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Darkroom work and questions…

By on November 18, 2012 in 4×5 photography, beauty, craft, Cyclades stone walls, darkroom work, Greece, Paros, quiet islands, silver darkroom, skill and craft, Uncategorized, working

In the past few weeks I have begun printing some of the images I made last summer during my island hopping following the spring 2012 session here at the Aegean Center.  For the most part, they are photographs of the stone walls that criss-cross the Kyklades landscapes like so many topographical scratches: property lines, terrace farming, some ancient, some new.  The proofs are working out fine, but I have begun to grow uneasy.  I am still coming to terms with the idea of ‘art’ and my photography.  True, I can compose within the format, be it square or rectangular, but am I an artist or am I simply a skilled documentarian?  The same applies to the portrait pieces I am photographing with my 4×5 and then using the scanner to render them into a digital format.  This is not my discussion alone, but one that has been on the table since photography began.  Is a photograph art?

I was told tonight by someone at a cafe that if a photograph ‘moves him’, creates an emotional response, then it is art.  I’ll buy that.  So what kind of emotional response is my ‘wall photography’ generating?  Nostalgia, loneliness, sadness…The scenes are desolate, full of ruins and, in some cases, the detritus of man.  Overturned ore carts, rotting and rusting in the harsh Aegean climate; volcanic chunks of stone piled two meters high to create the snake-like patterns running over hills one sees from the aft deck of the Blue Star ferry as they sail from Pireaus south.  There are no people in these images.  There are only the bones of ghosts.

The portrait work, on the other hand, is completely different.  I am trying to capture the essence of the person, or people, in their own environment.  Some are in studios, others at home.   In each case I have been able to catch a glimpse of something that reaffirms the great possibility of life.  The terrace farms may collapse due to misuse over the centuries, but these people will live on through the images I am creating.  I am creating.  I can create.  Perhaps that is as close a definition for ‘art’ as I will ever get.  Art is creation, a recognition of beauty and grace despite the ravages of time.  I can be a creator of something.   I can document with a deft hand, be mindful of the alchemical processes and thus reveal something to the world that I find beautiful.   There is a lazy part of me that wants this feeling to go away.  The realist in me understands that questioning is essential.  Without doubt and self-examination, how can I possibly progress?

JDCM

Serifos, 2012

 

Andiparos, 2012

Emerson on the beach…

By on August 19, 2012 in 4×5 photography, beauty, Greece, Paros, quiet islands, working

I sat on the beach the other day and listened to the waves lapping against the sloping sand.  While the currents slowly rolled the soft-colored stones rounder, my mind drifted from the page I was reading to the motorboat out in the bay and then back to the page only to be distracted again by the clarity of the sky and shadowy islands lying not-so-distant from my colorful towel.  I wonder if Emerson ever thought that one of his essays would become the subject of this writer’s musing or his book find its way to this sandy place?   Probably.  I am sure that his young admirer Walt Whitman would have felt at home here too.  He’ll be next.  “Leaves of Grass” during a wet Aegean February might be a good read for me.  In any case, in his essay ‘Circles’ published in 1841, Ralph demonstrates prescience.  In the modern world the concept of circles and cycles is common.  Society knows the words ‘reincarnation’ and ‘oneness’ as well as other ’round’ concepts.  Buddhism is not the mysterious idea it was so many decades ago and the phrase “what comes around, goes around” has been in the modern lexicon since, I suppose, the early 1960s.  “Ye reap what ye sow” has been around longer and means much the same thing.  What Emerson speaks of, I feel, is something larger than that.  Ideas come and go and  those who live in the past naturally point in fear and condemnation towards any revolution of thought or action that may threaten their temporary power.  That’s a good word too—revolution.  It implies a turning.  Seasons turn, wheels turn and the wheel inside the wheel turns as an analogy of an invisible world we may only glimpse in dreams or moments of sublime inspiration, connections with something larger outside ourselves.   Then again, there I was sitting on a beach in an archipelago called the Cyclades, or “The Circle”.  Hmm…Here is an excerpt from Emerson’s essay titled “Circles”, published in 1841:

“There are no fixtures in nature. The universe is fluid and volatile. Permanence is but a word of degrees. Our globe seen by God is a transparent law, not a mass of facts. The law dissolves the fact and holds it fluid. Our culture is the predominance of an idea which draws after it all this train of cities and institutions. Let us rise into another idea; they will disappear. The Greek sculpture is all melted away, as if it had been statues of ice: here and there a solitary figure or fragment remaining, as we see flecks and scraps of snow left in cold dells and mountain clefts in June and July. For the genius that created it creates now somewhat else. The Greek letters last a little longer, but are already passing under the same sentence and tumbling into the inevitable pit which the creation of new thought opens for all that is old. The new continents are built out of the ruins of an old planet; the new races fed out of the decomposition of the foregoing. New arts destroy the old. See the investment of capital in aqueducts, made useless by hydraulics; fortifications, by gunpowder; roads and canals, by railways; sails, by steam; steam, by electricity.”

