Must Photograph for Personal Sanity: Graphei, new personal work

I just can't stop myself from photographing for personal sanity. After reading about the importance of Emotional Intelligence in the NY Times this morning, I can honestly type out that clicking the shutter, figuring out lighting, all that goes into producing a photograph (minus serious Photoshoping) is all  deep breathing for me. My son will say he relaxes when he plays piano for fun (not an instructional song) or tosses the baseball in his glove. We all have our preferred method.
Although artists will tell you, art producing can be agonizing. And it is; I have my fair share of frustration, jumping jacks, all out melt down regression. This is part of the process, but what I am talking about it the actual practice of the art, photography.

Today, the fast access has changed our social definition of photography. Did you capture with your iPhone, point-n-shot-, small DSLR, overpriced DSLR? Did you dig out that old Canon A2?
This is a form of practice. Yet, the act of photographing with the intention of a series or body of work is different because the assemble, the visioning, and attempts are all intertwined. The photographing is like taking a walk-slow, steady, and aware. This practice formulates from within, and bubbles from inside. I see inside out. No class can teach this-although I do have a curriculum written for a course. A willing and desire to travel down this path is part of my process.

This leads to my new work that is tilted Graphei.

Mother's Borscht Recipe and her explanation 

Amidst the digital ways we now communicate with one another, the intimate connection that something handwritten emits has lost favor; the act of writing is personal, takes time, attention, and a part of the author. Nothing illustrates this more than my mother's handwritten notes, my father's letters, inscription on the leaf of a book from those I once dearly loved, and family recipes. These handwritten objects seem immortal and in some way the only conversation that I can still have with the authors, like my mother. And it is the conversations, the exchange of love through words that are permanent in a reality that is impermanent. Graphei, the Greek word for handwritten, is a series of ongoing work that explores the fading commonality of  handwritten words, the design of letters, the character of paper, the sentiment of the context, and a small peak into my personal world of these emotional conversations. 

Late Thursday Confession

I am back in full swing in the final semester of the MLIS program. For the past few weeks, I have been working at Florida Atlantic University in their Special Collections and Archives department and enjoying the exposure to the specialty of Special Collections. One of my research project is processing part of the University Archives Sports Photography. This has been one of those fun projects that is over seen by the Special Collections Librarian, who has been an great mentor already. I lucked out big time.

My research entails the process of exhibits. When we see an exhibit in a library, museum, or gallery, extensive planning sometimes starting years in advance is involved in what you view. My work with the Norton is a year long planning process that the public won't see until 2014. I was just commissioned for an exhibit in 2015! So, the process leading up to an exhibit also depends on how the collection or work is stored. If art work of any medium is stored improperly, it won't last. Bugs, what they leave behind, moisture can all reek havoc on art. As I am going through the housed Collection, I am looking for condition issues, negatives that need to be sleeved, and subject matter to be collated. This is the origination of an exhibit.

My Office for the next 10 weeks

If you are in Houston, be sure to catch this exhibit

I openly admit that one of my quirks is loving paper; throw in some wet transfer process with some emulsion and, I am captivated. Holy cow this exhibit just couldn't get me more chatty. Look at the paper folds; the stamps; the handwriting; the house. Something that seems incomplete often is just a perspective. Her use of the negative space is smart and shows she was thinking on multiple levels. Positive negative linear and incomplete, the folds make your eye move; then fixate on the house. A space we all identify with.

Catherine Couturier Gallery in Houston is showing a San Fran based photographer, Rachel Phillips. Her series entitled Field Notes is just lovely. This one above is my favorite.

Grocery List, Laundry List, and the Internship

Lots has been in the news about internships. I have some opinions, both positive and constructive. Yet. the one important fact that can not be overlooked is the relationships that develop out of face to face interaction. I love that I can ask those theory questions, inquiry about hands on work, and begin some new thoughts on how to process information.

I have started a new internship. I hope to comment on this experience while I go through it and have some wonderful conclusions or epiphanies.

