Diffusion Volume III by One Twelve Publishing, LLC

Unconventional Photography

spotlight

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Jennifer F. schlesinger dan estabrook rita berNstein Jason e. kelley

ogle

kindle

absorb

• “Ortus” group showcase • Re-Imagining: Becky Comber, Kate Stone & Christopher Jordan • Critical Mass 2010 selections

• Charles Grogg & Ann Pallesen • “Sparking Creativity” by Libby Rowe • “Photo Alchemy” 23Sandy gallery portfolio winner: Alyssa Salomon

• “Adventures in Publishing” by Lauren Henkin • “Domesticity: a photo essay” by Zeb Andrews

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

Diffusion

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contents Founding Editor

Blue Mitchell

Sales & Marketing

Elizabeth Kale

Consultant

Re-Imagining by Blue Mitchell Jennifer F. Schlesinger profile by Buzzy Sullivan Adventures in Publishing by Lauren Henkin Dan Estabrook profile by Blue Mitchell Crtical Mass Editor’s Selections Rita Burnstein profile by Laura Valenti Jelen Domesticity by Zeb Andrews Plates to Pixels Juried Show Award Photo Alchemy Portfolio Prize - Alyssa Salomon Jason Kelley profile by Jake Shivery Kindle Inspiration with Charles Grogg Kindle Inspiration with Ann Pallesen Ortus Group Showcase Reviews Sparking Creativity by Libby Rowe

Scott Henjum

E-mail

info@diffusionmag.com

Web Site

diffusionmag.com

Diffusion - Unconventional Photography Volume III, 2011 ISBN# 978-0-9844432-0-15

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08. 14. 20. 24. 30. 32. 36. 39. 40. 42. 48. 52. 56. 80. 82.

from the editor

Limited Edition of 1,000

Diffusion (ISSN# 1943-8311) is published annually by One Twelve Publishing, LLC. 1631 NE Broadway #143., Portland, Oregon, 97232. Copyright © 2009-2011 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.

I’m so very proud to present Diffusion, Volume III. This annual is loaded with astonishing work and I’ve had to extend the page length to fit it all in. I’ve broken this annual into three theme categories. Ogle, Kindle, and Absorb. Ogle simply refers to a visual experience, which is where our big group showcase belongs—visual intensity! As well as an article featuring the surreal artistry of Becky Comber, Kate Stone, and Christopher Jordan. Kindle is a new section where I’ve asked prolific photographers and professionals their thoughts on inspiration and success in the business. This time around I’m delighted to feature the on the cover: work and motivational words of Charles Grogg and Ann Pallesen in this section. Also included in this section is an article by Libby Rowe on “Sparking Creativity” which speaks for itself. The Absorb section is loosely about gaining knowledge and thinking outside of the box. This is where our two other articles by Zeb Andrews and Lauren Henkin reside. But wait, there’s more! I’m especially elated to Spotlight four incredibly talented and ambitious artists that really define what ‘Unconventional Photography” means. Featuring Jennifer F. Schlesinger’s esoteric black and white pinholes; Rita Bernstein’s enchanting silver prints on Japanese Gambi; Jason E. Kelley’s narrative-in-motion, linear strip photography, and Dan Estabrook’s paramount mixed-media salt prints. All of these artists are so very passionate about what they do, the images they create, and it is all very evident in their work and interviews. Once again, I’ve asked other photographers to conduct the interviews so that we can really dive into the important questions from a variety of perspectives. This, in itself, is why Diffusion is so important to me—the willingness of contributors to stand on the other side of the lens, so to speak. Furthermore, I can’t thank all of you (contributors, artists, advertisers, and purchasers) enough for supporting my vision and launching the next chapter of Diffusion. Cheers, Blue Mitchell, Founding Editor

Object Diaspora #1 by Jennifer F. Sc hlesinger

contributors Zeb Andrews Contributing Writer

Libby Rowe Contributing Writer

Lauren Henkin

If you would know a few things about me, in no particular order; I am younger and shorter than you think I am. I carry a camera with me everywhere, literally. There are some nights I fall asleep thinking about photos I have yet to make. I do not think film is superior to digital, nor do I think digital is superior to film, I actually think believing either is an inferior way of approaching this art. I once dropped the same camera into the ocean twice, then I dropped it over a waterfall. Then it fell off my lap and out of the car and shattered on the sidewalk. It still works and I still use it. I have not made every mistake one can possibly make with a camera, but I am optimistic that one day I will.

Libby Rowe holds a Master of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Photography from Syracuse University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from the University of Northern Iowa. Her current work addresses the dual meaning of the term “dwelling” through images that use physical dwellings made from materials that, along with their environments, suggest subjects that might cause one to dwell. Rowe has exhibited her work nationally and internationally at venues that most recently include: Pool Art Fair in Miami, Art Prize in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Dwellings was exhibited as one of the finalists in the Grand Prix FotoFestiwal 2010 in Lodz, Poland. Rowe is in her second year as assistant professor of art and area head of photography at University of Texas at San Antonio and the chair of the South Central Region of the Society for Photographic Education.

Lauren Henkin is a photographic artist, consultant and designer living in Portland, Oregon. She has published two books, Displaced and Silence is an Orchard, with more in the works. She is also the voice behind Photo Radio, audio interviews on the visual arts. To contact her, please e-mail lauren@laurenhenkin. com.

Contributing Writer

Vanessa Kale Copy Editor

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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.

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laurenhenkin.com laurenhenkinbooks.com photoradioblog.com

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

Diffusion, Volume III, would not have been possible without the dedication and enlightening contributions from our volunteer writers and editors. A sincere thank you to each of you! Laura Valenti Jelen Jake Shivery Contributing Writer Contributing Writer

Buzzy Sullivan was born and raised in Montana, and spent his youth skateboarding and getting yelled at by his mother. After he graduated high school Buzzy traveled, and moved to San Francisco, then off to Chicago, and finally settled his bones in Portland, Oregon in 2002.

