Douglas Prince - the artist I wish I had heard speak.

I was misinformed about this lecture. I had planned on attending but someone who I expected would know well the facts misinformed me and told me there was no lecture this day. His work is pretty fascinating to me. His work is fairly unique and surreal, layered images that create juxtapositions of seemingly unrelated things. There is however, cohesion, of method and presentation, through the sheer number of pieces produced he creates a rhythm. Some of his earlier work he calls Photo Sculpture, I believe these are all done through analog processes.

This image jumps out to me, "View from the Tower of Piza," an off kilter shot of classical architecture, beautifully rendered in bleachy tones, overlaid with the tools of the classical architect. Why is it off kilter? Because the Tower of Piza is leaning. The arrow shaped weight, known as a "plumb-bob" is a simple way of finding alignment with gravity. In this image the plumb-bob is plumb, or directly vertical.

A second image from the same series I can find less logic in, "Octopus Chamber" features an octopus in a chamber. I can't riddle this one out but I like octopus, and I find it interesting and surreal, so I can sort of accept it.

Another series in his archive folder, Multi Negative Silver Prints, continue to fall all over the spectrum as to surreality and logic. They are generally masterfully done, making it difficult to determine where one negative was used in place of another. I post this image above, Brian with Whale, because I can derive narrative from it and because It shows strong compositional logic. It makes one wonder what Prince would be showing us if he produced straight photographs. 

This next image is "Brian, Snake and Mountains," again Prince shows strong compositional thinking coupled with narrative imagery. 

And one more from the series, "Weather Station," I post because I really, really like the cloud he found.

His newer work is strange and stranger. Intense digital manipulation creating interesting images but nothing that I can say I'm especially thankful to have viewed, with the exception of the Shore Lines series. I have seen images similar to this, single lines of pixels drawn across a screen, but he has taken it farther, or less far rather, employing this pixel-dragging method to only part of an image. I want to call it brilliant, I don't know where he got the inspiration, but I like where it is going. Perhaps not every image is entirely successful, but some of them are quite satisfying. Prince is someone I will be looking to for inspiration.

artist lecture - matt hutton.

Matt Hutton, of the Maine College of Art, visited UNH for a lecture on woodworking and furniture design. Although my concentration is photography I have a strong appreciation for 3D art and would be a sculptor if I thought I would be marketable enough. Hutton started his career in illustration, fascinated by medical diagrams, and to this day shows skill in 2D iterations of his work. He regularly plans his designs with to-scale drawings, more conceptual than technical, and proceeds to render these plans into his wooden pieces. I like his way of thinking, he seems interested in ideas above all, and comes across as a great mentor. He noted that his father was an engineer, and his inherited interest in machinery is apparent in his work. Honestly seeing his work made me wish I put a little more thought into pursuing 3D art, not that I can't on my own, but his simple-machine infused woodworking represents a direction I never pursued. I think its important that he considers work ethic central to art, we all know how many hours we need to put in but we don't always show up for all of them. I like the term "heightened moments" that he used, similar to the "decisive moment" but referring to spacial moments not moments in time.

salted paper scans.

cyanotype scans.

ori gersht.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci2AA_5Yg7E

still life.

Unedited scans of 35mm film. 

salted prints.

Salted Prints digital edits on http://www.facebook.com/bachman.cache.

image maximum?

Blogger won't let me post any more images? I've made a public facebook page at which my images will now be posted. http://www.facebook.com/bachman.cache

zoetrope study.

These images were shot as a study for my collaborative project, which is either a flip book or a zoetrope. Preferably a zoetrope.

polaroid prontor-svs.

http://pheugo.com/cameras/index.php?page=prontor

collaboration project option :: zoetrope.

Zoetrope:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3yarT_h2ws&playnext=1&list=PLD532B7788498BDA9&feature=results_main

Criteria for the project would simply be produce a set of images, incorporating a darkroom process or processes, as a sequence that reads well in a zoetrope. We will build custom zoetropes to accommodate whatever format you choose. Materials for shooting are photographers choice, but plan on a minimum of 20 images in order to achieve a coherent sequence. An entire roll of 36 exp. 35mm film would be a good choice, but images may be shot digitally and printed as digital negatives. Our zoetropes can be made at almost no cost using recycled materials, though building a solid and functional turntable on which to mount them would be a good investment. This may also come out of recycled materials, we could also use pottery wheels or such, I have one and will look into borrowing a banding wheel. A banding wheel would make an excellent base for a zoatrope, they spin easily and typically have high inertia.

Banding wheel:

notch code.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notch_code

solarisation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solarisation

collaboration :: chris mccaw.

http://www.chrismccaw.com/SUNBURN/SUNBURN.html

instantly one of my top five photographers, this guy is ridiculous. thinking this might be my collaboration project, if infrared proves too difficult or regardless of infrared's feasibility i want to do this as the project or otherwise. the sunburning process will require planning hour long exposures and ideally a large format camera, but we could do some epic landscapes or come up with a new way to use this burning effect. anyone who is interested in researching and possibly doing this project should let me know because the more people we have working on this the more exposures we can produce and experiment with. anyone is welcome to work on this, but be ready to put hours in, this will require a lot of babysitting cameras, which will basically be just chilling, but time consuming. i'll be doing some test runs with paper negatives and a view camera and some 4x5 film when i can get some. rsq9@unh.edu or talk to me if you want in.

salt project :: potential subject :: coruscate.

cor·us·cate/ˈkôrəˌskāt/

intransitive verb: to give off light in bright beams or flashes.

cyanotype project :: statement.