And here I sit,

Where is the feminist voice in our art world? My Thursday Confession

Seriously, every time I think I have this clarity on where I fall in this postmodernist/feministic place, I find that I am still back there somewhere. Am I a feminist in a postmodern era or a modernist in a post feminist society? I feel this floating is not without merit; where is the feminist voice in our art world? Perhaps this is nothing more than equality, but how does this influence women? In my flux of unwanted wondering if I was a feminist or not, I went to Lucy Lippard's writings for answers. She has been a voice of significance since I lived in Santa Fe. She has a way of connecting dots about the constant go between of art and life and back to art.

What does the work of a feminist look like? Is it the artist, who has declared her feminism, produce work that inherently is feministic or is it the art illustrating feminism that make an feministic artist. Depends on your perspective just isn't satisfying my query. And, I think, much of this confusion is because we have stopped talking about the fundamental stones of feminism. We need to reconvene in this conversation. Lean In can not be our pinnacle of conversation, though at least Sandburg has brought some focus back to the topic despite her disconnect with many of the struggles of women today.  We are still underpaid and, sorry, but that glass ceiling has not broken. Metaphorically, women have been "welcomed" into the board room, but gender bias is still alive and well.

Wonder what Lippard would say?

This week my art confessional is Lippard's book: The Pink Glass Swan. Yes, it's been almost a decade since the first edition, but who else has such insight with the except of Guerrilla Girls?

Help to find books

Someone asked me where to go in search of books. As I mentioned yesterday in my art confession, I think Photo Eye is a place to browse for hours or just minutes. Here's the link to their bestseller listings:
http://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/bestsellers.cfm

My favorite is Mitch Dobrowner's book on storm landscapes.

Thursday Confession: books

This week I splurged on books. Yes, I do think that books are an indulgent pleasure that require both my attention and time. Since my birthday is around the corner, I wanted to get myself something. Photo Eye is the THE BEST spot to browse online and in their shop if you happen to be in Santa Fe.
My two books are
Roy Flukinger's book on Arnold Newman. I love the combination of photographic process and Newman's knowingness of those whom he photographed.

and
Down Country-the Tano of the Galisteo Basin.
Why? I used to live near here. Ed Ranney's photographs are not given justice in this printing. His actual prints are feet stoppers. Lucy Lippard, do I need to say more?

When is the last time you sat down with a book and turned the pages?

So let's get talking: how our conversation can save art

Still Life of Fruit                                     

Between DIA's selling of art and the scandalous reports on this year's Venice Biannual, the art world is seemingly not about art, but taking on a reality show like persona. Yikes! Forget the struggles and escapades of history and human nature. I just want to talk about art, the artistic process, and the conceptual theories that arise (and can be about history and human nature, but far from some reality show). Whoever made the conversation change, hear me now, let us return to the old ways of conversation. How to pass on histories, expressions and opinions without a conversation? Grab your coffee or tea, and I will go first.

Artist: Elizabeth Ozborne: http://elizabethosborne.us/index.php

Decades ago, I remember watching Elizabeth Osborne paint with watercolors. She sat posed with three things: a cup holding brushes, a cup of water, and paper. She worked gently on the paper. After some time, objects would appear on paper, almost alive. Painting is my personal respite from photography. Painting offers more direct control and considerably less technology, and I am able to have the tactile experience with paper. There is something more about working with a piece of paper for days creating a unique work versus the feeding of paper through a printer that has the capacity to reproduce the same work on demand. I once thought that this made for easier photography; now, I am unresolved wavering for a more intimate experience. So, I return to looking at Osborne's work for renewing this sense. She brings me back into my childhood to that one afternoon I watched her paint.

                                                    E. Osborne

Conversation Points:

Art and process are for all ages.
The depth of influence is immeasurable.
Art is a lifelong experience.
Painting.
Osborne's work over her lifetime and her changes.
Osborne's current publicized abstract work reminds me of the early abstractionists- Rothko and Hoffman come to mind.
Painting's influence on photography.

