that even familiar locations can hold fascinatingly new perspectives.

He travels with a small assortment of cameras to help photograph places in creative and new ways, be it with a plastic Holga, a wooden pinhole or a Pentax 6×7 loaded with Ortho or Infrared film. Despite this small armament of equipment, he firmly believes that the most important things happen behind the camera, not in it.

Malin Fabbri

Contributing Writer

Malin Fabbri moved from Sweden to London to study. She earned an MA in Design at Central St. Martin’s and is an expert in alternative photographic processes.

She has worked professionally with big media names like Time magazine and CNBC Europe.

alinesmithson.com lenscratch.blogspot.com

J Swofford

Contributing Writer

J Swofford is an

artist living and working in Portland, Oregon. He received his BFA in photography from the Oregon College of Art & Craft. His current project is based in concepts of unconscious psychology and mythology.

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Contributing Writer

Aline Smithson

Contributing Writer

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Zeb Andrews

nicholedement.com

In 1999 she started AlternativePhotography. com. Malin actively manages the expansion of the site as editor, and is an avid photographer herself. She makes her own alternative process prints, pinhole photographs and runs workshops. She is the coauthor of Blueprint to cyanotypes - Exploring a historical alternative photographic process, and From pinhole to print – inspiration, instructions and insights in less than an hour and the editor of Alternative Photography: Art and Artists, Edition I. Malin lives and works in Stockholm and has two sons, Maximillian and Ruben.

abnormalimage.com

alternativephotography.com

zebandrews.com

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Serendipitous Photographer by DIANA H BLOOMFIELD

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the

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know what you’re thinking. Oh no. Not again. Not another how-to article written by some photographer I’ve never even heard of, instructing me on how to be successful in photography. Seriously?

At least, that’s what I would be thinking. But wait.

There’s more.

Rest assured; this is not yet another in a seemingly endless series of bulleted guidelines on, well, how to be successful. I will not even utter the now-hackneyed phrase, digital workflow, nor will I attempt to tell you how to streamline yours. I will not instruct you on how to build a cheap and fast website, nor how to create your own (cheap and fast) business cards. I am neither a big fan of hourly twittering, nor — what now seems rather quaint — blasting everyone you know with monthly snail mail postcards, just to allow them a glimpse of your latest project and to inform them — month after month — that you, and your business, are (still) alive and well. (Honestly, that just gets annoying after a while.) And I definitely won’t

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H O R I Z O N ( P I N H O L E , C YA N OT Y P E OV E R P L AT I N U M/ PA L L A D I U M )

encourage you to spend $600+ on a “photography consultant” who will simply spend two hours offering you some common sense advice that you probably already know— a high price to pay, in my opinion, for an explanation of the obvious. I won’t even talk about expensive cameras, printers, scanners, up-todate software, step wedges, or the latest technology in color profiles — all of which seems like the perfect recipe for curing insomnia to me. I also won’t attempt to instruct you on how to approach a gallery (which, among this list, might actually be the most useful.)

Rather, I am going to talk about what seems consistently absent from the endless “how to be a successful photographer” articles, portfolio reviews, and expensive consultant advice, and that is: serendipity.

Of course, serendipity itself might suggest a certain kind of passivity — out of sheer dumb luck or fate, you just happen to be at the right place at the right time. What I mean to suggest however, is more of a proactive type of serendipity. Over the

Artist Profile

"INSTINCT/EXTINCT" by

Where did you grow up and what was it like?

spent outdoors exploring and building forts etc. I had an older brother so I learned at a very early age not to be a girly girl if I wanted to play with the big boys. We were not really allowed to watch TV so we found many other ways of entertaining ourselves and books were a huge part of my time. I could lose myself in reading and go anywhere in the world I wanted and that helped shape my imagination. There were many events in my childhood that kept our parents from having the time to expose us to culture so I would have to say that my brother and I were very sheltered.

Louviere: I was an army brat until 2nd grade, so I bopped

What was your first exposure to photography?

Jeff Louviere and Vanessa Brown’s Instinct/Extinct series deconstructs and reconstructs the notion of photography by embracing it’s history and defining it’s future. Their collaborative approach, combined with their elaborate process, begets truly magnificent artifacts. Come, let’s peer into a world derived from the eyes, minds, soul and hands of Louviere +Vanessa...

I guess the super 8 was technically my first venture into photography. I took one photo course in undergrad while majoring in painting and printmaking but thought it was way too much trouble to get an image so I abandoned it pretty quickly.

My father got into photography and gave my brother a camera thinking he would get into it. When he didn’t I asked my father if I could try it. That was when I was eleven and I felt like I had finally found my voice. A year after that I began an apprenticeship for a local photographer Harvey Ferdschneider who opened my eyes to the world of fine art photography. Once a week I would clean his studio and he taught me everything he knew about photography and art. I was a sponge and soaked up all that I could from him.

