Mark Klett speaking with guests at the Land Re-Form opening - Etherton Gallery, Tucson, Arizona 1/18/20

Etherton Gallery - Opening of Land Re-Form - Tucson, Arizona

March 3, 2020

While I was at the Legacies of Light Symposium in Tucson, the Etherton Gallery coordinated to have the opening of their current exhibition Land Re-Form on Saturday night after the symposium events were done. Land Re-Form features the work of Michael Berman, Frank Gohlke, and Mark Klett.

The best way to enjoy seeing the work in this exhibition on line is to follow the link above, Etherton’s website has so much outstanding content on their artists and their exhibitions.

Owner Terry Etherton has fantastic vision and has built a perfect gallery space in downtown Tucson. His roster of artists rivals the best galleries on either coast, and its also impressive that his gallery is now almost 40 years old.

I have long been familiar with the work of all three of these featured photographers, and Mark Klett was already at Arizona State University when I studied there so we know one another. All three produce beautiful prints and the design of the exhibition is a perfect pairing of their work.

I have long enjoyed Frank Gohlke’s work, his prints are so beautiful. I was glad I was able to spend time with him at the opening talking about his printing. Seeing great prints always motivates me to produce work, nothing like spending time seeing a perfect print. There is no one more gracious than Frank, I was lucky to be able to chat with him at the symposium too.

William Karl Valentine and Frank Gohlke - Etherton Gallery Opening - Tucson, Arizona 1/18/20

I also picked up two of Frank’s books at the opening, “Mount St. Helens” and “Landscape as Longing: Queens, New York” which he collaborated with Joel Sternfeld and Suketu Mehta.

Other work was also on display in the smaller rooms within the gallery. Just a fantastic variety of iconic images by masters and newer cutting edge work. If you are ever near Tucson, the Etherton Gallery is a must see.

PHOTO LA 2020

March 3, 2020

Even though 2020 has been a hectic year, I was still able to make it out to PHOTO LA this year. I definitely saw some great photographs there, and even better still I found lots of images to photograph myself. I have been writing volumes for this blog the last few days so I will keep this post simple, and for the most part let my photographs do the talking with the exception of one image.

William Karl Valentine with Mel Etherton by Danny Lyon print - Photo LA 2020 - Santa Monica CA 2-2-20

I met Mel in Tucson in January when I was out for the Legacies of LIGHT symposium in Tucson. Her Husband, Terry, founded Etherton Gallery and I am featuring the gallery in another post here in my blog. To be specific I actually met Mel in Mary Virginia Swanson’s kitchen at a party after the symposium Sunday afternoon as someone was photographing her hair (true story, cool party). Anyways, at PHOTO LA I see Mel at the Etherton Gallery booth and I start a conversation with her, eventually asking her which print is her favorite. Without hesitation she pointed to this Danny Lyon print behind us in the photo , a photograph which is one of my favorites. After we talked about how great Danny’s work is she explained her connection to this particular image. She said they were at a Paris Photo LA event in 2014 when Brad Pitt came by their gallery space which was featuring Danny Lyon. She said Terry was busy with a client or off somewhere conducting business so she talked to Brad and basically sold him the print. The sale of the print made several news outlets and she got to tease Terry about it after that she was the one who closed the deal with Brad Pitt. Epic story, so happy she shared that with me.

So as for the rest of the PHOTO LA 2020 Experience I am just going to post a gallery and let the reader plow through some images.

Memorial for Kobe and GiGi Bryant at LA Live - Los Angeles, California 2/1/20

The loss of Kobe Bryant

March 3, 2020

The day Kobe Bryant died it was overcast here in Newport Beach, and I wasn’t surprised to find out later weather was the most likely reason he and eight others were killed that Sunday.

I first learned of the helicopter crash from a text my son sent from the East Coast. He saw the news on TMZ and initially could not confirm it on other news sites. I was initially skeptical but then it was soon confirmed.

Kobe’s family lives in the Newport Coast part of the city which is about five miles away but people still ran in to him all around town. I saw him one night late at the my CVS after he had played at Staples, and know they frequented shops all over town. His family was a part of the town and lots of people know them.

The atmosphere in Newport Beach, Los Angeles, and Southern California after the helicopter crash was something I had never seen before here. In the Newport area so many people had some connection to one of the nine killed. In a smaller community the shock is understandable. But the atmosphere which gripped all Southern California, and most of the world, was incredible. Kobe was obviously larger than life, vibrant, and successful at everything. For him to be gone, and at that point in his life, shocked the world. I think it brought everyone’s own mortality in to view which is never fun.

With this event I knew I was present at an important moment in history and I wanted to find an appropriate way to photograph it. I had no interest to intrude on grieving family members, or capture images from private services, but I wanted to try and document the impact on the community, the atmosphere I was feeling.

What I decided to do was photograph the pop-up memorial at LA Live across the street from Staples Center. It was the most obvious subject and I was going up there to Kings games anyway so I had good access to the area.

These photographs are from LA Live. It was incredible to move through such an eclectic and diverse crowd where everyone was so reverent in unison. No one shoved or pushed, no one argued, it was quiet with the exception of the occasional “Kobe” chant, and everyone was basically one. Guaranteed there were folks in the crowd who normally would not be cordial with one another who stood side by side without an issue.

