Photography & Music

Category: Photography

Lensed and lensless, pinhole photography

  • Midwest Passage Exhibition at The Phipps Center for the Arts in Hudson Wisconsin

    I’m lucky to be in a photo group that is kind of awesome. We meet once per month in person and basically hang out. There are no rules, no agendas, no points, no competitions, just nice people sharing what they are working on, and drinking coffee.

    On occasion, we get organized and do a group show. This is one of those occasions and definitely one of the best. At The Phipps Center for the Arts in Hudson Wisconsin, we just installed 33 works from nine talented photographers in Gallery 2. The basic premise was that each of the works had a step in the process done by hand.

    “Traditional prints expand the sensory experience of the viewer and celebrate the tactile nature of the print itself as a one-of-a-kind artwork.”

    See prints made in several processes including:

    • Kallitype
    • Kirlian photography
    • Silver gelatin (black and white darkroom print)
    • Polymer Photogravure
    • Van Dyke Brown
    • Hand painted
    • Something called a photographic confection

    Hope to see you at the opening this Friday at 6:30 PM at 109 Locust St, Hudson, WI 54016. The exhibition will be on display from June 28th – August 4th.

    Photo of art gallery installation
    Photo club members at the gallery
    installing an exhibition using a level

  • Driveway Concert Series

    Photo of Thank You Georgetown during a summer driveway concert
    How to Driveway Concert with Thank You Georgetown

  • The Agfa Chief – A Definitive Guide

    Photos made in 2021 with an 80-year old camera. If you are into modifying cameras or photo history, keep reading. If not, it gets a bit dry!

    Panorama of cows made with an Agfa Chief Film Camera
    Panorama of cows made with an Agfa Chief Film Camera

    The Chief is a simple camera made around 1941 with one shutter speed and one aperture, but also manual “bulb” shutter and a selectable haze? filter. There is also focus control from Near (6-15’) to Far (15’ and BEYOND!)

    I was looking at photos of a friend’s pinhole camera recently and I was interested in the curved film plane. I wondered which other cameras from that era might have a curved film plane and I came upon the Agfa Chief. It’s a medium format camera that was made for two different film types, this one was made for PD-16. It’s wider than 120 film and has different markings, but with 616 to 120 adapters and a custom film guide extension, this camera can shoot modern 120 film.I liked the curved film plane and panoramic negative, roughly 2.25” by 4”. I had to figure out frame spacing, Ilford FP4+ has numbers that work in the red window, you just have to be a little creative to get 6 shots on a roll.

    What is the most fun? You can use the Agfa Portrait Attachment #29 and focus exactly at 42” for a close subject and a real out of focus area in the background.And that, my friends, is the Agfa Chief. Don’t leave home without it. Photos made on Ilford FP4+ and processed in Rodinal 1+50 for 15 minutes. In summary, it’s like a metal Holga with do-it-yourself frame spacing. You still have to tape up the camera to avoid light leaks. But hey, it’s fun.

  • The Exhibition is up at Hudson Hospital and Clinic

    A selection of my landscape photographs were chosen as part of the Healing Arts Program curated by the Phipps Gallery in Hudson, WI. I’m exhibiting at the Hudson Hospital and Clinic starting this week and until the end of May, then again starting in July at Westfields Hospital & Clinic in New Richmond, WI. There are nineteen works including color prints on metal, black and white silver gelatin prints and some Giclée.

    color landscape photographs
    Landscape photographs at the Hudson Hospital and Clinic.

    black and white landscape photographs
    Landscape photographs at the Hudson Hospital and Clinic.

    Large metal color landscape prints
    Landscape photographs at the Hudson Hospital and Clinic.

  • Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition!

    One of my photographs was selected for the 2018 Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition! After several years of solid rejections, I got one in. This is a 14″x18″ print on Ilford Classic 16×20 silver gelatin fiber paper enlarged from an 8×10 film negative in a traditional darkroom. Traditional portraiture with a large format film camera is apparently still a thing.

    8x10 film print
    8×10 black and white film portrait enlarged in a darkroom on silver gelatin fiber paper.

  • New exhibit at Amore Coffee in St. Paul

    I have the good fortune to display 18 photographs at Amore Coffee in St. Paul for the summer. There are 5 new images and I’m happy to have them out in the world. This online gallery shows what is on display at Amore with the exception of four photographs. There are prints from formats ranging from 35mm to 8×10 large format black and white film, both contact prints and enlargements.

    There are also Van Dyke Brown historic process prints and a couple of pinhole images as well. Finally, I threw in a few prints from digital files just for the fun of it. As always, something for everyone 🙂
    It’s a great shop and the fresh-roasted coffee is superb, but that goes without saying! Stop by if you are in the area.

  • Dramatic Landscape Photographs – Cloudscapes 2016-2017

    Spring is heating up into Summer. Here are some dramatic cloud formations captured between 2016 and 2017. These cloudscape photographs will be printed as archival inkjet prints and are available in several sizes.

    Three Pillars, 2016
    Three Pillars, 2016 – Available in 6×9, 8×12, & 18×24

    Anvil & Storm, 2016
    Anvil and Storm, 2016 – Available in 6×9, 8×12, & 18×24

    Landscape in Infrared, 2017
    Landscape in Infrared, 2017 – Available in 8×10, 11×14, & 16×20

    The Anvil, 2017
    The Anvil, 2017 – Available in 6×9, 8×12, & 18×24

  • 8×10 black and white film portraits

    Portraits on black and white 8×10 film

    It’s 2017 and I’m making large format film portraits with a vintage 8×10 camera that is 100 years old. This camera is the Folmer & Schwing 8×10 Home Portrait Camera No. 1 with a 14” Wollensak Velostigmat Series II lens.

    Why pursue photography with this combination? Photographs such as this one are made with a “view camera”, a camera where the photographer composes the image upside down and backwards on a ground glass on the back of the camera. View cameras use film that is typically 4″x5″ or larger, thus called large format. Often, images made with these cameras on large format film have a look that cannot be achieved in any other medium. The tonality has a smooth gradation between tones that feels open compared to smaller film formats. Also, vintage lenses designed for 4×5, 5×7, 8×10 or larger have a timeless character that is hard to replicate with modern photographic equipment.

    Part of my artistic vision is to create photographs that are not easily identified with any particular period. Sometimes clothing or hairstyle gives it away, but other times it’s hard to tell whether a photograph is contemporary or made anytime back to 1928.

    This portrait of a woman was made on Arista EDU Ultra 100 black and white film and drum processed for 9 minutes in Freestyle’s L110 developer at dilution H 1+62.

     

    photograph of a woman
    Portrait on large format film made with a vintage camera over 100 years old.

  • Artist of the Month at Dunn Bros. Coffee in Hopkins

    Starting November 1st, my photography is featured as the Artist of the Month at the Dunn Bros. Coffee location at 4 Shady Oak Rd, Hopkins, MN 55343. There will be an open house on November 19th from 2-4pm. Stop by for some coffee from fresh-roasted beans, and take a look at some photography. Sounds good to me.

    Dunn Bros. Coffee

    Save

  • Presentation at the Mpls Photo Center – Thank You!

    Thanks to everyone that came out to the Pinhole Photography presentation at the Community Film & Darkroom Night at the Mpls Photo Center on Tuesday April 12. It was a fun group with great questions. Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day is coming up on April 24th. I hope to see some of you out there with pinhole cameras!

    Pinhole Photography presentation at the Mpls Photo Center
    Pinhole Photography presentation at the Mpls Photo Center