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around a bit after springing forth in New Orleans. The formative years were lived out in Lake Charles, Louisiana–a very uninspiring town for kids which in hindsight prompted my artistic development. Our dad gave my brother and I a super 8 camera as well as exposed us to old films like the original King Kong and sci-fi stuff. We then started experimenting with stop motion, drawing lasers right on the super 8 film and of course setting all our toys on fire and filming them. After several concerned (nosy) neighbors called about our explosions in suburbia we toned it down and got into playing music which my brother and I still do today.

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Interview By Blue Mitchell

Vanessa: I grew up in a small town called Trumansburg right

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outside of Ithaca, NY. We lived in the country surrounded by fields and so much of my childhood was

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Can you describe how you developed into an artist?

I suppose my development came as I realized that what I’d been doing all along was art. I still thought I needed a “real” profession, so I went to college to study marine biology at A&M. For two years I surfed and designed tattoos for my friends (and played in bands)–that was a very expensive art school, so I went home and took every single art class I could squeeze in. The professors at that small school in Lake Charles gave me the most focused inspiration I’ve ever gotten and created an open and experimental attitude that has fueled me ever since.

Harvey was the most influential person in my life at that time, both as an artist and as a person. He allowed me to realize my potential and take it further than I thought I could. Before beginning college I was having solo gallery shows and had won among other awards, an international award from Kodak for my black and white work.

Then when I began college at the Rochester Institute of Technology I grew up and my self and my work changed a lot during that time. I grew very disenchanted with photography actually and when I finished school I went out West with a friend and spent the summer rock climbing and living in a tent. I didn’t even take a camera with me but instead kept a journal and forced myself to record it as if I was seeing through a lens.

UNDI NE (GOLD LEAF, RESIN ON KOZO PAP E R )

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W IE EV PR I F X , T H E N WH Y ? ( G OL D L E A F, R E S I N ON KO Z O PA P E R )

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World of Plate Photography

the

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world. Daguerreotypes, wet collodion ferrotypes (tintype), ambrotypes, lanternslides, glass negatives, and the souvenir dryplate tintypes of the early 1900s boardwalks are all forms of plate photography once viable for commercial use, but which fell out of favor following the next “greatest” development in process. These methods were the casualties of an everforward, marching momentum toward a “better”, easier costeffective solution...a movement that eventually lead to today’s digital image-making boom.

For the past five years I have been involved in the exploration and practice of plate photography, specifically the creation of direct positive images such as wet collodion/dryplate tintypes and ambrotypes. Volumes can (and have) been written on the technical aspects of these forms of image-making, but this article is less about the “how-to” of a specific process, and more

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here is an interesting change occurring in many areas of the industrialized world. People are growing tired: tired of merely consuming products, tired of relying on manufacturers to provide everything they want or need. The need for manual effort has been removed from many aspects of our modern lives, and that loss has left a void in the primal fabric of what makes us what we are. The majority of human beings fail to notice this void. A growing percentage of us, however, have taken note: the age of technological dependence has arrived. As a result, most of us have become dependent on technology that we do not fully understand and do not have the ability to fix when broken, a dependence that only adds to the swirling feeling of being surrounded by an uncontrollable world. In reaction to this state of technological dependence, a growing movement to reclaim the skills of the past seems to be emerging.

by PHIL

The field of photography is as diverse as the people who call themselves photographers. This is also true of subsets of processes that comprise the field, including the reemerging plate photography methods of the mid to late nineteenth century. These methods—once the most popular and successful methods of photographic image-making of their time—are now generally known (along with many other processes) as “Alternative Photography”. Sir John Herschel made the first known glass plate image in 1839, and the same year Louis Daguerre presented the first commercially successful photographic process, the daguerreotype, to the

A L M S ROU N D ( W E T CO L LO D I ON T I N T Y P E )

about the “why” of the current resurrection of interest in plate photographic methods of the past.

Originally my own interest lay simply with the collection of vintage daguerreotypes. At the time, primarily working in digital adventure photography, I was not aware that the material and knowledge to make plate-based images still existed.

I would often sit down at night to examine my small but growing collection of leather encased daguerreotypes, hypnotized by not only the shimmering image itself, but by the entire package. When I held

“When I held it in my hand, the image-object—the whole thing a work of art and craft—seemed to connect with something deep inside me.”