Laura Valenti Jelen is the Program Director of Newspace Center for Photography, a nonprofit photography center in Portland, Oregon. Jelen also curates for Newspace, teaches black and white darkroom classes, and juries widely for photography competitions and exhibitions. She also reviews for portfolio review events like Photolucida and Review Santa Fe. Jelen’s own photography is in the collection at the Museum of Contemporary Photography and in many private collections. Outside of photography, she is a halfmarathon running mentor for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program. Jelen’s degree is from Reed College.

desean Copy Editor

Buzzy Sullivan Contributing Writer

desean is a visual artist, photographer, poet and educator. His artwork captures the body in states of suspended quietude, evoking and transforming the reality of unreal worlds. Drawn to darkness, chiaroscuro, transparencies, intercalated skins and folds, he explores the notion of haptic visuality through the selective focus lenses of his digital camera.

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Currently, he is experimenting with emulsion lifts using analogue integral film, as well as alcohol lifts of pigment inks to paper and pigment ink emulsion lifts to stone paper.

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Jake Shivery has been working in the photographic industry for over 20 years. In 2001, when the photo industry began its surrender to the computer industry, Jake co-founded Blue Moon Camera and Machine, where he continues to help in the quixotic struggle to keep film-based processes viable and accessible. He has no intention of ever giving up.

Drawing from his experiences in new places he began screenprinting, and upon his arrival to Portland he picked up a camera and hasn’t stopped learning the medium from there. Buzzy has an unquenched hunger for any and all photographic information. His photo work spans many different processes using any means necessary to create visual imprints of what is going on in his mind. Buzzy is currently earning a BFA in photography from Oregon College of Art and Craft. In the minuscule amount of time he is not working on his photography he is most likely skateboarding. flickr.com/photos/buzzysullivan

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Also interested in book making, desean has designed hand bound, illustrated limited edition books of art and poetry, in English and French, flutterbooks and recently, printon-demand books. desean earned an MA in interactive arts and technology; his research focused on the aesthetics of haptic responsivity. He lives and works in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. kimono-designs.com/desean

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Re-Imag by Blue Mitchell

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hen I was young I spent many hours browsing through my parents’ library of books. My father had a few art books but my all time favorite was a collection of work by M.C. Escher. I found his vision and drawing style so tantalizing and inspiring. I would spend countless hours trying to dissect his drawings and recreate my own versions of the surreal images. They were science, math, and art all wrapped up into one. He played with the notion of perspective and pushed a 2d medium beyond 3d and into some alter world of plausible reality. The same can be said of these three photographers, Becky Comber, Kate Stone, and Christopher Jordan. They all use similar concepts yet very different processes of re-photographing to create surreal photographic environments. For the purpose of this article I’ve coined the term Re-Imagining—a combination of re-imaging and imagining something entirely new.

I stumbled upon Becky Comber’s work on the internet and I was taken by the collage/re-photographic style she was implementing. I’ve always been a fan of drawing and collage in photography and Comber is pushing this idea by confusing the viewer with a dichotomy of 2d and 3d objects and landscapes. She is playing with the notion of what is really seen and what is interpreted —she says that some of her works are transparency re-shoots. These images she produced out of reworking many 2 1/4 image frames, pasting them on a small piece of glass to explore selective focus, introduce texture, and then finally re-photograph them. “I am not a theory based artist and don’t go into a given project with much in the way of a firm vision. I have my set of re-occurring themes and interests and these often become the subject matter of the images, but my relationship with them and their content and its mood becomes highly malleable during the development of creating the aesthetic. In fact, I find when I have a specific vision, I am inevitably re-routed by the process and the momentum of where the aesthetic carries me. I work in a fluid and intuitive way and when I step away from the flurry of creation, I find the themes and greater meaning of my work becomes more clear, in a way that I could never plan in advance.” Comber’s fluid way of creation and collage process allows the viewer to see the evidence of the artist’s hand in her work, as well as convince us that things aren’t as straight forward as they seem.

Top left: you’re too far away (the forbidden hours can eat you alive) Middle left: infinite pines (ontario revisited) bottom left: cloud explosion (the forbidden hours can eat you alive) by bec ky comber

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it still had all its teeth (at the seams) by kate stone

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Colin Range (Canadian Road Windows) by bec ky comber

Suburban Sublime #12 by c hristopher jordan

spotlight Jennifer Schlesinger Interview by Buzzy Sullivan

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When and how did you find your creative voice within the it happens to all creative people. Writers call it “writer’s art of photography? block”, artists call it ‘depression’ (that’s a joke, sort of ). I I was introduced to photography when I was taking time know we can get so down when the creative juices aren’t off from college. After trying out the University of New flowing. A very good artist friend of mine, Nancy Sutor, Hampshire and not having much inspiration studying had wonderful advice for me that I have totally used during political science, I moved to Atlanta to live with some such down times. She suggested that, when you aren’t friends. I was twenty and a friend put a camera in my hand, feeling creative, you pick up reading material. Read books, a Pentax K 1000. I was hooked. I got a job at a photo lab, magazines, online articles, anything and everything that and learned how to process C-41 and learned how to print can inspire you through all forms of the arts. And, this has in the darkroom. The first photographic show I ever saw worked. The other thing I have learned is to keep shooting, was that same year, a show by Sebastiao Salgado. My first even if I feel that what I’m making isn’t good; the process of steps with the camera began with street photography in working, works out these kinks, and eventually leads to more Atlanta. Then I moved to Santa Fe to finally ‘settle down’ inspiration. As it turns out, what I may have not thought was to study photography; I was good work, sometimes takes twenty-three and I continued “I was always drawn to the dark mood of on a life of its own. Or, an with the documentary style. that I try may not work, photography, and loved emphasizing the idea However, it really wasn’t until but leads me to another way I was well graduated and of approaching it, setting me light within the dark...” out of school, working at a off onto a creative path. Santa Fe based organization called the Art & Science Santa Fe seems to have a Laboratory, that my voice diverse photo community. was born. I was immersed How has living in Santa Fe in a type of residency affected your art making? there, having picked up an Well, when I first moved influence of Woody and here, as I said, I was drawn to Steina Vasulka who were the grit of street photography pioneers in video art. Always in Atlanta. I moved here and drawn to the dark mood felt, “Where’s the grit?” I of photography, I loved started to feel like I wasn’t emphasizing the light within inspired here at all. However, the dark, showing form and that changed, of course, and shape through the subtleties the inspiration of this place in abstract landscape. This set took form in a new way. I the tone for my work for the looked inward rather than next eleven years, until today. outward. In other words, I stopped photographing Do you ever hit plateaus people and really focused in your art, making you on what inspired me. And feel uninspired, and, if so, that’s how my relationship to how do you get your ideas nature was cultivated through flowing again? my photography. After Oh yes, of course. I think giving birth to my daughter Object Diaspora #33 by jennifer f. sc hlesinger

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PR Object Diaspora #27 by jennifer f. sc hlesinger

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absorb Adventures in Publishing by Lauren Henkin

I had no idea how important having that dummy would be.