“There are no fixtures in nature…”  Indeed.  The waves roll and dissolve stones to sand, the wind shifts and islands disappear.  My eye wanders from the page to the sky and back again.  I blame the Meltemi for these ramblings.  The wind rushes, sometimes feeling as if it is blowing through my head.  In one ear and out the other.

JDCM

Paros and Emerson…

By on August 2, 2012 in 4×5 photography, craft, darkroom work, Greece, Paros, silver darkroom, skill and craft, Uncategorized, working, Wright Morris

My trip back to Greece was uneventful although the security in the large airport from which I departed the USA was tighter than usual.  As a wise man reminded me, “These are the signs of the times we live in.”  So true.  And yesterday we all said goodbye to another wise man, Gore Vidal–writer, critic and general thorn in the side of anyone he felt needed a sharp poke as a reminder of their mortality and insignificance.  I have a feeling that he and Marcus Aurelius would have been good friends, cynics both–grumblers concerning the state of the world–and brighter stars in what can often be a dull firmament.

It was a pleasure and a relief to arrive back in Greece even though I have had to leave dear friends and family behind.  Such is my current path.  PAGE Literary and Art Journal is going to print and the files have been sent to the printers.  The only remaining task is to choose the paper stock for the cover and interior pages.  This is a hands-on job so I will not be taking care of that responsibility.  It is a very pretty publication, with relevant articles, both new and republished, and interesting work from the artists in that microcosm of the Northeast.  With that behind me I have returned to Paros and I am happy to be back.  My visit to the USA was so short it feels surreal to walk down the narrow streets of this port town, now more crowded with tourists, feel the heat of the Greek sun and hear the ancient familiar music of the Greek language.  It is as if I had never left, yet I have the jetlag to prove it.  I have work to do here before I leave for Italy in a few weeks so I will be busy and I am looking forward to that.  For me idle hands are the devil’s playground.  In short, I need to have work to do and some structure to my life, a schedule of some kind.  People to see, places to go, things to do.  Then I can rest.

Today’s (2 August) reading from ‘ A Year with Emerson’  is appropriate since I am back here and in contact with my teachers, mentors and those who would guide me.  When he was thirty years old Ralph wrote a letter to his Aunt Mary and gave a description of his ideal teacher. He wrote, “God’s greatest gift is a teacher & when will he send me one, full of truth & boundless benevolence & heroic sentiments.  I can describe the man, & have done so already in prose and verse.  I know the idea well, but where is its real blood warm counterpart…I may as well set down what our stern experience replies with the tongue of all its days. Son of man, it saith, all giving & receiving is reciprocal; you entertain angels unawares, but they cannot impart more or higher things than you are in a state to receive.  But every step of your progress affects the intercourse you hold with all others; elevates its tone, deepens its meaning, sanctifies its spirit, and when time & suffering & selfdenial [sic] shall have transformed and glorified this spotted self, you shall find your fellows also transformed & their faces shall shine upon you with the light of wisdom & the beauty of holiness.”

“You entertain angels unawares…”  How lovely.  We are only ready to receive that which we are ready to understand.  In a way he is reminding me to remain open to the ideas around me, to not shut myself off from the “sunlight of the spirit” and to look keenly into the eyes of those who know.  I must admit that I cannot say much else after that.  That’s alright.   I think Emerson, Vidal and Old Aurelius would agree.  As a parting shot I would like to introduce a circular idea I have been mulling for the past few months: learn, practice, teach.

JDCM

Some Robert Henri-isms…

By on July 3, 2012 in 4×5 photography, craft, Greece, nude studies, Paros, rangefinder camera, silver darkroom, skill and craft, spring in the Aegean, Uncategorized, working

Here are some quotes from Robert Henri, from his book ‘The Art Spirit’.  It has given me great joy and pleasure in the past 24 hours.  His words, I feel,  are meditations…

“An art student should read, or talk a great deal with those who have read.  His conversations with his intimate fellows should be more about his life and less of paint.”