With a loss like this there are lots of lessons, I was thankful to have the opportunity to document it because I think these images can speak to that, but obviously I wish there wouldn’t have been a memorial to photograph.

Web 1-17 to 19-20 CCP - Legacies of LIGHT 4.jpg

Center for Creative Photography - Tour of Facilities - LIGHT symposium

March 1, 2020

On January 17th, Prior to The Legacies of LIGHT Symposium officially starting, attendees of the symposium were allowed the unique opportunity to take a behind the scenes tour of the Center for Creative Photography. The tour lasted about an hour and was fantastic. I always find “behind the scene tours” interesting, which this tour truly was, but with this one I also learned some things which should help me as a photographer with archiving my work. The primary reason I found this tour so enjoyable was the staff. Anne Breckenridge Barrett and Becky Senf have assembled a team at the CCP which is as world class as the facility and its holdings. Staff members are experts in their fields, they are passionate about what they do, and they enjoy sharing their knowledge with others. My tour was one of the last groups of the day and everyone on staff was still motivated to share their different worlds with us.

I think the best approach for me to share what this experience was like is to just post a series of galleries of each area we visited then briefly describe what I saw.

The first stop on the tour was the room where curators layout and plan exhibitions. I didn’t get the official name down, as you can see it is basically a narrow room about 50 feet long with tables and ledges to lay out work. The room is secure so a curator can spend as many days as she or he wants assembling an exhibition without having to worry about putting artwork away each night. The lighting was obviously perfect with plenty of room to experience the sequencing of images for any project.

Dana Hemmenway is the Arthur J. Bell Senior Photography Conservator at the CCP and her area of expertise is fascinating. She had selected several examples of acid contamination to prints and explained how they work to protect the assets of the CCP. In the images above with the large light table she explained how they can recover image information from badly damaged negatives to allow quality prints to be made from those negatives. The last two images above show badly damaged Extachrome slides from David Hume Kennerly’s 1979 series “Drug Trade” which documented the war on drugs at the time from the point of origin in South and Central America. In the fall of 2019 the CCP acquired David Hume Kennerly’s archives including these slides. These Extachrome slides had been processed in the region where he had been photographing and years later developed these unique crystals on the emulsion making the images almost unrecognizable and completely unusable. Hemmenway and the CCP is currently conducting experiments to identify the cause of the crystals and how to recover the images.

Although the CCP does not house Richard Avedon’s entire archive they do have a massive print archive of his work with a dedicated space and archivist specifically for his prints at CCP. I have seen his large prints in exhibition before so the large flat files to house the work did not surprise me but I was still in awe of those drawers. This is a room very few get to see, I was happy we got to look in.

If I remember this correctly the Archivist space for the CCP’s Digital Initiatives section is currently located off of the CCP’s library but they are getting a new larger work space with more dedicated equipment. In December, at the opening of LIGHT, I had a fantastic conversation with Associate Archivist for Digital Initiatives Emily Una. Weirich , who detailed how they are digitally preserving the Center’s archives and preserving images originally created in digital media. The Digital Initiatives section can handle almost any type of artwork and its staff is helping to establish modern standards for archiving digital imagery. I find the subject fascinating as well as important for me to understand as I work to properly maintain my own files.

I think the CCP’s library is still working to fill out it’s collection. They have some fantastic historic books and periodicals and their collection is decent size.

I did find two things in the library that I absolutely loved. One was a Winogrand 1964 book still in its shrink wrap, love that someone hasn’t gotten to that because I also have a book or two on my shelf which is still in shrink wrap. The other was a small framed announcement for the Witkin Gallery’s 1975 Sixth Anniversary Exhibition which was shoved back up on a shelf under the fire alarm. I assume it is an original poster, loved where it was being stored, the fact the exhibition was only five weeks long, and that the image they used for it was Stieglitz’s iconic “Steerage”.

Great tour and I am sure we probably were just scrapping the surface of all they have at this premiere institution.

William Karl Valentine with Scott B. Davis at the Center for Creative Photography’s Legacies of LIGHT

Scott B. Davis at Legacies of LIGHT - Center for Creative Photography

February 9, 2020

At the Center for Creative Photography’s Legacies of LIGHT I also had a chance to catch up with Scott B. Davis , someone I always enjoy talking with. Scott is an amazing photographer and founder of Medium Photo which is a non-profit organization centered around educational workshops and annual photo festival in San Diego. I have attended several of the festivals and they are fantastic, they include lecture series and portfolio reviews. Scott’s passion for photography is so strong, I appreciate all his leadership with Medium, and especially the images he captures as a photographer.

Scott currently has a platinum print in an exhibition at the Getty which was recently featured in the LA Times Entertainment and Arts section, The platinum print exhibition runs through May 31st and also includes prints by photographers such as Tina Modotti and Alfred Stieglitz. Also at the Getty until March 31st is “Unseen” featuring works from the Getty’s permanent collection which have never been exhibited at the Getty before. This exhibition celebrated the 35th anniversary of the Getty’s photography collection.

Arizona State University MFA candidate Julia C. Martin and William Karl Valentine at the LIGHT symposium

Julia C. Martin & Alex Turner - Two MFA Candidates you should get to know

February 9, 2020

One of the best experiences I had with attending the Legacies of Light Symposium was getting to know two MFA candidates who I am confident will have impactful photography carriers.

