12x12"
Studies
~ Book Two ~
48 Inkjet prints, 2023
Introduction
I am dedicating this Second Book of 12x12" Studies to JS Bach in remembrance and in honor of his Two Books of composition entitled The Well Tempered Clavier. The astounding diversity and invention he presents us with in 24 sets of Preludes & Fugues (in all the major and minor keys) exhibit a level of creative grace that has continued to be profoundly moving and inspiring for me over many many years.
One of my initial intentions for the 12x12" Studies project was to display--in a very concentrated and yet comprehensive visual way--the broad range of subject matter, conceptual, formal and technical themes which exists in the over 150 individual project titled bodies of work which I have made since the mid and late 1960's when I first made a hand-bound book of silver gelatin prints on varying themes. (click here to see my 1965 Untitled Book)
In total, as of early March, 2024, I have published seven books of the 12x12" Study compilations, and will complete the eighth book by the end of the March if all goes well. In addition to the 12x12" Studies BOOKS, I created several Studies PROJECTS.
(Visit my blog link The Complete series of 12x12" Studies PROJECTS and Collection BOOKS).
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The 12x12" Studies represent for me a return to my earlier practice of making inkjet prints of (selected) images for the digital projects I was working on at an given time. After retirement from teaching, however, and after my wife Gloria and I moved from Milwaukee to Canandaigua, NY in 2008, I felt there was no real purpose in making prints since in November, 2o10 I initiated my blog TheDepartingLandscape.blogspot.com and began publishing all my new work in titled blog projects. I became very excited about "self-publishing" via my blog. Then in addition to publishing my new work on my blog, I decided to make a concerted effort to digitize as many of my earlier silver gelatin print projects as possible (in abbreviated form) so I could publish them in my blog as well. I am happy to be able to say that all of my work dating from the mid-to-late 1960's to the present moment has been archived on my blog, and now it has seemed the right time to begin creating an Inkjet Print Archive of favorite images from all my online blog projects.
(*A technical note: to publish silver gelatin print images in my blog, I have had to either 1) scan the original silver gelatin prints on a flat-bed digital scanner (if the prints fit within the limits of my scanner's 9x12" window); or 2) re-photographed the larger prints with a digital camera; and in some cases where I felt I needed a higher quality scan due to the print's size, or other technical factors, I have 3) taken a few prints to a professional company in Rochester, NY, Lumiere Photo who has special equipment and the necessary expertise to give me the best possible scans which I can turn into excellent quality inkjet prints.)
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I first began making digital prints in 2003 with a small Epson 220 printer, working with old negatives that I had scanned and turned into both printable and blog-publishable digital files. I then purchased a larger Epson printer (the 7600) in 2005 or 2006 and it served me quite well until 2022 when it began to fail me quite rapidly with all sorts of problems, including not being able to find Epson inks for the old printer due to shortages from the Covid Epidemic.
I purchased an Epson 6000P printer, in January, 2023 after I realized while trying to make prints for a project entitled The Pandemic Inkjet Prints that the quality I demanded was no longer possible with my old printer and the lower quality inks available at the time for my old printer.
Before I could begin reprinting the Pandemic Inkjet Prints project in January, 2023 I began experiencing some serious medical issues with my eyes, and after a total of five eye operations in four months time I was able to get back to printing. And it has been a wonderful experience working with my new printer and seeing my work in printed form again. The experience of coming close to losing my vision has given me a deeper appreciation of what my Creative Process in photographic picture making has meant to me.
(Note: In brief, some time after the cataract surgeries on January 15 and January 31, 2023 I experienced retina tears, first in the left eye, and then later in the right eye, both of which required laser repair and then, in the left eye, a gas bubble to support reattaching the retina to the wall of the eye; and for the right eye it seemed best to chose to have an oil bubble placed in that eye, which, allowed me to see well enough to make prints, with the aid of reading glasses and a six inch 2x magnifier. The down side to opting for the oil bubble is that the oil had to be removed by one additional surgery [the fifth in four months]. All is explained in much more detail in the introductory text for my blog project The Pandemic Inkjet Prints.)
