Two related 12x12" Studies projects:
The Persephone Series
&
The Steve Lacy Series
A Persephone Series Photograph 1975-76
A Steve Lacy Series Photograph 1976-78
Introduction
This project presents 12x12 versions of selected images from two projects made--one after the other--in Milwaukee, Wisconsin between 1975-1978. The original version of the Persephone Series (1975-76, Milwaukee) consisted of about 70 silver gelatin prints, each 7x7" in image size mounted on 13x14" dark gray matte board. I used a transforming process--commonly known as solarization--on nearly every one of the prints in the project. I also used an off-the- camera flash unite as well which often created an odd surreal quality in the way the natural and flash light illuminate the images simultaneously. The new 12x12" digital versions of the older silver print images present the work with dark surrounding mattes.
In 2010, when I initiated my blog, I wanted to digitally document and re-present as best as possible what I considered to be my most important projects historically on the blog as well as any new work that unfolded after its creation. Certainly, the Persephone and Steve Lacy photographs are important in many personal ways to me and to my body of work as a whole, and because the Lacy Series followed immediately after the Persephone project its interesting to see how both sets of images share many similar formal and graphic qualities.
The gelatin silver prints of course have their own integrity as historical documents, though time has changed the images in subtle ways, and, because I no longer make gelatin prints, the digital inkjet prints are important in their ability to recreate the imagery with a refreshingly new and dynamic vitality in terms of luminosity, richness of tone, sharpness, etc. . . . though of course the quality of the inkjet prints is notably different compared to the silver gelatin prints and cannot recreate the unique aura or presence that emanates from the original gelatin prints.
I am very happy with the quality of the inkjet print versions of these two bodies of work, and I especially like the way the 12x12" size prints look with their surrounded tonal mattes. Most of the 12x12 images work very well at larger sizes as well up to 18x18" with surrounding mattes. As in any kind of translation from one language or medium to another. . . something vital is often lost and yet depending on the translator and the image, sometimes the new versions unveil new insights. I feel the digital versions of these earlier image are quite powerful in their own right.
In January, 2011 I published a digital blog version of the Persephone Series project, which includes only 13 images. I scanned the prints on a flatbed scanner at a file size that would allow me to someday (if I choose) to create larger scaled inkjet prints. All of the digital images for these two projects have been adjusted as necessary with Photoshop software in order to re-create and in many cases improve the image quality in terms of luminosity and richness of tone especially in the black and dark grays. The silver print images had darkened and lost contrast with age; the digital versions of the silver prints have given the project a new visual life in terms of luminosity and a more dramatic presentation of the transformational affects of the solarization process.
In 2019, I created the blog project Part II of the Persephone Series, which consists of 40 additional scanned images from the original 1974-75 silver gelatin print project. Be sure to see the two blog projects for a complete overview of all the best images in the project; and I hope you will read the introductory information regarding both projects. I do not feel a need to repeat that kind of information here.
(Note: I have also written about the relationship between the Persephone Series and the Steve Lacy Series in another project which I encourage you to visit entitled Makom, the Place.)
For the Persephone blog project files I made with the flatbed scanner were large enough to make high quality inkjet prints up to 18" square on 21x21 paper base.
*
In December, 2023, several months after initiating my 12x12" miniature silver gelatin Studies project, I decided to make several 12x12" inkjet print versions from the existing digital files I had made for the Persephone Series blog project. After seeing these new versions of the Persephone images I decided that both the Persephone and the Lacy projects deserved their own separate 12x12" Studies projects; then later I decided to present the two projects together at the same time. The 12x12" inkjet prints are essentially the same image you would see in the two original blog versions of both projects, with the addition of a dark tonal matte (2" wide) surrounding the square image which in most cases is about 8x8".
I have written about the 12x12" Studies project and my inclusion of the tonal mattes that surround the photographic images in my Afterword to the first 12x12" Studies project.
