Photography Exhibition at Red Filter Gallery
I am generally known for my brightly colored Photo Luminism work so I was exceptionally flattered to be invited by Forrest Old of the highly respected Red Filter Fine Art Photography Gallery to be part of a two man photography exhibition. Although he has been known to show color work, the gallery is predominantly known for black and white. This wonderful opportunity encouraged me to travel back to when I first started taking photography seriously and developed and printed my own in a make shift darkroom at the end of my garden. The entire process was much more hands on than now, and it took considerably longer to produce a single print than it does in the digital age. However, there’s no way I could have ever captured any Photo Luminism images that way, as a certain amount of experimentation is required for each set up. Without the ability to view results immediately and make adjustments, it would have been a very lengthy process indeed!
To choose the images for this show, I scoured my libraries and pulled a list of about 50 color photos. Then began the painstaking task of converting them to black and white, finessing the various tones to compliment every part of the compositions. This really is quite a job. Don’t think for a minute you can simply press the black and white button and get an acceptable picture. If I’d been printing the image myself, I would have been dodging like crazy to allow the darker reflections pop a little while not overexposing the street lights. There are ways we do the same in the digital domain and it’s a vitally important part of the creative process. I love the drama of black and white. Done right, it can stir you in a very different way to color imagery. It took me a week to choose my allotted 6 frames: four black and white, one black and gold and one in full color to add a little spice for what is to be a holiday season photography exhibition. All are 12 1/2 x 20″ signed limited editions of 10, printed on fine art paper and mounted behind non reflective glass. If you’re not able to visit the show between November 4th and January 11th please visit the Red Filter Gallery website to see all the images.
