Tag Archives | Paros Portraits

Spring in the Aegean…2015

By John on April 5, 2015 in 120 film, 35 mm photography, beauty, biking, black and white portraiture, craft, Cyclades stone walls, Cycladic stone walls, darkroom work, Greece, hiking in the Cyclades, John D.C. Masters, John Masters, mountain bike race, mountain biking in Greece, Paroikia, Paros, Paros Portraits, portraiture, silver darkroom, skill and craft, spiritual journey, spring in the Aegean, stone walls, The Circle of Paros Bicycle Race, working

It has been the wettest and coolest spring that many can remember. Since March there have been more clouds than sun, more rain than not. Yes, this may seem acceptable to friends in more northern climes, but around here it makes people nervous. Paros is, for the most part, an arid climate and our primary agricultural gifts (olives, grapes, figs, tomatoes, etc…) demand that the soil be dry and the water stop falling from April to October. I am hoping that by the middle of the month the rains will cease.

I have been printing a lot and I have 30 pieces so far for my exhibit next fall. Another 20 and I can begin editing, then selenium toning, then off to the framers they go. I will most likely use a local company here in Paroikia, but I must demand a better frame quality. The most recent batch were inexpensive, lightweight and thinly lacquered stock and some people have brought this to my attention. I will be a little more struct with this next exhibit. What have I been printing? Old stuff, new stuff, 35mm, medium format. A little bit of everything.

I am going to invest in some archival storage for my collection of portraits that are still in their frames, in a box, in my bedroom, in my flat. I should get them out of this situation and into something more manageable. Plus, it will free a cubic meter of living space.

I have been biking a lot lately, which I need to do. I have been working on my hills, getting advice, pumping the pedals. There is an 18km mountain bike race in a couple of weeks that winds its way from Marpissa, through Piso Livadi, along Molos, through the valley to Glyfada and back to Marpissa. I rode it yesterday with some very fit pro-am folks and we rode it in 1:16. This included taking two wrong turns and not really going too fast. I hope to ride it in an hour. It is a solid goal. Other than that, I have been out on the road bike and digging that, getting ready for the Circle of Paros road race on June 6th.

Orthodox Easter is next Sunday. I will view the proceedings at Panagia Ekatontapiliani for Friday and Saturday nights, then at midnight on Saturday will break the fast with some friends at a local taverna! Paidakia, kokoretsi, patates, salates…Yum! Then the next day there will be a big feast at a friends home with whole lamb on the spit, chicken, sausages, pork chops…Yum again…

Two days later I hope to be swimming in the very chilly Aegean for my first swim of the season. I feel a need to be anointed in wine dark sea…

–JDCM

The end of February…

By John on February 24, 2015 in 120 film, 35 mm photography, beauty, biking, black and white portraiture, craft, darkroom work, Greece, John D.C. Masters, John Masters, mountain biking in Greece, Paroikia, Paros, Paros Portraits, quiet islands, silver darkroom, skill and craft, spiritual journey, spring in the Aegean, working

I am happy that February is almost done. It is the shortest month and here on Paros it has been very cold, but also quite beautiful with lots of rain, green fields promising spring. March harkens, change is just around the corner.

I guess this is a bullet-point post…

–I turned 50 a couple of weeks ago. Some friends took me out to dinner at one of our favorite tavernas and I was truly touched by their generosity and warmth. Thank you, thank you…50 years on the planet, half a century. Hmmm…there were moments that I didn’t think I was going to make it, probably a couple where I tried not to. Dark times, indeed, and a lifetime ago. Rearview mirror stuff.

–I have been printing a lot in the darkroom. Nothing really specific, just printing, going through negatives from 2006, ’07, etc…current work too…35mm, 120…lots of stuff. It is for an exhibit I would like to have next fall. Some wise friends reminded me to not be too concerned with content because it was art schools that put forth the idea that a solo exhibit must have a theme. There will always be a common thread running through the show. At the very least, it is all my work. I can’t help it if people get confused. I’m not.

— I have been getting ready for a mountain bike race this weekend in the hill-town of Kostos and have already biked the route a few times. I am eagerly looking forward to it–13 km of ups and downs, rocky, gravely, sandy farm roads, washed out and rutted. There are some short stretches of paved stuff, but thankfully not so much. I have biked it already three times and my best time so far is 53 minutes, and that is after a 9 km uphill ride to get there. I hope to catch a ride with some friends, so I’ll be fresh. The weather this week is rainy off and on. I am hoping for light winds and sun on the day. It’s going to be a fun and muddy ride.

