yesterday in Dallas

[lee]

Yesterday Lex Jenkins and I drove to tour my darkroom and then we drove about 35 miles to Dallas. We visited the Afterimage Gallery and saw many wonderful prints from a wide assortment of photographers. The current show is Mark Citret who is a California photographer that works in large format. The images were printed on a paper that Kodak used to have in their catalog called Vellum. This is a very interesting look. Ben Breard is the owner and has been in business for over 25 years as a photographic gallery only. We visited with David Donovan who is Ben's matter and framer and a pretty good photographer in his own right. www.afterimagegallery.com
www.ddonovan.net

We then went to eat and then to Photographs Do Not Bend. Dumb name but they had a Michael Kenna show up and there were in excess of 30 images hanging on the walls. Lex was in heaven. www.photographsdonotbend.com

The intrepid viewers moved on to a place I usually by Light Impressions mat board. Photographic Archives. Andy met us at the door and help me decide what size mat board I needed to mount a print I own and retrieved the board. He then gave us a cooks tour of his work area. His business is mostly restoration and framing. We were in there well after closing time and Andy was very generous with his time. web site there but not active

Lex and I drove back to my house and parted company around 6pm. No one was harmed on this trip to Dallas.

 

[Jeremy]

The reception/booksigning for the Citret at the afterimage gallery is 7:30 - 9:30pm on November 15 (a Saturday). Just a heads up for anyone in the area.

 

[Jeremy]

oh, and thanks for the note on the Kenna show, he's one of my favs and I hadn't realized he had a show in the area. On further discussion of photography in Dallas-Fort Worth, the Edward Weston retrospective will soon be up at the Amon Carter in Ft. Worth.

 

[Jim Chinn]

Wat a great trip! I envy you being able to see Citret and Kenna's work on the same outing. I have always enjoyed his work and was able to see some of it in Chicago a few years back.

Let me know when you plan to go the the Weston Exhibit. My wife works for AA airlines, so it is easy for me to come down if seats are open. I would enjoy meeting you and Lex, if you can drag him along again.

 

[Lex Jenkins]

Yup, it was a swell time and I'd do it again. Lee's good company and seems to know just about everybody - or else they seem to think they know him. So, Jimmultiplenumbers, if you happen to be in the area...

There were far too many great photographers' work being displayed at the Afterimage for any one to stand out in my mind. I do seem to recall spending a lot of time sitting on the floor sifting through a dozen or so by one particular fellow, tho'.

David Donovan, whom Lee mentioned, uses a technique with Tri-X and Microdol-X that has influenced me to rethink some of my approaches to exposure and development. I thought EI 200 was conservative for Tri-X but David shoots at EI 100 and the tonality of his informal portraiture is palpable. (I forgot to ask if he's shooting Tri-X Pan or Pro, tho' - it's in 6x6cm format.) His results were most definitely not mushy, which is one of the common myths about Microdol-X.

The Kenna show, well...what can I say? In between swooning over the quality of his images I'd try to stop my head spinning just long enough to try to figure out some of his tricks.

The highly selective burning, dodging/masking is pretty easy to spot - it's part of his "look." I suspect there's some bleaching going on in his snow images, possibly those with water too. Who knows?

I'm pretty sure the prints are selenium toned only, nothing fancy. However it definitely ain't KRST - it's pinkish, not purplish. I suspect Paterson Acutol, which I just happen to have in my darkroom. Lovely stuff.

The blacks in his prints are not always featureless, as they usually appear in online jpegs. While sometimes he'll print solid black treelines, fences, etc., just as often his rocks, bricks, etc., will have a whisper of detail.

And his prints making use of large expanses of seemingly white negative space are not really featureless whites either. When mounted, borderless, against a white mount board/mat the slightly warm tone is distinct. There's one of a snow fence, half buried in snow, snaking off into the distance. Incredible. The fence not only shrinks in perspective but receeds in actual presence until it's almost a mirage - you think you see it after it's gone.

Kenna seems comfortably swinging between fine grain and very apparent grain, as necessary to suit the contrast he desires for a particular image. And his taste in how the final image appears is usually dead-on.

The resolution of fine detail, as rendered by his Hasselblad gear, also makes me question whether my Rollei TLR is up to the task. However even his earlier 35mm work has extremely fine resolution so I suspect I just need to work harder on my overall technique.

Anyway, it's inspiring, not disheartening. That's important.

 

[sgrowell]

Sounds like a fun trip. I was in the neighborhood picking up some prints from The Mark. Looking forward to the Weston show.

 

[Jeremy]

Edward Weston: Life Work
November 15, 2003–January 11, 2004

This exhibition presents a ninety-image survey of all phases of the fifty-year career of photographer Edward Weston (1886–1956). Comprising vintage prints, the show mixes unpublished masterpieces, like Weston's smoky view of the Chicago River, with many well-known signature works. Drawn from the significant private collection of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg, the show presents a number of works acquired directly from members of the Weston family. Graham Howe, a leading specialist in photographic modernism, assembled the project.

Edward Weston: Life Work is organized and circulated by Curatorial Assistance Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles. All works courtesy of the Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg Collection.

 

[Jeremy]

sorry, forgot to add that this information came from http://www.cartermuseum.org

The Amon Carter Museum in Ft. Worth, TX. Wonderful museum open to the public free of charge.

 

[lee]

I have no way to confirm this but I have been told that the Amon Carter has the biggest collection of photographs west of the Mississippi River. It is a special place.

lee\c