Have a quick look at an excerpt from the with Julieanne Kost and make sure to read the full article when the September/October issue hits the newsstands!
“When it comes to aesthetic digital collage and technical expertise with Photoshop, few can equal Julieanne Kost. Professionally a Digital Imaging Evangelist for Adobe, Kost not only knows her tools, but she incorporates her skill into some of the most sensitive narrative collages exhibited today.
JK: “I am able to control the exact elements that I want to merge together to form a cohesive message. As a result, I am able to create a composite image more powerful than its individual parts. The interactive process of selecting and assembling images is one of the most challenging and thought-provoking aspects of my creative exploration. Although overall, the images may appear serene and calm, the act of creation is anything but passive. I begin with a concept in mind, yet I may not know exactly how the pieces will fit together at the end. As the image takes on its own life, I often allow myself to explore additional directions, sometimes finding that the final image only faintly resembles the one first imagined.”
The next issue of photo technique is full of stunning portfolios, both commerical and fine art; technical articles with loads of great information, and unique innovative products to improve workflow! Coming to a mailbox or newsstand near you, June 15!
July/August 2010
Portfolios
• Beauty Avatar
Film-inspired Fashion Shoot, Douglas Dubler
• Corporate Photography on Location: The Stetson Campaign
An Interview with Tyler Stableford
• In the Face of Forgiveness: Steven Katzman’s Epiphanies
A.D. Coleman
• Artifacts of an Uncertain Origin
Pinhole Photography, Seán Duggan
• Before the Curtain: Portraits of the Atlanta Ballet
An interview with Michael Nelson
Tech
• Proofing Your Negatives Digitally
Critical Scanning Techniques, Jean-Christian Rostagni
• Adobe Photoshop CS5: Content -Aware Workflow
Dan Moughamian
• Perfecting Digital Camera Exposure
Your meter reading isn’t always the best choice, Barry Haynes
Innovations
• Machine Wash Delux: A great texture system now a Photoshop plugin
• Acratech Ballhead:A perfect mate for a fiber tripod
• Strobies by Interfit:Amazing group of light modifiers for portable flash
• 6300 Series Printers:Introducing Canon USA’s newest wide format printer
*This is a response by Al Weber to David Vestal’s article, “Preparing a Show” in the May/June 2010 issue of photo technique*
In answer to David Vestal about loose print display
David’s Photo Technique article, in which he tells why he chooses to have his photographs shown un-mounted, caught my eye.
Having just delivered 73 mounted prints to Lumiere Gallery in Atlanta, dry mounting prints and cutting overmats was on my mind.
His points, as usual, are well taken. For instance, buying museum quality boards has become costly. Back orders are common. Consistency has become an issue. When you pay $22 for a 32X40 sheet, and it has flaws, that hurts. Mat board appears to be going the way of plywood. It’s called crap, the product of a company that doesn’t care.
But cost isn’t the only issue. It takes time to do finish work, and time is the one commodity those in the arts cannot waste. We don’t work 40-hour weeks and retire with a pension at 65. Of course that is no ones fault but ours. It goes with the territory.
David mentions that cost isn’t a factor when dealing with a gallery as they do the finishing…..sometimes. But who really pays for that? You, the photographer, that’s who. It’s just not up front.
I’ve run a few numbers regarding all this, and if a photographer farms out the finishing, which gives him/her more time, that’s a plus. However, I find if I do the finishing myself, it’s like earning $100 an hour for my labor. So sometimes I make more money finishing a photograph than I do making it in the first place. Take the time to add it up. You might be surprised.
And what about just plain laziness? Why do something if you can avoid it? I like lazy people, I’m one of them. They do a lot of non-physical work while thinking, just to avoid work. In the process, they frequently come up with something worthwhile. Gee, showing un-mounted prints is sounding pretty good.
But now, let me tell you the good side of doing your own finishing.
You have total control, positioning the print on the board in good light and not at the easel or on some stinky little monitor. Then you can decide the size relationship, print to board, you can play with big boards or little boards, cold white or cream white, smooth or textured, the choices are many, and if you take your time, it can be satisfying and rewarding. The small things add up. When you’re finished, it’s personal, and it feels good. This is the time when I do my own evaluation of the photograph, with no external influence.
