As Wikipedia describes it, “street photography is photography conducted for art or inquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places”.
Over the past several weeks, we have conducted three successful sessions of our “Capturing the Unexpected” street photography workshop, led by the accomplished Neil A. Miller. Participants embraced the opportunity to step outside their comfort zones and capture unscripted moments of life. Throughout the workshop, they focused on refining their observational skills in public settings and thoughtfully curated their images to share with Neil and their peers during the concluding session.
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3-day Mordançage Workshop with Elizabeth Opalenik, July 15, 16, 17, 2022, from 9am to 5pm each day with lunch included.
I vividly remember that first Provence meeting in 1983 when I heard Jean-Pierre Sudre say, “In mordançage you have the possibility….” For the next 30 summers I visited his studio and work discovering them all while learning the process in 1991 directly from this master. In this workshop we shall begin with a brief history of the mordançage process, looking at original work as we gather valuable insight into directions for making it your own creative voice.
Together we mix the chemistry and begin with an instructor demonstration on understanding the test strips to discover proper exposures for negatives and working with photograms, which is the best way to learn the possibilities. Mordançage takes time to master when working with intent and begins with a darkroom print. Information on making negatives, film or digital, and materials to bring shall be sent prior to the workshop. You will discover, when the silver print is put through the mordançage solution, the silver gelatin in the densest areas of the photographic print swell and can be removed with the pressure of a jet of water or cotton ball. Darkroom days will be spent testing various paper and redeveloper combinations, experimenting with oxidation, toners and hand painting to alter color, and deciding to save or not to save the veils. Often, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Papers, chemicals and notebooks with formulas will be supplied.
After more than 30 years of committing to the mordançage process, Elizabeth has many possibilities, pitfalls and discoveries to share. Working collectively with a group of photographic peers, students can combine information on papers available today to further enhance their creativity. Experimenting is highly encouraged. A working knowledge of the darkroom is essential.
As artists, we much each find our way and hope to leave something of value behind. The “draped spidery veils” in the images are my contribution to this process, accomplished by using my breathe or drops of water to preserve and alter the delicate floating silver skin. As such, each piece is unique and truly made by hand even when created using the same negative.
Printing out Paper expert Siegfried Rempel will give a lecture on this fascinating process on Friday, March 24. Join us for this special opportunity to learn more about this historic method – the lecture is free and open to the public. If you’re feeling inspired, join us for our Printing out Paper Workshop the following day! Learn more and register here.
About PoP
Printing out Paper, or PoP, makes an image by exposing a negative and paper to light without any chemical development. With a printing-out process, you can watch your image come to life during your exposure, rather than having to wait until it is processed! Used originally as a simplified field process without the need of a darkroom, today we use this handmade emulsion to create artful images with subtle and warm tonality.
The use of Collodion in photography for the production of photographic prints an be found as early as the 1850s, and is most commonly used in the Wet Plate Collodion process to produce tintypes and ambrotypes. The concept of an “emulsion” of silver salts in a collodion binder was introduced by Gaudin in 1853 and by 1861 he was actively producing the “Photogene” collodion emulsion.
The collodio-chloride print has a similar physical appearance to its gelatin counterparts and it can be difficult to tell them apart. In fact, modern gelatin silver darkroom papers evolved from this early printing method! Today, we still practice the collodio-chloride process because of the rich and beautiful tonality it imparts on our images.
The six artists exhibiting work in the Independent Presence exhibition join us at Art Intersection for an engaging and enlightening discussion about their work and backgrounds, creative processes, and interconnected working relationships through Salon Jane.
For ninety minutes you can engage in an interactive conversation with Robin V. Robinson, Jane Olin, Robin Ward, Martha Casanave, Susan Hyde Greene, and Anna Rheim, and following the Artist Talk, the conversation continues in the galleries for the opening reception of Independent Presence.
David Bayles, co-author of the well-known book Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking, brings insight to the artists and concept of Independent Presence:
“The artists in this exhibition have found their place by the whole variety of means that artists use to decide who they are, but particularly by extracting themselves from the embrace of two photographic traditions that have become oppressive (West Coast landscape photography and conceptual photography) thereby freeing their intuitions to guide them towards the work they truly need to do. The resulting work belongs to no school of photography but is rather more sui generis – it generates itself out of intuition, out of perception, out of spiritual emotional and psychological relationships with the subject matter.”
This past Saturday, March 26 we had the pleasure of hosting a Photogravure workshop taught by Tucson artist Karen Hymer! The weekend began with a lecture by Karen on Friday night – she talked about the history of photogravure and the evolution of her artwork as she continues to use the process.
