12x12" Studies Collection
Book Five
Introduction
This is the fifth in a series of 12x12" blog publications I created in 2023 entitled 12x12" Studies BOOKS, Collections of Images. The selections I have chosen to include in this project were determined in a rather spontaneous, open-ended way in terms of subject matter or conceptual themes. All of the images are among my most favorites chosen from the rather extensive history of project in my online blog archive (numbering over 150 blog projects ranging from the late 1960's to the present). And, importantly, all of the 12x12" images you will see here and in the all the other 12x12" projects exist as 12x12" inkjet prints.
In 2003 I stopped making silver gelatin prints and began making inkjet prints of images I had created digitally, either with a digital camera, or by scanning my silver gelatin and color negatives. Then in 2011, after I initiated my blog TheDepartingLandscape.blogspot.com the desire to make inkjet prints of the images I had published in my blog projects feel away.
A few laters I began digitizing some of my earlier silver gelatin print projects so I could include them on my blog, which eventually I began to think of as an online archive of my life's work as a photographer. After I digitized more and more of my print projects, and at last succeeded in getting all of my important projects represented on my blog, I began to think it someday would begin to start making an inkjet print archive, in a highly selective way, of all the blog projects I created after moving from Milwaukee to Canandaigua, NY in 2008.
The urge to make inkjet prints of images I had included in my more recent blog projects peaked in 2023 after I found I had survived the Covid Pandemic, a series of eye operations, and had not heard a word from the Museum of Wisconsin Art regarding their publicly announced plan (in October, 2019) to mount a major retrospective exhibition of my work in 2021. (That exhibition was to be the Museum's first traveling exhibition, and there was to be a book publication as well).
(Note: see my Introductory notes for the Pandemic Inkjet Print project which includes lots of details regarding my decision to begin making inkjet prints and how that decision interfaced with eye problems.)
(Note: the Museum's curator for my retrospective exhibition and the publication of the book got married, then he and his wife had a baby during the Pandemic and moved out of state. Click here to learn more details about the Museum's public announcement of the retrospective exhibition.)
Perhaps making the inkjet prints of images from my more recent blog projects was my way of preparing for the possible future exhibition; perhaps it was my way of preparing for the real possibility that the retrospective was never going to happen. I have struggled with mixed feelings about this awkward situation. The time and the freedom to create new work is precious even more important to me than the retrospective. I have wrestled with the ego desire to have the kind of recognition that the Museum's show and publication might provide me, but there are also some yogic teachings that warn against getting too caught up in that kind of desire: "If something has to happen, it will happen." ~ "If something doesn't happen, surly the hand of destiny has something to do with that too."
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This FIFTH book of 12x12" images seemed like it would be the last in the series of 12x12 Studies BOOKS. However, as I am revising this introduction in March, 2024, I am about to complete two more 12x12" inkjet printing projects: 1) the Eighth Book of 12x12" Studies, and the eighths special, thematic 12x12" PROJECT regarding a collection of 12x12" inkjet print versions I made based on my earliest (1994-2000) Studies project which consisted of miniature 3.5"square silver gelatin prints inspired by miniature piano compositions, including a project dedicated to the music of jazz composer and pianist Thelonious Monk.
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I want to stress yet again that all the images published in my blog versions of the 12x12" Books and Projects exist as 12x12" inkjet prints of impressive technical quality. The images published on my blog, however, can seem--in their initial appearance in the blog's default presentation mode--a bit unsharp, and tonally flat particularly on desktop and laptop computers, due to image compression issues. It is possible to see the blog images with excellent resolution and luminous tonalities, in an alternative viewing mode by clicking twice on any image in my blog projects. I have written about all the technical stuff in the following link: How to Best View My Online Blog Projects & Images
The Photographs
BOOK FIVE
12x12" Studies
#1 Bk Five 12x12 version of "Skeleton Garage" ~ from the Garage project
#2 Bk Five 12x12 version, "Still Life, watering can, latex gloves" The Pandemic Inspired projects
#3 Bk Five 12x12 version, "Curtain House" from The Pandemic Inkjet Prints project
#4 Bk Five 12x12 version (View of our deck and the N Meadow from inside our house looking)
#5 Bk Five 12x12 version, Late summer, 2023 Still Life, preparations for Wedding Party)
#7 Bk Five 12x12 Study, (Sea Lion on back, Dog, Zoo pool)
#8 Bk Five 12x12 version, "Hudson River, Cloud & shadow on hills" ~ Hudson River Valley
#9 Bk Five 12x12 version, "Bird, driveway puddle, foggy morning" The Pandemic Inspired projects
#10 Bk Five 12x12 version "Mr. Blue on Blue" from The Pandemic Inkjet Prints project
#11 Bk Five 12x12 version, "Mr. Blue's shadow" from The Pandemic Inkjet Prints project
#12 Book Five 12x12 Study, "Gloria and luminous gray Tree"
#14 Bk Five 12x12 version of Triadic Poem (Falling Man, three birds, suspended ladder)
~ click on the image to enlarge ~
#16 Bk Five 12x12 version, "Separator Screen & Chandelier" Babysitting project
#17 Bk Five 12x12 version, "Setting Son, view through front window" Babysitting project
#19 Bk Five 12x12 version, "Hotel plastic drinking cup" ~ the Alaska project
#20 Bk Five 12x12 Study version South Pond, early morning fog, Creation-Dissolution project
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#21 Bk Five 12x12 version (Arching branch in snow on raised bed) Great Wonder project)
Zen Practice
#22 12x12 Version of an image from part viii, Zen Practice, Silver World project
#23 12x12 Version of an image from part viii, Zen Practice, Silver World project
Reflection of Hao's father bending over, preparing food
#24 12x12 Version of an image from part viii, Zen Practice, Silver World project "Balloon Ribbon"
#25 12x12 Version of an image from part Zen Practice, Silver World project "TV screen reflection"
#26 12x12 Version of an image from part viii, Zen Practice, Silver World project "Pillow & vines"
#27 12x12 Version of an image from part viii, Zen Practice, Silver World project "Electric Piano"
#28 12x12 Version of an image from part viii, Zen Practice, Silver World project "Orange box"
#29 12x12 Version of an image from part viii, Zen Practice, Silver World project "Leaning lamp"
#30 12x12 Version of an image from part viii, Zen Practice, Silver World project "Chair shadow"
#31 Bk Five 12x12 version, Symmetrical Photograph, "Vaulted Ceiling" (absent ceiling lights)
From the 2015 project As Above, So Below (no longer available online)
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(click on image to enlarge)
This image, and the three before it (#30,.31 & 32) have a special feeling or presence
which I associate with angels. Visit this link Collected Angel Projects & photographs
Of course birds have a direct relationship to angels. See my project
#35 Bk Five 12x12 version of "Symmetrical Sunset Lake with white limbs and blue water"
#36 Bk Five 12x12 version, Symmetrical Photograph, "Burning Bush"
#39 12x12 Version "After a storm, view through picture window of two lamps"
#40 12x12 Version "Still life: plastic book holder, plant shadows, heart . . ."
#41 12x12 Version "Pumpkin viewed through front screen door window & reflections"
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This project was published and announced on
my bog's Welcome Page
December 22, 2023
Revised, March 2024
Related Blog Project Links
Symmetrical Photographs a collection of Images, Projects and Texts
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.