I went through the reviews, didn’t get a book deal, but I realized a few key things about that project and about the type of photographer I am. I understood that having a book dummy with you at these kinds of events enables many more people to view your work. You can simultaneously show prints to one person and hand the book off to someone else to view. Also, I discerned that my work is perfect for this kind of viewing experience. I tell slowly building, quiet tales, ones that take time to grapple with, and ones where the sum of the parts is greater than the individual images. I realized that viewers don’t want one chapter of a story from me, they want the whole book. Understanding that key fact would alter everything moving forward, especially how I decided to market my work. I knew that I would have to publish this as a book, even though I had no idea how to. Being a huge advocate of fine printing and the value of the handmade, I knew that I did not want to go the route of book. Instead, I wanted to create an artist book. I had a pretty good sense from the beginning what I wanted the book to look like, I knew what colors I wanted for the cover and the text, I had a foundation for sequencing that may

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wo years ago I decided to attend Photolucida’s portfolios reviews in Portland, Oregon. It was my first time going to such an event. I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know what kind of impact it would have on my career, or my work. As soon as I signed up to attend, I decided that the work I wanted to show was from 2007, a series I had completed about the breakup of my marriage titled Displaced. The work was presented in two parts, the first half were images taken in Nova Scotia, Canada, the second half, outside of Washington, DC. When I went to Nova Scotia, I had planned on this work being a book. I didn’t know in what format, how big, or even how it would be funded, but I instinctually knew that the best way to tell this story was going to be in someone’s hands, where they could take it in, piece by piece, and slowly. In preparing for Photolucida, I knew I would show prints, but about two weeks before the event, I realized that I really wanted to put a book dummy together, mostly because I had a few key reviews set up—one with Melanie McWhorter, the Book Division Manager for photo-eye, one with Robert Morton, an independent book agent, and others. I met and worked with Kirsten Rian, a Portland curator who has vast experience in book sequencing and editing, and we selected images and sequenced the book. I printed one copy and had it hand-bound locally.

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only need some minor editing, and had essays written. working on the application. I mean I really worked it. I began meeting with some of the other artisans that I revised and revised and revised the text, my budget, would help in the creation of this work, John DeMerritt of everything. I even turned it in early to get a chance to have John DeMerritt Bookbinding in Emeryville, California and a one-on-one with one of the grant officers and get valuable Inge Bruggeman of Textura Printing in Portland, Oregon. I feedback before then having one last chance to revise and wanted John because he had a very high profile list of clients, turn in the final application. I ended up winning a grant for binding for Robert Adams (a hero of mine), David Maisel, $5,000. I was off and running. and Richard Misrach. I knew he would add a high level of Encouraged by my success with RACC, I made a list quality, craft, expertise, and credibility to the project that of materials I’d be using in the project ranging from Epson I would need especially on my first book. I knew Inge’s ink to Moab paper. I decided to approach my local photo work and reputation for producing beautiful works on her supply store here in Portland, ProPhoto Supply, and show own and for others. It was them a copy of the dummy impeccable. It is nearly “I knew that I would have to publish this as a to discern if they might be impossible to do something interested in sponsoring book, even though I had no idea how to.” right the first time, but the project. I would I felt that with the two offer them, in return, of them working with me on this, I would stand a better recognition in the book as well as on my web site. I ended chance of succeeding. up leaving the book with one of the salesmen at the counter. I set a budget for the project, realizing it would cost He said that he would pass it around. I honestly didn’t about $10,000 in total to complete an edition of sixty plus expect to hear anything back. But alas, about a week later I 5 artist proofs plus another 5 for review copies and copies got a call from the Manager of ProPhoto. We chatted about for John and Inge. So the total for actual production would the book for a bit, he commented that he really liked it, and be seventy. I didn’t have $10,000. I didn’t have $500. I appreciated the craft of what I was trying to produce. He was stuck. I didn’t know how I would pay for this. After offered me a discount on ink and asked if I would mind if thinking about it for a while, a few things happened. One, he showed it to the Vice President of Sales for Moab Paper, Inge recommended that I apply for a RACC (Regional who happened to be coming by the store later that week. Arts & Culture Council) grant, opportunities provided to Sure! I was so thrilled about the discounted ink, that I individual artists living in Oregon, and two, I got my nerve didn’t give Moab another thought. But, another week passes up to ask the business community for help. and I get a call about the Moab Rep being in the store, and I set forth to apply for the grant. I spent a full 6 weeks would I like to come by and meet him. YES. I get over

opposite left: summer (displ aced p. ii) by l auren henkin opposite right: untitled #14 (displ aced p. ii) by l auren henkin

top left: untitled #12 (displ aced p. ii) by l auren henkin top right: on the line (displ aced p. i) by l auren henkin

