Member News
From David Kutz
I was thrilled to get financial support from the Brooklyn Arts Council and 2021 Con Edison Power Up Neighborhood Match to the premier this public-art exhibition of The Machine in the Garden begins on October 16, 2021, on the fence bordering J.J. Byrne Playground & the Old Stone House, on 3rd St. between 4th and 5th Ave. in Brooklyn, NY.
From Barry Guthertz
I received an Honorable Mention for my B&W series on northeastern Arizona in the “Travels” Competition for All About Photo Magazine. This image from Painted Desert will be showcased in the October Issue along with three additional photos from Monument Valley, Canyon de Chelly, and Navaho Nation Monument. A larger portfolio of my B&W landscapes is here.
From Jim Lustenader
Black & White Magazine selected three of my photos for their smartphone photo contest: “Dispensable” in the conceptual category. Winners in Dec. 2021 issue, now on newsstands.
From Ken Hoffman
I recently delivered a presentation via Zoom to the Manhattan Miniature Camera Club on the topic of Architectural Photography. The presentation included photographs from my book “Legacy Through the Lens, A Study of Mendham, NJ Architecture” which utilized 4×5 photography exclusively. 35mm tilt/shift lens operation and examples were included in the discussion.
From Ellen Jacob
Fresh off our August 2021 exhibition at the Gallery, Hanifah Walidah has invited me and the Art Justice Cohort to participate in the first New World Curator Kits (NWC Kits) artist residency. I will receive a studio inside the virtual space built-in Cryptovoxels to exhibit our work.
After the Show, a Book?
By Neil Lawner
Nearly all of us have exhibited our work and know first-hand how much time and effort was expended in the making of our photographs in the field, street, or studio.
We are aware of countless hours spent in a darkroom or computer to achieve the best possible rendition of that image as we ready it for display.
We are filled with excitement at the hanging of the show and for the few weeks that the show runs at the gallery. Then comes the day when we take the show down and bring the images back home. Most of those lovely images wind up stored in boxes and are rarely seen again.
We go on to new projects. We encounter new muses and relegate to the dustbin the work that we were so passionate about making during that time in our lives. I too have experienced the feeling of separation from the photographs that were stored several years ago. I visit them on rare occasions and usually reminisce about how I felt at the time I clicked the shutter.
The question that now arises is how can we keep these quality photographic prints alive and readily accessible? In my case, I made the decision to self-publish my photographic projects in book form.
The digital print revolution has given us the ability to create quality books that can be readily accessed from our bookcases or coffee table.
The process can be simple and relatively intuitive for small paperbound editions such as the ones sold by galleries after juried shows. Books that incorporate a hundred or more pages are most often hard-covered and the page layout more complex. Books of that ilk are easily printed using a printer such as Blurb or Shutterfly. Blurb has its own relatively intuitive software which can be downloaded from their website.
You may decide to have multiple images on a page or an image that crosses over the center of the spread, or gutter, and thus occupies all or parts of two pages. The Blurb template is adaptable to most of these situations.
Your purpose in making a personal book may be just to make a memory or keepsake of an exhibition or series of photographs you have done. It may be to sell or give away copies of your book to family and friends… Or you may have bigger plans for your book and try to promote it to a big publishing company and attempt to get regional or national distribution in outlets like Barnes & Noble or Amazon.
I will try and discuss these in the next month’s newsletter. In the meanwhile, if you are contemplating a book project, now is the time to start to envision a theme and a working title and begin culling images that would work in the book. Bear in mind that the selection process will involve lots of editing so if you envision a 30-page book, it’s probably best to start with about 100 images. The editing and sequencing process can be extremely time-consuming.
To be continued next month…
Bob Leonard: The Value of Community
By Norm Borden
Bob Leonard learned there’s more to the eighth grade than reading, writing, and algebra when the darkroom in his art class awakened his interest in photography. He recalls, “It was fascinating seeing my pictures develop.” He says, “My first camera was a Yashica rangefinder, then I graduated to a Canon AE-1.”
At Albany State, Bob was active in a group called Photo Service. “We did all the photography for the Albany Student Press and the yearbook. I had a passport photo business, too. In my senior year, I was the chief photographer.” Although Bob only shot B/W in those days, he admits that he was never a darkroom jock. “I got in and out of the darkroom as fast as I could.” But after a friend suggested he try Kodachrome, he wound up using it for 20 years and his darkroom days were history.
The turning point in Bob’s photographic development came in 2005 when he bought his first digital camera. “Digital kind of saved my life,” he says. I got immediate gratification and it was easy to make prints.” That got him thinking about joining Soho Photo since a friend who was a gallery member at the time said he’d be able to show his work. After Bob became a member in 2007, he began to appreciate the value of the community.
He says, “I learned it was great to be part of a group with terrific photographers and be able to show work and bounce ideas off them; they get what you’re doing. Sure, you can show work to your wife or friends but it’s not the same.” Bob also learned about having a portfolio—a series of images that tell a story and speak to each other. The takeaway is that by growing as a photographer and having this community, when I compare the work that I did fifteen years ago to now, I see a big difference.”
Thinking about how his work has evolved, Bob says, “I’ve gravitated to doing composites. I’m doing more abstract stuff and I’ve been doing more color and shapes; it seems that these images work as a composite, as a quadriptych. It’s my thing; in fact, the work I showed when I applied for membership in 2007 was a quadriptych. My show this October, Walls, is in a 4 x 8 format, seven sheets, each one is 24 x 44 inches. Steve Gilbert helped me print them using his big printer.” (Community at work.)
Bob feels the Gallery can be a lot more than what it is but being a volunteer organization makes it difficult. That said, with the Tribeca neighborhood becoming more of a gallery destination, Bob has recognized some key issues the gallery is facing including our upcoming lease renewal in 2025 and the need to diversify our membership base. Toward these ends, Bob is working with several gallery members on long-term planning.
As of this week, Bob has happily resumed his role as Happy Hour social director; he invited members to down a few brewskis at Walker’s before Tuesday’s joint PRC/Salon meeting. With Covid-19 restrictions on opening receptions easing, we look forward to getting more of these community-minded invites from Bob.
