VoxPhotographs Weblog

Alternative processes and historic processes are getting a lot of attention these days. Ambrotypist David Puntel, based in Casco, Maine, who has been at this for about 10 years, is going to be featured in the next issue of Black & White magazine, and is represented by VoxPhotographs (www.voxphotographs.com) says many people love taking the workshops to learn more about these processes, but few pursue them afterwards. Too complicated, too slow and where do you get the stuff? You have to be really dedicated. You have to love process as much, if not more, than shooting. If you don’t like taking all day to make a photograph, you aren’t a good candidate for pursuing this. Instead, read about it and get educated.

Well, here are two people who are dedicated: Dick Arentz and Christopher James. Each is teaching a workshop this summer; James in Maine at Maine Media Workshops in Rockport. http://www.theworkshops.com/catalog/faculty/index.asp?SchoolID=20&FacultyID=505

Yesterday I got a blurb via e-mail about Christopher James’ new edition of his book - it looks like it came from the man himself. So let’s talk about that first. Titled “The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes, Second Edition” is just out and from the reviews of the first edition and this one, this looks like a book that will stand the test of time. I’ve looked through a friend’s copy of the first edition and found that I could actually read and understand much of it AND enjoy it, even with my technical shortcomings. Alot of the reviews mention how humorous and fun the book is, so we can assume Mr. James has a great sense of humor. He is currently Chair of Photography at the Art Institute of Boston as Lesley College AND he is working as well. You can see 2007 work at www.christopherjames-studio.com. Here’s one to whet your appetite. What do you think? I can’t get the full-size image to show up on the blog without being cropped because the file is too big, but go to James’ site and see it larger.

Pond Palm, 2007, copyright Christopher James

—-

I actually read through Dick Arentz’ Platinum and Palladium Printing, Second Edition, to get a decent grasp on things for my inaugural show in Oct/07 of David Wolfe’s palladium images of Portland. He is represented by VoxPhotographs as well. I retained a fair amount of info considering how tough it is for me to get the technical stuff, but didn’t smile much, contrary to the reviewers of James’ book! What I really enjoyed were the pics side by side of palladium and silver gelatin. That taught me a lot and helped me hone my skills at recognizing process when first seeing a photograph. Arentz’ work is something you could look at all day and never tire of it.

I couldn’t find any recent work by Dick Arentz online, so help me out if you do. It looks like he’s been occupied with writing the book and teaching. His own website album hasn’t been updated since 2005! However, here’s an image from 2000 and there are many more in his book. This is very typical of his gorgeous work, much of which is from using mammoth cameras up to 12×20 inches.

Levens, England, copyright 2000 Dick Arentz.

View more images at www.dickarentz.com/gallery/album.

Arentz is teaching this August in Condon, Montana - here is the blurb link www.dickarentz.com/workshops.html. David Puntel teaches there too and loves the whole experience.

So, your choice: Rockport, Maine or Condon, Montana if you want to be more than an armchair practitioner.

A month ago, I would have said the same thing, and maybe I did when I saw two large color prints of his at a NYC gallery in January.If you like street photography for a start, Fred Herzog is your man. He lives in Vancouver and has shot the streets of that great city since 1957, using Kodachrome slide film when it was only being used for advertising.Since the 50’s, Herzog mostly gave slide presentations to expose his work until he discovered very recently that “digital photography comes close to traditional methods, in others it exceeds them.” He now directs the digital printing of his work from his original slides and it will become much easier to find Herzogs in the coming years. The prints pop off the walls at you. Every page you turn in Fred Herzog -Vancouver Photographs has you on the edge of your easy chair.I had to go through a Canadian friend to get a copy of Fred Herzog - Vancouver Photographs, a sold out publication from February 2007. There were none available anywhere in the country last month, and only this one copy in all of Canada that was available to buy. Today I see Amazon has two used copies so get online and grab one.This will be one of my favorite books - just seeing the photograph on p.21 called “Buying a Hat, 1959″ is worth geting it. The man is brilliant. The photographs resulting from his long walks in Vancouver are truly some of the best street photography I have ever seen.The essay by Grant Arnold and the interview with Herzog are fascinating.This from a Canadian Review, Olga Stein/Books in Canada: “I have never encountered such a painterly command of street scenes.”Well, I’d like to continue this review, but now that I’ve turned to the image “Buying a Hat, 1959″, I’m outta here. The book calls.