The eBook Phenomena

There is a quiet revolution taking place in the book publishing world ... eBooks. All of us know that we can purchase electronic versions of just about any title and read them on your iPad, iPhone, Android and Kindle. Before I left for Venice in November, I purchased the Steve Jobs biography and read the entire 571 pages on my iPhone. It sounds like quite a feat, but not really ... it was quite enjoyable.

That brings me to my current eBook project with respect to my images of Venice. Having investigated the costs of printing a hard-copy fine art coffee table book,  I came to the conclusion that the benefit of eBook publishing far outweighed the expense of off-set printing a coffee table fine art book. Finding a publisher with distribution capabilities was daunting to say the least. With photography being a mainstream art form, publishers are inundated with proposals and my goal was to get something completed by the end of 2012.

Several weeks ago I learned of a 26 year old woman named Amanda Hocking. Apparently she had contacted EVERYONE in the book publishing business trying to get her young adult urban fantasy and paranormal romance novels published. No luck! So she gave self-publishing a try and voila ... success!

Amanda is already a millionaire author. She probably hasn’t written something you’ve seen at Barnes & Noble. She’s made her millions by self-publishing Kindle eBooks, which she claims have sold over 900,000 copies since April of last year; and with Amazon’s generous commission policies, she gets to keep 70% of the profit. Her selling strategy is that her eBooks cost anywhere from $0.99 to $2.99, prices low enough that many people probably wouldn’t hesitate making such an impulse purchase ... which obviously they have not! In fact, she is going to be featured in Elle Magazine's April issue.

While I am not looking to match Amanda's success, I am hoping to expose my work to more collectors and lovers of Venice. I not only plan on showing images, I also plan on writing about photographing in Venice ... from special locations to the technical aspect of my work.

I do not think the fine art coffee table book is going away any time soon, but I hope there are more photographers like myself willing to look at non traditional means of showing and distributing their art.

If you would like to be included in my eBook mailing list, click here to send me your email address. As soon as my eBook is completed, I will include you in my announcement. Stay tuned!

Back to La Serenissima ... Getting Excited!

I leave for my beloved Venice on March 19th with the hope of coming to closure on my Venetian body of work and begin the process of designing my eBook.

Out of all the places I have photographed, Venice has always had a special appeal. Venice is not for everyone.  Some people spend 2-3 days and are overwhelmed by the crowds or the hot weather if visiting in the summer months ... Venice can get pretty steamy ... and smelly. While I have visited Venice on numerous occasions, I have only journeyed there during the winter months ... November, December and January. Venice in winter is special. Warm days lead to chilly nights which culminate in early morning fog and mist. It is not unusual for a fog to roll in during the day turning Venice into a veiled renaissance movie set.

Every visit to Venice produces new images. Each time I try to go beyond the typical views we are all familiar with and try to show the romance, the light, the silence and a sense of being there. I try to show the familiar in unfamiliar ways.

Every well known artist and writer has experienced the extraordinary beauty of Venice. La Serenissima most always leaves an impression. Truman Capote wrote in The London Observer in 1961, "Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs at one go." The author, Fran Lebowitz wrote, "If you read a lot, nothing is as great as you've imagined. Venice is ... Venice is better." I could not agree more!

 So, wish me well on my journey and may the photo-gods be with me!!!!

My Favorite Place On Earth ... Venezia

It's been a while since my last post ... life has a way of getting in the way! I believe in quality rather than quantity, so here I am again. 

I am excited. I just returned from Venice, you know, that place in Italy with the canals, the gondolas, the mystery and the fog. I have been photographing in Venice since 1992. I'm addicted! I am not alone in my addiction. I have met numerous individuals who profess their adoration for La Serenissima...just like myself! 

I have been blessed to have accumulated a substantial body of images over almost 20 years. My Venetian images have been collected by both museums and private collectors ... consequently, I have to do something with them other than have them on the walls in my studio/gallery or hidden away in my flat files. The time has come to seriously consider a book ... an eBook! What better way is there to reach my fellow Venetaphiles and photographers. I hope to have something designed and on-line by the end of 2012 ... Stay tuned!

 

    

The Corcoran Museum of Photography?