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it in my hand, the image-object—the whole thing a work of art and craft—seemed to connect with something deep inside me. It was during one of these experiences, as I explored the origin of the feelings I was having, that I realized something: today, we rarely make images that can be held. Moreover, our modern image-making processes are centered on rapid and accurate reproducibility. This reproducibility was the driving desire that led to the demise of the daguerreotype and to the rise of numerous negative-to-positive processes — processes that revolutionized commercial photography and removed the limited on-off nature of the daguerreotype, wet collodion and dryplate direct positive methods. Our modern digital images are not meant to be tangible. They are not meant to carry any weight as physical objects, not intended to be touched, carried, or experienced in any way other than from an optimum viewing distance or on a tightly color calibrated monitor...or flashing on a digital picture frame from Walmart. I realized then what was missing from my digital image work: the ability to actually work with my hands, to bring something physical and completely unique to life.

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“...I moved into a tee pee on the farm of wet collodion master John Coffer in upstate New York to learn from him...”

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In the cold November weather of 2006, when I moved into a tee pee on the farm of wet collodion master John Coffer in upstate New York to learn from him, I could count fully on two hands the number of people making serious work with plate photography methods. Of those, Chuck Close, Sally Mann, Jerry Spagnoli and Robb Kendrick were the most widely known. The work of these artists and the knowledge they hold has played an important role in reintroducing the world to the plate processes of the 1800s. Indeed, the success of the photographers/artists noted provides a powerful public face to contemporary plate photography, but the survival of plate photography can also be attributed to work done by many lesser known photographers/artists who have been keeping the technical knowledge alive and passing it along to others. Since my early explorations in the history of plate-based photography started in 2004, the number of people working with plate processes, available learning opportunities, amount of technical information, and availability of contemporary equipment has sky-rocketed (comparatively).

The explosion of digital image-making capability, and more importantly accessibility, has been credited with the prolonged, much-analyzed and debated “death” of film-based photography. Commercial offerings for chemically-based photography material such as film, papers, and cameras have been disappearing at an increasing rate for the past few years. Educational institutions that once owned large chemical darkroom facilities have since sold the equipment at fire sale prices and turned those spaces into digital “lightrooms”. The standard photographic work in galleries is now a 60” face-mounted

CO N TA I N E D ( D RY P L AT E A M B ROT Y P E )

aluminum digital print, instead of the hand-produced silver gelatin print typical of earlier days (and characteristic work of the great names in photographic history). Photojournalism has been changed forever by the omnipresent digital image, the capturing capabilities of cell phones, and the surveillance systems that make it seem as though a camera is waiting, on location, at every breaking news event.

The current wave of change that digital imaging has brought to photography is very similar to those faced by photographers when Scott Archer introduced wet-plate collodion in 1851, the introduction of sliver bromide gelatin emulsion by Richard Leach Maddox in 1871, and the development of the first roll film camera by George Eastman in 1888. Technical advancement and continual change is the nature of photography.

Surprisingly, it would seem that the same forward march of technology that killed off older photographic processes may be bringing a few back, as demonstrated by growing interest in the plate photographic methods. Perhaps this interest is a push-back response to the perfect, efficient, clean, totally controllable and endlessly reproducible images provided by the digital imaging revolution.

It’s not only the rise of digital imaging that has played a role in the resurrection of plate photography processes; the advent

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Artist Profile

"REPRESENTATIONS" by CYNTHIA GREIG

“I want to raise questions about our expectations and assumptions about how photographs function and are experienced in contemporary culture”

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epresentation through photography is a foundation that resonates throughout Cynthia Greig’s Art. During her studies of art history and filmmaking, Greig was introduced to instances of manipulation and staging in 19th century documentary photography (for example, the case of the same Civil war sharpshooter relocated in two different images by Alexander Gardner and his team) that set her on a journey of questioning the perceived objectivity of photography in general. The theory that “things don’t always appear as they seem” has molded her artistic pursuits in such work as New Eden: The Life and Work of Isabelle Raymond, Black Box: This is Not My Father, Life Size and Representations.

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Interview By Michael Van der Tol

R E P R E S E N TAT I ON N O . 5 5 ( C U P TOW E R )

in photography is culminated in this series. Once you realize what it is you are observing in Greig’s Art, you will realize that she has succeeded in making the viewer question the role photography can play in documenting the illusion.

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In the installation, New Eden: The Life and Work of Isabelle Raymond, Cynthia Greig constructed the identity of a fictional 19th century cross-dressing female photographer. “Creating an alternative archive of several lives was very time consuming and I wanted to confront the representation of gender, and the role photography plays in that construction.” Casting friends as 19th century characters, Greig had created an archive of faded photographs that has you believing in the historical reality of Ms. Raymond.

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The video imagery in Black Box: This is not my Father was taken during a boat trip Greig and her father took to Puerto Rico, in 1989. The following year, on a trip to Venezuela, her father died in a tragic plane crash. Combined with the only moving visual record she has of her father, the audio track in the video recreates the last few moments of dialog recorded by the airplane’s black box. The video explores the role photography plays in our personal lives. “I wanted to show the weight and power we give to the photographic portrait” and in this case the video footage of her father, “and how it serves as a surrogate but is never a replacement and at best can only be a representation of the person we wish were still present.”