By early July, 2023) I had made 25 new inkjet prints with my new equipment for the The Pandemic Inkjet Prints project, and I revised and printed all of the images in my Blue Angels blog project; I have also printed several other favorite miscellaneous digital images from various blog projects created since November, 2010; and I have printed over 500 inkjet prints for the seven completed 12x12" Studies Books. While working on the 12x12" Studies I got an idea for a new project Silent Dialogues for which I have made inkjet prints, and in March 2024 I published another inkjet print project The Double-Page Illuminations for An Imaginary Book.
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Regarding the Human Figure & the Landscape in my work
The human figure has been a continuing and important presence in my total photographic output over the past 60 years, though there have been long periods in which the human figure had not appeared in my work at all. (When I was a college student I loved most especially the work of W. Eugene Smith, Dave Heath, Robert Frank, Gary Winogrand and Lee Friedlander.) I have placed some emphasis on the figure in this second book of the 12x12" Studies project. (And, as I am rewriting this introductory text in March, 2024, I am now working on a new 12x12" project in which I present a good collection of digitized versions of my 3.5" square, miniature Studies photographs made between 1994-2000.)
The project before you nopw also includes some brief collections of images from several projects involving the landscape, such as my River Songs, the Hudson River Valley project, the Lake project, and some of the symmetrical photographs from my Broad Brook projects.
I have always wanted to avoid the "political" or "narrative" implications that can often come with the human figure (I prefer to identify with the more abstract idea of the "photograph as equivalent" tradition initiated by Alfred Stieglitz and then later extended by Minor White) but narrative has been more difficult for me to avoid than I thought possible. See my blog project Visual Poems for the Departing Landscape for instance. Even in those pieces, which I always claimed had no specific narrative in mind, and wanted only that the "poems" function in an "open-ended way . . . ", despite that, there have been times when my didactic leanings in support of the Earth--and my attacks on the Gas and Oil Industry (and certain politicians) did come into play regarding my concerns for "the departing landscape" associated quite literally-- now--with climate change and the lack of sincere Political Will regarding it. The "triadic visual poem" image below is from my project Triadic Memories which was inspired by American Composer, Morton Feldman's music.
Triadic Poem-Visual Poem - Title image for my blog's Welcome Page
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You will find under each of 12x12" photographs included in this project a title (often descriptive) and I have also written some brief commentaries under selected images which may provide you with some meaningful context, or perhaps a personal story that relates to the image. I have also included links to past blog projects which relate in some relevant way to a particular 12x12" Studies image.
A technical note regarding viewing this blog page
I encourage you to read my commentary on certain issues that I have had to deal with regarding the best viewing alternatives available for getting the best quality technically for seeing my photographs published on my blog. Please visit by blog page: Regarding Some possible Options for Viewing My Blog Published Photographs.
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Now, on to the photographs. ~ Welcome to the second Book of the 12x12" Studies project.
The Photographs
12x12" inkjet Studies prints, 2023
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12x12" Studies Book 1, Image #1 "Shadow figure standing in a dark, windswept landscape"
Please visit my Windswept Landscapes & Memorials project,
my Hudson River Valley project and my Italy project.
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #2 "Shadow figures under a blossoming cherry tree, Washington DC"
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #3 "Windswept Canandaigua Lake, its waves and surrounding hills"
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #4 "Gettysburg; Windswept Blue Horse & Rider with a blood red sky
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #5 "Triangulated Abstract Photograph"
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #6 Symmetrical Photograph "Framed Photo and house plants"
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #7 "Vertical Thought: Tombstones"
Visit my multi-chaptered project Triadic Memories to see more & other repetition images.
This is the first in a series of images, below, in which the vertical form serves as a dominate
visual-formal theme. "Vertical Thoughts" was the title of a composition by contemporary
composer Morton Feldman who was a major influence on my work from 2002-2007.