Just this morning, Jacqueline Trescott of The Washington Post penned an article titled, "The Corcoran Re-Imagined."  The article mentions that The Corcoran Gallery has hired a strategy firm, Lord Cultural Resources of Toronto, Canada to "attempt to chart its destiny."

Over the years, the Corcoran has had its share of challenges ... mostly budgetary, but also as Ms. Trescott states, "a lack of permanent leadership." Many of their problems go back to 2005 when David Levy, the Corcoran's long time director canceled the Corcoran's building expansion project. He was unable to raise the $200 million needed for the project and later resigned.

In addition to budgetary concerns, visitation has been on the decline. This is no surprise since they are one of the few museums that charges an admission fee ($10.00). The art collection of the Corcoran is comprised of 19th and 20th century American and European art as well as substantial holdings of photography and decorative arts. With the exception of photography and media arts, the overall collection is pretty middle of the road ... just my personal opinion.

On a positive note, The Corcoran College of Art and Design is doing quite well. According to The Washington Post article, "In the past three years, enrollment grew by 30%." Their photography department, headed by Andy Grundberg, noted photography critic for the New York Times, has a world class photography curriculum and teaching staff.

I am in no way an expert on the marketing of museums, but it is pretty clear that the Corcoran competes with the likes of the National Gallery of Art, The Museum of American Art and maybe even The Phillips Collection. There really does not seem to be anything that makes the Corcoran stand out with the exception of one area ... photography.

The Corcoran Gallery was one of the first museums to accept several of my prints for their permanent collection, so I may be a bit prejudiced, but one area in my opinion that shines brilliantly at the Corcoran is its photography department. The department is headed by writer, editor, filmmaker and photographer, Phillip Brookman. His official title is Director of Curatorial Affairs. Mr. Brookman's area of interest is the history of 20th-century photography, specifically documentary photography and film. The Corcoran has always been a spring board for great photography exhibits ... from Sally Mann to Robert Frank and Richard Avedon. Mr. Brookman's longtime assistant curator and in the past few years, the Corcoran's Curator of Photography, Paul Roth, is now the Director of The Richard Avedon Foundation in New York City. Paul Roth is an example of the academic and curatorial talent we have in the photography community as a result of The Corcoran Gallery.  

Rochester, New York has the George Eastman House, New York City has the International Center for Photography (ICP) and Tucson, Arizona has The Center for Creative Photography ... all internationally recognized institutions. Why not The Corcoran Museum of Photography? In my opinion, it makes perfect sense. What better place than The Nation's Capital to have such a museum? Doing so would not only provide a facility large enough to maintain a major photographic archive, but it would add to Washington's reputation as being a major international museum destination.  

I am not alone in my thinking. Several years ago, Lenny Campello from the Daily Campello Art News wrote an extensive article on turning the Corcoran into a photography only museum.   

Could you just imagine a building the size of the Corcoran Gallery filled with nothing but photography? With EVERYONE today being a photographer, I think the lines would be out the door!







 

Limited Edition Prints

I thought I would start off the New Year with an interesting topic among the fine art photography community ... the editioning or numbering of digital prints.

Having spent my entire photography career in the wet darkroom, the practice of editioning prints was never an issue. Yes, there were photographers who limited the amount of prints made from a single negative, but for the most part, the vast majority of photographers did not edition their prints ... Ansel Adams included. Reason being ... each and every print pulled by hand in the wet darkroom was unique. The process of burning and dodging as well as variations of temperature and strength of developer as the printing session progressed, made it virtually impossible to make two prints that were identical.

In 2000 I began printing my work digitally. I felt that if I wanted my work taken seriously by collectors and garner similar selling prices as my gelatin silver prints, printing in editions was absolutely necessary. Digital prints were produced via a photo mechanical process and not by hand.  Once an image file was saved, an unlimited number of exact reproductions were possible. Sort of like printing hundreds if not thousands of posters on an offset printing press. I could not imagine the public, private or corporate collector wanting to invest in work that was mass produced.