Seven students joined us for the workshop and got hands-on experience making photopolymer plates from their images, then pulling prints from the plates. Karen taught the process using Solarplates, which are steel plates coated with a light-sensitive polymer emulsion. When exposed, the polymer hardens; the unexposed polymer washes away in water, leaving an “etched” plate ready for inking after the plate has dried in the sun. Ink is then applied to the plate and wiped from the highlight areas. Finally, paper is laid on top of the plate and both are run through an etching press.
We are forever grateful to our friends at Cattletrack Arts Compound and Santo Press for lending us their etching press – we could not have done this workshop without their help!
Karen demonstrates the “development” of the Solarplate in water
Exposed and developed plates harden in the sun
Karen demonstrates inking the plate
Participant Shari Trennert prepares to run her plate through the press
Shari has made a print from a “test strip” plate to check her exposure before committing to a full plate
Jean-Charles Chapuis, Cyd Peroni, Tom Moore, and Gina DeGideo hard at work inking their plates
Chris Palmer and Karen compare a test print with another print of the same image to check for contrast and density
Gina uses a cotton swab to fine-tune her ink application
Cyd lays a sheet of fine-art water color paper over her inked plate before running it through the press
Participants enjoy letting their creativity run free and working in a community environment
Participants let their finished prints dry before taking them home
PhotoTapas day at Art Intersection is always packed with diverse activities, demos, and lectures about photography. This year it was another wonderful experience of Photography.
The day started with a lecture on Gathering the Remnants & 100 Years 100 Ranchers with Scott Baxter in Ryan Gallery.
Karen Hymer gave a lecture and demo about Photogravure, and after the lecture and demo, she made a small series of ten original photogravure prints just for this day.
There was a Lumen Print Talk and Demo with Ken Rosenthal on the sunny balcony. Participants made their own lumen prints through lunch.
Activities during the lunch break included Lumen Printing, Photogravures by Karen Hymer, 100 Years 100 Ranchers Book-signing, and The City Book-signing.
There was a panel discussion, Photobooks after Funding, with William W. Fuller, Brad Jones from P.S. Studios, and Ken Rosenthal. Bill Fuller signed The City book after the panel discussion.
Spanish Tapas was served on our patio along with lively conversation and networking.
The day ended with a Portfolio Walk in the Art Intersection Galleries which was free and open to the public for viewing.
Last night, three ImageWorks photographers and about thirty guests joined us in the Photo Arts Lab to hear about their prints and the experiences of making these prints. All of the presented prints were originally captured on film using large format cameras.
Juan, Chris, and Brian of ImageWorks answered questions and explained their process of seeing, capturing, and then printing their beautiful images.
This is the first of a series of print sharing evenings. Join us in November for the next installment of Print Sharing at Art Intersection.
Mid-ninteenth century tintype photography is experiencing a resurgence as photographers look for a unique aesthetic for portraiture and still life images.
David Emitt Adams led the weekend of tintype creativity starting with a free lecture on Friday evening, the all-day workshop on Saturday, and an open studio on Sunday.
Two stations with 4×5 cameras were setup, one for still life props and the other for portraits.
After the developer.
In the final wash before varnishing.
Warming up the plate before applying the varnish.
Exposures of 15 to 20 seconds require sitting very still – the head brace helps!
Pouring off the excess varnish of a portrait tintype.
Making sure everything is properly focused.
Here is a Graflex 4×5 with an aerial lens.
The next setup was a modified Holga and the tissue paper was used like a ground glass plate to check focus.
We know how difficult it is to have a meaningful dialogue during an exhibition’s opening so we hosted a gallery talk for Word Up: artists using language, to discuss the work in the exhibition.
John Risseeuw and Dan Mayer, educators and artists from the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at ASU led the conversation. John and Dan talked about the history of the Fine Printing and Book Arts Program at ASU and also shared a lot of interesting historical references to the art of fine printing.
There were several other exhibiting artists in attendance, including Karla Elling from Mummy Mountain Press, Linda Smith from Picnic Press and current student, Rosalind Shipley along with ASU alumni, Peter Bugg. For more photos of this exhibition visit our facebook page.
We always look forward to visiting artists coming to Art Intersection. Anna Strickland, an expert in antique photographic processes and Senior Critic in the Photography Department at Rhode Island School of Design is here to mount her solo exhibition opening April 6th, at Tilt Gallery in Phoenix.She spent the past weekend with us at Art Intersection teaching a gum bichromate over platinum/palladium workshop. Students learned how to make high quality digital negatives, using Quad Tone Rip technology, how to make a palladium print and also how to layer the image with gum bichromate.On Tuesday, Anna returned to Art Intersection to meet some of our members and look at their work.
Later that evening we all shared a meal in Romeo’s private dining room.For more images from the workshop visit our facebook page. On April 28 & 29, as part of our visiting artists program, we will be hosting photographer, Martha Casanave. She will be conducting a workshop on albumen printing. We will also have a member’s dinner with Martha on the evening of April 28th. For more information visit our website.