Kenro Izu

[mcfactor]

I just saw an exhibition of his platinum/palladium 14x20 inch contact prints at the Rubin Museum of Art (its in NYC) and it was incredible! There is just an amazing confluence of intense location (Butan), sublime vision, and great craftsmanship. If your in New York I highly recommend it, this is one of the best exhibitions I have ever seen and i definitely will be going back.

 

[doughowk]

The NY Times has a Review here I'll probably have to wait for the book Kenro Izu: Bhutan .

 

[Jim Noel]

When I saw this work in Santa Fe it was displayed w/o glass. What a difference. The lack of glass allowed every little nuance of tone to be seen clearly. It is marvelous work, by the most dedicated photographer I ever met.

 

[mcfactor]

Yeah, the book looked absolutely amazing, I wish I had the money to buy it.

 

[DarkroomExperimente]

this is off-topic, but at first I thought this thread was about "Dersu Uzala"...an excellent film:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dersu_Uzala_(1975_film)

I'll clean my glasses while you all watch the movie

 

[RobertP]

I love the part in the review where they state he is carrying a 300 lb camera. Kenro needs to talk to Richard Ritter about a new ULF camera. A 300 lb 14x20 is a wee bit heavy.

 

[DarkroomExperimente]

I assume 30 pounds is more like it?

 

[RobertP]

I'm sure 30-40 pounds is more like. I think his custom built 14x20 was built by the late Jack Deardorff. I'm not exactly sure though so don't hold me to it. My previous post was just a feeble attempt at a little humor. I've been shooting ULF for a few years now so I'm pretty up on the logistics involved with using one in the field. Of course a 300 lb camera sounds so much more dramatic in the review. Maybe the author was weighing the camera and the Yak that was carrying it.

 

[doughowk]

Izu's website lists the Bhutan book as available in 2007. I've done a search for it (including Nazraeli site), but appears currently unavailable online. His site does list Detroit & Washington, DC for next year exhibits.

 

[ooze]

Saw some of his work in London and was highly impressed.

 

[bill schwab]

His site does list Detroit... for next year exhibits.

Now that is something to look forward to!

 

[jp80874]

I'm sure 30-40 pounds is more like. I think his custom built 14x20 was built by the late Jack Deardorff. I'm not exactly sure though so don't hold me to it. My previous post was just a feeble attempt at a little humor. I've been shooting ULF for a few years now so I'm pretty up on the logistics involved with using one in the field. Of course a 300 lb camera sounds so much more dramatic in the review. Maybe the author was weighing the camera and the Yak that was carrying it.

Thanks Robert,

You reminded me of reading the following, and I thought others would enjoy.

“In the late 1970s, Kenro Izu obtained a New York State Arts Grant. Later, at the penultimate moment before such grants totally ended, he won a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts to make large-format photographs. Strangely though Izu’s own country of Japan refused to support photographic artists with grants in aid or exhibition programs, the United States and the National Endowment for the Arts gave Izu financial support, even though he is a foreign national.

The endowment awarded Izu $16,000 to develop his project. In turn, Izu contacted Jack Deardorff, placing an order with perhaps the greatest camera maker in the United States for “the largest format camera that I can carry by myself ...a modification of Mr. Deardorff’s 12x20” banquet camera… with hardware the same as Mr. Deardorff’s banquet camera…the same ideal aspect ratio as a 35mm camera, or a 5x7”.” The camera was Jack Deardorff’s masterpiece of a lifetime of making cameras. It was a monster camera that created 14x20” negatives. It was a behemoth. There was nothing else like it. “The perfect size but perhaps a little too large,” Izu admitted later, in a fit of modesty given his slight frame.”

Quoted from:
Sacred Places, Kenro Izu, Essay by Clark Worswick, Arena Editions, Page 10

A couple years back the Columbus Ohio Museum of Art had an Art Sinsabaugh exhibit which included the 12x20 Deardorff and tripod Art used. If I hadn’t seen pictures of Art carrying camera and tripod on his shoulder I might have said the 300 pound estimate looked pretty close to true.

Odd that 14x20 seems middling in all our posts of 20x24 today.

John Powers

 

[jp80874]

Now that is something to look forward to!

Bill,
Please let us know when that happens. Lebanese lunch in Dearborn and Japanese platinum in the afternoon. I don't think the senses can ask for any better than that.


John Powers

 

[Gim]

DIA exhibit runs 7-9-08 to 10-12-08. I'm up for a gathering. I would like to see this exhibit anyway and meeting up with others is just adding a little cream.

Jim

 

[RobertP]

John, This sounds like a one tank trip for us. Unless of course we take my vehicle then its an investment. It would be nice to be there for the opening.

 

[jp80874]

John, This sounds like a one tank trip for us. Unless of course we take my vehicle then its an investment. It would be nice to be there for the opening.

Happy to drive up for the opening. You'll probably have to drive back while I nap, unless we stay over night and see it again the next morning.

John P.

 

[bill schwab]

Happy to drive up for the opening.

Count me in on this. I get a few tickets for each event and would be happy to share them.

Bill

 

[RobertP]

Sounds like a plan! I imagine if we want to make the opening then getting tickets in advance would be wise. Robert... P.S. John, I could probably tolerate your snoring on the way back. I just did 20 hours straight from Boulder, Colorado. Detroit will be like going around the block.

 

[jp80874]

This keeps getting better. Thanks Bill. Thanks Robert. Lets not forget the Lebanese place in Dearborn. Oh that lamb is good.

John P.

 

[Cheryl Jacobs]

Got to hold a few of his prints in a gallery in the southwest a few years back. They were divine.

 

[RobertP]

I can honestly say I've never had Lebanese cuisine but I'm looking forward to it. Robert

 

[jp80874]

I am only an admirer of platinum prints. Robert is the real thing printing his 8x20 nudes. Never the less, seeing Kenro Izu’s work in person at the following put all those books and web sites to shame. Simply astounding and a must see on my schedule.

Last June at Bill’s Northern Michigan Gathering, Thomas Halsted of Halsted Gallery, showed us a wonderful collection of work for sale including some beautiful Kenro Izu prints at $2000 a pop. Tom Hinson, Curator of Photography at the Cleveland Museum of Art since the early 1970s referred to Thomas as that giant Abe Lincoln of a man who is as persuasive as he is honest.

One of the hosts at last year’s View Camera conference, an attorney whose name I have forgotten, invited us all in to his offices on the tour to see his photography collection. A whole conference room was lined with Kenro Izu prints. That was just a little humbling. Can someone help me with his name?

John Powers

 

[jp80874]

I can honestly say I've never had Lebanese cuisine but I'm looking forward to it. Robert

Robert,

I believe the Dearborn area has the highest Lebanese population in the US. There is a restaurant that Dolly and I have visited on several trips to Dearborn that is spectacular. Bill and some of the other local APUG folk had a lunch there a year or two back, but I couldn’t make the trip. I am pretty sure we can tempt a few to join us. I will be surprised if you are disappointed.

John P.

 

[Richard Wasserman]

One of the hosts at last year’s View Camera conference, an attorney whose name I have forgotten, invited us all in to his offices on the tour to see his photography collection. A whole conference room was lined with Kenro Izu prints. That was just a little humbling. Can someone help me with his name?

John Powers

Paul Paletti?

 

[jp80874]

Paul Paletti?

Yes, Thank you. Were you there? Did you see that collection?
Fantastic!

John