On the other hand, there are photographers who have rationalized against limited edition prints and feel that due to the nature of digital printing, their prints are just as unique as prints pulled in the traditional darkroom. Their rationale being that very few photographers that utilize digital output make more than a few prints at any one time unless they are working in extremely small editions. Typically, prints are made "on demand," or as they are sold. While the image file may have been saved in let's say June, that file may not be reprinted again until maybe September. In the time period from June until September, inks have most likely been replaced, a new batch of paper purchased and the image file may have undergone several iterations of creative refinement. Consequently, there could be slight differences from print #1 to print #8 ... this seems logical. That said however, the higher end fine art photography world still views digital output as a mechanical, not a "by hand" process, and not worthy of upper level art-market pricing. A little elitist some might say, but non the less, a reality.

Several months ago I had a conversation with gallerist, Susan Spititus of Susan Spirtitus Gallery in Newport Beach, California. Her gallery is one of the leading photography galleries in the U.S. that represents the works of leading contemporary and emerging photographers as well as vintage works by Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Andre Kertesz and Ruth Bernard to name a few. Ms. Spiritus had quite a strong opinion with respect to editions. She is well aware of the impact digital printing has had on the fine art photography community and is comfortable with the fact that many of her contemporary photographers have embraced digital output. While digital prints have become the norm, she strictly adheres to a standard that an edition should not exceed 20-25 pieces cumulatively.  In other words, if an image is printed in 2-3 different sizes, the total number of pieces should not exceed 20-25 pieces, and in some cases 15 pieces or less. This is non negotiable with respect to whom she represents. Ms. Spititus is not alone in her opinions ... most galleries that represent contemporary photographers have similar requirements on limited edition prints.   

As collectors have become more savvy with respect to how photographs are imaged digitally, the process of editioning prints has become the norm. Again, if one wants to be either represented by a main stream gallery or have his or her work taken seriously, printing in editions is a must.

Many thanks to Susan Spititus for taking time to chat with me.

The Beautiful Photograph

Recently my wife and I visited The Phillips Collection in the Dupont Circle area of N.W. Washington, D.C. We went to see the photography exhibit, TruthBeauty: Pictorialism and the Photograph as Art, 1845 - 1945. I highly recommend seeing this absolutely beautiful exhibit of 120 images ... it was one of the best exhibits of pictorialism I have ever seen. FYI ... the show closes January 9th 2011. Try not to miss it.

Another exhibit worth seeing of pictorial works is at The National Gallery of Art ... The Pre-Raphaelite Lens: British Photography and Painting, 1875-1875. Some of the works are by Lewis Carrol, Julia Margaret Cameron, Roger Fenton and Henry Peach Robinson. Definitely worth seeing.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, photography was just beginning to make its mark on the art world. I say make its mark sparingly because photography was not really accepted as a true art form, but it was struggling hard to gain acceptance. Consequently, photographs of that period were made to look more like paintings ... the imagery was usually soft focus and poetic in form and subject matter. The prints were beautiful and at the time difficult to craft. Prints were made of platinum, gum, carbon and even gelatin silver prints. Included in the show were examples of prints that were hand colored/painted with water colors.

Over the years I have seen a lot of examples of pictorialism, specifically in shows at The Corcoran Gallery/Museum and The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. to name a few, but never an exhibit encompassing all the "who's who" of pictorialism in one exhibit. Some of the greats represented were Henry Peach Robinson, Edward Steichen, Julia Margaret Cameron, Alfred Steiglitz, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Gertude Kasabier, Frederick Evans and even early pictorial works by Ansel Adams and Edward Weston.

I can not stress enough how beautiful the images were ... they were just drop dead gorgeous! The word  "conceptual" never really came to my mind. As we drove home, I began thinking about what has been happening within photography. It is all I hear are words like "contemporary" and "conceptual." Photographers such Jeff Bark, Gregory Crewdson, Paolo Ventura, Edward Burtynski, Erwin Olaf and Todd Hido are today's super-star conceptual photographers. Of course their work is beautiful ... but in a much different way. Their prints are huge and graphic ... modern looking as opposed to classic and timeless. The editions are small ... 5-7 prints total ... and they are quite expensive ... in the high five figure and even six figure range ... big buck for living photographers.

