[Leica] LA Review

[imagist3 at mac.com (George Lottermoser)]

Richard, this serves as such a wonderful real world example of  
walking the path of visual self-expression.
You (and the those offering critique) bring up so many wonderfully  
deep and complex aesthetic and historical considerations.
With reference and reverence to the historically great landscape  
photographers of CA:
Do you (or we) have something new to add their visual statements?
With reference and reverence to the historically great brush  
painters, calligraphers and wood block printers:
Aesthetic considerations of brushed ink calligraphy on brushed  
paintings and wood block inked prints;
compared to brushed ink calligraphy on silver gelatin prints;
compared to brushed ink calligraphy on ink jet prints;
compared to calligraphy digitally applied to the digital photo file;
compared to the tradition of writing or scratching on negatives  
printed to silver gelatin paper;
compared to the historical use of words (calligraphy and or  
typography) in both eastern and western painting and print making.

Ink, paper and photography ? all very dear to my aesthetic heart and  
eyes.

I feel quite excited as I follow you on your path of creative  
production and presentation as well as this critical journey.

Regards,
George Lottermoser
george at imagist.com
http://www.imagist.com
http://www.imagist.com/blog
http://www.linkedin.com/in/imagist

On Jan 16, 2010, at 9:59 PM, Richard Man wrote:

> Finished the portfolio review today - met with 3 people yesterday and
> 3 today. The first day was slightly discouraging in that while one
> gallerist (in fact, up in the City) says we should get together with
> the gallery owner and talk, the general comments is that while my B&W
> darkroom prints are good (but can get better of course), but
> regardless how good they can get, in terms of subjects of the CA
> coasts and redwood etc., it would always be: why would people be
> interested when there are Sexton's, Westons' and Adams etc. abound?
> The worst comments come from reviewer doesn't seem to grasp why I am
> doing it. She asks "are you interested only in the Asian market?"
> Another suggests that may be I should do the calligraphy on the mat.
> Ouch and double ouch.
>
> Anyway, this is one question I have been struggling with: B&W print,
> which I love, but how do I input my personal vision? I tried writing
> calligraphy on a couple photos and while they look good, they are
> lacking simply because the photographs are not the best images. I was
> thinking that I should go visit China and take some classic Chinese
> landscape images for this purpose.
>
> Anyway, the first reviewer today, after seeing my portfolio, made a
> startling simple, commented: "Use Red Ink."
>
> Duh.... on hindsight, it's the most obvious thing to do - it matches
> the chop's color, and would be distinctive on the B&W prints!!!
>
> My mental block is that Chinese calligraphy is always Black on White.
> In fact, I tend to lighten the patch where the calligraphy will go on
> a computer file, so this simple suggestion is like one of those Zen
> Koan - breaking open my mental block. I discussed the idea with the
> remaining two reviewers after I did the presentation, and they do
> agree it's a great idea and made more suggestions.
>
> So I have some work to do in the next couple weeks to enter in a
> couple competitions with these new ideas. This is GREAT!!!
>
> and tomorrow I will drive to Indio and do a couple day of shoot around
> Salton Sea and the Joshua Tree.
>
> ****
> I am also trying to sign up for the week long John Sexton B&W Printing
> workshop. They used to fill up really fast but things may have slowed
> down a bit now. We will see...
>
> -- 
> // richard m: richard @imagecraft.com
> // w: http://www.imagecraft.com/pub/Portfolio09/ blog:
> http://rfman.wordpress.com
> // book: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/745963
>
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