–That’s it, really. Not much else to report.

–JDCM

The true gifts…

By John on January 1, 2015 in Athens Greece, beauty, darkroom work, Greece, John D.C. Masters, John Masters, Paroikia, Paros, rangefinder camera, silver darkroom, skill and craft, spiritual journey, Uncategorized, working

–It is New Year’s Day, 2015. Happy New Year! May this next year bring us all the best that life has to offer. I am sure there will be uncertainties, enough for all: jobs, businesses, pursuits of all colors. The best thing I have found is to be active and know when to let go of something that simply will not budge. It is better to walk away from the brick wall than to keep banging your head against it.

–Sometimes the best gifts can be those that have been worked on and constructed by the giver. I gave some of my family photographs this year. This past autumn I was lucky enough to be in Paris for a week and photographed the Parc de Bagatelle with my Voigtlander r4M using Rollei 400s film. The negatives were lovely and I chose three specific images for presents. I worked carefully on the pieces, choosing specific papers for the right feel, adjusting the developing chemistry to activate the proper tonal scale and contrast. They are lovely. I was happy passing them on to good homes where they would be appreciated.

–I return to Greece this week. If all goes well I will be back on Paros by Tuesday lunchtime. My name day is January 7th, which is also the birthday of a close friend, mentor and colleague. I hope to cook her and her husband dinner that night. Probably pork chops.

–The real gifts are non-material. I no longer live in an imagined world of fear, where people are out to get me, shaft me, or otherwise take advantage of what I like to think of as my good nature. I no longer play the victim card. I no longer need to open up my Bag from the Past to show people what-tough-time-I-have-had-and-if-you-had-my-life-you-would-be-like-this-too! I am so happy I found a way up and out, have been able to let go of so many bad ideas and open my heart, embracing change as a positive force. Yes, I have days that are not perfect, but that is OK. That is the gift of being right-sized: I am a person among people, a worker among workers. I am emotionally secure among grown-up people.

–I heard a good quote the other day…

“You know what the big problem is in telling fantasy and reality apart? They are both ridiculous!”

–JDCM

Paving my own road…

By John on November 30, 2014 in 35 mm photography, 4×5 photography, autumn, beauty, craft, darkroom work, Greece, John D.C. Masters, John Masters, Paroikia, Paros, Paros Portraits, portraiture, quiet islands, silver darkroom, skill and craft, Uncategorized, working

–My ‘Cafe/Kafe’ show went very well. It is such a quiet time here on the island that an event like this was a wonderful way to have a get-together. It was a community event in a small community. A good chin-wag with friends on a windy autumnal eve. Mikro Cafe was packed and the opening lasted for about 3 hours. I feel it was a great success for us all. I took down the pictures a few days ago. On to the the next one.

I have begun printing my second portrait show, which I have slated for October 2015, here on Paros. I have ideas about the venue, which I will evolve. The show itself will be a continuation of the first ‘Paros Portraits’ exhibit, but this time I have relaxed my eye. The first show was strictly large format 4×5 and printed digitally. As lovely as the 4×5 is, the process began to feel formal, something I wish to avoid in this next installment. There are a few 4×5 images in the new portfolio, which I will contact print, but the remainder are 35mm. I am hoping for about 35 to 40 pieces and they will only be printed in the darkroom. I want this next show to be more loose, more casual, with an element (just a smidgeon) of the ‘street.’ The prints will also be smaller with most of them falling into the 8×10 category, or thereabouts. If I can print them all by the end of April then I can shuffle them off to the framer and pick them up at the end of the summer.

The weather here turned distinctly autumnal last week. It was about 14C before Thursday and the drizzly, dark streets were perfumed with the aroma of burning olive wood. It was damp, but then the wind is shifted from the south. For the past two days we have seen sun, balmy breezes and well over 20C. Lovely.

