jeromemartin.ca

The Summer of 2011

This is the Labour Day weekend, the time that we celebrate the passage of summer into fall. Mornings and evenings are cool, skies are big and blue, and afternoons warm and dry, just right for harvesting if you are a farmer.

This is also the time of the summer lament, the period in which no matter how warm and wonderful the summer has been some people say it should be longer and should have been warmer and what is the world coming to. But most of us love the four seasons, whether we realize it or not. Planes fly in and out of our city daily so if we need a warm interlude during the winter we can have it.

The summer of 2008 has been a remarkable time for me and my wife, Merle. Our son Paul, daughter-in-law Mona and grandchildren Emily and Aidan have moved from Vermont to Edmonton where he has taken a position with Grant MacEwan University. They now live minutes from us, and we are delighted to have them back.

The move gave me an opportunity to fly to Ottawa and drive back to Edmonton with my son who wanted to see northern Ontario rather than ship his vehicle. Driving across this grand country is a great experience at any time, but travelling with my son through Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta was a once in a lifetime experience. We kept our friends in touch with our trip by using Twitter and Facebook, ate in fine restaurants and fast food emporiums, drank Tim Hortons coffee in Ontario, and had our first meal on the road in a Don Cherry's Sports Bar. Only prairie folk think that driving 1100 km in a day in northern Ontario constitutes a normal day on the road.

Merle and I spent the first two weeks in August travelling in Ireland with our daughter Heidi and son-in-law Dale. The photographer Frederic Sommer said 'We never go to strange places'. Indeed, Ireland seemed like home to me, although I have no family connection to it. I loved the landscape and history, the art and the literature, but mostly I loved the people. I'll continue to experience Ireland with the photographs and the stories we brought back with us.

My Last Kodachrome

I exposed my last roll of Kodak's classic colour reversal film ('film for color slides'), Kodachrome, today, using a Nikon camera and a 28mm lens. It's a warm, Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, very appropriate for this film which has preserved so many subtle colours during its lifetime (1935-2009).

I've used Kodachrome since the 1960s, shipping it home to Canada from Africa for processing in 1964, photographing a trip across Canada in 1967, and photographing my children, in the 1970s. Most of my work has been done with black and white film, but I used Kodachrome for subjects that worked well in colour.

The film came with special envelopes with the address of the processing company on them. The purchase price included processing and the slides were returned within a week or two.

The Kodachrome that I used primarily was Kodachrome 25 (25 ASA) although for the last several years the only Kodachrome that I could buy was Kodachrome 64. In my opinion, Kodachrome 25 was the finest colour film ever produced.

I'll now send today's roll of Kodachrome 64 and several others I exposed earlier this year to Dwayne's Photo in Kansas for processing. They will process Kodachrome until December 30, 2010.

The good news for me is that I have thousands of Kodachrome transparencies, filed and labelled. They include a forty year history of my family, our farm, our homes, my environment, and my life. I'll miss being able to buy and use more of it, but I'll delight in working with the images which Kodachrome has helped me to create.

Photography is a tool which can be used by the artist within each of us to preserve moments and to interpret what is happening in our lives. We can do that best when we use the best films, cameras, and lenses available. I'm glad that I chose Kodachrome.

Please join Paul Simon and me in giving this film a great send-off by singing along to Kodachrome.

Films

Road Trip to Waterton

I left Edmonton this morning and drove to Waterton National Park via Calgary, Fort MacLeod and Pincher Creek, to attend the annual meeting of the Book Publishers Association of Alberta.

Waterton is very close to the US border, on the edge the Rocky Mountains and the Alberta foothills. I get claustrophobia in most Rocky Mountain parks, but Waterton does not cause me as much anxiety as the rest: I can see the route to open country and I don't have huge mountains hanging over me as I drive in and out of this park. It's a fine place and is not crowded, especially at this time of year.

I stopped a few miles north of the boundaries of the national park to make these images late this afternoon.

The Fields of Saskatchewan

I spent the last several days in and near Regina, playing music with and for good friends.

Most of Saskatchewan has had a lot of rain this year, so much that some fields have not been seeded. However, the crops that were seeded on time are looking great: and the big skies always are impressive.

Saskatchewan

Photographing in the Key of C

I subscribe to the podcasts from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University through iTunes and was fascinated to see the title Photographing in the Key of C listed. I could not have predicted or guessed what the title meant even if I had read the introductory comments: 'Watch Cedric Chatterly talk about and demonstrate his amazing handmade large format cameras!'

The cameras are amazing, but the title comes from the last one that he demonstrates. Enjoy the two minute video on YouTube.

Cameras

Images of Winter

We've had the first winter storm of the season: lots of snow and cold, with some difficult roads, mostly highways, residential areas and commercial parking lots.

Winter,love it or leave it. Most of us do a bit of both. There's a beauty to the windswept snow, but most people are so busy shovelling or driving that they do not see it.

My neighbor Jane's roof could be a winter sculpture if it were in or adjacent to an art gallery. One could also say the same about the rental car in my driveway and the street itself.