spotlight Dan Estabrook Interview by Blue Mitchell

my photographic interests with other things like sculpture, drawing and painting. As I thought more about painting I knew I wanted to start adding watercolor to my salt prints, and something about that combination struck me—water Can you tell me a little about your background and what + salt = the sea.... The few early images I had begun with brought you to the arts? fit nicely with this idea of being “At Sea.” It’s the beginning Well I grew up drawing from about as far back as I can of an adventure, as well as a term for being lost. Ever since remember. I think I was always an arty kid, and even took making that small group of “Nine Symptoms” I felt I was after-school classes at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts better able to work in a dreamier, or slightly more surreal through high school. I also had a skateboarding ‘zine mode, whereby images would come to me more in dreams, and was really into my own homegrown design ideas. I with less sense but more meaning perhaps. Having such a even started doing a little resonant theme as “At Sea”—a photography then. When nice combination of concept “ I felt I was better able to work in a dreamier, I went to college I took my and method—allowed those or slightly more surreal mode, whereby artistic interests for granted sorts of images to arise more and decided to study almost fully on their own. images would come to me more in dreams” anything else—archaeology, classics, or something When working on projects academic like that. That idea do you tend to focus on lasted about a week. one series at a time or are your projects happening Have you any mentors that concurrently? There are always a few projects have played a significant part circling around each other at in your artist growth? once, but generally the ideas I wouldn’t be the artist I overlap as I work on them am today if I hadn’t met together. From time to time, Christopher James in my first week at Harvard. I stumbled there are also pieces that just into his Photography class belong somewhere else, either and that was that... Even from later pieces that are part of the beginning, Christopher an earlier series or brand-new taught how to work and think things that precede a body of like an artist, and his very work I haven’t even thought of expansive ideas about what yet. I try not to make series so Photography could be opened complete that pieces from each me up to the work I do still. cannot be shown with others. Since the contexts and ideas Can you describe the process intertwine, new groupings you use to arrive at your make new stories. current body of work “At Sea”, both technically and I’m quite fond of your image philosophically. Five Fingers. Did this image For some time I have been come to you in a dream? Sort of... I had kept the pursuing ways to combine

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Where did you grow up? Where do you currently reside? I was born and raised in Boston, MA, but have been in Brooklyn NY for 15 years now. It absolutely feels like home.

self portrait with barnacles (at sea) by dan estabrook

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PR nine symptoms by dan estabrook

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at sea (at sea) by dan estabrook

candle stubs on my studio desk for years, since they always looked like the tips of fingers to me, but I was never quite sure how to make a piece from them. As I was cramming to finish work for my At Sea show, I found myself exhausted, thinking about all the “sea” puns and metaphors as I fell asleep one night. I suddenly realized those five fingers were “waving” goodbye, and I just had to get up out of bed to finish the piece.

of this at the Center for Photography at Woodstock this Summer, in a class about Photography and Memory. Also, I’ve been lucky enough to teach a few 8-week concentrated courses at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, where I get to help the students build a body of alternativeprocess work through intensive critiques, but there we have the rare luxury of time. Many of your images are framed uniquely with what looks like oval windows, is this a nod to historical photography? Absolutely. The oval mats and other shapes are a direct reference to book illustrations, like the photos in medical texts, and I almost always use an older style of frame for each piece. I want a viewer’s first reaction to be one of wonder—Is this a found photograph? An old thing, lost and rediscovered?

“ Is this a found photograph? An old thing, lost and rediscovered?”

You also teach photography at the Center for Alternative Photography and F295. What would one of your intensive workshops cover? Usually I teach processes and techniques - the Salt Print, or Gum Bichromate, or a variety of others. However I am getting more interested in having a discussion about the wherefores and not just the how-tos. I’ll be trying a version

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What Is Critical Mass? Critical Mass is an annual online program geared towards creating connections within the photography community. Photographers at any level, from anywhere in the world, submit portfolios for review. Through a pre-screening process, the field is narrowed to a select group of 175 Finalists who go on to have their work reviewed and voted on by over 200 esteemed international photography professionals. Each year,at least one finalist is awarded a published monograph of their work.. Photolucida publishes and distributes the titles, giving copies of the books to all participating photographers and Jurors.

CRITICAL MASS

Photolucida is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Photolucida awards merit-based scholarships to our Reviews to Oregon photographers, and to international photographers in Critical Mass. Dedicated to increasing understanding through photography, Photolucida also donates Critical Mass books to over 30 Oregon art schools, colleges, and libraries.

Ariadne by L auren Semivan

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OBSERVE by Heather Johnston

The Wave by Isa Leshko

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ASS SELECTIONS The Storm by Daniel a Edburg

The Heart by Kevin Van Aelst

Bindle by Dianne Kornberg (in coll aboration with Elisabeth Frost, Poet)

Dusk House by Rac hel Phillips

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spotlight Rita Bernstein Interview by Laura Valenti Jelen

drawn to pictures which offer a glimpse into these intimate and enigmatic moments. I work intuitively, usually discovering rather than orchestrating my pictures, and gravitating toward situations that are evocative of my own memories, fears, and longings. I tend not to know precisely what I am looking for until I find it, which sometimes causes me to lose heart when I go through long dry spells. Apart from photography, what are some of your other passions? Do your other passions inspire your photography? I’ve been a long distance runner for more than 35 years. I take a camera and a notebook with me in a fanny pack and I use both frequently ( I seem to see, and think, more acutely when I’m running). Ghost of Summer in Gallery Four on my website is a recent picture taken on my run. I also read a lot, including poetry —I was an English major in college—and that seems to feed my photography. I find poetry particularly satisfying because it has both an abstract and a musical quality that most fiction lacks, as well as leaving more space for the reader’s imagination. It also typically makes the reader work harder. Some of my favorite poets are: C.D. Wright, Jane Kenyon, Ruth Stone, and Sharon Olds.

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How long have you been photographing seriously? What drew you to photography? I began to photograph in earnest in the early 1990’s, a point in my life when I had recently left my career as a civil rights lawyer and had two young children to whom I was tethered. Initially, I intended to make the kinds of pictures any doting mother would but, in fact, the transition from office to home was difficult for me, and that truth quickly showed up in my photographs. I explored the sorrows as well the sweetness of family life and, more generally, the ambivalence that shadows intimate relationships. In watching my own children, I was reminded of the conflicts and restlessness that pervaded my own youth. Tell us about your transition from the world of civil rights law to the art world. Does your past career inform your current art making in any way? I have always been very interested in people and how they relate to one another, both of which are core issues in civil rights law. Lawyers, however, tend to be very left-brained which is a way of thinking that gets in the way of making art.

What is your vision for your work? What do you hope to convey with your imagery? I am fascinated by how complicated people are, and how mysterious. And how difficult it is to really understand another person’s experience. All of that is mixed up in my work.