In her portfolio Life-Size Greig plays with our preconceived ideas of space and size and how we are programmed to recognize objects in context; but when that context contradicts our innate perceptions, we can frequently draw unfounded conclusions.

Perhaps the most masterful misrepresentation created by Greig’s photographic art is her amusing & playful portfolio Representations. Her life long pursuit to have her viewer question the concept of truth and its relation to perceived reality

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“We all know that the digital photograph can be manipulated, but traditional straight photography can be as well. Yet the photographic image still has the power to persuade and make us believe that it is representing some kind of fact or reality.”

Greig attributes the genesis of Representations to the perfect convolution of influences from the work of Henry Fox Talbot’s The Pencil of Nature and a remnant, white-painted table she rediscovered following the conclusion of her work on Life-Sizes.

“I was thinking about that table and looking at it; I had a piece of charcoal and so I just drew around the edges of that table really quickly and put it in front of my camera…and when I put it against a white background, it was quite exciting; it looked like a drawing”.

I think Greig gives Fox Talbot more credit than is due. When you witness the mesmerizing images created for Representations, you will agree with me that genesis for this series was really conceived when Greig first was introduced to instances of manipulation and staging in 19th century photography; and that Fox Talbot was simply the catalyst that allowed this brilliant portfolio to emerge.

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you born, where do you live?

I was born and raised in Detroit and its suburbs. I’ve worked in a variety of jobs: the Detroit auto industry—for one job I had to draw 100s of screws for 3 weeks straight—I worked at various art museums in the departments of African art, Prints and Drawings, Modern art, and even Artrain, a moving gallery on a train bringing art exhibitions to communities across the country. I’ve also taught black and white photography, worked as a commercial photo assistant, had countless temp jobs and coauthored the book of vintage photographs, Women in Pants: Manly Maidens, Cowgirls and Other Renegades. I’m happiest when I can devote my time and energy to making photographs.

How important has photography become in allowing you to express yourself?

It’s central to the concepts behind my work. When I started collecting photographs in 1988 I was struck by the sense that these portraits represented only a fragment of a life lost and long forgotten. Yet the power and aura of those images seemed to hold something very palpable and real. The inherent verisimilitude and surface resemblance of photographs to our perceived experience inspires me on a daily basis. I’m fascinated by their unique capacity to vacillate between fact and fiction—a photograph is always a document but at the same time is an invented image. It plays with, teases, and pulls at our desire for recognizing, knowing some kind of truth about our selves and the world we live in. My video collaboration with Richard Smith, Black Box: this is Not My Father, explores how family photos, or video in this case, act as a kind of surrogate or stand-in, and yet, of course, they are incomplete impressions of our actual experience. I’m interested in the role photography plays in our personal lives and in the broader scope of history, its transformation since the advent of digital technology.

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Your formal art education is varied. You studied art history and filmmaking, you studied printmaking, and you continue to write. When did you start making photographic art?

I enrolled in a photography course to get the skills I needed.

Once I saw that first print’s image emerge from the developer I was hooked.

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I had the pleasure of speaking with Cynthia Greig in the fall of 2009. Her answers to my questions will give you a glimpse into this dedicated, creative, delightful and thought provoking Artist. Thank-you Cynthia.

Who have been some of the influential people in your art career? What did they teach you about Art or about how you approach your work?

You’re probably going to regret asking this question! The list is pretty long and there’s an intricate web of influences from both past and present—from Lady Eastlake, Baudelaire and others who debated the nature and role of photography as an art or science, to those who constructed their own images through various conceptual and visual methods—Oscar Rejlander, Gustave Le Gray, Henry Peach Robinson, and later Hannah Höch, John Heartfield, Claude Cahun, Cindy Sherman, James Casebere, Jeff Wall et al. Although my work bears no resemblance, I remember not being able to put down the 1972 Aperture book

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While I was making the decision whether or not to go on for my PhD in art history at the University of Iowa I took a year to study filmmaking, a long held ambition I’d never had the chance to pursue before. After making a handful of student films, I did everything I could to find work on commercial and independent films. I worked as a PA (Production Assistant), set painter, script supervisor, a prop master, producer’s assistant on everything from experimental narratives to a feature film with Paul Newman and even one horror movie. Around the same time I’d begun collecting 19th century tintypes of women and children from flea markets and rural antique stores. Discovering these photos actually inspired my own film based on photos and diaries of 19th century women. During the course of filming, I wanted to make some black and white stills of vintage and contemporary photos for the project so in 1990

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A Real Sense of Warpali t

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ant your buildings to bend halfway up?

Like turning your friends into pinheads?

Want to explore brave, new worlds of photography in the process?

Well, then perhaps you need to consider joining the ranks of omniscope photographers.