The question I ask is, what has happened to the beautiful  image? What about images made just for beauty sake ... no real intellectual concept other than showing the grand landscape, or sweeping panoramic views of rocks and ocean. It seems to me that today there is much more emphasis on the concept of the work rather than its sheer beauty. Craft seems to play second fiddle to concept. I suspect the traditional landscape in the genre of Adams and Weston are, for the time being dormant. What do you think?

Photo Angst!

Ever get excited about going somewhere to photograph? You make plans and basically can't wait to start shooting ... well ...

At the beginning of the summer I began working on a new body of work.  For now it is titled "A Passage of Time." I am very fond of water and how it relates to the landscape ... being it ocean, river or lake. I have always been, for lack of a better word, a "water person." I love being in it, around it, seeing it and playing in it and on it. I can look at it for hours at a time and never be bored ... water is forever changing. I remember during my days as a photography student in Santa Barbara, California passing by the same water view daily. No matter if the sky was clear blue and I passed the same spot every day at the same time, the ocean always had a different look and aesthetic. I found the longer I stared at the ocean, the more it changed as time elapsed. What better medium than photography is there to be able to interpret and capture the passage of time of water and sky ... non that I can think of, but I am a photographer!

Many years ago I visited the Outer Banks of North Carolina ... all the way down to Cape Hatteras. It was fabulous ... sand dunes, wild untamed ocean and not many people. Perfect for image making. It had always stuck in my mind that some day I would like to return and spend more time photographing.

After a bit of planning, my wife and I headed south to The Outer Banks, aka, OBX. It was about a 6 hour drive from our home in D.C. We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Corolla, which is at the northern end of OBX. In hindsight, Corolla was a little too far north of Nags Head, Rodanthe and Cape Hatteras. Non the less, the accomadataions were quite nice. We had a mini suite with ocean view for about $119.00 per night including breakfast and warm cookies at the front desk in the evening.

Day one was a driving day. Consequently, we didn't arrive in Corolla until late afternoon, but did drive around a bit after checking into our hotel. It got dark early, so we grabbed a bite to eat and returned to our hotel room to plan the next day's excursion.

We were out and about early on the second day. While Corolla and neighboring Duck were beautiful, it was a bit too medicinal for my taste ... huge similar looking homes/McMansions with golf course type landscaping. Route 12 was the major north south highway. The further south we drove the more interesting things began to appear. My first stop to photograph was Avon pier, about 1/3rd of way between Corolla and Cape Hatteras. I was excited! Grabbed my camera and tripod and headed to the beach just under the pier. Here is where the fun begins. The wind was blowing about 35 MPH right off of the ocean and into my face ... sand was blowing everywhere. I wanted to make some long exposures ... yea, right! I extended the tripod legs and set the tripod down. The wind was so strong, it almost blew the tripod over ... and the camera was not even mounted. Well, there went that photo opportunity!
The rest of the day was no better. I had photographed in windy conditions before, but nothing like this. Consequently, we drove around the rest of the day taking note of places to return the following day, hoping the wind would subside.

The next day was no better, but another element came into being ... rain. Not just drizzle, but a downpour. To make things worse, the wind was still howling. What fun!

The following day was not much better except that the rain was more intermittent. Instead of heading south, we drove north towards the far northern end of Corolla and turned into the wild life refuge on Currituck Sound. It finally stopped raining, at least for the moment. Again, I grabbed my camera and tripod and headed for the water. Low and behold there was something worthwhile to photograph. As you can see from the above contact sheet, I only exposed 6 frames ... and one of them was a bracketed exposure. After my 6 exposure fiasco it began raining ... again! We headed back to the hotel. Talk about being disappointed!

Once back at the hotel, we logged on to accuweather.com. The news was not good. Heavy rain and wind for the next 3 days. It was time to pack it in and head home. Not even a full roll of film exposed ... bummer!

We arrived home the next day about 9:30 PM. The following day, after a bit of procrastination, I headed to the darkroom and fired up my trusty JoBo film processor. Being a film shooter, one never really knows what you have until the film is processed and contact printed. That's one of the things that I like about working in film as opposed to digital. For me, this is what keeps the mystery of photography alive and exciting.

You be the judge ... Luck or talent? Your comments are always welcome.

FYI ... check out BWGALLERIST. A really nice on-line magazine that caters to fine-art black and white photography. You will even see an interview of yours truly!