Beyond Mimesis

Check out the latest edition of Camera Arts Magazine and you’ll find a very impressive spread of photos and an in interview with Jerry Uelsmann. Uelsmann is a master of image manipulation. Most people assume his work is executed digitally. However, Uelsmann has been creating his dreamlike images for decades using traditional film and darkroom techniques.

Here is an excerpt from that interview with Uelsmann conducted by Tim Anderson at Camera Arts Magazine:

Tim Anderson: I think with the quality of your work, it would tend to make a few digital photographers envious?

Uelsmann: Well, the thing I always say is, it’s the image that counts. It could be from a painting, a drawing, or digitally, or whatever; it’s the resulting image that we are all looking at.

Tim Anderson: What do you think of the current photography market where it seems though digital camera makers are pushing film-based cameras aside?

Uelsmann: It is the future. You can’t deny it. When word processors came in to being, other modes of working were challenged by that. It’s just the way things are headed and I don’t think that traditional photography is going to disappear. At SPE (The Society for Photographic Education) recently, in Miami, I talked to someone from RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) and he said their plans are that by the year 2009, silver gelatin will be taught along with alternative processes. That’s interesting. I’ve gone from being main stream to alternative. But I do think mistakenly, that many people believe that the only true photograph is a silver gelatin print. We both know, however, that’s not true

I had the fortune of being able to spend my whole teaching career in the context of an art department. And for many, many years I was the only photographer in that department. A lot of the way I was influenced was by my peers while I was teaching. I love the way color looks on paper be it by painting, or whatever. The artists all worked on images, and they manipulated them. There was an attitude that is post-digitization, which is what I am noted for.

On the other side of that I have to say that people who think that straight photography is just that, may have to examine their thoughts a little closer. I knew Ansel Adams for years, and I saw him demonstrate his techniques, and I have been in his darkroom. The elaborate burning in and dodging, was just amazing. He never printed anything “straight.”

Photo of the Week 5/23/07

Hello Everyone,
This weeks photo was taken near the town of Riley, which is just west of Manhattan. The late freeze destroyed a large portion of winter wheat in Kansas. This wheat field was cut and then bailed for straw

PHOTO OF THE WEEK CAN NOW BE PURCHASED AS AN UN-EDITIONED PRINT DIRECTLY FROM MY WEBSITE.
http://www.danielwcoburn.com/prints.html

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LIMITED EDITION PRINTS BY DANIEL W. COBURN CAN BE PURCHASED AT THESE FINE GALLERIES

Strecker-Nelson Gallery
406 1/2 Poyntz
Manhattan Kansas
785-537-2099

http://www.strecker-nelsongallery.com/Artists_nu/Coburn.htm

SouthWind Gallery
3074 SW 29th St # 1
Topeka, KS 66614
(785) 273-5994

http://www.southwindgalleryoftopeka.com

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24 HOURS IN LAWRENCE
I recently took part in the documentation of Lawrence. Local artists, photographers, writers, and journalists were asked to document a 24 hour period in Lawrence on May 10th. Several of my photos were used for a photo illustration on the front page of the May 22nd edition of Lawrence Journal World.

click here to see my contribution
http://danielcoburn.wordpress.com/2007/05/22/24-hours-in-lawrence/

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PHOTOGRAPHS FEATURED IN KANSAS MASTERS INVITATIONAL

Two of my photographs will be exhibited in the First Annual Kansas Masters Invitational Art Show which is being held at Strecker-Nelson Gallery in Manhattan, Kansas. The show opens to the public May 4, 2007 and will run until June 16th. There will be a public reception for the artists Friday May 4th from 5-8pm. For information regarding my work click here.
All of the artists in this show are from Kansas or have been connected/influenced significantly by the landscape and culture of our state. The exhibit showcases the amazing talent of Kansas artists and is also a benefit for the Kansas Park Trust.
The event was curated by Don Lambert who is known for his early recognition of Elizabeth “Grandma” Layton and who is known as an authoritative art writer who has always been an advocate for visual arts in Kansas.

http://www.kansasmasters.com

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SPRING SNAPSHOT
Members of the Lawrence Photo Alliance set out to document the city of Lawrence throughout the month of April. The results of their work will be showcased at both Lawrence Bank Locations through June 23.
There will be a public reception for the artists
Thursday June 7th from 5-7 pm at Lawrence Bank (23rd and Clinton Parkway in Lawrence)
Please join us for conversation, snacks and wine.

