Angie Inside
January 28th, 2010
Yes, Angie is just as beautiful inside as she is out in the snow. We shot this on the first day we did snow photos, before we went out and froze her cute ass off.
Lots of changes going on. It looks like it will be Monday before I’ll be able to start moving in to the new studio. And then there will be lots of work to get it ready.
My long string of success with the annual photo contest at French PHOTO magazine has come to an end. Friends in France tell me that I did not get a photo in the magazine this year. So it goes. I’ll try again next year. This is the first time since 2003 that I won’t have at least one photo in that magazine.
But at about the same time I learned that I will have some of my work in the coming issue of Carrie Leigh’s NUDE magazine. Right now I don’t know exactly what photo(s) they are going to print, or what the article will say. I do know it will have something to say about the lawsuit I’m participating in seeking to have the “2257” law declared unconstitutional. I know that because the writer asked me questions about that lawsuit. And I also know that my friend, Stephen Haynes, will be featured in this issue for his blogging about 2257 and photographer’s rights. Way to go, Stephen!
As you may know, Carrie Leigh’s NUDE prints in black and white only. It’s a very high quality magazine with superb reproduction of the photographs. I’ve admired the magazine, but never considered submitting my work because, as you also must know, I work in color. A number of friends had encouraged me to send my work to the magazine, but I always declined for that reason.
Now I sometimes get a bit upset when someone comments on one of my photos to the effect that they would like to see it in black and white. Color is a very important part of what I’m doing with my work, so I usually would take such a comment as an indication that the person making it just didn’t understand what I was trying to do with the photo.
But, I realized eventually that I was being a bit obtuse on this issue. And violating some of my basic beliefs about photography to boot. I remembered what another photographer had said to me more than 40 years ago when I was about to do my first professional job with color film. I was worried because I had only worked in black and white up to that point. He said, “The camera doesn’t know if it has color or black and white film in it.” I guess you can’t really say that about a digital camera now, but the point is still valid.
And I remembered something Ansel Adams said that has always seemed true to me. “The negative is the score, the print is the performance.” I’ve always felt that the final print was what is important. How you got to that print, what process you use, is important to the artist, but not to the audience.
So, one evening while watching TV I fired up my laptop and did a bunch of quick and dirty black and white conversions of a bunch of my favorite photos. Some of them worked just as well, though for different reasons, in black and white. A few of them worked even better in black and white. And some didn’t make the transition to black and white at all. It was an interesting exercise and reminded me that the subject matter of all black and white photos is in color. Black and white is just a different rendering of a color scene. Sometimes an interesting composition with interesting light can work in both color and black and white. Showing some of my work in black and white was simply a different performance of the score I had captured in the original photo. Just as valid as the color version if it worked as a photo.
Well, I sent the successes from that exercise off to a friend and they eventually found their way to Carrie Leigh. And I’m pleased about that. I’m even thinking about producing some limited editions of some of my photos, printed in black and white on fiber silver gelatin paper. If I decide to do that I’ll let you know here when they are available.
The cold I’ve been fighting for more than a week seems to finally be fading. That is making me a little optimistic that it will be pretty much over by the time I have to start moving the studio next week.
One Response to “Angie Inside”
1bt
January 31st, 2010 @ 2:25 pm
Great post Dave on the "process" and I agree…the final print is all that matters..NOT the process.
See you in a few weeks?
cheers
bt
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