I’ll start with Julia C Martin who is studying at Arizona State University. We had a couple long talks during the weekend and I was very impressed. She already has solid insight in to world of fine art photography and I could definitely see her doing big things in a curatorial role one day. She has positioned herself perfectly for something like that already having worked for the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops and Aperture. She has also interned with Mary Virginia Swanson and has a good relationship with her. But Julia is also a photographer and makes some pretty powerful images. Julia’s work right now deals with the themes of death, mortality, and femininity. She primarily photographs using film and oftentimes prints her images using alternative processes to captured the feelings she is dealing with. She could impact the photography world in a number of different ways. I learned a lot from talking with her, Julia’s insight has value and she communicates her ideas so well.

I only had a chance to speak briefly with Alex Turner but I think that was mostly because so many other people were trying to speak with him. Alex is studying at the University of Arizona and was just awarded one of the 2020 Society for Photographic Education’s Student Awards for Innovations in Imaging. He will also be presenting his Blind River project at SPE Houston this spring. From what I have seen of his work he is a strong image maker who is starting to make an impact.

My Dad

January 15, 2020

My Father passed away last week, and where I usually keep my personal life separate from my photography site and Instagram, I think it is appropriate to talk about my dad because of his impact on my photography. My dad always encouraged my photography, bought me my first 35 mm camera, a Pentax K1000, and he paid for all my schooling. He was the one who arranged my access to photograph the Pasadena Police Department which was probably the most important documentary series I have done to date. That series led me in to a law enforcement career and it currently is getting a lot of interest from people exploring the issues of the criminal justice system. My dad liked to photograph, had a Rollei among other cameras, and a bathroom darkroom before I was born. He always encouraged me with my photography. Successful people need a support system and advocates, he surely was both for me. At 93 he was very tired and had lived a full life. His moderate dementia had taken away his mentoring abilities a few years back but our bond was strong to his last breath and his love is something I will always have. I have no regrets, and I am nothing but thankful for all the time I had with my dad, he had a huge impact on my life and who I have become.

Without getting in to all the details why , with my dad’s passing I found myself in a situation where I had to pull his funeral together in 48 hours. Luckily I have photography skills and a great friendship with the owner of the lab who prints my larger prints, otherwise I don’t know how I would have pulled it off. When I was waiting on the prints for the service the owner and I were talking about how often he print memorial photographs. He then brought up the fact that so many people only have low resolution files of important images now. We have talked about it before, but he told me that he has had numerous people come to him looking for enlargements for a funeral and they have image file sizes which couldn’t even produce a quality 5 x 7 print. I am lucky in that my family has an extensive collection of family prints and some negatives. I also was able to get most these prints in to safe archival storage years ago and have done some digital archiving of images. I only mention this because too many people today live in a Snap Chat world where images are just seen for several seconds and archiving of the most important images is left to a third party cloud service with no hard copy backups. Luckily my mom has maintained all family photographs in good order.

As we all know the camera allows us to capture a fraction of time and retain memories for our lifetime, hopefully longer. I found myself photographing my parents a lot over the last couple years, probably in an attempt to preserve time and hold on. The color photograph above is from my dad’s 93rd Birthday , just with my iPhone, he passed 35 days later. Its powerful for me because my mom is in red in the background getting things ready in the kitchen. She cared for my dad a lot the last few years, and she was the homemaker in the relationship. I know I am stating the obvious by pointing out how important it is to maintain good quality prints and files of the images which will over time mean the most to us.

Brent Valentine with his Grandfather 6-16-19

As a photographer I am constantly looking for images and framing elements in my mind. So this summer when I saw this image, and the way the light was, I knew I had am image with the potential for strong meaning. As I took it I also knew that image would have the most strength after my father passed and that time was approaching. It was one of those photos you take but wish it wasn’t there for you to see. I ended up using this image on the back of the memorial service program along with a Bible verse my son provided me that he felt described his grandfather best. That verse by the way was Philemon 1:7 “Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hears of the Lord’s people.” No matter your faith, or even if you don’t have a faith, the message is a good one for all of us to live by.

Dr. Rebecca Senf - Chief Curator at the Center for Creative Photography and the Norton Family Curator of Photography and photographer William Karl Valentine

Qualities of LIGHT Exhibition - Center for Creative Photography OPENING

January 15, 2020

On December 13th I drove out to Tucson for the opening of The Qualities of LIGHT Exhibition at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona.

In my previous blog post I spoke about having a print selected to be included in this exhibition and I wrote about the history of that image. I also spoke about the concept for the exhibition which is to show the importance of The LIGHT Gallery and its impact on the development of Photography as an accepted art form. The CCP exhibition does a fantastic job capturing the spirit of the LIGHT Gallery and documenting LIGHT’s history. One thing LIGHT was famous for was showcasing work from emerging photographers. My print was included in this exhibition as an emerging photographer. My print, along with 120 other prints from other emerging photographers, is on display in one of four large flat files in the middle of the gallery. The concept is that people who view the exhibition can explore the drawers and make their own discoveries. There is also an interactive area where visitors can map their own association with the LIGHT Gallery or others who were influenced by LIGHT. There are also a number of historic artifacts from LIGHT to help recreate the gallery atmosphere.

Below is my print and the accompanying artist statement information. This is a digital print from a negative scan which is archivally mounted.

