Some press coverage and interviews I've had in Paris so far:
A Short Respite and Satisfaction
It’s Saturday morning, the sun is shining; I have espresso in my cup and have absolutely nothing on my "to do" list today. I haven’t felt like this for over a year!
For the previous eight months, I've been working seven days a week, 12 to 14 hours a day. I know that’s not healthy, but I had to do it at least for that finite time.
Since Jeanne and I landed at Denver International Airport last June, we’ve been setting up our personal lives, setting up a studio, making photographs, readjusting to America and preparing for the opening of my exhibition in Paris in three weeks. It’s been a long, exhaustive and expensive journey, but I can see the reward coming soon – soon as in less than three weeks – when we board the plane for Paris, France.
Like so many things in my life, I probably wouldn’t have agreed to make this happen had I known what it was going to take. And like so many things in my life, I have no regrets about saying, “Yes, I’ll do it”. Too often, people default to “No, I can’t” to every opportunity that presents itself. They live with regret and miss out on living life. It’s a lot easier to say, “No”, than to say, “Yes.” It’s easier to be negative than to be positive. Why is that?
I know it’s trite and cliché, but you have to ask what does “living” mean? I know it’s different for everyone, but the underlying theme is taking chances, taking risks, going where there’s no safety blanket or safety net. Getting out of your comfort zone, getting out there – and I don’t mean that you have to go abroad – it can be as simple as public speaking, changing jobs or quitting your job. Or, in my case, making an international move and then making a new body of work for an exhibition in Paris in six months time. Those things will make you feel alive. An English idiom we use is, “You have skin in the game”. That means you have something to lose or that you’re invested.
Regardless how successful, or not, the show is, I have already experienced something amazing. I arrived in Denver with nothing and in six months time, created a meaningful body of work that I’m proud of and that didn’t exist until I made it. It’s a very satisfying feeling. And to have a gallery in Paris that is excited and supportive means the world to me.
The plates (glass and metal) are packed in the crate on the left and the photo supplies are in the foot locker on the right. These packages will be sitting in the gallery on Monday!Jeanne and I packed everything up Wednesday night. I had a crate built for the artwork and we used a hard case (large foot locker) for the supplies we need there. The inspiration for the blog was an email I received this morning telling me that the crates cleared customs in Orly, France and will be in the gallery on Monday.Thank you, Jeanne! You made this happen for me! I love you!
2014: The 175th Anniversary of the Daguerreotype
The Daguerreotype
By Mary Bellis
Daguerreotype Portrait of Louis Daguerre (1787–1851) Photographer Jean-Baptiste Sabatier-Blot 1844Louis Daguerre, inventor of the first practical process of photography. Louis Daguerre (Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre) was born near Paris, France on November 18, 1789. A professional scene painter for the opera with an interest in lighting effects, Daguerre began experimenting with the effects of light upon translucent paintings in the 1820s.
Louis Daguerre regularly used a camera obscura as an aid to painting in perspective, and this led him think about ways to keep the image still. In 1826, he discovered the work of Joseph Niepce, and in 1829 began a partnership with him.
He formed a partnership with Joseph Niepce to improve upon the photography process Niepce had invented. Niepce, who died in 1833, produced the first photographic image, however, Niepce's photographs quickly faded.
After several years of experimentation, Louis Daguerre developed a more convenient and effective method of photography, naming it after himself - the daguerreotype.
According to writer Robert Leggat,"Louis Daguerre made an important discovery by accident. In 1835, he put an exposed plate in his chemical cupboard, and some days later found, to his surprise, that the latent image had developed. Daguerre eventually concluded that this was due to the presence of mercury vapour from a broken thermometer." This important discovery that a latent image could be developed made it possible to reduce the exposure time from some eight hours to thirty minutes.
Louis Daguerre introduced the daguerreotype process to the public on August 19, 1839 at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris.
In 1839, Louis Daguerre and Niépce's son sold the rights for the daguerreotype to the French government and published a booklet describing the process.
In 2014, the world will celebrate the 175th anniversary of the Daguerreotpye. I will be in Paris, at the Centre Iris Gallery, with a body of work celebrating and honoring Daguerre and the process. My exhibition will run from March to June, 2014. If all goes well, I will be making Daguerreotypes at Centre Iris and offering to do some commisioned portraits. It's a long way off still and there's a lot of preparation and work still to do, we'll see what happens. I may even offer a Daguerreotype workshop.
Physiognomy & Anthroposcopy
Thanks to my friend, Caron, for this video clip. My work is steeped in this idea of physiognomy. Physiognomy is also sometimes referred to as anthroposcopy, though the expression was more common in the 19th century when the word originated.
The Colt Revolver
My Wish for 2012
"He who approaches the temple of the Muses without inspiration, in the belief that craftsmanship alone suffices, will remain a bungler and his presumptuous poetry will be obscured by the songs of the maniacs."
Plato
Pleistocene Specimen
I have exactly 45 days from today to complete my project, "The American West Portraits" for Paris. On February 15, 2012, I will wrap up the project and move on to the next one.
The American West Portraits
I’ve been making 16” x 20” (40cm x 50cm) Wet Collodion portraits (currently titled, "The American West Portraits"). I started planning this project almost 18 months ago by ordering a 20” x 24” camera, it's been non-stop ever since. And now, I’m struggling to get the look and feel on these large plates that I want. It’s 99% technical mostly a lens issue. I need a lens that will cover the plate and allow me to compose the image in a way that I’m happy with it. It’s more difficult than it sounds.
Normally, it wouldn’t be a problem. I would have plenty of time to resolve any technical or aesthetic issue I might have. However, I’ve got an exhibition opening on March 14, 2012 in Paris, France at Centre-Iris Gallery. I find myself anxious and preoccupied regarding how the images will look for the exhibition. I see them in my mind, I just need to get them on the glass and metal!
Having been in Denver for six months doesn’t help me either. I need time to build connections and find the right people to photograph. And now it’s winter, the days are short. At best, there’s about three hours of good light to work with. I will say that there would be no better place to be than in Denver for light this time of year, when it’s shining, the bright blue sky is amazing. It means that the sitter I want to photograph must come to my studio within a certain window of time (1000 – 1300). That gets complicated and stressful, too.
These issues are forcing me to rethink how I work and what I work with. And how "exact" things have to be. I have a “King’s problem” and I understand that. I keep thinking, maybe in the end, I will make a far better body of work than if I had a year to work on it. We’ll see.
This is a "working idea" - these will collect in my studio and I'll look at them over the next couple of months.
The Evolution of a Salt Print
I've been working with wet collodion negatives a lot and doing a lot of different kinds of printing. This is a quick overview of the evoliution of a Salt print. I'm going to wax this print, I'll post the final image when it's finished.
Denver Arts Week, Nov 4-12, 2011
I have some public events planned for Denver Arts Week. The First Friday (Nov 4) I will be in my studio offering some artificial light demos and then on Second Saturday, I will offer the public a rare glimpse at witnessing an ultra-large Wet Plate Collodion image being made with my 20"x24" Camera, aka, "The Mighty Quinn". CBS Denver (Channel 4) will be doing a piece on me as well. They are featuring three of us in the RiNo Arts District; Jonathan Kaplan (Ceramics), Yoshi Saito (Bronze) and me. Thank you, RiNo!
If you're in the area, please drop by. If you have any questions, feel free to email me.
