Solargraphy

My first solargraph scan.

Joanne Koltnow sent me a link to an site on solargraphy. It's such an amazing process. You expose a piece of photographic paper in a pinhole camera for a long time - weeks or months - depending on the size of your pinhole and your patience. Then you remove the paper in dim light and scan it. No chemicals! Repeated scanning degrades the image pretty quickly.

The images can be expressive and dreamy. Great potential for an artist's book. They are negatives, but can easily be inverted with photo editing software.


Second scan. I didn't make notes, but I think I hit the "auto" setting this time. Also made the selected area smaller to keep the scanner from running so long and shining excess light on the paper. The third scan was terrible - I increased the resolution so much that the scanner kept pausing, which made bands as the paper got bluer. My fourth scan was a much darker blue, and most of the details were gone.

All these images are from one piece of photo paper. I took them with my oatmeal pinhole camera, the pinhole was about .33 mm.

Neo-Vintage Photography workshop

Karen takes a digital photo.

The first Sunday of this month, Linda Stinchfield and I presented some techniques and gadgets -- ttv (through the viewfinder), Gameboy, Lensbaby, and zoneplate/digital pinhole -- to the Bay Area Book Artists. It was a fun day, and I think we piqued some interest.


Karen, Meggie and Diane working on a set-up.


Part of the enthusiastic BABA group.


Joanne is an accomplished photographer. On the left is a contraption I made from expanding gutter material.


People brought treasured toys and objects to photograph. They seemed to say a lot about their owners.


All these toys have both obvious and more subtle meanings.


Isn't he sweet?


An Ansco Panda. It has a medium sized viewfinder, isn't it nice looking?

BABA book share meeting in gameboy camera photos

Thursday we met for the bimonthly book share meeting.




Lots of interesting discussion, before, during and after the meeting.


There is always a little time for socializing.







We meet in a Foothill college classroom, this one seems to be a geography class.




The hallway. Cubberly is a typical California grade school (now decommissioned). The halls are covered walkways, but open to the air.
You can view larger version of these photos here.

Added January 24: Actually Cubberly was a high school, the grade school is nearby.

Dreams as Inspiration and Primitive Wire Edge Bindings

Making a primitive wire edge bound book.

My book arts group, the Bay Area Book Artists, is a volunteer run organization. We are affiliated with Foothill College, in Los Altos, California. Most of our classes and programs are presented by members. On Sunday I did a short workshop for them. First, as part of a series on content, we discussed using dreams as inspiration for artist's books. I was worried about this part. I hadn't taught (actually I just lead the discussion) anything thing like this before, and was afraid no one would want to talk about their dreams. It was a great group, there were about 20 people. Many of them had dreams to share, and there were all kinds of approaches to looking at the dreams. It seemed we could have talked much longer than we did, but we had to move on.


Then we made book models using a wire edge binding technique. I wanted to show the BABA members this because it seems to have so much potential. They are a very creative group, so I think they will take this simple version and make a bunch of great books. I'm hoping to see some in a few weeks at our Book Share meeting.

Check out the gallery on the BABA website. There is also a BABA flickr group here.

Happy 2009!

The new year starts with some grey and gloomy weather here at Studio 19. But it's cozy inside. I'm surprised how many people tell me they read (and enjoy) my posts. Thank you. I hope you all have a Happy New Year, with plenty of time to make art and plenty of time with the people you love.

I can't resist an explanation

When I posted my last blog entry I thought I wanted it to stand with no explanation. However, I do try to stick with the topics of book arts and metalworking. So why is there a poem on this blog? Well, in the bigger picture it's potential material for a book. Or it's the background/inspirational stuff. The things that never come to fruition are just as important to me as the ones that do.

There was an interesting discussion on the Bay Area Book Artists mailing list this past fall about how much text to include in artist's books. How many words, if any, do you need to explain something? Can you trust the reader to "get it?" I think I often go too far. Mostly because I am so aware of how easily miscommunication happens.

We also had a BABA poetry session recently, which was very enlightening, and made me think further about the use of words. I don't consider myself a writer, but occasionally something pops into my head. That was the case for "My life in a photograph." Recently I went back to it and removed about 30% of the words. Then I thought it might be an interesting blog entry. The collage that accompanies it is very old - probably from 1986 or so. The subject of the collage is memory and loss, so it seemed appropriate for the poem.

My life in an old photograph

My mother holds me in her arms, smiling,
squinting at her father, the photographer.
She is very young, her hair in two braids
on top of her head, her cheeks would be rosy
if the photo was in color.
I am 3 months old, gazing away from both of them.
Behind us, a corner of the white clapboard garage,
green trim around the window. A glimpse of roses,
beech trees, and a compost heap
full of big fish-bait worms.
In my quiet studio I take fine-pointed scissors
from my workbench
and snip away the leaves on the trees.
Beyond I see a deep dark space,
filled with distant stars.
A black space to fall into forever.
2002