“He should be careful of the influence of those with whom he consorts, and he runs a great risk in becoming a member of a large society, for large bodies tend toward the leveling of individuality to a common consent, the forming of adherence to a creed.”

“An artist who does not use his imagination is a mechanic.”

“All things change according to the state we are in.  Nothing is fixed.”

“There is nothing in all the world more beautiful or significant of the laws of the universe than the nude human body. In fact it is not only among the artists but among all people that a greater appreciation and respect for the human body should develop. When we respect the nude we will no longer have any shame about it.”

“The art student of these days is a pioneer. He lives in a decidedly colorless, materialistic age…Sometimes in the past we shot ahead, in certain ways, ahead of where we are now…We have yet as a body to come up to the art of living.”

“If a man has the soul of an artist he needs mastery of all the means of expression so that he may command them, for with his soul in activity he has much to say.”

“It is a splendid thing to live in the environment of great students. To have them about you in person if you can. If not in person, in their works. To live with them. Great students agree and disagree. They stir the waters.”

“If you want to know how to do a thing you must first have a complete desire to do that thing. Then go to kindred spirits–others who have wanted to do that thing–and study their ways and means, learn from their successes and failures and add your quota. Thus you may acquire from the experience of the race. And with this technical knowledge you may go forward, expressing through the play of forms the music that is in you and which is very personal to you.”

“Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think.”

 

Paros news, part II, and travel ahead…

By on June 25, 2012 in 4×5 photography, craft, darkroom work, Greece, Paros, quiet islands, rangefinder camera, silver darkroom, skill and craft, spring in the Aegean, working

Once again I find myself at Mikro Cafe updating this electronic epistle, free to whomever wishes to read it and in doing so, please respond.  I arrived after my 12 day island-hop with fifteen rolls of exposed 120 film and I have developed it all.  This is important because it means that I may not have to bring my heavy medium format camera to Italy in the fall, which also means no tripod, no film, etc…What a literal load off my shoulders!  I can concentrate on digital color and get to know my new Leica M8 during the Italian session.  There was an issue in the darkroom, however, dealing with the near-tropical conditions. In short the water coming out of the tap was 24-25C  and I need the chemistry to be 20C.  The ambient room temperature was also 24-25C which meant that all the metal canisters and film reels were all 24-25C.  The upshot is that even if I drop the chemistry temp to 20C the second I put the soup in the can, the temp will rise 2 degrees at least, thus dropping the developing time.  This was my solution:

I made the initial film rinse at 16C, thus dropping the can/reel/ temp to 20C.  Then I can add the 20C soup and it will at least be stable for a couple of minutes before the ambient room temperature raises the can of soup a degree or so.  Now, since I have been under developing my PlusX by N-2 anyway in this darkroom I have to adjust the time again, this time for ambient temperature.  For this round of work I dropped the time to N-5 and the effects are very nice indeed: good separation in the shadows, nice highlights that are not overexposed and a balanced contrast.  Considering that many of the images were made in the height of the Greek sun (10:00-15:00, or 5800K) I am very pleased with the results.

Paros is much the same.  The Watercolor Workshop and the Digital Photography Bootcamp finished and hung a small exhibition last Friday which was lovely.  I was impressed by the photographers and enchanted by the watercolorists.  Some of the photographers had never worked in this kind of digital dynamic before and their work was terrific: all illustrated an excellent use of negative space, lovely light/shadow, texture and elegant composition in the work.  The watercolors were ethereal and splashed with colors, bright and soft.  There were some students who had never worked in this medium as well but that wasn’t apparent.  This is a testament to both their innate skill and that of their instructor.  There are more tourists on the island, but it is not crammed with people.  I am sure this is making some business owners nervous about their futures, but the summer hasn’t really arrived and the July and August crowds will write the book on this piece of marble in the blue sea.

I leave Paros for the USA in about a week.  I would like to think I will have a relaxing time back in New York but my time will be short and I have much to do, many people to see and commitments to keep.  I will be off-island and out of the EU for a month and then return at the very beginning of August.  As the plan goes I have about three weeks here and then I am off to visit a friend in England for a couple of days and then head to Italy, Ravenna and finally Pistoia and the Villa Rospigliosi where I meet up with the rest of the school for the Italian Session.  I have a lot of work to do for the fall.  My portrait project must continue and I need to push that a bit if I am to stay on schedule for the beginning of printing in October.  I am thankful for all the work I have done so far and I am a little ahead of schedule in the darkroom, but I must not rest on my laurels.  My role as student/intern is unwritten but the future looks bright, at least from this vantage point.