CCP Director Anne Breckenridge Barrett and CCP Chief Curator Dr. Rebecca Senf speak at the Members opening of the exhibition. I also got meet CCP Curatorial Assistant Adam Monohon and CCP Archivist Emily Una Weirich. Everyone I met was fantastic and I am looking forward seeing them again at this weekend’s sold out LIGHT symposium.

In my previous post I mentioned how this was the first time one of my prints has been in an exhibition with a WInogrand print, and how special that was for me. Below is the Winogrand print, a classic image from Women are Beautiful.

Garry Winogrand print form his Women are Beautiful series - 1968 New York

Pasadena PD Officers Naum Ware & Darin Craddolph conducting a search warrant related to rock cocaine sales. March 1987 (PPD-177 #23)

Qualities of LIGHT Exhibition - Center for Creative Photography

January 14, 2020

I am proud to announce that a print of the above image has been included in the Center for Creative Photography’s Qualities of LIGHT Exhibition which opened December 13th and runs through the end of May 2020.

This image is from my Pasadena Police Department Series which is one of my most important bodies of work. I began the series while studying at Arizona State University and exhibited the work at the Northlight Gallery just before I graduated. The ASU faculty arranged for Van Deren Coke, at the time the Director of The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s Photography Department, to meet with me privately in the gallery to review my work. He compared my images to Larry Clark’s work which will always be one of the highlights of my career as a photographer. Photographing the Pasadena PD eventually led me to chose to a career in law enforcement which allowed me to continue photographing more than most other professions would have. The Pasadena PD series has also had increased interest in recent years and I should be producing a book of this work in the near future.

As for my image above, as stated in the title it was from a search warrant related to rock cocaine sales. For me, I saw the damage first hand that the rock cocaine era in Southern California did in the 1980’s. Pasadena’s Northwest area was ravaged with drive by shootings, property crimes by “baseheads”, and gang activity. So many good people lived in that part of town and they basically had to stay inside at night for their own protection. I knew people I went to grade school with who were killed during this time, like Danny Harris who was shot in a drive by shooting while selling rock cocaine. Then I also saw the harm done to small children like the boy in this photograph, Officers like Naum and Darin cared about the community and worked hard to make it safer by taking people involved in crime off the street. An approach that worked in many ways then which we have abandoned today because of political concerns. Could the approach in the 1980’s have been better? Yes with hindsight things can usually be done better but the over all approach to fighting crime prior to 2000 was better for society than it is being portrayed today. Naum made over 1,000 hand to hand undercover “buys” of narcotics during his career, most all in dangerous situations. Darin, recently retired after a 30 year career. Both these officers cared and put their own safety on the line to protect others. Some people today may wrongly interpret this image as oppression by the means of law enforcement, I know the truth behind it because I was there.

To be included in this exhibition has helped me achieve several long time career goals. I wanted to have my work exhibited at the Center for Creative Photography, arguably the most important photography archive in the world, and eventually have some of my prints added to their permanent collection. Being included in the Qualities of LIGHT exhibition accomplished both goals, with hopefully more to come at the CCP in the years ahead. One other interesting thing I discovered at the opening, for me at least, is this is the first time one of my prints has been in an exhibition with a Garry Winogrand print. (Winogrand is my favorite photographer - I traveled to New York in 1988 to see John Szarkowski’s retrospective of Winogrand at MoMA, to San Francisco to see his entire Women are Beautiful series exhibited at Pier 24 in 2017, and again to San Francisco in 2014 to see the SFMoMA retrospective of Winogrand’s work.)

The Qualities of LIGHT Exhibition documents the history of the LIGHT gallery which existed in New York City between 1971 and 1987. This was a critical time in the development of the medium of photography being accepted as art and LIGHT was one of the first galleries to concentrate solely on exhibiting photography. This exhibition examines LIGHT’s impact on the medium which continues on to this day. One important aspect of the LIGHT gallery was it showcased emerging artists and had work from multiple photographers readily available for view by patrons in flat files. My print was selected, along with other emerging artists’s prints, to document that important part of LIGHT.

For more information about the exhibition please follow this link: The Qualities of LIGHT: The Story of a Pioneering New York City Photogaphy Gallery.

To learn more about the history of the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona please click here.

Howard Greenberg Collection - Museum of Fine Arts Boston

January 14, 2020

The Viewpoints exhibition , photographs from the Howard Greenberg Collection at the MFA in Boston was one of the most impressive exhibitions I have seen, I am unfortunately getting to posting this later than I had hoped, I saw the exhibition shortly before it closed last December.

The Howard Greenberg gallery has long been one of my favorite stops when I am able to get to New York. His gallery’s focus on documentary photography, and selection of what work to show, is fantastic. The gallery space is awesome, the staff is so personable & knowledgeable, and their exhibition designs are always so well crafted.

The aspect of the MFA exhibition I loved the most was it gave the viewer insight in to Howard’s vision. It explained his approach to the medium, and what interested him. The collection includes many of Howard’s favorite prints and the stories behind why the images are important to him. In some cases it tells how he came to obtain the prints. There are so many amazing one of a kind prints in this collection, it is such a good exhibition for documenting the history of the medium and the presentation of the collection by the MFA staff is perfect. It is as good an exhibition design as I have seen. I think the best way to approach sharing this with you here is to start posting my photos of the exhibition in groups and just make comments about them.

