I had an abnormal break in magazine layout work today so I walked out the door to run to the local photo store to buy some fixer and get some citric acid. After leaving the camerashop I thought Id take a min a visit a few galleries in downtown austin I hadnt been to in quite a while.
I headed to the Oswald Gallery on Congress Avenue.
I ventured around the gallery... lots of gorgeous work on the walls... some wonderful Linda Broadfoot 20x24 hand colored polaroids of different insects and flora. Quite gorgeous if you all have never seen them and well worth seeing if near buy. Then I got to the back of the gallery... the back room area of the Oswald gallery always has a collection of images from their permanent collection (I assume). Lots of gorgeous Ruth Berhard prints, an Adams print, a gorgeous Brett Weston print, etc etc.... Then I saw on the floor leaning up against the wall (what I assumed was) a platinum print. it was this image by Chuck Henningsen. I asked the gent standing next to me (who obviously worked there) what sort of print it was. He answered a platinum. I started talking with him in further detail and he took me in back and showed me a 40x50 platinum print done by Henningsen as well... which was equally gorgeous. The interesting thing I learned about the first image was that it was printed with both a positive and a negative.... giving some eerie, wonderful inverted/solarized look to the lamp inside the doorway in the image. I thought perhaps it had been handdrawn on the final print or something like that. gorgeous print none the less.
I kept talking further with the gent (brian was his name) about alt printing and that I was in the novice stage of working with van dykes, Pt toning and the like. He mentioned he had done alot of work with Gum printing so our conversation continued and I mentioned the hope that I could one day take a workshop or learn the carbon printing process.... he stopped right away and said "Im gonna show you the most amazing thing youve ever seen" bold claim for a man (NOT a woman) to make to me (if it were a woman I would at least be more open or willing to see what she had to offer)
he searches through some draws and pulls out what looks like about a 16x20 matted print. pulls off the cover sheet and it is the most surreal image Id ever seen. It is what looks like a residential neighbourhood in san fran but when I saw neighbourhood dont let that fool you. it was a HUGE neighbourhood. the image was shot with what looked like a longer lens because it seemed flat fielded. but it was a 4 color carbon print. Each and every window was three dimensional on the paper. little ridges on roof shingles slight raised texture on the tiny bricked walls.
it was the most amazing thing Id seen. the house in the foreground were sharp and the back ground (farthest away) houses were equally sharp.
The gallery guy, brian, mentioned that apparently the process died with the maker, René Pauli. Has anyone heard anything about this.
it was by far one of the most impressive displays of process mastery Ive ever seen.
I headed to the Oswald Gallery on Congress Avenue.
I ventured around the gallery... lots of gorgeous work on the walls... some wonderful Linda Broadfoot 20x24 hand colored polaroids of different insects and flora. Quite gorgeous if you all have never seen them and well worth seeing if near buy. Then I got to the back of the gallery... the back room area of the Oswald gallery always has a collection of images from their permanent collection (I assume). Lots of gorgeous Ruth Berhard prints, an Adams print, a gorgeous Brett Weston print, etc etc.... Then I saw on the floor leaning up against the wall (what I assumed was) a platinum print. it was this image by Chuck Henningsen. I asked the gent standing next to me (who obviously worked there) what sort of print it was. He answered a platinum. I started talking with him in further detail and he took me in back and showed me a 40x50 platinum print done by Henningsen as well... which was equally gorgeous. The interesting thing I learned about the first image was that it was printed with both a positive and a negative.... giving some eerie, wonderful inverted/solarized look to the lamp inside the doorway in the image. I thought perhaps it had been handdrawn on the final print or something like that. gorgeous print none the less.
I kept talking further with the gent (brian was his name) about alt printing and that I was in the novice stage of working with van dykes, Pt toning and the like. He mentioned he had done alot of work with Gum printing so our conversation continued and I mentioned the hope that I could one day take a workshop or learn the carbon printing process.... he stopped right away and said "Im gonna show you the most amazing thing youve ever seen" bold claim for a man (NOT a woman) to make to me (if it were a woman I would at least be more open or willing to see what she had to offer)
he searches through some draws and pulls out what looks like about a 16x20 matted print. pulls off the cover sheet and it is the most surreal image Id ever seen. It is what looks like a residential neighbourhood in san fran but when I saw neighbourhood dont let that fool you. it was a HUGE neighbourhood. the image was shot with what looked like a longer lens because it seemed flat fielded. but it was a 4 color carbon print. Each and every window was three dimensional on the paper. little ridges on roof shingles slight raised texture on the tiny bricked walls.
it was the most amazing thing Id seen. the house in the foreground were sharp and the back ground (farthest away) houses were equally sharp.
The gallery guy, brian, mentioned that apparently the process died with the maker, René Pauli. Has anyone heard anything about this.
it was by far one of the most impressive displays of process mastery Ive ever seen.
