Presentations take place Friday June 3, 2011 from 9am – 6pm (1.5 hour break for lunch) at McConomy Auditorium, 1st Floor University Center, Carnegie Mellon University.
Stephen Berkman
The Perambulations of a 19th Century Interloper
One could, if so inclined make the observation or argument, that every artist is their own sovereign state, with their own constitution, with their own laws, and bylaws and with their own occasional uprisings. With this in mind, and with the notion of bending time like origami, Stephen Berkman’s presentation will guide you on an official diplomatic tour that traverses the highways and lost byways of his 19th century photographic state.
Gabriel Biderman
Night Visions
Gabriel will go through he history and importance of night photography over the ages and it’s influence in modern advertising as an alternative way of seeing. We will look beyond the fleeting moments of time and explore the night visions that can be created when you expose for seconds, minutes, and hours with your camera.
Jill Skupin Burkholder
Ink and Wax – Explorations Beyond the Darkroom
The paintbrushes and cans of pigmented inks and beeswax in Jill Skupin Burkholder’s workroom seem to be worlds away from classic photography techniques. In truth, they are only a step in her artistic process that jumps from digital to darkroom and back again. Jill shows images from her work, including bromoils, pigmented beeswax encaustic pieces and intriguing combinations of the techniques.
In the search for a personal artistic style, photographers examine an amazing smorgasbord of methods, media and innovations, piecing together an artistic process that leaves drudgery behind and moves artists toward spending more time with the creative steps. Jill reveals how she found techniques that were right for her and how a photographer can bend a process to be a good fit of vision and method.
Alida Fish
Coming to Terms with Ink
Since the early 70’s, Alida Fish has worked with historic and alternative processes such as gum bichromate, van dyke, cyanotype, tintype, graphic arts film, and liquid emulsion. She has abandoned the darkroom, is avoiding working with chemicals, and is now committed to working with ink jet prints. Her focus is on discovering the rewards ink prints can hold for someone who, for most of her life, has been devoted to hand crafted photography. She will discuss her work and share the connections between her ideas and her choice of process. She will also present a short overview of some of the experimental work that has come out of her “Surface Altered Photography” course at The University of the Arts.
Henrieke I. Strecker
POTATO SOUP. ART, and LIFE: I don’t make a difference
In this talk, Henrieke I. Strecker reflects on her own examined life: the continual accumulation of life experiences, and the later paring away that comes with adulthood. This becomes the subject of parables, of Strecker’s quest for simplicity, in movement and form. The rhythmic refrain, “What is essential in Life?” echoes like a haunting mantra, reminding us to re-examine our own paths for correction of gait, direction, and destination.
The practice, of course, is simply careful observation, attention to detail, awareness of the here and now. This is why what Strecker says seems so achingly familiar. Her gentle, prodding admonitions, in the form of her art, remind us to develop and listen to our intuition, to learn from nature’s recovery, to become quiet and listen, to limit our tools, to make something of nothing, to see life in death, and finally, to recognize and understand that the real gift is in transitions.
She finds breath in slowness, and action in the wait. For Strecker, life and art making are seamless and interchangeable. This self-styled Zen Buddhism is reflected in the quiet intensity of her work. Simplicity is not easy or comfortable. Reducing one’s life to essential means is liberating —work.
We should not become complacent. Nor can we sweep away time. Each moment is with us, and fleeting, each experience and observation, a breath. And as Strecker suggests, each breath remains unnamed. Yet, each is significant.
Henrieke Strecker’s talk, is reflective of the sensibility she brings to the form and content of her images. She intentionally chooses processes that slow time and savor it. Pinholes, photograms, and zoneplates all find their essence in simplicity. Strecker’s altered cyanotypes and suggestive photogravures join time with light in an embrace that transcends each. —Franz C. Nicolay
Brian Taylor
The Art of Getting Lost
Brian’s lecture will present a lively overview of two bodies of work created over three decades, from multiple gum bichromate prints, to his photographically illustrated handmade books. In this digital age of electronic photography, Brian savors the tactile pleasures of making art by hand. He believes that certain works of art created by a human touch can contain a resonance of that touch– a discernible aura.
Rebecca Larson
Adversity and the Creative Process
After facing two years of challenging adversity how does one stay engaged with making artwork? In Rebecca Sexton Larson’s case it involved a 180-degree shift of her thinking, which all began one weekend spent with artist Dan Estabrook at a F295 workshop.
Rebecca had physical limitations and mental exhaustion to deal with after caring long term for both her elderly parents. A creative vacation in 2010 with her husband (also a photographer) inspired Rebecca to shift gears from her traditional large-scale mix media pinhole works and experiment with salt prints. Exploring this 19th century method of printing allowed her to continue to create unique works on paper without relying on the limitations of working on large prints. In addition, salt printing allowed her the freedom to create, explore and rediscover the roots of an early image making technique – that to her was “so pure and wonderful.”
Erin Malone
Fragments of Missions
There are a series of 5 missions in San Antonio Texas, (which includes the Alamo), my parent’s hometown, a place I visit often. I am drawn to the Missions as a pilgrim making the journey to a place of importance. My family is long-time Texan, yet my experience has always been the annual visitor, having never lived in the state. Making the trek from far away, and then visiting one place of importance to the family, to our heritage, after another. The missions speak to me on that level, although I am not spanish or catholic. They have a troubled history yet they are enduring and still a part of their community with active parish’s and National Historic sites.
The technique I have chosen to present these images pays homage to the painstaking handwork done by the native Indians who were used as labor to create these spaces for the Spanish. The images are not the standard full frontal shots of the mission chapels seen in the tourist books, but small vignettes and sides not usually seen, but equally beautiful nonetheless.
The images are gum over cyanotype (and may be tea toned) from polaroid, pinhole and 120mm negative originals on Arches hot press paper.
Jessica Somers
One Hundred Days of Tintypes
In 2009 Jessica committed to a challenge to make one photograph a day for 100 days. Her process of choice for this challenge was Dry Plate Tintype. In her presentation Jessica will discuss the trials of the tintype process, the importance of artistic discipline and the discovery of letting go and welcoming spontaneity both in image making and in life.
Marydorsey Wanless
Evidence of Aging
Photography has always been a method to collect evidence. It seems an appropriate medium for documenting my aging process. I am contemplating losses such as: independence, physical abilities, physical power, mental facilities, memory, emotional health, relationships, friends, family, parents, health, eye sight, sexuality, decaying body, dreams, hopes, disappointments. Growing older means letting go, losing, surrendering. As I pass the point where I have more years behind me than in front of me, I wonder what legacy I will leave to my children, grandchildren, and the world. Now is the time to rethink the lessons acquired throughout my life.
Photography has always been a method to collect evidence. It seems an appropriate medium for documenting my aging process. I am contemplating losses such as: independence, physical abilities, physical power, mental facilities, memory, emotional health, relationships, friends, family, parents, health, eye sight, sexuality, decaying body, dreams, hopes, disappointments. Growing older means letting go, losing, surrendering. As I pass the point where I have more years behind me than in front of me, I wonder what legacy I will leave to my children, grandchildren, and the world. Now is the time to rethink the lessons acquired throughout my life.