I know you photograph your children—how do they feel about being photographed? How do you work with them to create the images? I have photographed my daughter very frequently over the years, but I never really viewed the pictures as specifically about her (nor did she) or about my gaze as

The work is very emotional and personal—can you talk about the emotions the work brings up for you? We each live to some extent in our own private interior world. I am

bl ac k bird by rita bernstein

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“parent.” Rather, I am exploring memories, and emotions, of my own childhood. The most valuable thing about photographing one’s family, of course, is the incredible access: when the light is just right, there they are. So it can be very intuitive and spontaneous. Over the years, I have continued occasionally to photograph children, but it is no longer my intention to examine childhood specifically. Rather, the uninhibited behavior of young people is a rich clue to the interior life generally; with awkwardness and eloquence, children practice the same complex psychological and social dramas with which we continue to struggle as adults. I was entranced equally by their grace and their missteps; they would falter and make midcourse corrections, and they almost never gave up.

The L ast Time by rita bernstein

“...children practice the same complex psychological and social dramas with which we continue to struggle as adults”

Tell us about your process and the first time you tried the technique with your images— was it love at first sight? I am hand applying silver emulsion (liquid light) to handmade paper. The process is very fickle, unpredictable, and frustrating. Sometimes I can spend a whole week in the darkroom and not get a single keeper. So it definitely wasn’t love at first sight! But I had been searching for some time for a process that was sympathetic to my imagery. In both my pictures and my prints, I am courting the imperfect, the messy, the raw, and the vulnerable. Also, I have never gotten the knack of digital negatives and, with this process, I am able to use my own medium format film in my enlarger. The wet darkroom is still a happy and creative place for me.

Garden by rita bernstein

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absorb Domesticity a photo essay by Zeb Andrews

cure is rest and stretching, particularly in the early stages. So during the spring of that year, though inclined to be out creating images in the natural and urban areas around Portland, I was instead forced to lay a bit low and let my body recuperate. I worked when I could, but some days I was amazed that I was even able to get up and moving at all. The rest of the time I spent on the couch... or the floor. Initially, this immobility was a frustrating experience, but that changed with the dryer experience. While limping around the house one day, I decided that sciatic nerve or not, I was going to create some photographs. My physical limitations were nothing, I figured, as long as I did not creatively limit myself. At one point, my slow path around the house took me into the laundry room, and decided that I wanted to see what the world looked like from inside the dryer. A lot of my photography is the result of asking myself questions and attempting to answer them, and this—what does it look like from in there? seemed the perfect question. So, after a moment’s thought, I went and found my pinhole camera. This camera seemed a natural fit for answering the question at hand. It has an extremely wide angle field of view, which would enable me to photograph the interior of the dryer along with the laundry room outside of it. The camera’s wooden body is also light enough

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his story begins, innocuously enough, with a clothes dryer. Not in the dryer, mind you, as I am a bit too big to fit inside one anymore. However, that conflict —regarding my size and the interior of the dryer—was nonetheless the place this tale began. Imagine this: a drizzly spring day in Portland, a photographer physically hobbled by a bad case of sciatica, but that same photographer quite eager to roam creatively. Through that ordinary set of circumstances I found myself standing in the laundry room of my house, staring curiously into the clothes dryer. Before we discuss that dryer in depth, allow me to explain a few things about myself and my situation at that time. I am a physically active photographer; I like to hike and make trips from the beaches of Oregon to the tops of its peaks. Even when not out solely for the purpose of photography, I still carry my cameras and make photographs everywhere I go. However, late in the winter of 2010, I tweaked my back on one such excursion. This led to a case of sciatica, which is an inflammation of the sciatic nerve—a nerve that runs down the length of each leg. Trust my experience on this matter when I say that you should avoid messing with your sciatic nerve. It is uncomfortable to say the least, and unfortunately (in terms of being a physically active), the best

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4th Annual Juried Exhibition

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Juried by Jennifer Schwartz (jenniferschwartzgallery.com)

Best of Show Award “My Lips” Biscuit Tin Pinhole by Nhung Dang (www.nhungsta.com) To view the rest of the award winners and full exhibition visit www.platestopixels.com

portfolio Alyssa C. Salomon

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Portfolio Prize Winner (www.alyssasalomon.com)

top: of all the might y world of eye & ear bottom left: Morning starts at first light, light starts at pink

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bottom right: Immersion

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Photo Alchemyâ&#x20AC;?: A Juried Exhibition of Contemporary Alternative Process Photography

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23 Sandy Gallery, Portland Oregon, April 2011, Juried by Laura Moya www.23sandy.com

top left: bet ween the thing itself & the naming of the thing top middle: Water Walker

top right: birds hang motionless bottom: these wild ecstasies (for A . Siskin)

volum e III , 2 011

spotlight Jason Kelley Interview by Jake Shivery

Jason Kelley and Jake Shivery have been best pals for damn near a decade. They have spent most of that time talking, at length, about photography. For the purposes of this interview, they settled in to comfortable surroundings with their dogs and plenty of whiskey and then set about trying to describe Jason’s relationship with strip photography in fifteen hundred words or less.

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actively trying to distort reality, and I knew I had to get back to that—from the first time I picked up a camera, I was working on distortion—with different lenses, focus shifts, focal length, and now with moving film. Even though it feels like I have a long way to go, and I’ll probably always have a long way to go, strip photography has finally afforded me that proper distortional balance for the ideas in my head, yet still leaving me plenty of room for evolution. Basically, So, why use strip photography over a more “traditional” the form resonates better with what I have to say. At the form of photography? same time, the narratives and With traditional photography, my thought processes have been “...strip photography has finally the focus is on the still image. heavily influenced by what strip afforded me that proper distortional Photographers go to great lengths photography does to the image. to set up a still image. But with balance for the ideas in my head...” I’m going to guess it’s like that strip photography, the emphasis with every art form, the medium is on what’s moving. And what can be done with what’s will always influence the direction of the work, while still moving. being complementary to your personal artistic process. There certainly is a lot of movement. And I’m seeing things I’ve never seen before. I’ve never seen a centurion battling a druid at Stonehenge, for instance. With that particular image, I was trying to illustrate a warp in time. I’m not sure I would’ve felt comfortable trying to illustrate that concept without a sense of movement.