But wait, what in the world is an omniscope camera and why would I want take such weird images?

I became interested in omnicsopes precisely because they uncover this new way of seeing the world around me, one that the human eye is not built to perceive. Thus, they encourage me to shed my expectations of what I think I should see, and help me concentrate more on what is out there to see. After all, if our eyes viewed the world in an anamorphic fashion, normal pinholes and traditional SLRs would be the strange cameras.

Our understanding of the world is all a matter of perspective, which we can either control or be controlled by. Yes, images from the omniscope seem crazy at first glance. We are not used to seeing our world warped and twisted and bent in such a fashion, which is exactly what makes these cameras such interesting tools to explore. This was all the “why” I needed.

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We’ll begin with a basic description of an omniscope. In simple terms, it is a type of pinhole camera. In more complicated terms: imagine a hollow cylinder - something similar to a shipping tube - or, even better, the ubiquitous Quaker Oatmeal container so often used for homemade pinholes. Now, take that The omniscope offers a rare chance to see our world in such round container and put a piece of paper inside it, curved up a different manner that we must set aside many of our preagainst one wall of the cylinder. Not so different than normal conceived notions of how that world should appear. When I so far, right? Here comes the trick though: rather than cutting pick up this camera, my intent is not so much to simply make a hole for the pinhole in the wall of the tube across from the pawarped and fantastical images, but rather to discover that per, you place the pinhole in the lid projecting down the length perspective of the world and to then use the camera to share of the tube. Instead of your image being projected directly it with others. Photographers onto your paper, it hits have the curious ability to see at a much more oblique “The omniscope offers a rare chance to see our the world in a myriad of difangle across the curved world in such a different manner that we must ferent ways, and then, through surface of the emulsion. set aside many of our preconceived notions of cameras, share that vision. In This almost-perpendicthis way, we not only get to ular relationship of the how that world should appear.” see the far flung corners of this two planes combined planet (and beyond), but also those corners much nearer to us with the curved film plane create images where horizons curve in ways we never have before. We become visual explorers, incredibly and vertical lines converge and diverge in amazing discovering or rediscovering that which surrounds us every ways. Omniscopes can be made in a variety of different shapes day. As a photographer I realize it is sometimes all too easy to and sizes - similar to other pinhole cameras - but this is the esput the cart before the horse, to get too focused on creating the sence of what they are.

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Artist Profile

"THE RULES OF TRAGEDY" by DON GREGORIO ANTÓN

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Interview By J Swofford

It always amazes me how the “aha” moment is so easily taken for granted. It is not something that is usually covered in school, nor is it seen as relative subject matter in class, but its very existence is essential in helping us to refine our intuition.

I believe this. I believe it rests in that unique moment when we fall in love, begin a personal statement or click the shutter. In that instant without reason or purpose, one feels before thinking, one is touched before touching and we make a bond with the essence of the unexpected. You know this, I am sure.

You felt what it was like to discover the tender lips of another, that sudden rush of excitement when your first print emerged in the developer. You knew something was happening even before you could criticize it or question its validity. “Aha” allows us space to own our world for a moment, to identify that part of it that is always calling out to us.

For me, the “aha” moment in photography was that realization that I had found a home for all those things that were homeless in me. To hear a voice emerge that sounded true to my own and to finally see a soul in need of refining its shape. I was seventeen, scared and unsure of what my life might allow me.

I was never allowed to take any Art classes in school due to my father’s concerns of mirroring a society that he could never fit into. He made a bet with me. He said if I could find a book by a Chicano photographer, he would let me take the class. A lot was riding on this, but I couldn’t find one. I was lost and discouraged and could not believe that there was not one book to look to for inspiration. I searched everywhere and finally made my way to the teacher who was offering this summer class. He said he owned a book by a Mexican photographer by the name of Manuel Alvarez Bravo and that I should show it to my father and see what he would say. After a hard days work my father took this book from my hands with a long sigh and spent the next hour in his room in silence. Finally, he handed it back to me and said, “Close enough, Mijo. Maybe you can do with your eyes what I have been trying to do with my hands all these years.” From then many “aha” moments would follow and I would never be the same.

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on Gregario Antón isn’t concerned with whether you know where he went to school or if you are familiar with his long list of publication credits or his numerous credentials as a professional artist. He doesn’t care if you don’t think his work is “pretty” or if it appears anachronistic by convention or out of phase with the times. What he does care about is that you see his work and it somehow nudges a kernel of something inside you. Perhaps this kernel was planted in your childhood or maybe it was yesterday but now it grows. Each sprout and shoot of that growing seed unfurls with associated hopes and fears and memories until it is a great tree. And this tree is a balm to you. This is what is important to Don Gregario Antón, photography as a healing tool. His photos remind us that while the source of strong emotions can be intensely personal, the emotions themselves connect all of us to each other.