While drafting this post, one interesting thing I learned about the MFA collection was it began in 1924 when Alfred Stieglitz donated 27 of his photographs to the Museum. The collection now includes approximately 15,000 photographs

The short video accompanying the exhibition was perfect. I loved hearing Howard explain the importance of the different items in the exhibition then being able to go look at them on the walls. The MFA also included quotes with the titles next to the prints which was good too, but seeing the video then going to see the prints he talked about was the best way to experience things. I have looked for this video on line and have not been able to find a link to it. These three still his opinion on the importance of making prints not just capturing images.

The above images show how the exhibition prints were grouped under themes.

Gloria Swanson, 1924 , by Edward Steichen (1879-1973)

Steichen’s print of Gloria Swanson is one of the most beautiful prints I have ever seen. It is also one of Howard’s favorite prints as he describes in the video. in person it is truly amazing.

Above - examples of personal prints photographers made

The exhibition had images I was not familiar with before like the Winogrand and Frank prints above. I really found the Frank print interesting. His “Americans” series was so important in the history of the medium, to see an image he took when he was on his way here to do the project is incredible. I envision him “sharpening the saw” some knowing about the journey he was about to embark on.

The concept for displaying iconic images with their press notes and publishing stamps visible was brilliant. I loved being able to see both sides of these prints, the small wall cut out and the dual glass frame was perfect.

The Henri Cartier-Bresson print below was pretty incredible too. I was familiar with the image, and to see what is the very first print of the image is so special. Enjoyed the story of how Howard confirmed this was Henri’s first print and the path it took to get in to Howard’s collection.

More amazing Steichen prints below. Where Instagram and other social media platforms, like this blog, are fantastic to share information to broad audiences quickly there is also a downside in that many photographers today do not fully understand the medium, especially what a fine print really is. I have written about it before, to truly understand what a good print is you have to view good prints. In person, slowly, and by examining every detail. Unfortunately this can not be accomplished in 2 to 3 second digital views.

After the Steichen print of Gloria Swanson , the two prints below were probably my favorite prints in the exhibition. W. Eugene Smith’s printing skills were amazing, I remember seeing his working prints of the Jazz Loft Project on display at MoPA in San Diego and I was in awe of how beautiful his working prints were. The display in that exhibition was also perfect. I am so glad his archive is also at the Center of Creative Photography where it will properly cared for and shared.

The Diane Arbus print was good to see. I remember seeing her own enlargements years ago and they were not clean. So much dust on the negatives that it was distracting, and no where close to the images which professional printers produced. To see this smaller print which you know she made was another special experience.

Although I have long been familiar with this famous Lewis Hine image and how important it was for bringing about change, I think this is the first time I have seen this print in person. Powerful experience to view it.

Below is a selection of other prints in the exhibition which stood out to me.

I am very thankful that Howard Greenberg donated this collection to the MFA. First so I could see the prints exhibited in this format, which again was an outstanding presentation, but more importantly to assure that such an amazing part of the history of the medium will be preserved together in an institution like the MFA.

I found the following articles on the exhibition which may also be of interest:

Howard Greenberg Gallery Statement

Wall Street Journal

The Guardian

Bill Jay memory from ASU

December 13, 2019

I was going through some old notes today before heading out to Tucson for the opening of The Qualities of Light Exhibition at The Center for Creative Photography when I came across my notes from one of Bill Jay’s History of Photography classes at ASU.

Granted my notes from back then were sloppy (my writing habits changed a year later after the police academy TAC staff taught me that life was less painful when I was able to write legibly in a consistent manner) but I think I still have down the general concept of Bill’s message that day.

He was arguing that good photographers had to understand the history of the medium and what the standards of good photography are to truly be successful. My notes quoted him as follows:

“Young Photographers do not have the knowledge of History. If you don’t know the history, when you are so self absorbed, or if not self indulgent, then there is no relevance to your work other than your own feelings”.

I think this is even a bigger issue today than back then. With the technology advancements in equipment, more people are picking up camera and claiming to be “self taught” art photographers more than ever was imaginable 30 years ago. We live in a world of the two second page view and social media “Likes”. We are inundated with images. Often drawn to the brilliance of of over saturated images created more with pre-set s in a post production computer program than the creative eye of a photographer who has hone his or her craft. I also assume many of the photographers who are popular on social media have also probably never seen a good print in person. I want to be fair< I know not everyone young photographer is like this, but unfortunately many are, and often because they don’t know any better.

Need to keep this short, I just wanted to acknowledge that so much of my development as a photographer has come from viewing and studying the prints of the masters. I don’t know any other way to understand what a beautiful print looks like without seeing examples. I try and learn something every time I see great prints, and use those experiences to remind me of the standard I am striving for. For me it is usually a “sharpening the saw” experience. So, I am excited to be continuing my education tonight in Tucson , time to start driving!

HEARTLAND - An American Road Trip in 1963 Thomas Hoepker

November 21, 2019

I just picked up a copy of Thomas Hoepker’s book Heartland by Peperoni Books (Second Edition 2013). Came across it on line, saw Magnum was offering autographed copies, and it caught my attention. I was first drawn to the documentary aspect of the book. Thought it would be interesting to compare it to Robert Frank’s work a few years earlier. I was also wanted explore the book because the images were all from 1963, the year I was born. Had an idea about some self exploration by reflecting back to the era I came from compared to where I am at today. Not to be overly deep, more inquisitive.

