Clyde Butcher show in New Jersey

photobum

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Peters Valley will be hosting a show of the works of Clyde Butcher September 29 to October 28th. Reception on 9-29 from 4 to 7PM.

Rt. 615 & Kunh Rd.
Layton, NJ
973-948-5202

If you have not taken a workshop at Peters Valley you are missing one of the best deals in photography.
 

jovo

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Thanks for the notice. That's an exhibition I'm gonna be darn sure I get to. Besides, that area is gorgeous at this time of year.
 

aj-images

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Thanks for posting this. I've been to his Florida gallery and I collect his work. I'm in. - Jim
 

Travis Nunn

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I went to see his show at the College of William and Mary a few weeks ago. Very impressive.
 

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I saw his work when it came to Georgia. A good experience, you got a feel for the Florida he saw.
 

jovo

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Today's visit

I enjoyed a gorgeous day en route to Peter's Valley this past afternoon. I hiked to a waterfall with just a viewing card and found that I could make some worthwhile exposures there next time. I also visited Buttermilk Falls (just a trickle) and Walpack Center which is visually quite rich. I then took myself to Peter's Valley for the Clyde Butcher show.

Disappointing!! The prints were inkjets (okay...he called them giclees...but, as I said...they were inkjets) however exceptionally well done. The disappointing part was that the images were 'captured' on enormous film negatives but were then scanned and outputted to a digital printer rather than contact printed or enlarged by hand. There were 16 photographs on the walls, but only two were....I assume since there was no other attribution...'real' darkroom prints, and they may well have been on RC paper since they looked that way when viewed to reveal their texture. So I was disappointed that all were not the 'real' thing. Still, the man makes wonderful images of what would easily be cliched, quotidian views when photographed by 'civilians'.
 

Travis Nunn

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Wow, that's a total opposite of the show down here in Virginia. I don't remember how many prints he hung, but probably 90%+ were wet prints. This gives you a good excuse to make the drive down here to Virginia ;-)

Here's the news release:
http://www.wm.edu/muscarelle/news_releases.php
 

Sanjay Sen

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John, sorry to digress, but what is the Walpack Center? I did a search and it seems to be an abandoned town!? Could you please elaborate?


Best wishes,
Sanjay
 

jovo

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sensanjay said:
John, sorry to digress, but what is the Walpack Center? I did a search and it seems to be an abandoned town!? Could you please elaborate?
Click to expand...

Yes, sanjay, it is very small village that is totally accessible to one's camera. It's one of those places where you can do white on white on old wood till your eyes glaze over. There was, in fact, a film crew setting up a BIG movie camera on a small track to film the church there, perhaps for an 'establishing shot' since there was none of the paraphenalia that accompany actors. And around the bend and down the little road, there's a gorgeous stream with rocks and...well you know....all that stuff that doesn't get included in portraits
 

Sanjay Sen

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Thanks, John! I will make a trip there sometime, hopefully before all the leaves are gone.

Now back to the original topic of discussion... (apologies for the digress).


Best wishes,
Sanjay
 
OP
OP

photobum

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Well I went to the opening and like jovo I was disappointed. Yes 16 prints and 14 of them were inkspurts. Very well done inkspurts but I would never buy one. I had hoped he would teach a course there next summer. I was told he only wanted to do a photoshop class. I said, oh, no thank you.
 

Travis Nunn

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photobum said:
...I was told he only wanted to do a photoshop class. I said, oh, no thank you.
Click to expand...

It's funny you should mention that. When I talked with Clyde at the Williamsburg, VA opening, he said that within the next year or so he plans to release a Photoshop How-To DVD.
 

eclarke

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He showed in Wausau, Wi a couple years ago but the room was so narrow that you could not get farther away than about 4 feet from the prints. It was all wide angle work about 50x60" and it made one dizzy to look at it. His prints need a big room...EC
 

Travis Nunn

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Actually he feels that you should stand only a couple of feet away from his large prints. His reasoning is that when you stand that close you feel like you're there.
 
OP
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photobum

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From what I understand, what happened at Peters Valley was that he wanted to teach a photoshop class because he was doing "something that no one else is". In any case they do not have enough computers to arrange this type class.

As far as his inkjet prints go, I have a Paula Chamlee poster that's just as nice and it only cost $35. I think clicking a mouse should bring down the price. $900 bucks for an inkjet is out of my range. For 450 you could have gotten a Pt/Pd print from Tillman Crane and his book in a special slipcase edition.
 

jovo

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Years ago I attended a home gallery show and 'talk' by John Paul Caponigro at his house in Cushing, Maine. I bought a color inkjet 'poster' hot off the printer for $15 which he was gracious enough to sign in either ink or pencil. I think the only distinction between what I was able to purchase and the framed work that he was showing and was also for sale was size and the quality of the paper he used. It was the first time I realized that inkjets really are posters and should cost about as much and not much more than a typical one of them.

The quality of Butcher's 'giclees' should not be underestimated. The enormous negatives from which the really high quality scans are made transcend anything a digicam could do for sure. It's just that I think they could be yet so much more if they had the depth to the print that could have been obtained traditionally on fiber paper. As I said above, it was very disappointing .

And now to the matter of finding out who else at a show is a 'pugger. I heard the identical story that photobum just related while I was leaning against a rail at the show. Which leads me to wonder if I was there when he was and we had no way of identifying each other. Obviously, there are certain occasions when wearing a big honkin APUG tee shirt isn't the way to dress. Anyone want to make and sell a badge, lapel pin, armband (kidding) or whatever that would address this?
 
OP
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Jovo, I was there the 29th for the opening at around 4:30. I had been talking to Ray Yaros who is an Apug'er at heart. He's a very fine printer who had been scheduled to teach a L/F darkroom class this past summer. It was cut as not enough people signed up. I was going to assist in a L/F class that ran but had so few students I was not needed. Jimmy Clark the school director told me about the photoshop SNAFU. They were interested in having him so I think he had to explain a lot.

Since the falls had no real water I drove down to the end of the road.(Kuhn Rd.?) There's a old fame house and some barns on park property that you can walk all around. That's my fall back location for shooting. I was the geezer with the 8x10.
 

jovo

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Well darn, then. I was there at that time. Sorry to have 'missed' you. I would've really enjoyed talkin 'bout the show with someone with a common interest. My wife would have been with me 'cept she had to attend an art auction that included her work (which went for the second highest prices in that auction.....gloat...brag...etc.). We gotta get a not-so-secret identifier.

BTW....I have to acknowledge from time to time that my avatar is a photogrpaph that's a bit more than 30 years old.
 
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