I’ve been watching your photographic evolution for the last couple of years and observing your slow slide over towards a more narrative style. Care to speak about the importance of narrative form in strip photography? In the past, the narratives that I’ve seen in my head, I’ve never been able to handle them properly as a still image. But strip photography imbues the image with a kinetic energy, a sense of movement—something is happening. This is important for the ideas in my head because everything needs to be moving around. It doesn’t make sense otherwise, to me anyway.

In the past, you’ve worked with other forms: mirror lenses, pinhole, and some of my personal favorite work, the photo booth project. And the photo booth was, or is, fun, but it’s just that—it’s my fun photography. It gives me something to do at parties. I enjoy doing it, but I feel like I’ve hit the ceiling with it, creatively speaking. Photo Booth was the only time I wasn’t

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Let’s use that segue to talk about process. We’re lashing together this interview so that there will be some context for folks looking at the images in Diffusion, Volume III. How important do you think this is, and are you happy

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Tea Part y by jason e. kelley

Oc khamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Razor by jason e. kelley

The Thief by jason e. kelley

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Grogg

kindle Charles Grogg

go to a portfolio review, that early work is mostly crap. I’ll tell you now: You’re talented. OK? You have talent. Shoot, print, edit, repeat. Wait years before you show anyone your work because our economy is based on branding and marketing, not on achievement and aesthetics. Don’t be a fool. Protect your work, guard it, learn it. When something clicks inside you and you realize you no longer have a single ounce of defensiveness about your work, then show it. Of course, you have to look at photographs. Do you remember Ivan Lendl, the tennis great? I heard once that his coach would have him sit and stare at a tennis ball for 20 minutes, yelling out adjectives the whole time. You have to focus, right? You don’t see that ball, you don’t control it. And you have to read. Todd Papageorge at Yale says, “If your images aren’t good enough, you aren’t reading enough.” We recognize poorly written artist statements pretty easily, but how often do we recognize redundant images or kitsch or work that falls flat as essentially the result of one’s flawed reading and thinking habits?

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What inspired you to become a photographer? The sensuousness of the medium. I recently went to wall space gallery in Santa Barbara and saw a bromoil print by Jennifer Hudson. I had never seen her work before, barely noticed her other work hanging adjacent to this one image, and yet I knew on the spot that I was going to buy the print. It shook me. It reminded me how photography can vibrate, how not only can its subject matter resonate with us, but its surface calls us as well. I think because we hang photographs in our homes to remind ourselves of something important such as our relationships, a meaningful visit somewhere, our milestones, the people in our lives who have passed, we expect photography to invite us back again and again. Other visual media can have this effect as well, but the particular association we have with photography as a vernacular practice informs our artistic practice. Who looks at a photograph and is afraid to respond? But that is hardly the case with so many other media.

Q&A by Blue Mitchell

From your perspective, what is one of the most Charles Grogg (b.1966, Gary, important things a budding Indiana) is an American photographer could do to be contemporary artist and successful? Atomic 1 (RECONSTRUCTIONS) by c harles grogg photographer. He is currently You have to be careful about residing in southern California where he produces fractured thinking in terms of being a “successful photographer” and photographic images printed in platinum and palladium on be open to what your process is—not the physical process handmade Japanese washi which are restitched into whole of printing images, but the whole process from ideation to images and frequently feature tethers, sutures or other three creative impulse to execution of an image. Each step in your dimensional productions. The resulting images focus on issues of process has the potential to be an art in itself because its growth and restraint, hesitation and power. execution depends on your biases and predilections. Rather Grogg’s recent work emerges from the early Vik Muniz, than get tracked, it’s better to explore new ideas as you arrive from Robert Fichter, Thomas Barrow, and Andy Warhol’s at them. sewn multiples, as well as his dedication to cross-disciplinary Rilke tells his inquisitor in “Letters to a Young Poet” modalities. that “ten years is nothing” in the practice of an art. (By the way, that book means something to me now entirely different from what it meant to me when I read it in my 20s.) Ten years seems like a long time, but we should remember, before slapping down several hundred dollars to

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Charles Grogg is currently represented by Joseph Bellows Gallery, wall space gallery, John Cleary Gallery, and Galerie BMG.

www.charlesgroggphotography.net opposite: Rescuing Victory (RECONSTRUCTIONS) by c harles grogg

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Ortus

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group showcase selections

From His Birth by gail pine

The Latin term Ortus (noun) means a rise, beginning, origin and the adjective refers to a birth or descending. For the purposes of this call to art I took into account both meanings. During the production year of Diffusion, volume III, my wife was pregnant and our baby girl arrived in the fall. I thought the theme would be appropriate as a metaphor for my own life experience but also an intriguing leitmotif I see in contemporary photographic works. This group of artists showcase innovative, highly stylized work that challenges the notion of what photography is. A culmination of the re-birthing of antiquated processes balanced with the origins of the current methods of

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unconventional photography. I commend all the group showcase artists for their experimentation and lack of fear with their image-making. Each year I find there are a few artists’ portfolios that seem to resonate with the theme and I feel compelled to feature their work. Congratulations to Gail Pine and Niniane Kelley for their contributions—embrace their work in the next few pages as our featured Ortus photographers. Thanks to all the photographers who submitted, I had over 500 images to review for this call, most of which were very well done, but I couldn’t envision them all fitting under the Ortus umbrella.

ortus Gail Pine

the black pictures

I usually search out photos with small subjects that are not obscured; these create a sense of solitude in the final pieces. Using a regular enlarger and wet darkroom, I place the snapshot, emulsion side down, onto photographic paper, then insert both in a contact frame used to make cyanotypes. I then spill light onto it from the enlarger. The paper then goes through the usual chemicals to the finished print. Striving to create unconventional prints, I use a beautiful, velvety Eastern European fiberbased gelatin silver paper to produce a matt surface with wonderful nuances.

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My current body of work is about the re-birthing of found photos, giving them a new life. I hunt down snapshots at flea markets and “contact” print them. They enjoy reverse lives—afterlives—as negative prints. Because I shoot light through paper instead of film negatives, I am able to realize finished prints that are mercurial. In many of them, I enjoy observing the grain of the paper. Each snapshot has its own unique characteristics, contrast and flaws, presenting a veritable challenge for me to produce a body of work with continuity. The prints are small, in keeping with the nature of contact printing, giving them a sense of intimacy.