Far from being drudgery, I find print finishing relaxing. It’s not hard work. No one is yelling at you. It’s a solitary time to be with your work, understand it to the fullest and then enjoy it. Photographers always seem to be in a hurry. Take (or make) the picture, do the processing, and get it out there for everyone to see, as quickly as possible. Not enough time is given for self-exploration and evaluation. The reasoning behind a photograph is rarely discovered if it is subliminal. Finishing a print affords this time. Methodical study often reveals additional needs and potential changes in process that make the photograph speak more clearly. One gets to know their work. Applying a loose print to a mat board protects the print. Many of today’s papers are fragile. It’s easy to crimp, bend or otherwise damage a loose print. Like white space in newspaper advertising, the mat also sets the print aside from surroundings that can visually intrude on the viewer.
So, David and all those of you who choose not to mount your photographs, you have good reason for what you do, but I don’t agree. One more time, the old cliché, “there is more than one way to skin a cat.”
You can buy all the necessary tools by selling that lens in the bottom of your camera case that hasn’t been used in a while, and have a whole bunch of change left over.
Here’s a preview of Carlos Tarrat’s portfolio that is featured in the May/June 2010 issue of photo technique! The stunning imagery of Carlos Tarrats redefines the techniques we’ve come to expect in the age of digital manipulation. Yes folks, these images are all composed in camera and shot on film with no digital handiwork.
Editor Paul Schranz interviews Carlos Tarrats who use traditional processes to produce untraditional images of plant life above and below ground.
“Tarrat’s message is so important that he refers to these plant photographs as “portraits.” He adds that these are not primarily self-portraits in any metaphorical sense, but rather more general investigations into life’s brief but extraordinary moments of being. He asks, “What if all of those moments were compressed into a single frame? How do you visually represent the sum of those moments?”
What are your reactions to his work and concepts? Do the “extraordinary moments of being” resonate with you in these images? How can the range of tools in traditional and digital processing liberate or restrict your personal vision? Let us know what you think!
Pick up a copy of the magazine to learn more about Tarrats’ workflow and technique and be sure to visit our website for more information on the upcoming May/June issue.
We attempt to make each issue of photo technique diversified throughout the field of photography and inclusive of all photographic processes.
For example, the recent March/April issue includes Al Weber’s aerial photography, Lori Nix’s view camera work, Gene Federov’s macro photography, Dan Burkholder’s photographs taken with his iPhone, Cornelia Hediger’s use of multiple images on a grid, Chris Woodhouse’s digital negatives for traditional prints, and Cole Thompson’s long exposures and ND filters. Our next issue will explore a whole new set of parameters that include HDR, abstract macro work, lighting interior architecture, chromoskedasic printing and amazing abstract silver-based photography.
We’d like to know what you think of this approach. Please give us your feedback here on the Forum site.
In anticipation of the forthcoming March/April issue of photo technique, we are excited to give our readers a preview of Lori Nix’s “The City in Miniature: Photographing a Diorama.”
Lori Nix, a Brooklyn based photographer, constructs and photographs intricately detailed dioramas in the living room of her apartment. Through her attention to detail and lighting techniques, she renders rich and unique imagery with unparalleled surrealistic environments.
Beyond appealing aesthetics, Nix’s images in “The City” serve as narratives of significant cultural themes. Nix explains, “I focus on the ruins of urban landscapes, I construct spaces that celebrate modern culture, knowledge, and innovation, as well as humanity’s more unsavory patterns of consumerism and potential debauchery: the theater, the museum, a vacuum cleaner showroom, and a dark, dingy bar. Here the buildings of civilization and material culture are abandoned, lying in a state of decay and ruin, with natural elements such as plants, insects and animals beginning to repopulate the spaces. This idea of paradise lost, or the natural world reclaiming itself, becomes more forceful as we face greater environmental challenges in the world around us”.
