Track and Train 1

I spent some time this morning with my daughter showing her the process I use in image capture and editing. I selected this image because it was originally captured on film and let me explain the scanning process It also reinforces the concept of the vanishing point.

Personally this is a theme I seem to come back to over and over. There is something about the foreverness of this kind of image that I like. Maybe it is a hopeful image. Hope that things will go on and not suddenly come to an end.

As we talked about this there were two versions of this image that evolved. The reason was simply we aren’t sure which one represents the truth. As for likes and dislikes I think we both ended up liking the B&W version but I would like more feedback. Let me know which version you feel is closer to the truth of the image and why. I’d really like to know.

Track and Train 2

Last weekend I spent Friday night and Saturday showing my work at the Westport Arts event. My main reason for doing this was to learn how art fairs work, how to set one up, and what kind of products I need to make sales. I learned a lot. I showed several Palladium prints and found most people didn’t understand what that was. I had one college student ask me where I got my edges. I spent a lot of time educating folks on the art of making a hand-made print vs. an inkjet print. They were amazed I could make a negative from a digital negative and equally so when I told them about the paper coating process. The “edges” were nothing more than excess emulsion that was turned black by the overexposure to UV light. I did have several archival inkjet prints to show as well. This allowed me to gauge the reaction to my photos and see which ones were popular and which were photographs people didn’t understand.

I learned that I need an artist’s statement with some of my work. I don’t think of my work as photos. To me they are pieces of art using the photographic method. I think that means I am attempting to create a work that elicits an emotional response not just a, “Wow that a nice shot.” I did bring my picture of a tree with no leaves and a somewhat disturbing background and that one was a hit. People would ask me where this tree was. I told them it was in my mind because if they were to see the real tree or the original photograph they would be very disappointed. The tree in the piece was in my mind and that’s how I saw this tree.

Overall a very fun and educational weekend. I met some other great artists and enjoyed some Jerusalem Cafe curly fries. Wow.

Okay, I’ve been missing in action.  Posts weeks apart.

Wood and I are writing a book.  It is a celebration of twenty years of Project Uplift’s outreach to the community of the homeless in Kansas City.  It is something that we are both passionate about.  Wood is taking the photographs and I am sitting down with the homeless and writing the narrative that comes out of that time spent.  We have met some great people and shattered just about every stereotype we began this project with.  I originally thought I could write the narrative of the book and then condense some of it here on the blog.  It’s not working.  I can’t do that.  I don’t now how.  It’s a skill I don’t have.  There is no condensing.  I have immersed myself in this project, and all of it is important.  Excerpts wouldn’t do the people or the lifestyle justice.

This is a steep learning curve for me.  Four Ordinary Women is only one-fourth mine.  This is all of me on the page.  The time I am spending with these new friends of mine has some days emotionally wrecked me.  I have cried.  I have altered my perceptions.  I know how blessed I am.  Oh, I always knew I was blessed, but now I experience that feeling in a very different way.  I know how sometimes shallow my life is.  I have had to face myself in this writing.  Challenge a lot of my beliefs.  About justice, about the disparity we have in this country between the haves and the have nots. And sometimes that is difficult.  Okay, mostof the time that is difficult.

I now know that handing a homeless person a stryrofoam plate of food and a pair of socks is very different than sitting down in their camp and hearing about how their lives led to life on the street.  To see where they sleep, cook, eat, where their teeth chatter from the cruelty of winter, and where they live when the mosquitoes, thousands of them, hunt for their food. I am in their shoes.

These men, these women trust me.  Trust me to tell their story with dignity and honesty.  I am trying very hard to live up to that and making sure that this story is their legacy.  For many of them, it will be their only legacy.

First Aid

I finally broke down and purchased the Nik Complete Collection of filters for Photoshop.  I have used Silver Efex Pro for a long while and I’m so sold on the idea you can create control points and really do a lot of detailed editing with out constantly worrying about sliders and dials but just the photograph.

I really like playing with selective use of color.  Back in the “old days” I would hand tint prints and also create prints on film as positives and put different colors behind them to create differrent looks.  Don’t know what that says about me!  I will get back to the part 2 on At and the chair photo in a couple of days.  I’ve had some interesting comments made by folks who have seen the real print that I feel will be interesting to all.

And yes, the 1st aid sign was blue.