An Ec ho by gail pine

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Delicate Stems by gail pine

The Stillness Broken by gail pine

A T wo-fold Silence by gail pine

ortus Niniane Kelley lellaraPParallel

The prints for this series are crafted using the 19th century gum bichromate process which, with its hand-applied emulsions and multiple layers of pigments, gives each piece its own unique character. The images are shot with natural light on medium format black and white film and developed in pyro, the negatives are then scanned and digitally printed to produce the enlarged negative required to make a contact print. Emulsions consisting of potassium dichromate, gum arabic, and watercolor pigment are coated onto fine art paper and exposed to UV light in contact with the enlarged negative. The finished print consists of three separate exposures printed in registration, each semi-translucent layer building upon the previous one while still allowing the printed image underneath to show through. Each layer must be fully developed and dried before subsequent layers can be applied, every print spending at least two days in process.

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Parallel brings together the human figure and natural forms in a search for a similitude, a reflection in both the shape of the forms and the emotional expression they convey. The imagery and the pairing of the forms is an investigation into universality of the human condition and its connection with the natural world. Every piece begins from observation, simply being aware of the small moments of beauty in the everyday, the curve of a flower stem or the arch of a back, and appreciating the similarities we often overlook. The fundamental nature of beauty is simultaneously impermanent and eternal; the object itself exists only brieflyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the blossom has since faded, the body continues to ageâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but the documentation of that moment allows them to continue on as a surrogate for the enduring beauty that they represent. By isolating them from their normal contexts and presenting them in association with one another it allows us to focus on the inherent elegance of nature and our connection with it.

palm by niniane kelley

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Hovering Bet ween Us II by L aura Hartford

Flight by polly c handler

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Field Trip by Juliana Cal a

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PR a part of by s. gayle stevens

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Untitled (Wrought Iron) by Lisa McCart y

branc hes by lori bell

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Dryad by Heather Leavitt

Andromeda , The C hained Princess by Kirsten Hoving

Sustain by jessica somers

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PR bl ac k wings by polly c handler

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PR St Patric ks Catherdral No.2 by Mic hael Kirc hoff

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untitled #3 by grace kim

The Quarry by Catie Soldan

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Hall Of Rebirth by Mic hael Kirc hoff

high water by Jeffrey Crowe

the in bet ween by Brianna M. Burnett

Untitled by Brenda Biondo

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Paris with four sunny glimpses by Tarja Trygg

Cosmic L andscape I by Bec ky Ramotowski

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From Winter to Summer by Tarja Trygg

Colorbang 1 by Ross Sonnenberg

Earth, Wind, Fire and Water by Gregg D. Kemp

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Steens Mountain by deon reynolds

Pappaw by Rebecca Leigh Harl an

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futuregrove by Colin Edgington

Bamiyan Valley, homel and of the Hazaras by Teresa Nabais

Origin by Elspeth Maxwell

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Bought Our Home Today â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Sept. 15, 1925 by Barbara J. Dombac h

Self -Image (orange) by Catlin Harrison

fish by rebecca cl ark

Sol ar by Mic hel PINCAUT

The Opportunist by buzzy sullivan

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exit/entry by john bridges

snow II by Ric hard Hric ko

Galveston After Ike by Nicole Campanello o rt us - g roup s h owc a s e 2 011

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PR Solstice by R贸mulo Pe帽a

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PR Roots by L aura Hartford

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ortus Ortus Contributors

Kirsten Hoving: kirstenhovingphotographs.com Laura Hartford: laurahartford.com Lisa McCarty: lisamccarty.com Lori Bell: loribell.com Matt Frantz: mattfrantz.com Michael Kirchoff: michaelkirchoff.com Michel Pincaut: michelpincaut.art.officelive.com Nicole Campanello : no website available Niniane Kelley: ninianekelley.com Polly Chandler: pollychandler.com Rebecca Clark: clarkandlong.com Rebecca Harlan: shownd.com/beckyharlan Richard Hricko: richardhricko.com R贸mulo Pe帽a: flickr.com/photos/r0mp3 Ross Sonnenberg: webpan.com/rossart Ryan Zoghlin: rfoto.com S. Gayle Stevens: sgaylestevens.com Tarja Trygg: solargraphy.com Teresa Nabais: teresanabais.com

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Barbara J. Dombach: barbarajdombach.com Becky Ramotowski: beckyramotowski.my-expressions.com Brenda Biondo: brendabiondo.com Brian Jolley: brianjolley.com Brianna Burnett: briannaburnett.com Buzzy Sullivan: flickr.com/photos/buzzysullivan Catie Soldan: catiesoldan.com Catlin Harrison: catlinharrison.com Colin Edgington: colinedgington.com Deon Reynolds: deonreynolds.com Elspeth Maxwell: elspethmaxwell.com Gail Pine: gailpine.com Grace Kim: grace-kim.com Greg Kemp: greggkemp.com Heather Leavitt: heatherleavitt.com Holly Bynoe: hbynoe.com Jeffrey Crowe: jcroweart.wordpress.com Jessica Somers: jessicasomers.com John Bridges: johnbridgesphotography.com Juliana Cala: julianacala.blogspot.com

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primordial by s. gayle stevens

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PR Imperial by HOLLY BYNOE

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book & dv Within Shadows

Photographs by Susan Burnstine

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Text by George Slade, Russell Joslin, Susan Burnstine, Susan Spiritus Turning the pages of Within Shadows is like secretly peering into Burnstine’s (very detailed) private journal. I almost feel as though I may have experienced a similar dream, or was it a distant memory? Burnstine guides us on a journey through her haunting night terrors in chapters. In the included interview, by Russell Joslin (Shots magazine), she explains how the chapters each have their own methodology in depicting symbolism, metaphors, emotions, and finally the struggle to awaken. Although the work is derived from a dark subconscious place, I can’t help but see the deeply seeded sense of enlightenment that comes to the surface in the images. Burnstine’s masterful use of light, hand-crafted image capture and overall esthetic are rounded off in this hard-cover, square-format book. 45 duotones are included and for the price and quality I’d say this is a steal, don’t be surprised if she sells out by the end of year.