Overall I like the book and am very happy I have added it to the library.

I like the size, printing, and feel of the book. The crafting of it is appropriate, has a clean look. My biggest knock is some of the image titles are redundant (It is one of the things I pick up on, part of why most my images are untitled). For example: “Woman at a Jukebox in South Dakota”, I can clearly see it is a woman by a Jukebox, I don’t need that information. Love knowing the photograph is from South Dakota, would love to know the city, the bar, or any other facts the image doesn’t tell me. I assume this is the title Hoepker gave the image, and for a reference title its fine, I just don’t see the need to use it in the book. Most folks probably will not notice, its just one of the things I am particular about, I love as much information as I can get and I don’t like redundancy . But back to what is important, this photograph is a great image. The solo man’s hat on the rack above the jukebox, the woman sitting alone, her eyes… there is a ton here in this image. The book layout is also a perfect pairing of the image opposite of the couple dancing in Arizona, takes it to a deeper level still.

Some of the images which really stood out to me are below. I photograph in cemeteries a lot so the photographs from LA were of immediate interest. The vertical image is from Hollywood Forever Cemetery which is an awesome place (you can find images from there in my Cemeteries Series) and the Forrest Lawn statue had been photographed by Winogrand and other greats, Hoepker was obviously chasing old tripod holes. The two images related to Kennedy’s assassination are perfect to document the year since that was by far one of the most important events of our history. The boy dressed up as a soldier resonated with me, I know the country was becoming more involved with the Vietnam War and its pretty obvious many of the toys for boys then were war based supporting that effort. Personally I remember most of my favorite toys were Hot Wheels or toys soldiers and plastic guns. I can relate to the boy in the photo on a lot of levels. The woman by the Campbell’s soup cans is just fantastic because she is in a rural America where more likely than not she is surrounded by farms with fresh and healthy food. The current state of our food supply is beyond frustrating for me and this era is pretty much where the commercialization food all started. I also recognize the parallels to Warhol and the art scene with the Campbell’s cans. This is my favorite photograph in the book. My final example is of the man in Pierre, South Dakota. I had no idea there was a Statue of Liberty replica statue in Pierre and I can’t ever remember a noteworthy photographer who had photographed in Pierre. Pierre was my Grandfather’s hometown and it has long been on my bucket list to visit. Reaffirms that every viewer brings something different with them when they look at an image that effects their response to that image.

Before buying the book I was familiar with Hoepker’s work but did not know it as well I should. Knew he is a Magnum photographer (joined in 1989 and was President of Magnum from 2003-2006) and knew his photographs of Muhammad Ali. So I did some research for this post. One of my favorite Hoepker photographs is of several couples at a make out spot across the river from the World Trade Center in the 1980’s. I have seen the image before and just think its a great document which captures the era and place so well. I found a feature on Hoepker’s color work in New York during the 1980’s on the site Viewing NYC which has the image featured. I also found a Hoepker article on KLAT which I thought was a good read. Hoepker’s main web site is on Magnum. If you decide to explore Hoepker’s work more I also also suggest viewing his photographs documenting Germany during the cold war.

Street Photography - 2018 PDN Article

October 23, 2019

So when I was looking up articles about Jill Freedman to share in my previous post I came across a really good article on PDN.com about What Street Photography means to several notable Photographers.

In the article Joel Meyerowitz nailed it when he said “You see tons of [imagery] on the internet labeled street photography, but when I look at it, it looks mostly like portraits of people on the street, usually in the center of the frame, and a lot of that work doesn’t seem to have much invention or intelligence or spirit or spontaneity.” I could not agree more with his statement. I see way too many images today that claim to be “Street Photography” which aren’t. I have seen images that would fit closer to the style of “New Topographics” profess to be street photography. I think with some of the self taught photographers out there the term “Street Photography” is romantic, or hip, so they call all their images street photography when most aren’t. I also think its somewhat humorous because Garry Winogrand, arguably the best “Street Photographer” to date, hated the term “Street Photographer / Photography”.

Martha Cooper & Alex Webb both had great insight for the PDN article too, please refer to the link above to see their comments.

For anyone wanting to learn about Street Photography look to some of the Masters.

Below are some Instagram examples which support my argument that many images “Street Photography” are not. Street Photography Magazine has some images which are Street Photography but there is a mix of others which are obviously not. Street Photography International has some dynamic images, but for me I would say most images there are not “Street Photography”. The images found on the page hash-tagged Street Photography are usually a quagmire of non-Street images.

Street Photographer Magazine

Street Photography International

Street Photography

Jill Freedman 1939 -2019

October 23, 2019

I have come across several articles recently remembering Documentary Photographer Jill Freedman who passed on October 9th, after a battle with breast cancer, at the age of 79 in New York City. I have appreciated her work for some time and felt the need to make a blog post recognizing her work.

I saw one of her last exhibitions, in October 2017 at Steven Kasher Gallery, which I documented here in my blog in November 2017. That exhibition was made up of prints from Resurrection City. The prints were a little worn, but I enjoyed being able to see what was obviously her vintage prints. My favorite body of work from Jill is her Street Cops which should not be a surprise to anyone. I love images from New York in the 1970’s and 1980’s especially her images.