http://www.lawrencephotoalliance.org

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BEYOND MIMESIS

Conceptual Photographs by Daniel W. Coburn will be exhibited in an upcoming show at Strecker-Nelson Gallery

Beyond Mimesis
June 22nd – July 28th
Strecker-Nelson Gallery
406 1/2 Poyntz Ave
Manhattan, KS

The show will also include work by the following artists:
Aaron Brown
Daniel Coburn
Roxanne Graber
Steven Graber
Sally Johnson
Steven Johnson
Lacey Lewis
Joseph Lorusso
Barbara Waterman-Peters
Ann Piper

Public Reception for the Artists
June 22nd 5-8pm

24 Hours in Lawrence

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by Thad Allender – Director of photography for the Lawrence Journal World. He approached me and other local photographers about documenting the city of Lawrence. The project was to be called 24 HOURS IN LAWRENCE, which meant we would attempt to photographically capture a very diverse “slice of life” in Lawrence beginning at 12am Thursday morning (May 10th.) This sounded like a daunting task, but I felt I was up to the challenge. I hoped this project would put me completely out of my element, and pull me from the creative rut I’ve experienced lately. I was only able to photograph about 8 hours of that 24 hour period, but it was an inspiring time.

The Lawrence Journal World used several of my images for a photo collage they ran on the front page Tuesday May 22nd. LJW will run more stories and photos from that day throughout the week. Here are few samples of my work from that afternoon in downtown Lawrence, Kansas.

15 Minutes of Fame

I recently read an article in the January issue of Time magazine. It was actually an essay written by Josh Tyrangiel entitled “Andy was Right.” Most people know it was Andy Warhol that proclaimed “In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.” Tyrangiel explained that Warhol was correct in his prophecy but also conluded that even “15 minutes has had it’s 15 minutes.”

Art and the Internet

An artist could have very easily achieved 15 minutes of fame if he had embraced the power of the internet while it was in its infancy. Today, everyone has a website or a blog. The world is at our fingertips and this can be a very valuable tool for exposing our art to the masses. The internet offers a blank slate which we can use to present our work to the world.

Will your website alone make you famous? No.

Your website is like a huge business card. It can be much more powerful, but like a business card, you have to put it into the hands of your prospective clients. This is good news for those of us who are socially inept because it means we can distribute our business card without a smile, a winning personality, and a handshake. However, it means we must find creative and effective ways of drawing people to our virtual business card.

I am no expert at this but here are a few ways I bring people to my site.

1. Try to get a link to your website posted on other popular websites. This will also improve your search engine ranking.

2. Create a mailing list and a newsletter. Visitors to my site are able to register for my newsletter. I send out a weekly mailing which includes one of my latest photographs. I have a huge spike in traffic to my site on the days I send out this letter.

3. Update content regularly so the people that visit your site will come back frequently to see what is new.

4. Artists typically let their work do the talking. This is a bad idea for your website. Your website should be rich in content especially text. Search engines use the text on your site to determine rank. Use lots of keywords to describe your work. These are words that internet users will type into a search engine to find you website.

5. Purchase 1 or more internet domain names to route users to your site. For instance, you can use any of the following URL’s to visit my site_ kansaslandscapephotos.com _ kansaslandscapeart.com _ kansaspaintings.com _ dancoburn.com _ godsandthegarden.com.

Please comment if you have ideas as well.

In Conclusion

At the end of his essay Josh Tyrangiel replaced Andy Warhol’s prophecy with his own similar idea:

“On the web, everyone is famous to 15 people”

I think that says it all.

Photo of the Week

Hello Everyone,
I hope you’re all doing well and enjoying the Spring weather. This weeks photo was shot last week at a farm pond North of Topeka.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK CAN NOW BE PURCHASED AS AN UN-EDITIONED PRINT DIRECTLY FROM MY WEBSITE.
http://www.danielwcoburn.com/prints.html

LIMITED EDITION PRINTS CAN BE PURCHASED AT THESE FINE GALLERIES

Strecker-Nelson Gallery
406 1/2 Poyntz
Manhattan Kansas
785-537-2099
http://www.strecker-nelsongallery.com/Artists_nu/Coburn.htm

SouthWind Gallery
3074 SW 29th St # 1
Topeka, KS 66614
(785) 273-5994
http://framewoods.com/

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NEW LANDSCAPE PHOTOS POSTED ONLINE
http://www.danielwcoburn.com/silver.html

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24 HOURS IN LAWRENCE

I recently took part in the documentation of Lawrence. Local artists, photographers, writers, and journalists were asked to document a 24 hour period in Lawrence on May 10th. The project was initiated by the Lawrence Journal World and the the results of this project will be posted online on May 22nd. I believe they will also run something in the print edition as well.