*
In 1994, when I began making the very first miniature Studies photographs I worked mostly from 35mm negatives which are long in format. I enjoyed reducing the images to a 3.5"x 3.5" snapshot-like miniature square-formatted print. However, both the Persephone and the Steve Lacy photographs were made nearly twenty years later when I was working with an old Rolliflex camera which allowed me to make multiple-exposed 2 1/4" square negatives; thus the images that you will see here were initially born of the square format.
Be sure to read about the true personal story the Persephone photographs emerged. Visit this link to the Persephone Series.
Note: for those of you who are viewing this project with a desk-top computer:
you can enlarge the images below by clicking on them once, and once again;
you can also zoom-in- and zoom-out, and you can change the brightness of
the image on your screen. To learn more about how to get the highest
possible viewing quality for my bog published images click here.
12x12" Versions of the
Persephone Series Photographs
#1 12x12 version: "Persephone, Queen of the Underworld "
#2 12x12 version: "Persephone, with Hades lurking behind her in the darkness
#3 12x12 version: "Persephone startled just before Hades abducts her"
#4 12x12 version: "Persephone being abducted by Hades with Demeter entangled with them"
#5 12x12 version: "Persephone's front porch after the abduction"
#7 12x12 version: "Persephone being held captive in the Underworld."
#8 12x12 version: "Persephone alone in the Underworld"
#9 12x12 version: "Persephone and her mother, during her seasonal releases from Hades"
#10 12x12 version: "Persephone, at Demeter's breast"
#11 12x12 version: "Persephone's attachment to the earth and her mother
#12 12x12 version: "Hades, on his feline in the Underworld"
#13 12x12 version: "Persephone and Hades on their way back to the Underworld"
#14 12x12 version: "Persephone playing with her alphabet"
(end of the Persephone Series photographs)
12x12" Versions of the
Steve Lacy Series photographs
Introduction
The original version of the Steve Lacy Series, created in Milwaukee, 1977-78, consisted of over 50 silver gelatin prints, 13.75" x 13.75" image size, on 16x20" photographic paper base. The series followed immediately after the Persephone project. I have written about the relationship between the two projects in my blog project Makom, the Place.
For the Lacy project I re-photographed the images with a digital camera and then adjusted the images with Photoshop software. The digital files of the 12x12" images below are large enough to make larger prints up to around 18x18" on a 21x21" paper base.
Steve Lacy was a great jazz composer and performer. I feel a closeness to his work and feel that the digital print versions of the original Steve Lacy photographs have the musicality, the luminosity and the spirit of the music that I continue to deeply respect and appreciate.
#1 Steve Lacy Series 12x12 version (highlighted concrete steps with metal hand rail)
#2 Steve Lacy Series 12x12 version (Lawn Sprinkler)
#3 Steve Lacy Series 12x12 version (Alley, ropes, "L" for Lacy)
#4 Steve Lacy Series 12x12 version (Garden stakes, plants, side of garage)
#5 Steve Lacy Series 12x12 version (Light and tree shadows on side of garage)
#6 Steve Lacy Series 12x12 version (Florescent tube, "L" twist of the garden gate, flowering bush)
#7 Steve Lacy Series 12x12 version (Dancing tree shadows and pole shadow on street)
#8 Steve Lacy Series 12x12 version (Light flaring on iron hand rail, steps up to porch)
#9 Steve Lacy Series 12x12 version (Glowing "L" pipe hand railing)
#10 Steve Lacy Series 12x12 version (L" Alley view with roped )
#11 Steve Lacy Series 12x12 version (Shadows on white steps and lawn)
#12 Steve Lacy Series 12x12 version (Broken wood fence, board & shadow on bricks)
#13 Steve Lacy Series 12x12 version (Striped shadows on brick wall)
#14 Steve Lacy Series 12x12 version (Painted mouse hole on garage door)
#15 Steve Lacy Series 12x12 version ( Ouroboros, also, "the Way")
#16 Steve Lacy Series 12x12 version (Steps, bush, bird in flight)
~ Steve Lacy died on June 4, 2004 but his music continues to live & soar. ~
*
This project was published and announced
on my blog's Welcome Page December 1 , 2023
Related Blog Project Links
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.