Charta Editions, 2011 100 pages, 45 duotones You can buy the book and more images from the series on her website: www.susanburnstine.com

Plastic Cameras: Toying With Creativity, 2nd Edition

Michelle Bates

For the sake of room, I won’t go into this book in it’s entirety, it would wouldn’t make sense anyway, sense we are looking at the second edition. Other than already being the “go-to” book for plastic camera enthusiasts, Bates has added a few sections and new portfolios to the new edition. In particular, Chapter 11, Alternative Process and Presentation, gives us a brief history of some antiquated ways of working and how they appeal to toy camera shooters. Bates also mentions making digital negatives and goes into some unique presentation ideas, and inspiration. The presentation section has great examples by Rosanna Salonia, Gyorgy Beck, and Matthew Gordon Yates. In Chapter 2, Plastic Portfolios, we are treated with a visual history of plastic cameras and a great variety of current styles by some pretty outstanding photographers. My favorite additions to this edition is the ever enchanting Holga dioramas by Jennifer Shaw “Hurricane Stories” (who’s own book is due out this

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year). I was also happy to see a few Louviere + Vanessa pieces and a mention to their Holga film “Repetition/ Compulsion”—a great example of artists pushing plastic tools to the limit. Overall, Plastic Cameras delivers it’s mission “Toying with Creativity” wonderfully with a wide range of artists for inspiration, a good overview of shooting, modifying, and printing, and has a great resource section in the back for further exploration. My only real criticism is there’s very little coverage of pinHolga photography... but you can bet the 3rd Edition will have that covered! www.toyingwithcreativity.com

vd reviews Wondering About Pictorialsm

Irina Dakhnovskaia-Lawton Text by Stephen Perloff

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I had the pleasure of meeting Irina at PhotoNola in December of last year and preview her hand-made artist book “Wondering About Pictorialism” coupled by the original photogravures. The intimacy and scale of the originals draws you into the narrative of the human condition in relationship to the natural world. Dakhnovskaia-Lawton was inspired by Alfred Stieglitz’s early Camera Work publications where she has drawn from the pictorial style and created these miniature windows (3”x2”) depicting the world through her eyes. All this impeccably presented in a limited edition artist book. Surprisingly the reproductions are so close in tone and detail to the original, it’s as though each page is photogravure itself. I may be biased to artists books, but this one is brilliantly executed and a wonder to hold. You can view the book and more images from the series on her website: www.irina-lawton.com

Near the Egress (DVD) 5:37

Antonio Martinez

Near the Egress is the first stop-motion film I’ve seen made from dryplate tintypes—over 800 of them originally shot at a circus performance. Martinez spent three years with the project from shooting, printing and then finally animating. What makes the animation unique in comparison to straight stop-motion is the photographic process of the tintypes lends to a transformative quality in the images as area of the plates have different hues and exposures. This effect allows for a dreamy presence or as Jim Casper of Lensculture put it “The effect is like a dream or a very distant memory. I love the random chemical colors and smears and light leaks created during the tintype process. And the moody soundtrack seems perfectly in-sync with every flash and flutter and gracefully stuttering movement.” On top of showing the film at numerous film festivals, Martinez has also been exhibiting the original tintypes at galleries along with the film (most recently

at Blue Sky Gallery here in Portland, Oregon) creating a multimedia experience you don’t often get with photography based exhibitions. You can buy the film from the Lensculture website (www.lensculture.com) or view it online at Martinez’s website. www.antoniom.com volum e III , 2 011

absorb Sparking Creativity by Libby Rowe

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he number one question cameras at the ready to record any that innocently ushers image or idea that presents itself. from the lips of students: Having a book in which to collect “Why do I need to shoot more visual and written information, than one roll of film if I get what where you can easily flip through I need for the assignment?” My to find similar veins of interest, answer, “When has it ever been connect strings of thoughts and enough to stop brainstorming define underlying interests is when you have one good idea?” essential to identify creative sparks How often is your first good as well as discern your creative idea your best idea? Do you ever kindling. turn in a first draft of a paper? Introspection vs. reaction: Making good art takes patience Figuring out what makes you tick. and practice. Asking for a certain I am amazed at the number of number of rolls or exposures is students who cannot identify not a structured torture. I assure something they care about or are at you that your instructors ask you very least interested in, especially to continue the exploration and something beyond the boundaries development of an idea beyond of art. Ask questions of yourself: your initial (or second, third, What matters to you? What do fourth) idea to engage you in the you need to say? When you find true process of being an artist. yourself in heated discussion or Reshoot whenever possible. I have an intense conversation, what is it no doubt that you can make a about? What experiences in your better image. When the Bough Breaks by libby rowe life have stuck with you? Who The number two statement I inspires you and why? Are you an hear most often from students: “I observer of the world or do you don’t know what to shoot.” Finding jump in with both feet? the answer to this takes a bit more Take the answers and see thought and commitment on the where they lead you. React to part of my students as well as myself. the world around you. Analyze Creativity is fragile like the or reflect on past interests. sparks that rise from a bonfire; sure Remember an experience. Define you can catch one, but without a passion. tending, it will die out quickly. I Ask a question and pose it to cannot underplay the importance your viewer. Very few people like of a sketchbook, or idea book if you to be told what to think, how to prefer, for any visual artist to record act, or what to do. Most people developing ideas. It is a misnomer Strange Gods 5 (birth) by Jenelle Esparza like to be asked to voice their that photographers can’t draw. A opinion. Posing questions through sketch of an idea can take many forms; a written description, your work, asking instead of answering gives your viewer drawn image references, a little of both. At one time, photo space to insert their own experiences, opinions, answers, and students were told that they needed to carry their cameras questions into the spaces you provide in your own work. with them at all times to be a true photographer. These days, that is easily accomplished with cell phones and pocket digital

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Diffusion EV IE

Unconventional Photography

inside:

Jennifer F. schlesinger dan estabrook rita berNstein Jason e. kelley

charles grogg Ann pallesen becky Comber Kate Stone Christopher Jordan zeb andrews lauren henkin libby rowe ortus group showcase critical mass selections photo alchemy prize plates to pixels award

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

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