Jill told her own story on her website. She described herself as “self-taught” which is a term that usually makes me cringe. First because most the people I come across claiming to be “self taught” often aren’t great photographers, but more so I take issue with how someone can really teach themselves something. You have to see examples and find things to study, those examples really are teaching you. She spoke of finding LIFE magazines in their attic and being inspired by those images. The works of Master Photographers featured in LIFE were her teachers, as I am sure other photographers’ works. Another more important aspect is good photographers are born with some talent, she obviously had the gift of artistic eye. She also had to have an incredible spirit of adventure and a lack of fear because she documented some pretty rough neighborhoods. I never met her but I assume she was full of confidence and moxy when she had a camera in her hands; I admire that aspect of her as much any other. Simply put Jill Freedman had an eye and was a good documentary photographer. I am hopeful her images will live on in the history of the medium, they are important.

Some of the notable articles I found about Jill are:

Photo District News

AD Coleman who described Jill as “as street smart a person I have ever known” , which is a huge compliment considering AD is basically a life long 75 year old New Yorker - I also came across AD Coleman’s Podcast on the 40th Anniversary panel discussion of SoHo Photo, which Jill helped to found, where Jill is speaking along with other founding members.

New York Times

AI-AP.com

Cant Stop, Wont Stop_October 2, 2019 (1).jpg

California African American Museum - Cross Colours Exhibition

September 27, 2019

Last month I licensed five images from my Pasadena PD and Police Series to be used in the upcoming “Cross Colours Exhibition” at the California African American Museum here in Los Angeles. It is the second time so far the CAAM has shown my work and I trust this exhibition, which opens next week, will be as good as the last one.

Thoughts on Robert Frank

September 26, 2019

With Robert Frank’s passing earlier this month I have read lots of tributes since and I have given some thought to how his work impacted my development as a photographer.

There is no doubt that The Americans was one of the most important things to happen to the medium, I remember Bill Jay talking about that fact when I was studying at ASU, listing it as one of the three most important things in establishing the medium in the art world. I have a copy of the book, have seen his prints, know the work well and I absolutely respect and like it. But I would never look to Frank and say he is the photographer whose work has impacted me most. I am a Winogrand fan, and I know Frank’s work impacted him, and so many others that impacted me so maybe, by proxy, Frank had a bigger impact on me than I realize.

I just read A.D. Coleman’s article on Robert Frank which has some fantastic insight. One thing that jumped out to me was the fact that Frank moved on from The Americans to film and other projects. He never did another photography series like The Americans. I think its interesting because when you look at photographers like Winogrand, Friedlander, or whomever you learn a lot by comparing their photographs over a long time period. You learn about the subject matter in greater detail (in most cases our society) and you learn about the photographer personally. It is obviously different with Frank because he leaves the documentary style of The Americans behind and moves on so there is still work that offers insight to the artist but you can not follow the change of society through his work.

For me, I experience life by photographing. Even if I don’t have a camera, visually I am constantly focusing on elements of my world and framing them in my mind. Sometimes it is actually hard not to that. I think there is a lot of value in doing long term series like most of my work. I love being able to compare things over say a 30 year span and hope that many of my series will go well beyond 50 years. It would be interesting to see Frank’s work if had continued over a long period of time, maybe it would have been too much for him. Maybe the great initial success of The Americans prevented that. Lots to consider, but I wanted to take a moment and remember an icon for his contribution to the medium.

Can We All Get Along - Documentary Film

September 25, 2019

Last year I licensed images for use in “Can We All Get Along?: The Segregation of John Muir High School” which is a 49 minute documentary film by Pablo Miralles, who graduated from Muir in 1982. The film explores the history of Pasadena’s schools which were desegregated by court order in 1970 (something I personally experienced as well having grown up in Pasadena at the same time).

The film is currently being well received and winning awards. Please follow the links below to discover more about this documentary film and its producer:

https://www.getalongfilm.com/

Pablo Miralles (“Gringos at the Gate“)

XQD vs CFexpress Memory Cards

September 24, 2019

Amongst my arsenal of cameras I have a Nikon D850 and Nikon D500, both of which have dual card slots with one XQD and one SD card slot. I often warehouse my memory cards especially the inexpensive ones. The biggest reason is for a backup system in case I lose an external hard drive plus I foresee an advantage if I ever have to transfer old data its best to have the original source if I need it. I love that you can buy high quality SD cards which are inexpensive, plus I appreciate the fact that SD cards can be found almost anywhere. My XQD cards have performed well but they are expensive, and more times than not, hard to find. I often send my RAW files to the SD card slot, warehousing those, while using the XQD slot as my JPEG image backup. I have even gone with just an SD card when I couldn’t get a XQD card. So, when I the Nikon rep demoed the Nikon Z6 and Z7 for me, as soon as I noticed they only had XQD slots I wanted nothing to do those bodies based on that alone. At the time I knew Sony seemed to be the only one making XQD cards after Lexar went through their changes and I was wary Sony would discontinue the XQD cards because their cameras aren’t using them (apparently Delkin now has a line of XQD cards).

A couple days ago I got notice that B&H was accepting pre-orders on CFexpress Cards so I decided to educate myself more about the CFexpress card because I admit I hadn’t heard of it.