JDCM

Photography, painting, crunch-time, stress and beauty…

By on May 9, 2012 in 4×5 photography, craft, darkroom work, Greece, Paros, silver darkroom, skill and craft, spring in the Aegean, working

My 4×5 work is turning into something more than I imagined.  What started out as portraits of artists in their studios has turned into images of the people I know or have become friends with over the past two years here on Paros.  Artists, students, shop owners, cafe proprietors are all part of the parade.  It is a lovely mix of personalities and a small documentary of those around me.  My ability with the 4×5 has increased as well, especially when I view the images I made last spring.

This change is also apparent in my painting.  The first painting and drawings I made at the beginning of the term do not compare to what I am capable of now.  I can look at almost any object, person or still life and know exactly how to go about drawing it, giving it depth and space and setting it into a place with a relative weight.  This is truly astounding.  This has also been a experiment.  In grade school I was told by my teachers that I could not draw or paint anything realistic.  As a young and impressionable child I believed them and stayed away from this art for over 40 years.  I have now proved them wrong and there is a certain kind of satisfaction in this.  It reminds me that a teacher should never treat a child in negative way.  To them all things are possible.

We have 23 days until the show and I am stressed.  Yes, I am sure all will be done, but it will be a tough road.  My darkroom work needs to be finished sooner rather than later and my digital along with it.  It is the painting that will take the time.  The paint needs 4-5 days to dry before we hang so that cuts that time down to 18 days.  Subtract the 4 days I will be in Athens next week and that leaves just two weeks of painting.  I can do it, I know I can.  I have a whole bunch of teachers to prove wrong.

The light is stunning and clear, the sunsets are magical and the cool night air rings with sounds of the sea.  Our hikes have been exhilarating and refreshing and an antidote for the stress of these past weeks.  The exercise clears my head and the light and perfumes of the wild island interior acts as aromatherapy for my aching mind.  Beautiful indeed.

 

The Big Push…for me at least…

By on April 23, 2012 in 4×5 photography, craft, darkroom work, Greece, Paros, silver darkroom, spring in the Aegean

The spring break is over.  I was able to have some time in Athens visiting friends and the teacher from school who is in a very positive recovery from her stroke.  All seems well with her and we all hope to see her back on the island soon.  I have been expanding, albeit slowly, my 4×5 portraits and will be developing some sheet film tonight.  These are family photos of a wonderful homesteading family here on the island, an English couple who raise their own chickens for eggs and bees for honey.  In return I received  a half-dozen fresh eggs.  I’ll take that as a solid barter.

We have less than 40 days until the show and even les for me since I will be off the island for a long weekend so that leaves about a month to do what I need to do and still have two or three days of free time before the show.  That is a lot of work for me.  I am focusing on quality rather than quantity but there is still a quota I need to fill.  I think ten large-format scans from the digital lab and 15 silver pieces.  This, of course, doesn’t count the paintings.  I think there will be 8 to 10 of those as well.  Those have to be finished by the week before the show so that the paint can dry fully.  I have my work cut out for me.

The weather has turned to spring/summer warmth, sun and the kind of light that begs for early morning photography.  It also seduces the less fortunate into spending time at the beach rather than in the studio.  So be it.  This is not my problem.  The phrase ‘youth is wasted on the young’ is apt here as always.  So much energy and so poorly used.  It is interesting to see how young kids blow off huge amounts of energy too soon and then have none for the rest of the day.  They are naturally out of balance.  This changes in the future as they age and learn how to manage time.  I think so anyway.

More to come…

JDCM

Turbulence, shifts and changes…

By on April 15, 2012 in 4×5 photography, Greece, Paros, silver darkroom, skill and craft, spring in the Aegean, working

Easter has come and gone here on Paros and the symbolic nature of “from the darkness comes the light” is not lost on me or, indeed, many of us here at the Aegean Center.  It has been a difficult week personally and artistically and, for the faculty, professionally.  Last Friday one of our core instructors suffered a stroke.  Luckily she was able to be airlifted off the island and was in an Athens hospital within 5 hours of the event.  In the 9 days since she has made great strides in recovery, siga-siga of course, but great strides nonetheless.  She is talking, eating, sitting up and some feeling has returned to nerve damaged limbs.  Here at school the reaction of the students and faculty has been strong and supportive.  There have been moments of great calm and moments of emotional over-compensation, but that is to be expected.  This kind of event can scare anyone.  I have faith in the process, however, and feel that what needs to be done will happen and that everything is exactly the way it is supposed to be.  This can be a hard reality to grasp, but in my experience it is the truth.