This project is a catalog of obsolescent electronics and their mechanical components circa the years 1995-2005. All of these items were extracted from among a 56k modem, a compact disc player, an analog television, a corded telephone, an radio frequency modulator, a point and shoot film camera, and a Zip disc drive. All of these objects have been rendered obsolete by the advances of the last decade. A cable modem, an mp3 player, a flat-screen television, a wireless or cellular phone, wireless routing or HDMI cables, digital cameras, and external hard drives succeed all these objects as modern equivalents. This project is an exploration of the ephemeral quality of all of these products and the pace at which our relationship with technology is evolving.

edits :: cyanotype negatives :: batch one.

amalgamation one.

experimental vision.

The project on Cliche Verres got me thinking about the photograph's capabilities to reproduce information, not just what is gathered through a lens, but information of all sorts, scholarly, scientific, trivial, literary; anything that can be represented in two dimensions can be infinitely and effectively reproduced with photographic processes perfected over one hundred years ago. Before lenses were used to document plant species a silhouette could be made with a photogram. Wikipedia dates the printing press to the Holy Roman Empire circa 1440, so it had a bit of a head start over the photogram, which dates to the early 1840's, but even with the presence of the printing press Sir Herschel took the time to explore the possibility of reproducing scientific notes through photography. It is possible to imagine how a skilled developer could be much more productive reproducing documents through a photographic process than with a printing press. While the process would be more exacting and chemically complex, the technician would not have to place and ink wood blocks, which occurs to me as a miserable task.

This is not to say a photogram must reproduce exclusively two dimensional images, the compression and abstraction of three dimensional forms onto the two dimensional plane is intriguing to me. I would like to experiment with placing objects directly on coated paper and exposing directly, with no negative. After testing various objects for their flattened quality I would like to produce some 2-D abstractions of some interesting forms.

portrait.

art in hanover.

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sart/exhibitions/

reaction to equivalence.

The assigned article, "Equivalence: The Perennial Trend," by Minor White outlines a philosophy of photography in which images are rendered as to evoke feelings of empathy. The natural human tendency to project oneself can be harnessed and manipulated through imagery, which when viewed and processed by the observer stimulates an cognitive response. Given the amount of imagery we are exposed to daily and the pace of ideas in the modern day it may be photographers will have to dig deeper and deeper to evoke a response in their audience. There are however perennial aspects of the human psyche which will forever be subject to a visual stimulant, such as a photograph. It is the nature of the photograph that will change, evolving with society and culture, for so long as visual art is of any relevance.

excerpts from "equivalence."

If the individual viewer realizes that for him what he sees in a picture corresponds to something within himself—that is, the photograph mirrors something in himself—then his experience is some degree of Equivalence.

So at this graphic level of Equivalence no specifications will be listed.

The reason why we want to remember an image varies: because we simply "love it," or dislike it so intensely that it becomes compulsive, or because it has made us realize something about ourselves, or has brought about some slight change in us.

When a photographer presents us with what to him is an Equivalent, he is telling us in effect, "I had a feeling about something and here is my metaphor of that feeling." The significant difference here is that what he had a feeling about was not for the subject he photographed, but for something else. He may show us a picture of a cloud, the forms of which expressively correspond to his feelings about a certain person.

What really happened is that he recognized an object or series of forms that, when photographed, would yield an image with specific suggestive powers that can direct the viewer into a specific and known feeling, state or place within himself.

If he uses Equivalency consciously and knowingly, aware of what he is doing, and accepts the responsibility for his images, he has as much freedom of expression as any of the arts.

Not having an exact equivalent for the word "poetic" in photography we will suggest the word "vision," meaning not only sight, but insight. The effect that seems to be associated with Equivalence may be worded thus: When both subject matter and manner of rendering are transcended, by whatever means, that which seems to be matter becomes what seems to be spirit.

In other words projection and empathy, natural attributes in man, lead us to see something of ourselves almost automatically in anything that we look at long enough to be aware of it. So we can say that the photograph invariably functions as a mirror of at least some part of the viewer.

Mirroring is also strong in photographs in which the presence of design is equal to or supersedes the sense of the presence of the subject in front of the camera.

When the subject matter is rendered in such a way that it is obscure, ambiguous, or impossible to identify, the response to the image takes on a completely different aspect.

Some contemporary photographers, such as those already named, willingly acknowledge the fact that photographs mirror some state of feeling within the viewer. They include themselves here as viewers of their own photographs and viewers of the subjects they select. They accept the truth that photographs act as a catalyst, and consequently are a step in process, not an end product. They can remember that the mental image in a viewer's mind is more important than the photograph itself.

With the theory of Equivalence, photographers everywhere are given a way of learning to use the camera in relation to the mind, heart, viscera and spirit of human beings. The perennial trend has barely been started in photography.

untitled collage.

collage scan for digital negative.

gimme my bear back.

collage scan for digital negative.