Antón’s photographs are markers that help you make your way on your path in life.

What was the “aha” moment when you knew that art and photography was what you wanted to do?

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“In essence, art is seldom finished by the artist.

It is always completed by the viewer who brings their own experiences to any piece.”

You mentioned to us that you wanted the interview to be skewed toward “encouraging individuals to consider the issue of the emotional foot print created when seeing ones work.”

How would you characterize this “emotional footprint?”

There are innumerable things that are pressed into our experiences. Certain gestures by those who held us close or pushed us away. Each of these created a distinct and lasting impression in that rich soil that surrounds our thoughts, soil that is often abandoned and left to dust. It influenced us in how we felt about the world, how we would live in it and how we would see others. Here compassion and animosity are forged, as is our beliefs and denials. From here we either open up or close

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EVERY STONE HAS ITS PL ACE... ( T R A N S LU C E N T I M AG E O N COP P E R )

You see, the emotional down to what we “...the emotional footprint that was placed upon us has a footprint that was ultimately perceive long standing effect on the choices we make, the lives we placed upon us has a about anything. This lead and the chance for nuance to enter into our lives.” long standing effect on often clouds our the choices we make, thinking, fogs our the lives we lead and the chance for nuance to enter into our judgment when we look at what we call “art”. It compels us to lives. So wouldn’t it make sense to approach anything and mimic what we’ve been taught by teachers who were taught anyone with this in mind. Wouldn’t it explain why we are by teachers, who were taught by teachers. Those whose fears often attracted by what is popular and easily accepted by othand limitations became our own by those who were so easily ers. Why it is so easy to judge what we think is art, and then to challenged by what they saw as threatening or strange. Then it make art that only looks like what others perceive art to look was much easier to criticize as we were criticized by parent or like? The trick is to make art that looks like you. That bears clergy, much easier to maintain the lineage of limitations that is your resemblance and is constructed upon a soil rich in your often passed on without thought or reason.

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Body Pulses - Award Winners

3rd annual juried exhibition

PLATES TO PIXELS

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JURORS STATEMENT

Dreams are not only what happens once we slip into a sleep state, but that which brings humanity to the next level.

Throughout history artists have been the leaders of cultural shifts which take place through the very process of believing and manifesting dreams. My primary role as juror for this call was to find the artists that exemplified a commitment to their subject and an understanding of the medium which then integrated their ideas into a broader theme on dreams as it pertains to the human form.

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SELF -PORTRAIT AS VENUS BY RHEAN A GARDNER, 2N D P L AC E

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really don’t like picking the best or giving grades at the end of a class. Not because I don’t have opinions, but because I find more value in supporting the ongoing process of creation. A fusion of technique with personal ideas framed within a larger context of culture, history, philosophy, etc. takes time and effort to form, with many steps along the way. To encourage some and not others is to deny the very creative subconscious that was requested for the call: the influence of dreams on human form. To that end, each artist that submitted should know that I was impressed and inspired by the immense creativity, genuine personal expression and technical realization that is found in your examples of the photographic art form.

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Broadbent’s compelling images of her mother juxtaposed with beautiful colors, textures and fantastical icons are labyrinths of desire. Her exploration addresses the social expectations of “mother” while cleverly addressing her own physical fate from behind the lens - a poignant cognition of the dream we call reality. Bateman’s whimsical re-creations of carte de visites from an imaginary past are artfully rendered and technically superb, but also challenge the contemporary dream of robots that sustain humankind in our technological age. Keleman’s assertion that “The dream process connects the body we are with the one we are becoming” are apropos for Bateman, as well as Gardner’s affecting self portraits. I was drawn like a moth to her sublime lighting and skillful representations in diverse photographic mediums, but I was won over by the heartbreak of Gardner’s subject: the broken dreams of women sculpting, cutting and purging for the mechanical ideals of commercial media and advertising. Hoving’s theatrical self portraits are the realization of the illogical symbols and actions in dreams.

Karabinis’ secret codes in salt prints and cyanotypes are in fact explorations of backlit tabletop fantasies that rat out photography for the impostor that it is. Together, the chosen finalists’ artworks on dreams create an intriguing narrative on reality. I hope you enjoy contemplating the mix as much as I have.

SHOULDERIN G BY KIRS TEN HOVIN G, 3RD PL AC E ( T I E )

Thank you to Blue Mitchell for allowing me the pleasure of viewing the creativity and forward thinking ideas in Plates to Pixels 3rd International call for artists.