The vision of Lori Nix is a dynamic and complex one, and photo technique is pleased to include her latest portfolio in our upcoming issue. It’s just a few more weeks until you can read the full article and see the beautiful reproductions yourself!
Also featured in the March/April issue:
- Al Weber’s aerial photographic portfolio, “Influence of Flying”
- “Insect Photography in Nature,” amazing macro work of Gene Federov
- “Darkness at Noon,” Cole Thompson’s Long Exposures and ND Filters
- Cornelia Hediger’s “Doppleganger” series
- Dan Burkholder’s iPhone images, which will surely blow your mind!
- “The Copy Print Process,” a detailed workflow of Chris Woodhouse
- Tom Millea’s commentary on the shift from Modernism to Post-Modernism in photography
- Michael Light’s new book, Bingham Mine/Garfield Stack reviewed by Mary Anne Redding
- Innovations, underground tech updates
While this information will appear shortly on the magazine’s website and e-letter, I want to give you all this pdf version of the Jan/Feb 2010 photo technique magazine with corrected type. Please open the link below to download the pdf.
I sincerely appreciate your patience and concern. Rest assured, the typography problem is rectified in the March/April issue. I encourage you to go back and read the exceptional and now legible content in this issue, and I invite you to respond here, on the photo technique Forum if you desire.
While we acknowledge and will correct the typography fiasco, I would like to address other issues of the new photo technique. I particularly want to respond to those readers who are concerned that we are abandoning traditional photography, as well as those readers (old and new) concerned that we are not giving enough editorial space to the relevant technology issues of the continuous learning curve that is digital photography.
For most of my 40 years as a photographer, (30 of which I was a contributing editor of Darkroom Techniques, and then Photo Techniques), I worked with a view camera, but I have moved to digital for the last decade. It is my philosophy as a photographer and emeritus professor of photography, having taught graduate students for 30 years, that the medium of photography has never existed on the basis of unrelated techniques or unskilled aesthetics. For that reason, I have incorporated the technology and methodology used in creating photographs into two categories.
The first is a series of portfolio/article combinations that demonstrate both the means and the end result. Articles are extremely diversified and will include commercial and fine art projects. In all cases, the work will be of the highest caliber finished imagery.
Please note that while I will be working with dozens of new photographers from around the world, as well as many of the contributors to Photo Techniques from the last decade, I am concerned only with the final photographs and the techniques and methodologies incorporated in their creation. I have no intention of making a distinction between a silver-based or digital process. The medium of photography since it inception has manifested itself in a number of processes, of which digital is the most recent.
The argument about what constitutes “true photography” based on processes has continued throughout our history. It was proven irrelevant in the past as it is now. I will also add that “photography” has never been defined by one application or aesthetic genre. photo technique is dedicated to the inclusion of all forms of photography.
The second part of the format change is expanded technical articles. The intent is to completely follow a process in detail, rather than offer short snip-its or tips.
While I personally acknowledge David Vestal for his valued insights and blatant honesty, I will be opening the opportunity to others to offer commentary, both established and new writers, to invite intelligent discussion on the issues facing photography as a medium. Rest assured, David will periodically be back.
It is important to note that I do not edit the content of the commentaries, even if I personally take issue with their direction. It is my intention that the Forum will provide an opportunity for interaction between readers and the comments made. Forum submissions will also not be edited for editorial content, providing the exchange is intellectual and well founded. Photography is not myopic. That is one of its amazing qualities.
The magazine will never address the interest of a point-and-shoot mentality. If anything, my intent is to elevate the magazine to a more professional level.
The fact remains that there is very little new in process, technology and equipment that is not digitally based. But that does not mean that new methodologies and new creative forms of silver-based imagery are not being done. As long as this is true, it will appear in photo technique. Again, I am not restricting myself to editorial balances. Photography that deserves print space, no matter what process, will get print space in photo technique. In the next issue, space is fairly evenly divided between silver-based and digital.
If you have any further concerns, you are welcome to contact me directly at pschranz@phototechmag.com. I also encourage you to use this site for intelligent discourse on photographic issues.