Lawrence Journal World

_________________________________________________________

PHOTOGRAPHS FEATURED IN KANSAS MASTERS INVITATIONAL

Two of my photographs will be exhibited in the First Annual Kansas Masters Invitational Art Show which is being held at Strecker-Nelson Gallery in Manhattan, Kansas. The show opens to the public May 4, 2007 and will run until June 16th. There will be a public reception for the artists Friday May 4th from 5-8pm. For information regarding my work click here.

All of the artists in this show are from Kansas or have been connected/influenced significantly by the landscape and culture of our state. The exhibit showcases the amazing talent of Kansas artists and is also a benefit for the Kansas Park Trust.

The event was curated by Don Lambert who is known for his early recognition of Elizabeth “Grandma” Layton and who is known as an authoritative art writer who has always been an advocate for visual arts in Kansas.

Kansas Masters Invitational

__________________________________________________________

SPRING SNAPSHOT

Members of the Lawrence Photo Alliance set out to document the city of Lawrence throughout the month of April. The results of their work will be showcased at both Lawrence Bank Locations through June 23.

There will be a public reception for the artists
Thursday June 7th from 5-7 pm at Lawrence Bank (23rd and Clinton Parkway in Lawrence)
Please join us for conversation, snacks and wine.

http://www.lawrencephotoalliance.org

The Camera Never Lies?

I can remember walking through the checkout line with my parents as a child. It was the early eighties, and I remember seeing ridiculous photos plastered all over the Tabloids. “WOMAN GIVES BIRTH TO ALIEN BOY”… one of my favorites. Bill Gates hadn’t even dreamed of Microsoft Windows, and PhotoShop wasn’t a twinkle in my eye.

What is my point? Photographers were manipulating images long before the digital revolution.

I’m going to use this column to dispel a couple of myths and misconceptions about photography. Most people who know me understand that I am a huge advocate for photography as art.

Image Manipulation

“It is my hope that photography may fall in line with all the other arts and with her infinite possibilities, do things strange and more fascinating than the most fantastic dreams.”

- Alvin Langdon Coburn

In the 1920’s Alvin Langdon Coburn experimented with what he termed vortographs by photographing objects, using mirrors arranged in a kaleidoscope, to produce images with fragmented and multiple viewpoints.

Ansel Adams spent hours in the darkroom manipulating his images to reflect the scene as he pictured it in his mind.

“Ansel Adams encouraged artists to manipulate their images’ tones while developing and printing. Adams compared printmaking to a musical performance by likening the tonal values of a negative to the notes on a musical score. Like a musical performance, the print was then subject to variation and reinterpretation over time.”

- Peter Barr excerpt from “Ansel Adams, Americas Saint George of Conversation”

The Truth

The idea that a photograph can capture reality is completely false. Taking a photograph is like reading an entire novel and then taking a few sentences out of context. The photographer is a human being who has been influenced by a long series of events which have shaped his opinions and views on the world. The photographer provides us with a glipse of the world from his perspective within the limited frame of his camera. The photograph has physical boundaries. The camera itself forces the artist to make a choice. The artist then has a long series of decisions to make which include how to expose the film, how to focus the camera, and how to manipulate depth-of-field. I’m confident when I say that photography leans more towards artistic interpretation than it does documentation.

Photography as Art in it’s purest sense.

The photographer uses a device(camera) to capture an image of light on some type of light-sensitive material_ making a unique mark on paper which could be made only at that moment by that individual. In concept, this is very similar to how a painter uses a brush to make his mark on canvas.

The Future of Photography.

Changing technologies have always had a significant impact on art. In the 1500’s painters began experimenting with and perfecting the art of oil painting. Up until then artists used paints based with egg or other animal proteins. What if the painters of the early renaissance had never embraced the new oil mediums? History has proven that those artists who embrace new technology, generally come out on top.

Photography is changing drastically and I believe it will continue to do so. Digital technologies have given the artist a range of possibilities that we couldn’t have imagined 10 years ago. The sky is the limit and the playing field has been leveled. Anybody with a thousand bucks can buy a camera that will yield professional results. Does the success of modern photography as art reside in technological innovation? Will the purists win-out in a rebellion against all things digital? Will documentation in fine-art photography yield to imagination? Only time will tell.