Basically the CFexpress Card is the same size as the XQD card with faster capabilities and they will replace the XQD card. I think cameras with XQD card slots will need a firmware update to be able to use the CFexpress cards but that should be simple. The great thing is SanDisk, Lexar Professional, and Pro Grade Digital (new company founded by former Lexar folks) are making the CFexpress cards so there will be competition and it looks like this card will become a standard platform for a while since it’s design allows for upgrades. Apparently this information has been coming out over the last year or two but its the first I had heard of it so I assume there are other photographers out there who also weren’t familiar with the CFexpress card so I am authoring this post.

Brand 47 - Works on Paper

September 12, 2019

Last Saturday night I attended to the opening of the Brand 47 Works on Paper exhibition in Glendale, California. I know one of the artists in the exhibition, Richard Hutman, and I went to support his work.

I grew up in Pasadena, which is next to Glendale, but I was not familiar with the Brand Art Center before.

The Brand Library is the former home of one of Glendale’s founders L.C. Brand. He built the estate in 1904 and the property was gifted to the City of Glendale after his wife’s passing in 1945. Glendale converted the building to library in 1956 and added the Art Center in 1969. The Brand completed a two year remodeling project in 2014. It is a beautiful facility tucked away up by the mountains.

This was the 47th Annual National Juried Exhibition and it was curated by Alma Ruiz who is a former senior curator at MOCA Los Angeles.

I was impressed by a lot of the work that I saw there, especially since given the location of the venue I didn’t know what to expect. The gallery space is outstanding, its well designed, has excellent lighting, and has good flow to the layout. The only downside is the location is a little remote, you have to know about it, and its a ways from the center of the city.

Here are some of the works that caught my attention in the exhibition: (slide show, click on the image)

Easy - Nick Douillard

Acrylic and LED Lights on Paper

Historical Diversity - Carmen Tostado

Altered Books

Steal Away - Buena Johnson

Pencil on Paper

Take What You Need, Give What You Can - Brianna Eng

Risograph printed business cards

Paper Fan & Morning Paper - Lynne Deutch

Photographs

Berol TURQUOISE HB #2 - Richard Parker

Pastel, Ink and Charcoal on Paper

98 Failed Attempts at Trying to Make a Statement with Number - Jade Lowder

Graphite on Paper

98 Failed Attempts at Trying to Make a Statement with Number - Jade Lowder

Graphite on Paper

Works in Folded Paper - Richard Hutman

Seam Line - Susan Melly

Papier-mache, Tissue, Paper, Wood, Acrylic, and objects

Kenzi and Hootie - R.J. Kern

Brand Associates Award Winner

Archival ink on rag paper

If you are in the area the exhibition is worth seeing and again I was really impressed by the space. Exhibitions Supervisor Shannon Currie Holmes is doing good things with this space.

Unfortunately the Iconic exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago closed just after I saw it but for those who missed it hopefully this post will help you appreciate how good it was.

PHOTOGRAPHY + PHOTOGRAPHY Iconic: Photographs from the Robin and Sandy Stuart Collection

August 18, 2019

As a photographer there is always value in looking at prints by the Masters in the history of photography. Especially prints such as these in this exhibition which truly all are Iconic images. Garry Winogrand is my favorite photographer, I take every chance I can to see his prints and I am glad he was included. Weston was such a master printer, for me seeing his work is a spiritual experience. I remember being at one of the first Photo LA events (around 1993?) and picking up a Weston print of a pepper which was sitting in an open bin with other prints (all were matted). At the time it was a $5,000 print, and it was so powerful to look at every detail of the image and realize Weston also did the same thing when he made this print. I liked both Weston prints in this exhibition and was again in awe of his printing with the Charis Wilson - Nude on Sand print. I recognized every image in this exhibition and appreciated all the information each accompanying title card had about the image. This exhibition was well curated and one thing I really liked was that everyone who saw the exhibition probably came away with some new knowledge about photography, I know I did. The images were somewhat eclectic but their stories were all so unique that they became very concise when displayed together.

Rich and Poor by Jim Goldberg 1978-1983 (printed 1984) 30 images

I was sitting in Bill Jay’s class at Arizona State University when I first saw Jim Goldberg’s series Rich and Poor. It was probably 1986 just after the series came out. It was powerful and to this day I still remember some of the saw there, most notably the photograph of Larry J. Benko and his son where Larry described himself to be too “rough” of a father for his son David who he called “Fragile”. Today, as I was then, I am amazed of how Jim Goldberg was first able to get people to pose for portraits in the privacy of their homes but then how he was able to get these people to open up so much and be completely transparent about their lives and their opinions of themselves. This series is a fantastic document, it powerful, and it truly is thought provoking. Combining text on prints is also not as simple as it seems. While at ASU I remember several classmates and a professor trying to produce bodies of work in that style, obviously emulating Goldberg’s work, and they didn’t work. The series Rich and Poor allows the viewer to seriously consider what really is valuable in life. I have had the book in my collection for a long time and seeing this has inspired me to revisit it. The images, and text, are truly powerful both individually and as a group. I thought the decision to display the prints on walls of a entry hallway for the museum was brilliant. The prints weren’t tucked back in a gallery room but they were right out there in the open for everyone who passed by to stop and see. Much like the people in the photographs who were allowing their own stories to be told, they were putting themselves out there for everyone to see. Once again another good photography exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago.