A New Process

Well, not really, but its been a long time since I’ve made cyanotypes. I’m working toward printing form digital negative ( I may post some of my testing and profiling). I had a few extra sheets of Canson Print Making Paper, coated with Photographer’s Formulary original Cyanotype formula. I’ve been working on improving my surface, nailing my exposure time, and tuning my digital negative. With these photograms the imperfections add a certain charm. I’m shooting for more consistency for the contact prints. But, when I have an extra sheet or two at the end of the day these are a lot of fun to make.

These ferns were taken from my wife’s garden. She’s been actively cultivating a native plant garden. A small sanctuary for the bugs and birds, for the plants you can’t buy in the store.

#AnnaAtkins #cyanotype #summer #studio #nativeplants

Winter at home.

Keeping warm this winter with what I’ve been finding at home. I wanted to share a few heirlooms, winter produce, and a colorful present. I sampled complimentary colors and colored the otherwise white backgrounds on the candles. I really enjoyed the process of shooting these and plan to do some more. I don’t want to get too distracted from wrapping up my books, but these were a fun side project and it’s great to keep fresh with studio lighting and table top shooting.

Salut!

-A

Utopia / Dystopia

I wanted to share a few images I created for zone project called - Give then Take. These, and the works of others, will be compiled and sent back out to the artists. Then we will create and send in a second work in response to the first. The final collaboration will be put together as a zine - Give then Take.

The theme is utopia.

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The antonym of Utopia is Dystopia. When I think back to the dystopian novels I’ve read, it strikes me that the states involved, often authoritarian, project a utopian vision that masks the dystopian reality. This contradiction begins this work. Looking to the world around me I selected items to think-through about this contradiction. A paper flower neither alive nor dead. A memory long past and a momento held in the moment. A blend of artifice and truth. Oranges, still wearing their badges, objects of commerce. Shipped to satisfy my desire, from the water and the land, and all that it means to be a farm worker. And the facade of slowly turning. Taken out of context. So maybe we can see things for what they are. To see them new / old again.


Last of the summer on mv II

On our last day we got a tour of a Nubian Goat-scaping project at Long Point reserve. The goats are small and very friendly. Jonah loved the goats.

It’s a landscape call a “frost bottom.” Once mainly grassy it is now being taken over by small oaks. The goats are there to eat the oak so the grasses can return.

I wonder what it looks like in winter.

You can learn more about frost bottoms here:

https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2016/03/02/illogical-irreplaceable-frost-bottoms

Long Point

The Goat Camp.

Nubian Goat #43

Feeding the goats - such a toddler.

Feeding the goats I

We got old.

Shelter in the wind.

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By the end of it Jonah and 43 were pals.

Oaks in the Frost Bottom.

Last of the summer on Martha’s Vineyard i

The last of the summer, but not the very last. While not really SKF here is the first batch from our trip to MV - across on the freighter and to the hotel. Then to Long Point. I got some astro photos too. I’ll post those separately. A separate batch of MV travels to come as well. Enjoy.

tHe cOMet nEowiSe

The wonderful painter Joanne Tarlin has nominated me for a “Facebook Challenge.” 10 works in 10 days . I’ll plan to post them here on this blog. hopefully every day or so, and post the links on social media.

I stepped out to see the comet Neowise and got a few photos. Shooting at night has been fun, but I think I need a mosquito net. I may try to see it again, or at try out an extra wide angle and bring in some lights. I’ll need a mosquito net. We’ll see.

Enjoy!

Sometimes I am looking for something, sometimes I find it

The wonderful painter Joanne Tarlin has nominated me for a “Facebook Challenge.” Because of my inhibition about posting my new work on most social media platforms, I’ll post them here on this blog. I’ll plan to post 10 images here (hopefully every day or so) and post the links on social media.

I’ve been walking the aqueduct trails looking for something… A bit of light, a pop of color, something beyond the overgrowth, something to draw me in.

On this day it was a back way into the Sudbury Reservoir Dam. Sometimes I wonder if my fence jumping days are over. I remember the crunch of ice crackling under the tires of a ranger truck in the dead of winter. The excitement and fear of being caught or getting away with it.

No such drama on this day, the dam too far off, and pastoral softness, the cool shade, of a woody trail on a hot New England summer day too much to resist.

Near the Sudbury Reservoir Dam, 2019

My Eleanor

The wonderful painter Joanne Tarlin has nominated me for a “Facebook Challenge.” Because of my inhibition about posting my work on most social media platforms, I’ll post them here on this blog. I’ll plan to post 10 images here (hopefully every day or so) and post the links on social media.

I often try to work art historical references into my work. In addition, with the pandemic Sasha and I’s annual Martha’s Vineyard vacation was cancel, or rather postponed.

Here is my Eleanor at Long Point Beach, 2019.

Sasha at Long Point, 2019

Below you’ll find the real Eleanor made by Harry Callahan in the early 1950’s.

You can learn more about Harry Callahan’s work with Eleanor here:

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2012/jan/27/big-picture-harry-callahan-eleanor-barbara

Eleanor and Barbara in Lake Michigan, Est. 1950’s - Harry Callahan

The pressure to make it flow.

The wonderful painter Joanne Tarlin has nominated me for a “Facebook Challenge.” Because of my inhibition about posting my work on most social media platforms, I’ll post them here on this baby of a blog. I’ll plan to post one image for the next ten days and will post the link on Social Media.

You should check out the work of Joanne while you’re at it!

https://www.joannetarlin.com/2018

As you may know I’ve been doing an extended personal documentary about water systems - for this challenge I think I will focus on our more personal relations with water and flows.

Unless you’re on a well, most of the water that comes so effortlessly from the tap is stored on top of hills so that gravity can do the work of maintaining adequate pressure - forcing the water to flow.

-A

Water Towers, Hopkinton, MA, 2020

Sasha and the Trees

I did just a bit of shooting for the Pandemic - a few portraits and a few landscapes. I was looking to capture something of the unusual in the banal.

The images of the a car full of groceries has been included in PhotoPlace Gallery’s current exhibition: Portraits of Self Isolation. If you are in Vermont go check it out.

https://photoplacegallery.com/online-juried-shows/photograph-those-you-love-portraits-of-self-isolation/

Salut - A