E S C A P I N G HIS TORY BY AN GEL A BACON-KIDWELL, HON ORABLE M E N T I ON

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—Nichole DeMent (nicholedement.com)

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(TOP) AUTOMATON 16 BY EDWARD BATEMAN , FIRS T P L AC E

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(BOTTOM) AUTOMATON 18 BY EDWARD BATEMAN , F I R S T P L AC E

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B E N E AT H A L L M A S KS BY C A M I L L A B ROA D B E N T, B E S T O F S H OW

THE ANXIET Y OF NEW POSSIBILITIES BY PAUL KA R A B I N I S , 3 R D P L AC E ( T I E )

U N T I T L E D BY R H E A N A GA R D N E R , 2 N D P L AC E

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Body Pulses - Award Winners

PLATES TO PIXELS

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3rd annual juried exhibition

M OT H E R H O OD BY J E S S I C A S O M E R S , H O N O R A B L E M EN T I O N

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ORIGIN BY JESSIC A SOMERS, HON ORABLE MENTION

D R AWIN G MEMORY BY AN GEL A BACON-KIDWELL, HON ORA B L E M E N T I O N

D U S T BY S GAY L E S T E V E N S , H O N O R A B L E M E N T I ON

Plates to Pixels was formed in 2007, by artists for artists, to promote the creation and exhibition of photography based fine art.

The name Plates to Pixels suggests the evolution of photography from the archaic processes of plate photography to the new digital format of pixels. Read more artist interviews, view the rotating featured artist galleries and all the images from the 2009 juried show at platestopixels.com.

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a constructivist sculptor, working with purely geometrical forms. Through the placement and interaction of each rectangular block, he creates ambiguously figurative sculptures. He once stated, “I think that there are certain fundamental formal relationships that are profoundly human. Do they extend beyond yourself? They must.” From his work I am able to abstractly see the landscape and pick out gestural shapes which I can then relate back to the female form.

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anyone. I choose to shoot the figure this way because it yields a more universal concept. The images of the female figure are quite anonymous, emphasizing the “every woman.”

SELF PORTRAIT #53 ( P L AT I N U M / PA L L A D I U M )

Who have been some of your photographic influences?

My influences are constantly changing as I am introduced to new artists and my mental model shifts. However there have been some key artists who have helped shaped how I see the world. The first and probably most influential would be Anne Brigman. Brigman is a Pictorialist photographer whose work relays a powerful message about woman in nature and a universal oneness. The way she organically merges the nude female figure with the land definitely inspired my work.

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“I never alter the landscape for the purpose of my artistic goals; I use what is there to create my images.”

Another photographer who has been inspiring is Ray Metzker.

He is an artist truly working from perception and embodies the concept of premier coup. He states, “The wonderful thing about being a photographer is the element of discovery. I feel I'm on a voyage. I don't have a preconception, but that is not to deny all of accumulated experience that feeds intuition. I need to be surprised, to find a jewel." I feel his quote aptly sums up my photographic journey.

It is important to me to look at all mediums for inspiration, so another key influential artist has been Joel Shapiro. He is

Does your interest in Buddhist principles contribute to your work?

I do take many of the principles of Buddhism and incorporate them into my life and artwork, however I am not a practicing Buddhist. Actually I had a Catholic upbringing, but was taught to have an appreciation for all religions. The main principle I draw from Buddhism is to live in harmony with nature. This is a principle I incorporate into my personal life as well as my artwork. I never alter the landscape for the purpose of my artistic goals; I use what is there to create my images.

Do you think achieving an MFA has changed the way you work, or how you see yourself as a photographer?

Getting my MFA was probably one of the best things I have done to grow as an artist. To work intensely on a project for

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S E RG E L ( M U LT I - P I N H OL E )

When it comes to uniqueness and special effects, my favorite pinhole camera technique involves using multiple pinholes.

The first multiple pinhole I ever set eyes on was taken by Jan Kapoor with her 360-degree camera. With such a camera, subjects and landscapes merged in Jan’s images, touching and interacting with each other. Jan’s pinhole camera was created using a hexagonal box. It has six separate pinholes of the same diameter on each side of the box. Inside the camera, the film is wrapped around a cylinder, making it possible for Jan to expose the film from several angles. She is able to use those six pinholes individually, simultaneously, instantly or over a period of time to create her wonderful landscapes.

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have always been drawn to alternative photographic processes for many reasons. Among those reasons exists the potential for what I call “happy accidents”: events and outcomes that occur without intention and that ultimately result in a better print.

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Typical happy accidents are often related to the print-making process: an unintentional spill of emulsion on paper, a brush stroke taking on a shape of its own or a color shining with an unexpected hue. Such accidents, commonplace in the pinhole photography, can lead to a very pleasing print (and, in my case, a very happy photographer).

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These “accidents” may also occur in-camera, however: intriguing light leaks, a failure to fully wind between exposures, or an imperfect container all can result in surprisingly beautiful images. When it comes to building a pinhole camera, though, why leave these events to chance? If one can create his or her own luck, shouldn’t it also be possible to lure the happy accident into forming?