Ephemeral-do we really know what it means in Photography?

         Ephemeral baby gator?                  by Sarah Brown
This was captured with a DSLR with no altering workflow. The large aquarium tank glass created the mirroring effect of the gator. 

Ephemeral seems like a buzz word the photographic world. Is this a fad?a misconception?  misuse of meaning? Ephemeral in short means something temporary or fleeting. In the photography culture, the word ephemeral is misunderstood. Photographic work can be ephemeral, but what work isn't fleeting and impermanent? If we examine this idea of the subject of the photograph, nothing is permanent. Imagine the puns if we were all in the wet darkroom still?  The greek meaning, according to wikipedia, suggests ephemeral is lasting only one day, but I am going to take some liberties with this meaning. Flowers may last only a day and the Rancho de Toas Church has lasted for decades, but who is the authority to say the flowers and the church show their ephemeral character differently? When I think of ephemeral photographic work, I think of Debbie Fleming Caffrey, Andrea Modica, Jennifer Schlesinger Hanson, David Scheinbaum, Thomas Joshua Cooper. They capture moments that are constantly changing (or disappearing) and using wet darkroom processes to print. Ironically, the photographers using wet darkroom processes are becoming artifacts themselves. Toss in a computer and workflow and the very premise of ephemeral work is compromised because an exact copy is saved. Ready to be retrieved and printed upon demand. Where is the fleeting impermanence? A wet darkroom print is never the exact same every time. (Of course, this could ensue a different discussion all together with the new methods of preservation/conservation of digital born materials.)

Don't get me wrong. I am as curious about Susan Burnstine's cameras as I am about her workflow and printing. Yet, I find myself asking are her landscapes dream like because of the fuzzy blur created by her choice of lens? Who dreams in blurred landscapes? Craft and process obviously contribute a great deal to Burnstine's work. I enjoy her work because of the way she uses a camera as tool and avoids pixel destruction. Her print is evidence of her artistry with her camera. Personally, the blur seems to imply that our reality is one dimensional. I think that viewers can handle the reality without the blur. What happened to challenging the viewer? I am of the Minor White/Dr R. Zakia/George DeWolfe school of Contemplative Photography; photographs need no words to express and share emotions or meanings, which may have blurring. I have chosen to blur areas or backgrounds to emphasis something or conceal, but suggest at the same time. Sometimes, the shutter would be on a slow setting. Yet, the process steps would not short change the print. The presence within the image is enough to elicit a viewer's attention and reaction. On a side note, this one of my reasons for appreciating the intimate independent experience each of us has when viewing art of any medium. Art is personal. Maybe this is where the conceptual understanding of a photographic print goes askew. Too often, we forget that a photograph exhibited on a wall (or space of any kind) is a final product of a long process. In painting, we can see the brush strokes translate into effort and evidence of time. A photograph begins within the photographer and is created through a myriad of steps that rarely a viewer witnesses. Somewhere within the creating, regardless of shutter speed or development process, a photographic print represents a moment in time that the photographer interprets. Whether sharp or blurry, these moments are always artifacts of our past. This is why I love photography as I do-I am a history geek, through and through.

Thursday Confession

I did not purchase any art thing this week, but I can share what I "pretend" shopped. What is this pretend shop? Even though I don't actually buy anything, the cerebral experience shopping on line is almost as satisfying.

http://hyperallergic.com/77692/want-francis-bacons-paintbrushes-and-a-taxidermied-ostrich-this-is-your-moment/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Bad+Art+Definitely+Bad+Science+Confirms+The+Grotesque+Beauty+of+Wangechi+Mutu&utm_content=Bad+Art+Definitely+Bad+Science+Confirms+The+Grotesque+Beauty+of+Wangechi+Mutu+CID_98c93010f81950fac048b342705e0b1f&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_term=Francis%20Bacons%20paintbrushes

Maybe I am late to the party on self publishing machines?