There are several other "vertical" dominant images in this collection of 48 Studies.
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #8 "Vertical Thought: Walking inversed shadow figure"
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #9 "Figure (inversed) on ladder suspended in black space"
Note: I inverse photographs often, especially if I use the image several times in different
variations. To "inverse" simply means to render the image in opposing tonalities,
for example white becomes black, black becomes white, red become green, etc.
This image has been transformed many many times and used in multiple projects.
It's one of my "cartoon" images which can be used in the context of other
"cartoon" images to generate many different kinds of statements:
political, philosophical, humorous, etc.
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #10 (Light dots on a wall next to a window with venetian blinds)
From a project entitled "Walkabout Part II"
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #11 "Figure at the end of a rope in a departing landscape"
(Note this image and the next thee images below are from my two blog projects:
Many of the images are multiple-exposures, and many have been solarized during
the silver-gelatin printing process. A flash off-the-camera was used in most of the images.
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #12 Persephone and her crown of light, from the "Persephone Series"
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #13 from the "Persephone Series"
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #14 "Snow Drift" (Triangle)
Snow is one of the recurring themes in my work, especially the work I began doing
when we moved to Canandaigua, NY after retiring from teaching in Milwaukee.
Behind our house is a wonderful meadow, with ponds and a tapering woods
beyond it (see my ongoing Meadow Series). When it snows the winds
that blow fiercely across the meadow from west to east create
wonderful snow drifts. . . and of course snow gave me yet
another opportunity to make light toned images.
Another recurring them in my work is the Triangle. There are at least four images
in this collection of 48 which boldly presents the triangular form, and arguably
many, many other images in which the form is a meaningful presence.
See my project Triadic Memories, and in particular one of its many
sub-groups entitled Triangulated Photographs.
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #15 "Snow Drift" (Triangle) Symmetrical photograph
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #16 Symmetrical Photograph (Source image: Tide Pool & Stones)
Note: "Source images" are "straight photographs" used in the process of making
"symmetrical photographs." Visit the link below for more information:
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #17 Symmetrical Photograph "Butterflies & Oranges"
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12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #18 Symmetrical Photograph "Tree Limb / Angel"
Note: I have made several projects which include "Angel" photographs"
To learn more visit: Collected Angel Photographs, Projects & Texts
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12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #19 Symmetrical Photograph Broad Brook Pool & Stones
This image could quality as an "Angle" photograph, and indeed many of my
symmetrical images could, though I don't always identify them as such.
The symmetrical images are not unlike mandalas, sacred images
used to aid the process of meditation and contemplation.
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #20 North Meadow Pond mirroring evening clouds floating in the sky
I would love to have included more of my Meadow Series photographs in this Studies project
but this project requires only square images and this is the only Meadow photograph that I
have so far felt right about presenting in a square format. (All the Meadow photographs
exist in the more traditional long Landscapes format.)
I have, however, taken the challenge on--that of placing landscapes in a square format--
and quite seriously, and am quite content with the results. See my projects: River Songs,
the Lake Series project, the Images of Eden project. I truly love the square format,
all sides being equal. As a mystic once said: "You can't take sides when you
know the world is round." Indeed. And I think of my symmetrical images
as "round images" even when they exist in the longer "landscape" format.
I used the above square version of the Meadow image in my recently published blog
project, Silent Dialogues. For that project the image exists as an 18x18" inkjet print.
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #21 "Boy & the Universe"
from my blog project Family Life 1985-88
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12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #22 Symmetrical Photograph (Broad Brook Stones)
Note: This is a much different rendering of the image compared to the
way I prepared it for publication in the my earlier project
a project consisting of symmetrical images using photo-
graphs I made in Vermont of Broad Brook on 9-10 & 9-11 2016.
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #23
This image is the concluding image from my Hudson River Valley Project.
It is simultaneously one of my favorite images from my collection
of Faint Photographs (for the Departing Landscape). The
title of this project suggests that if we don't act soon,
with authentic political will, this planet will fade
like a photograph left out in the sun too long.