I must stay busy with my own work, even if it a small casual show like ‘Cafe/Kafe’. As a friend reminded me tonight at dinner, “you have to pave your own road ahead of you…”

–JDCM

In the shift…

By John on August 31, 2014 in 35 mm photography, autumn, beauty, biking, black and white portraiture, darkroom work, Greece, John D.C. Masters, John Masters, mountain biking in Greece, portraiture, skill and craft, Uncategorized, working

–The August crowds have departed and it is almost September. The summer is slipping away (has slipped away), a tide across the sand. The light has shifted. It is no longer the July glare. Delicate clouds mute the summer fierceness. Autumn approaches. Today it is windy and cooler. A meltemi eases fevered brows. A scirocco will present itself midweek. The breeze will drop to almost nothing.

–All the forecasts point to the possibility of a light shower this week. Whether this will happen on Paros or another nearby island is never certain. I shall just have to wait and see.

–The mountain bike race on Andiparos has been cancelled. The next event I can participate in is the race on Naxos, at the end of October. That’s OK, although I was looking forward to Andiparos.

–In a couple of weeks I head off to Italy to visit with friends, eat some steak Florentine, and allow the Renaissance to inspire my eye.

–My portrait work continues. I would like to shoot and develop a couple of rolls of 35mm before I head to Italia.

–I continue my biking. I need to pump up the kilometers a bit. Now that it is cooler and there are fewer cars, this is easier. I pay the final installment on my road bike tomorrow. Then I can begin that dynamic routine. 200 km a week total with both bikes. That is all I ask…

–JDCM

Happy May…and some thoughts on photography…

By John on May 2, 2014 in 4×5 photography, beauty, craft, darkroom work, Greece, Paros, Paros Portraits, portraiture, skill and craft, spring in the Aegean, working

–May is here. The sun is shining, the tourists are few. The winds are from the south, north, east and west. It is lovely here on Paros.

–My darkroom work is progressing nicely. I have been printing my Weather/Texture 35mm images on a regular basis and am finding great joy in the consistency of this portfolio. I have also been keeping up with my 4×5 portrait work and recently photographed a young artist who is visiting our fair isle. I made 12 exposures, of varying depths-of-field. I’ll develop them this weekend. Paros Portraits, Part II moves at its own pace…

–Recently a close friend gave me a lovely gift: Richard Avedon’s Woman in the Mirror . The images reminded me to look a little deeper into this photographer’s life. I have always been impressed by his work. I admire those who labor at what they love and have paid their dues, either through hard work, hard times, or both. Avedon was a skilled craftsman who supported himself and his family through commercial photography. While I never met the man, I get the feeling that while he became famous in his own time, he maintained his humility.

Avedon said that “I never wanted to be called an artist. I wanted to be called a photographer.”

…also “sometimes I think all my pictures are just pictures of me.”

He also believed that “a photographic portrait is a picture of someone who knows he is being photographed, and what he does with this knowledge is as much a part of the photograph as what he’s wearing or how he looks.”

–Dig it.

–JDCM

The exhibition…

By John on August 20, 2013 in 4×5 photography, beauty, black and white portraiture, craft, darkroom work, Greece, Paroikia, Paros, Paros Portraits, portraiture, skill and craft, spiritual journey, Uncategorized, working

My solo exhibition opened Sunday evening. It was a joyful relief to have it up an on its way. I realized that I have been building this portrait project since October 2011 while also working on (and completing) several other portfolios in both photography and painting en route to this destination. No small feat. It feels as if this has been an overreaching arc representative of all my labors to date here on Paros.

I have had some interesting comments regarding the 22 photographs. One on-line viewer remarked that I had created a community. I can see that too: a small town. I have a butcher, barber, teachers, students, potters, cafe owners, artists, farmers, families, etc…The portfolio could stand alone as a village almost anywhere. A visitor to the exhibition last night said that I had captured the souls of these people. I like to think I only borrowed them for a brief moment.

I was too busy to take any pictures of the opening, but I know others did. When I have some of those, I’ll share them.

I think I will concentrate on portraiture for a while. My other photography is good, solid work. It is like doing push-ups or lifting weights–all preparation and training for the real event. I will begin a second round of portraits in late September, once the light has shifted a bit and people’s schedules have settled down.

Thank you, once again, to all those who helped make this happen. You know who you are. Yes, I did the work, but without the support of the Aegean Center and the people of Paroikia this project would never have seen the gallery lights.

JDCM