Personal Work

Today my camera work is solely done in support of magazine articles, books and this website. So I have not created any personal work for many years. Still, I though it might be of interest to reflect back on the personal work I did at one time.

In the years 1983-2009, I exhibited personal work widely across the country in solo exhibits, group exhibits, and nationally juried shows. Along the way I won creative awards, and purchase awards. To see my exhibition record click this link.

The image to the right comes from a series entitled “Cut Papers”. A sample gallery of these images can be seen at the bottom of this page. These works are an admixture, residing  between photography, painting and sculpture. The original objects were created in a darkened room, where large sheets of paper, typically 6 feet high, were hung from the ceiling and then shaped by hand. Next, I added colored lights to reveal shapes and  surfaces. Exposures were long, often 5 minutes or so on 8 x 10 Polaroid Color film. Frequently, reciprocity resulted in surprising color shifts. I simply kept the images I liked, discarded the rest.

For those interested, my camera was a Szabad, 8 x 10 view camera, likely built in Stockholm during the 1950’s, by Hungarian craftsman Szilard Szabad. Few made it to our shores, the majority being sold in the Netherlands. I rescued the big boy from Lens & Repro over on West 33, 17th Avenue, in New York City. A fine old beast, I smile just looking at it. It has several unique features. For one, it has a 360 degrees revolving back! Beyond the front standard’s rise-and-fall, the lens board has a rise-and-fall as well, allowing you center the lens’ image circle of definition. And it is equipped with a huge closeup extension bellows. The lens is a Nikon W 300mm, F5.6. It’s a Plasmat design, easily covering 8×10. Still have the camera to this day.