A good friend and I were having dinner the other night and she spoke of an element of Chaos Theory that proposes that all systems, whether biological, social or psychological, undergo a period of Chaos before their next great evolutionary leap.  Perhaps this is what I am witnessing both here on Paros, in Greece and the world as a whole.  Currently the Earth seems to be shifting on its social axis, tipping the scales to what seems like a point of no return.  Is this true or are these just the growing pains if a young species on a much older planet?  Are we suffering the same Chaos in the macro as occurs constantly in the micro?  Is the actual Design of Everything a fractal equation, repeating itself ad infinitum, identical on any scale?  This is a very logical image and one put forth by both mystics and quantum physicists throughout the years.  Is the suffering and recovery of one person a micro-mirror image of the constant shift and turbulent change we are witness to globally?  For me, I will continue on my charted course, adjusting my theoretical sails when I find it necessary to do so.  Some might say this is not thinking outside the box.  Some others might say this is the best course possible for it allows for changes to be made within the eye of the Chaotic hurricane rather than having Chaotic winds drive one’s direction.  I’ll stick with the second camp.  Time will reveal the winner, if there is such a thing.  In my heart, however, I will have the strength of integral values stronger than any trend or fad and which affords me more artistic balance.

Siga-siga: slowly-slowly.

JDCM

Here at Mikro Cafe…

By on April 2, 2012 in 4×5 photography, craft, darkroom work, Greece, Paros, silver darkroom, skill and craft, spring in the Aegean, working

“Latte, please,” JDCM said.  Colin stands behind the bar, talking of his love of chewing on coffee beans.  Fresh from his bi-athalon on Naxos, he is feeling sprightly and full of energy.  He was able to shave off 6 seconds from the last event of this type so that’s a win and new personal best…Bravo Colin!

On other notes my portrait sessions have begun and I have photographed one student, the artist Jackie Massari and one of the instructors, the painter Jun-Pierre Shiozawa.  I hope to work with Colin Brown and his wife Stella later this week, perhaps Wednesday afternoon.  Couples are more difficult than single subjects, but I hope to work this out.  I’ll do some research on the subject so I can get some ideas first.

Other students are using the studio as well which is a good thing, and I am eager to see their work.  My painting is moving along and I am getting the hang of glazing, scumbling and the balance of colors.  We are still using a limited pallet and I understand why.  I am champing at the bit, however, to open up the brighter, more vibrant hues and work them in.  This will come with time.

Weather still fine, cool at night, etc…

JDCM

Painting, portraits and 4×5 photography…

By on March 26, 2012 in 4×5 photography, craft, darkroom work, Greece, Paros, silver darkroom, skill and craft, spring in the Aegean, Uncategorized, working

The Fayum portrait I am copying

I have discovered an excitement and love of painting.  That is the only way to describe how I feel.  Using this medium to see light as opposed to the photographic process is a joy.  Although I tend to be a ‘fast’ painter, the inevitability of having to let paint dry keeps me from getting to far ahead of myself.  We are still engaged in tonal studies, but have branched out into some color variations based on ‘hot’ and ‘cool’.  Very interesting.   We have also begun the ‘Fayum’ process as well and using the tetrachromy is a challenging form that dates back to the beginnings of the Common Era (30 ACE to the 3rd century).  Art historians believe that these colors are actually the four used by the Greeks in the 4th an 5th centuries BCE and reference the four elements.  The spiritual aspect of this intrigues me.  The Fayum portraits themselves seem to have survived purely by chance while only written descriptions exist of the height of Greek painting from the classical age.  As a student of history I am happy to be looking at this course from both an artistic and academic point of view.

This afternoon I cleaned up the light studio and set up the four studio lights and scrims we use here at the Aegean Center.  This means that I can begin my portrait work this week, I hope.  I will use my 4×5 camera and produce images similar to the portraits made in the late 19th century.  The lighting will be dramatic and raking, borrowing  more from the style of Rembrandt than anything else.  My subjects will be students and locals and will be both an important part of my portfolio and my learning curve.  This vision may change, of course and I may find I like the open studio light concept better than the drama.  The composition will be head and shoulders only, 3/4 view or something like that.  We shall see…

JDCM