Technology still surprises me. I was surfing through NYU's bookstore and noticed a link for self publishing that I clicked on with curiosity.
Link to the page: http://www.bookstores.nyu.edu/main.store/selfpublishing/index.html

The Espresso Book Machine looks amazing. Now, I have not physically been in the space where NYU has this machine, but from the webpage I can imagine the possibilities. The EBM prints, binds, and trims any digital file into a paperback book. You can also print out of Google's book archive of public domain works. Now if I could purchase an ISBN number from the EBM, I wouldn't need Blurb. This would satisfy my tactile need when creating something; I just wouldn't want to deal with the maintenance. Remember those darn copy machines? I was the official copier person in my early years working in offices. I have this love hate relationship with oversized office machines ever since.
I think this EBM could remedy that in the digital immediacy we all have come to expect.

Now if you are still wonder what I was doing surfing through the NYU bookstore to begin with, I will explain. I love books from book jacket, binding, to the font, to the paper, to the printing process, to the text. With the internet, I have the possibility of visiting a variety of different bookstores without having to deal with the August heat in South Florida. Ok, I just love looking and, sometimes, Barnes n Noble just isn't satisfying enough. 

A Birthday Card from Mom                      by Sarah Brown

My thoughts have wandered over the changing handwriting curriculum in primary education.  With email and texting, even with social media, sharing personal information is easy. Yet, writing requires focus, motor skills, and grammar off the cuff. To sit and write a letter or note is an act of time and love, as much as skill. With fewer letters mailed and technology dominating our personal exchange between one another, I find that my personal correspondences with my parents, friends, and teachers are the most revealing of our human condition and my vulnerability. As cursive writing and handwriting in general falls into some phase of obsolescence, the letters and notes are evidence that perhaps we will find an ancient art reborn again.

Confession of the Week

Thursdays seem like a great day to have my weekly confession of something art related. I will try to have something I created to share. This week I splurged on a new aquarelle charcoal pencil-6B, size 1 thin tipped paintbrush, and some ricepaper. Thin lines that can mix with thicker and heavier lines with softer charcoal. When I am on a break from photographing, I like to indulge myself in other mediums. My friend and mentor, Barbara Elision has often encouraged me to think of this as a brain muscle strength training exercise or yoga.

captured through PhotoBooth- my pencil and brush

Peter Schjeldahl of the New Yorker Rebounds about Detroit's Dilemma

Listen to this podcast from the New Yorker by John Cassidy for a summary of Detroit's crisis. 

Some body must have been put Schjedahl in a time out to think about what he said. In the New Yorker, Mr. Schjedahl questioned Detroit's Institute of Art decision to sell art works in order to relieve some of the budgetary crisis. DIA has a wonderful collection that could bring some balance if some pieces are sold, but what is the disconnect between the cultural emotional attachment to art, the valuation of art objects, and some sort of financial salvation. Don't most collectors sell objects when there is a financial need? How is a museum any different? Let's face it valuation of art is a volatile ocean of who, what, where, and how many's. Personally, DIA's move is prudent, but deeply significant not only to the value of the objects themselves, but to the cultural identity of Detroit's art wealth. The only persons comfortable with this are the art buyers drooling for a chance to buy on sale. Schjedahl's reaction was normal; what would any art writer emulate when cultural meaning turns to simple numbers? He is a critic and should be expected to critiques, criticize, and offer insight into discomfort. Emotionally, how can we help but cling to art objects? I do. We all do, but when do we emotionally detach from objects that induce feelings?

But here is where I see distressing signs: in Schjedahl's retraction or apology, he not only apologizes for his initial reaction, but he speaks as if someone scolded his words and opinions. What happened to open conversations and new truths? Art criticism is a form a democracy that seems to fading. I am praying that the conversation he initiates continue to be a scholarly source for exchange. Actually, we should all initiate a conversation or, at the least, participate in one. Just please don't bring up Kate and Price William's baby.