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #25 "Celestial City River"
This is the first photograph in the project. It provides the context for the series
of photographs I made in 1988-89 entitledRiver Songs. The project
was inspired by English Pastoral Music to which I was
totally addicted to at the time. And my love of the
Hudson River painters influenced my work.
The project was also inspired by the River itself: the Milwaukee River
runs like a silent secrete through the urban middle of the city.
Unless you went down to the water's edge yourself, you
could not know how beautiful this river area was at the time, and
how badly it had become polluted from all the industrial
waste that was being dumped directly into the river.
Several years after I made these photographs a community based group
initiated a major river clean-up and park rejuvenation project. Now
many wonderful parks exists along the river's edge.
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #26 "Eating the Sun" - River Song project.
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #27 "Fishing by the river's dam. River Song project
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #28 "River Sprite" (below the river's dam)
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12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #30 "A man & a woman walking into light"
This Rousseau painting fascinated our two year old son Shaun as he lay on his changing table
by the curtained window. I collaged together several strips of photographic
images (from larger 10x10" silver gelatin prints) to get this total image.
I also made photo collages at the very end of my
1981-82 Lake Series project. (See images #44-47, below.)
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #32 from the "Dream Portrait" project
To get this "dream" look, I printed the image very light and then with carefully made paper
masks I added exposure to local areas and objects within the image. I was fascinated by
the repetition and juxtaposition of the young boy's hand & thumb (left), the girl's
hand, and then the older man's hand (bottom right corner and edge).
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #33 from the project "In the Woods"
The Woods project is divided into two parts, a dark part (see the image below)
and a light (faint) part. as in the image above. It must be obvious by now
that I have a fascination with the lighter tones of the photographic
gray scale. Light = spirit, or grace. The dark tones = silence,
mystery a "light" that is not seeable with human eyes
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #34 "The watchful eye of a primordial Bird." "In the Woods" project.
The strange tones you see in this image are from the "solarization" process applied to
the original silver gelatin print as it was being developed in the chemical developing
solution. The solarization process and multiple exposure dominated
this project, the Persephone Series, and the Atlanta City Series.
(click here to see and read about the three related projects)
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #35 Symmetrical photograph from the project
Studies Book 2, Image #36 Family bathing in Lake Michigan (an early 1994-99 Studies Photo)
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12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #47 1981 Lake Series (Fisherman, sun rising in early morning mist)
All of the Lake Series images you see below in this 12x12 Studies project required
professionally made flat-bed scans of the original silver 9x9" silver gelatin prints.
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #38 1981 Lake Series, "Dark Wave"
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #39 1982, Lake Series (Winter -30 degrees F)
12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #40 1982, Collage, Lake Series
The 1981-82 The Lake Series project came to an end after an intense period of making collages
like this using strips cut from rejected Lake prints. The collage idea came to me as I was
listening to the "Holliday" compositions of Charles Ives, which in fact sound like
collages of patriotic tunes coming from different points in space and . . .
time . . . the way marching bands would meet in a public park
. . . on the 4th of July . . . all playing . . . different tunes.
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12x12" Studies Book 2, Image #41 "Waving Goodbye" (to a bird)
I have used many variations of this image in several blog projects. I used the same bird
in a Steve Lacy (project) image as well. The bird could represent the passing-on of
the soul after it leaves the body. Death is a theme that I am often dealing
with in my work in various ways. Death insists that we use this life as
preparation (soul work) for what will follow the death of the body.
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I intend to create several more Book collections of 12x12" Studies photographs.
Please watch for them on my blog's Welcome Page, in the "Most Recently
Added Projects" section at the top of the Welcome page.
This project was published and announced
on my blog's Welcome Page July 7, 2023
Related Blog Photography Projects
Please visit the Welcome Page to my blog The Departing Landscape. It includes the complete hyperlinked listing of my online photography projects dating from the most recent to those dating back to the 1960's. You will also find on the Welcome Page my resume, contact information . . . and much more.
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