Unique Characteristics of Pinhole Photographs Many special effects can be created by modifying a pinhole camera. As an example, the camera can be designed with a bent film plane, which distorts horizons and subject matter. Additional effects can be obtained by modifying the focal length: a camera with an extremely short focal length creates a wide angle effect, whereas a telephoto effect may be created by building a camera with a long focal length. Another alteration involves zone plates, which are a series of clear and opaque rings that add soft focus and sometimes a halo to the subject. Furthermore, a “cubistic” effect (multiple exposures) can be achieved by building a “chest of drawers” style camera. This effect involves several pinholes exposing light on the paper or film.

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Constructing Multiple Pinhole Cameras Now that we’ve covered some basics, let’s delve a bit deeper into my favorite pinhole camera technique. In the experiment I will describe, I had a particular goal in mind: I wanted to see what kind of results I could get by creating and comparing two multiple pinhole cameras of similar size but of different shape: one square, the other round.

The first step? Choosing my containers. I admit that I am one of those computer nerds who buys software and then keeps the boxes, full of manuals and CDs, on the bookshelf. When I was looking for a container for my most recent camera a big, sturdy, completely black (and therefore already prepped as a pinhole camera) “Apple” box caught my eye. I was forced to sacrifice a few manuals into the recycling bin, but I decided this box would be perfect for making a square multi-pinhole camera. The second container was even easier to choose, as it involved washing down a tin of very tasty “Anna’s Gingerbread Biscuits” with a few cups of tea to free up a perfectly round container.

“Elements”

GROUP SHOWCASE 2010

“A photographer must be prepared to catch and hold on to those elements which give distinction to the subject or lend its atmosphere.” ~ Bill Brandt

I was not only interested in seeing new innovative processes but also the destruction and reconstruction of classic photography methods. In the end the selected images were intended to not only talk to the viewer, but to each other – as visual conversations.

Whether interpreted as chemical elements (an atomic structure), philosophical elements (air, fire, earth and water), or landform elements (a particular type of feature), or more abstract interpretations, the selected artists exemplify the strength of contemporary photography in the ever-evolving art world.

—Blue Mitchell

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Some of the portfolios were so inspiring I couldn’t help but giving them full page spreads. The innovative diorama’s of

Jeff and Sabrina Williams create a humorous and disturbing alternate universe not so different from our own. Anna Landa takes self portraits to a new 3-dimensional level literally and philosophically (be sure to use the included 3-d glasses).

Kimberly Mowbray entices the eyes with atmospheric black and white pinhole Polaroid landscapes in her “Unquiet Mind” series.

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I can’t stop admiring all the captivating images in the “Elements” showcase. Each time I look upon them I find something new, something unexpected and charismatic. The task of looking through each submission (over 400 images, from 80 artists) and culminating a group show around this very open-ended theme was both challenging and rewarding.

T H E A P P E A R A N C E OF N E C E S S I T Y BY M A RY ROB N E T T

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S U N S E T ( T H ROU G H T H E V I E W F I N D E R ) BY E M M A P OWE L L

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U N T I T L ED-ICEBERG 3 (DIGITAL PHOTO/DRAWIN G) BY C ALL A TH O M P S ON

T H E C A L L O F T H E S E A ( OI L P R I N T ) BY F R A N T I S E R S T RO U H A L

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U RO BO RO S ( S I LV E R G E L AT I N ) BY J SWOF F O R D

BARREL FIRE AND COMPANY (DIGITAL C AP T U R E ) BY J OS E P H ROT I N D O

T H E SA BOT E U R ( S I LV E R G E L AT I N ) BY TO D D B E H R E N DT

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T HE SHROUD (PL ATINUM/PALL ADIUM, OIL WASH) BY GARY G E BOY

REMN AN TS O F E N E RGY ( D I G I TA L T R A N S F E R P R I N T TO WA X ON P L A S T E R ) BY M I C H E L L E M A RC U S E

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F L E WE LY N ’ S T R E E S ( D I G I TA L CO L L AG E ) BY M I C H A E L VA N D E R TO L

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D ON ’ T G O , G O AWAY BY M AT T H E W D E R E Z I N S K I

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M OA B ( P I N H O L E S OL A RG R A P H ) BY B E C K Y R A M OTOWS KI

N ATIVE AMERIC AN HE A L I N G T R E E ( E D I T E D P I G M E N T P R I N T F ROM O R I G I N A L P OL A ROI D ) BY JA N E T P R I TC H A R D

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Diffusion

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CALL FOR ART DIFFUSION VOLUME III, 2011 Details on page 5 I M A G E : R E P R E S E N T AT I O N N O . 37 ( C A M E R A )

© CYNTHIA

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U S A / C a n a d a $ 12

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UNCONVENTIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY