Ken Smith Photo Journal

Narcissus Gift

By next week my crazy race will be over for a time. I have all the shows prepared. I have made the two week trip to the midwest for the show in West Des Moines, Iowa. I have printed the 14 prints for the insurance building commission. And, I have done little new creative work. Or, as one can see, I have not been updating my presence on the web. First things first.

I have been thinking alot about passion in my work, but have put few words down that can adequately describe its importance. Maybe as I begin making new work again, the words will come. There has to be a certain breathing space in order to be spiritual about the work. The confinement of framing, meeting deadlines, attending show receptions does not allow for idle roaming. In the meantime, I have revived an older work, Narcissus Gift. It originally was made with the 4×5 on a paper negative, printed and toned in the darkroom. I have recently scanned the print and will be printing Gift now in the new method.

Leaf Heart

Hiatus sounds like a relaxing pause, but it has been the opposite around here. Since the first of June there have been shows, deliveries, new work, auto maintenance…..you name it. Little time to catch one’s breath. I am not complaining, for in this economy to be prospering is a joy. I only wish there was a better vitamin, or maybe that ‘hiatus’ that means ‘peace’ for just a brief time.

I am working on new work for a couple shows coming up. At the same time, brewing in my mind, is a dissertation about ‘Passion’ and being an artist. I hope to have that written soon. So please stand by and I will fill in the spaces shortly with pictures and philosophies.

Painted Turtle Shell Book

I have been preparing work for three shows simultaneously. The theme of one of the group shows is ‘Shell’, and I have enjoyed making work for it. One, I had written about in an earlier post involved turtle shells, shot with my old Burke and James 5×7 view camera. The finished piece is a hinged ‘book’ of two panels. The images are beeswaxed. The panel sides and backs are painted a chinese red. I am excited to show this new work.

Sea Memory

Unlike the turtle shell book, which was thought out, contemplated, worked on technically over a long time, another piece came about spontaneously, effortlessly. I had an old fossilized shell and I wanted to include it in the show. I made various images of it on my studio worktable, but it just wasn’t happening. On another table was a clutter of ’specimens’ – odds and ends of plants, bugs, rocks. An old feather I had picked up on a shoreline a long time ago caught my eye. I made a quick composition and it felt right, all in about 15 minutes. The image was made using my Panasonic G1, with my old Canon 50mm f3.5 macro lense and adapter. Handheld. The printed image is almost monochrome, just a touch of blue-grey, feeling like my sea memory.

Water Plant 2

Late Chrysanthemum

Yesterday there was this article on the front page of the online NY Times about how professional photographers have been required to make fundamental changes due to the influence of the digital world, the internet….and the sheer numbers of photographs being made and marketed by amateurs and parttimers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/business/media/30photogs.html?src=me&ref=general

It can make the work of the fine art photographer even more challenging. The work must be so filled with significance, so well crafted, that it can alone in the strength of its visual presence, convince the viewer that this work rises above the millions of images, is meaningful beyond what he/she experiences every day. This image, is imbued with a heart, and the viewer is reminded of something she already has known deeply, and feels an innate belonging to what the image shows. Maybe it is the same primal task as it has always has been, but as the Times article implies, it may be more tough for the serious photographer – and the viewer – as we go forward.

I had an opportunity this last weekend to blow the dust off my Burke and James 5×7 camera. For a couple years it has been a shining sculpture in my living room, a relic and reminder of a past when things were not so electronic. I put it to work photographing some turtle shells I am incorporating in an art piece. It wasn’t an easy matter, for I had to reacquaint myself with the other world which I had left behind for so long. I needed to get out my handheld pentax spot meter, fill the wood film holders with efke 100 asa sheet film…I had to clean the darkroom sink of the accumulation gathered there as the darkroom became a multi-purpose room.

Then, for several hours I got to play in an earthy way, with things made of wood and glass. I needed to remind myself to put the lens cap back on the lens after focusing, before removing the dark slide from the film holder. Everything was alien, and yet familiar. It came back with a sweet memory. Again, I went back to the school boy timer…..”one thousand one, one thousand two…”, like in some hide and seek game with light and shadow. The exposure on the old french darlot lense was 4 seconds at f22, then I quickly put the lenscap back on the lens. It has no shutter.

I went to the darkroom, familiarizing myself again with the beakers, the formulas of the chemistry, the gralab timer. Jeez, I could screw up at any point and ruin the film. I could only develop one sheet at a time, having slipped it sideways in a curve inside the 1-liter Paterson tank, emulsion side in. I was using the two part Pyrocat HD developer, which leaves a brown stain on the film, and was so beautiful it could be a finished picture in negative form.

The whole process was so antique compared to what I had been living with in my photography for such a long time. Every part of it could have been a century ago, or timeless…what men had dealt with before they knew about things binary. But in a hybrid affliction I scanned the film into my computer to print on my epson. It is all pretty awesome, but I didn’t know it would be, till I actually went thru the compete process. Now, I need to do it again and again. The 5×7 is no longer a monolith in the corner, but of real use. I won’t leave digital either – I am a heretic to nothing. I move through the shadows, enticed towards the unmentioned taboo by two lovers, for one alone cannot satisfy me.