Have you seen Richard Garrod's work?

[kenmeyersphoto]

I saw an ad in the APUG classifieds for Richard Garrod's book- Visual Prayers. Richard Garrod has to be one of the most underrated photographers living today. I saw his retrospective in Monterey maybe 5 years ago and it blew me away. His vision is awesome as well as his printing. If you like Brett Weston's photography, you will like Garrod's also. Garrod has his own vision, but you can see some Weston influences. I think he has a website.

 

[Bill Mitchell]

Thanks for the "heads up" on this fine photographer. From the website he could certainly be mistaken for Brett Weston.

 

[philldresser]

I saw the ad and did a web search. Must say I was impressed with the work on his site as well.

Phill

 

[rhphoto]

Dick Garrod knew Brett well, but I have found Garrod's work to be of a little finer, ie. more meticulous, quality. Brett was always in a hurry to get the last batch of negs printed so he could get out and shoot the next batch. Doesn't mean he cut corners, just that the prints of Garrod's I have seen have a certain richness and luminescence that Brett's don't. I asked Dick once if he shot large format, and he replied "NO. Roll film!" And his response was about his being older and not wanting to lug all that heavy equipment around. This was about 1985, in Josephus Daniels Gallery in Carmel where he had some of his work on display.

 

[Bill Mitchell]

Although the name meant nothing to me at the time, I remember seeing those prints in Daniels' gallery, and being amazed that there so many West Coast photographers making prints of a quality I could only dream of making. I am a little surprised of your statement that Brett skimped on his prints. Perhaps it's only because I only saw the very best of his work, but I got the impression that he was one of the greatest printers of all time. Incidentally, I think that it's interesting that he switched to roll film in his last years, with no apparent loss of print quality.

 

[rhphoto]

Incidentally, I think that it's interesting that he switched to roll film in his last years, with no apparent loss of print quality.

Brett said he "sweat bullets" getting 2 1/4 film to behave to his standards. For a long while he shot Panatomic X and Agfapan 25, developed them in something like D50 (?) or Rodinal. Then he printed most of his work with a point-source enlarger. He pushed contrast at all points, but the point-source gave his prints the ridiculous sharpness he got using roll film. And in his later years he really burned up the film. I think there's like, hundreds of undeveloped, or at least unprinted rolls in his archive.

I don't mean in any way to denigrate Brett's printing -- he was one of the greatest printers of all time. But a friend of mine used to spot prints for him, and the folks at Daniels and Photography West used to chuckle about prints dry-mounted slightly crooked and signatures so far down on the board that they had to cut special little windows in the overmats to let them show. And the truth is, Brett loved his routine - his cycle of going in the darkroom, printing up a zillion things, and then getting sick of it and heading back out to shoot some more. Probably the most prolific photographer of his generation.

 

[kenmeyersphoto]

Dick's prints are exquisite....They are so luminous and well seen. The Visual Prayer's book is beautiful. I think David Gardener printed it and is quite nice. Beside the ad that is posted in APUG, I have seen the book listed in the large format listingson ebay.

 

[skillian]

I own one of Richard's prints from his book. Nice guy and exceptional photographer. Last I spoke with him (maybe 2 years ago) he was still taking print orders and was planning a new book. Let's hope it gets published.

 

[lee]

"and the folks at Daniels and Photography West used to chuckle about prints dry-mounted slightly crooked and signatures so far down on the board that they had to cut special little windows in the overmats to let them show."

I have seen a Brett Weston print that had that "little window" cut out for the signature.

lee\c