Smith & Chamlee exhibition in Sydney

Tony Egan · Mar 5, 2007

Thought I would let you know that there is a Michael A. Smith and Paula Chamlee exhibition running from March 8 - April 15 at Point Light Gallery in Sydney titled "Making Contact". While they are here Michael and Paula are also running two "Vision and Technique" weekend workshops at Black Mountain Photographic Workshops. I will be attending the first workshop this coming weekend.

http://www.pointlight.com.au/exhibitions/ex_40_bestofboth.html
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Akalai · Mar 5, 2007

Unfortunately the workshop is out of my student budget but it would be great if you could give a review of the course and what you learnt.

Tony Egan · Apr 21, 2007

Ashley,
I promised you some feedback..
I enjoyed the weekend and thought it was a good investment of time and money. Here are some bullet points of observations/learning for me.

M&P have a very focused but unhurried style and give the impression of having all the time in the world to spend on whatever topic was important. Before the course we completed a questionnaire which Paula had clearly taken the time to read and absorb. This was impressive.
They are clearly dedicated to a certain technique which they are investing a lot of personal time and money in to preserve for themselves and other photographers. Everyone on the course left with a lot of respect for them in this regard
The most valuable element for me was the group print critique of student photos. We were asked to bring 30-40 prints from which a sample was reviewed on Friday night followed by a detailed critique on Sunday. They were very straight with everybody and said what they meant using an encouraging and coaching style.
Saturday morning was taken up with a printing demonstration by Michael using Azo and Amidol with student negatives. I picked up some useful tips on print evaluation such as getting a sufficient distance away to assess the overall tonal values and separation rather than spending all the time with your nose up to the print. The metronome timing method for print exposure was interesting. Im not sure its for me although I might try a combination of timer and metronome for dogging and burning purposes enabling more precise control and repeatability and continued focus on the print rather than the timer.
Saturday afternoon was spent under the darkcloth with Paula, looking at the ground glass of an 8x10 with a reasonably long focal length. This was primarily a demonstration about developing/inspiring vision by using the lens as an independent set of eyes. It was a process of discovery as opposed to the execution of a pre-determined idea. I was a bit uncomfortable with this approach initially because it seemed to be cheating somehow using this dumb box to find things rather than my superior intelligence! It was fascinating how patterns and compositions appeared on the ground glass that I could not see without the benefit of magnification and enclosure in a frame. I guess we all do this to a much smaller extent when deciding on the final composition of a subject we have seen or chosen. But, the idea of plonking the tripod in a random spot and going on a 360 degree journey around the environment was quite revealing.
I also picked up a few pointers in matting, framing, mounting and spotting which they also covered on Saturday night and Sunday morning.
It also helps to have the culinary talents and great hospitality of Bob and Mary Kersey which augment any course taken at Black Mountain!

Finally, the lasting value was probably the insights into how to be a photographer in a holistic sense. There are many ways to be a photographer but it was great to spend a weekend observing and listening to two people with no secrets and nothing to hide who have been successful in their particular field. Please feel free to PM me if you have any further questions.

roteague · Apr 21, 2007

Great to hear Tony. I had the opportunity to meet Michael and Paula in Toronto, but I didn't take their course. They are a nice couple and dedicated to their art.

Mark O'Neill · Dec 30, 2007

I managed to get down to Sydney and see this exhibition and was very impressed by their prints. It helps ifn you like their style of photography as I certainly do. Its one thing to see work in B&W but all the better to see the real thing.

Mick Fagan · Dec 30, 2007

Very interesting Tony, glad it went well.

Whilst I have scanned the horizon, sometimes 360 degrees looking for a picture or whatever with 35mm and medium format, I cannot say I have tried it with LF. I see the logic and I may try it, but I'm not so sure it's for me, interesting!

I was taught printing with a metronome, never liked it, I was always losing count when burning in.

In what area of spotting were they either different or unusual, to what you know or do?

Mick.

Smith & Chamlee exhibition in Sydney

Tony Egan

Akalai

Tony Egan

roteague

Mark O'Neill

Mick Fagan

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