For those who have not heard of one of the premiere photographers that will be exhibiting in this show, I have included the bio of Mr. Charles Phillips. For those who have an appreciation of photography exhibiting the greatest degree of technical perfection, this is a "must see". His bio is as follows:
Wilderness Images of Charles Phillips
Internationally acclaimed fine art wilderness photographer, Charles
Phillips, treks alone, save for a pack mule, for weeks at a time into
our most remote and unspoiled American Wilderness. His search for
direct experiences of these primordial areas culminates in museum
quality photographs which hang in many corporate and professional
offices including the Coleman Company, Mobil Oil, Warner Bros., Goldman
Sachs and NBC.
Phillips studied with photographer Ansel Adams during the 1970s.
Since then, he has evolved a highly technical craft, adapted from
aerial reconnaissance and graphic arts photography. The resulting
photographs possess an extraordinary subtlety of tone and a degree of
detail that is far beyond what the human eye can see at the original
scene.
Phillips award-winning fine art photographs are produced in high
contrast, finely detailed black and white. They are available in two
types of limited edition series. The Special Edition series are
printed in four sizes ranging up to 40x 50. The Handcrafted series
are available as large as 54x 68 and include a wider variety of
images. All of the photographs are made by Phillips, using his 8x 10
large format bellows view camera in various locations of the American
Wilderness.
Description of Process:
The silver gelatin photographic print shown are created by me, based on
a single 8x 10 negative that I made and executed in my own facilities
in Caldwell, Kansas These hand signed and numbered works exist in
seven sizes, viz: 16x 20, 20x 24, 24x 30, 32x 40, 40x 50,
48x 60 and 54x 68. All works are archivally mounted on larger acid
free, museum quality mat board. Printing required the evolution of a
number of special optically exposed, silver gelatin film masks. These
are precisely registered with the original negative in progressive
stages during a series of exposures, utilizing a pulsed xenon light
source, a customized optical process camera projecting onto silver
gelatin print materials. This unique combination of materials and
technology is designed to enhance tonal separation as well as fidelity
of fine edge detail and it produces an exact consciously-controlled
tonal balance of various elements of the composition. This rigorous
approach required more than a month of continuous laboratory work to
produce a balanced, finished print. Each individual print generated in
this process has been carefully inspected, and where proven
satisfactory, was logged and then mounted on archival mat board,
utilizing archival mounting tissue. The final step in the process
required that I sign and number every print.
In addition to the numbered prints of the edition, there are 25 artists
proofs, designated AP. Another state of this image exists in four
different scales, ranging from 20x24 to 40x50. This state employs
scanning techniques and requires less individual attention. This
process results in silver gelatin photographs that are high quality,
moderate cost alternate to the Handcrafted process which is considered
to be the ultimate in quality. This Special Edition state is limited
to a total of 950 prints.
All works of art in each of these states are in no sense copies,
duplicates, or reproductions of other works, but represent my own
creative expression. They are strictly limited in number, as detailed
herein, to a total of 275 hand-crafted edition works (including artist
proofs).
Here is an overview of my approach and some examples of who collects my
work:
My work is available in two types of Silver Gelatin editions. You might think of them as 1st generation (the HandCrafted editions) and 2nd generation (the Special Editions). 1st generation work is the most direct process and the highest quality. The hand of the artist, myself, is the only one involved in the darkroom process and the technique is unique in fine art photography. The Description of Process will give you some idea of the craft involved. This type of edition is considered the ultimate in quality and has the highest intrinsic value.