I have long been a reader and follower, if you will, of Audubon. So, when the Times reported on the exhibit of his work and words at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, I had to share the link.
This particular exhibit is an interesting effort to combine prints and words from the artist. This pairing is often a hotly debated form of exhibiting because text is often an imposing bias of meaning that can squew a viewers experience. Some would say this narrows the meaning; while others would say viewers need some direction to grasp meanings.

My opinion, you wonder? I have faith in the viewer. Their intuitive reaction is essential in the meaning and experience of art and history. Yet, text still offers some insight into the artist. The hanging object is only one dimension of experiencing art. Where do words, phrases, sentences take us when we view (still) visual arts?


Check out the online sneak peak into the exhibit: http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/audubons-birds-audubons-words

Since I have time to write

Since I have time to write, I am taking full advantage of it.  Next week August begins, and my studio will not longer remain this quite. This entire summer my thoughts have been about moving beyond the conceptual postmodernism approach to examine and move outside these lines.
Many photographers have gone so far as to write out explanations or boundaries that define their images. I have never been one to hand over meaning that can often narrow a viewers experience.  I want to take the viewer into my reality, which may be a space never seen before. Isn't that why we all want to experience art? We want to experience a space, maybe a time, that is not always accessible in our current reality.  Has postmodernism prevented this because representations can be misinterpreted? I think yes, but not the sole factor.  As our media has changed and art critics have become art calendar keepers, our cultural ears  are Waiting for  Godot or something serendipitous.

Photography, and perhaps contemporary art in general, has lost its way because no one is writing critically.  This has caused a lull in new groups, new movements, and room for younger emerging artists, although this bias maybe a geographical cause and effect of South Florida.  I crave to see something new.  So, if you have news of where to go, post a reply.

Henry Peter Emerson

Doesn't Henry Peter Emerson sound familiar? You guessed it-he is the cousin of the Emerson we all learn about studying the transcendentalists. Henry Peter Emerson was Cuban and produced an amazing array of photographic work from the 1890's. I love his philosophical approach of melding the scientific, technical, and art into a landscape photograph. This especially draws me in because I myself have journeyed down this road with my own body of landscape work on Lake Okeechobee.

One of my favorite Emerson photographs was printed as a photogravure.

The Lone Lagoon,  Northern Broads, UK           c1895

The Myriad of Opportunities

Ben Franklin, Franklin Museum by Sarah's iPhone

Opportunities are omnipotent, aren't they? In my many years studying with George DeWolfe, the listening for these opportunities is often a blend of the waiting and the doing. We must equate the feeling of knowing with the action of creating. I always say to see the truths, we must see inside out.
I think Ben Franklin knew this knowing, which is one of my reasons to head north to Philly for a visit.

Today, I am heading to the Norton Museum of Art for my monthly check in meeting with Tim Wride, who is sharing with me another means with which to understand photography (and fine art in general). I am captured by the opportunity to explore and experience photography from another dimension. I like to think of it as seeing beyond the frame into a mysterious mix that I can arrange. A wall is like a still life-arrangement and placement are just as fun. I look forward to writing more about the exhibit that I am working on with Tim. 

 

Over the past several years, my interest and passion in working with photographic collections has grown. One of my recent projects is an online exhibit of photographs from the Museum of the Glades archives. Their photographic collection is wonderful. Online exhibits have become a welcome addition for photographic collections by extending to a larger audience.  Exhibits within themselves are evolving   into a more participatory experience for viewers; I personally feel this makes for an enriched experience and creates a more intimate feeling that brings the viewer in for a closer look. 

From a technical perspective, digital curation is melding information technologies with library and archival science. This will be an exciting evolution to be a part of. 

Heading to Ritta Island, Lake Okeechobee         Sarah Brown

Annual Leave

 In less than 5 months, I will officially have a MLIS after my name. In this past year of absence, I have researched, written, and gained insight that will be forthcoming in new photographic work. I am happy to return.

• Sarah Brown, MLIS