These images were made from my office window. I'm fortunate to be able to look up from my computer and see Jane's house and several others, trees of various types, and lots of prairie sky. I can watch the four seasons, open my windows to get fresh air, and be outside and into a wooded area in minutes if I wish to get even more fresh air (and more images).

Art is always around us and within us. Enjoy whatever your environment is providing you today.

Winter

Notes on Understanding Photographs Workshop

This blog entry is based on my workshop Understanding Photographs most recently delivered in Edmonton for the Visual Arts Alberta Association on Nov. 28, 2009. It contains resource material for those attending the workshop: but those of you who were not there may also find this information interesting.

The workshop dealt with the history of photography from the camera obscura to digital images, as well as the aesthetics and language of photography.

Quotations Used in the Workshop

'From today painting is dead.' French painter Paul Delaroche upon seeing a daguerrotype in 1839.

'An illustration is aiming the camera at the direction of some content, while the photograph is making some sense of it.' Stephen Shore. Shore also said that in painting one is taking basic building blocks and making something more complex. It's a synthetic process. 'A photograph does the opposite: it takes the world and puts an order in it, simplifies it. It is an analytic process.'

'The photograph is able to synthesize what is before the camera in a way that we, ourselves, cannot... The beauty of this synthesis would be the fact that it is a reintroduction to reality. No one view better than another but fresh, something we could never have dreamed up.' Frederick Sommer.

'The photograph can confront us with both the universal and the particular at the same instant in time. The strange tension that results between these two polarities is the force that can make the photograph so moving or poignant or disturbing.' James Borcoman, Curator Emeritus of Photography, National Gallery of Canada, 1974.

'The photograph is a secret about a secret; the more it tells you, the less you know.' Diane Arbus.

'The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.' Dorothea Lange.

James Borcoman in his development of a conceptual structure for an aesthetic of photography used the following terms:

'extraordinary amount of minute detail

richness of texture

more than the naked eye can see

every accident of light and shade

clarity of definition

exactitude

perfect delineation

impartiality

subtlety of tonal gradation

exquisite delicacy

the tangible presence of reality

truth.'

Online Resources Relating to the Workshop

The History of Photography Timeline (Phillip Greenspun, photo.net)

The Origins and History of Photography (Ted's Photographics)

The First Photograph (Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin)

Daguerre (1787-1851) and the Invention of Photography: Heilbrun Timeline of Art History

The Daguerreian Society: We didn't discuss this but you may find it interesting. 'Dedicated to the history, science, and art of the daguerreotype.'

The Calotype Process: University of Glasgow

David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson: University of Glasgow

Henry Peach Robinson and his photograph 'Fading Away'

Alfred Stieglitz: PBS

The Girl in the Picture and Photographer Nick Ut

Stephen Shore Museum of Contemporary Photography

Jerry Uelsmann: The Andrew Smith Gallery. Uelsmann is now retired from his teaching position but continues to work. He prefers the alchemy of the darkroom to digital processes and uses 3-10 enlargers to make a print. He produces approximately 100 prints per year.

Podcasts and E-Books

There are a number of podcasts available on photography. I enjoy Jeff Curto's History of Photography and Camera Position ('A podcast about the creative side of photography.') as well as Lenswork by Brooks Jensen. The links I have provided are for the websites connected to the podcasts. One can also go to iTunes and access the podcasts there.

London: Photographs by Jerome Martin This book contains photographs, text and audio.

Golden Prairie: Jerome Martin. This book contains photographs, text and audio.

Cappuccino U: A new way of learning and working. This is not specifically about photography but rather about informal learning in all fields.

Ten of My Favourite Photo Blogs and Sources of Online Resource Material

AmericaSuburbX: A blog featuring in-depth interviews of and essays on American photographers.

Marketing Photos with Mary Virginia Swanson: A great blog to help one keep in touch with major presentations and events in the USA.

Photograph: The online home of Photograph magazine, the best guide to photo exhibitions and galleries throughout the USA and elsewhere.

Tokyo Camera Style: This is a series of photographs of classic and other cameras used by photographers in Tokyo. You'll enjoy the site if you're interested in vintage film cameras.

Visual Arts Alberta This blog discusses exhibitions and opportunities in the visual arts in Alberta and abroad. It's well designed, current and comprehensive. It's a must for visual artists and anyone else interested in the visual arts.

LensCulture Weblog 'Photography and shared territories.' An excellent blog which links to the LensCulture magazine.

John Paul Caponigro 'Illuminating Creativity' Caponigro, son of traditional photographer Paul Caponigro, is a digital photography and Photoshop guru.

Verve Photo A new breed of documentary photographers.

Photo-Eye  A fine gallery, bookstore, magazine etc. located in Santa Fe (a great place for browsing and buying on your next trip to New Mexico).

Ampersand A gallery, bookstore and retail archive in Portland. 'Committed to cultural preservation, we buy and sell vintage photography, paper ephemera, historic documents and collectible books.'

Workshops 2010

Workshops planned for 2010 include 'Our Documentary Heritage', 'Great Photographers' and 'Creating Your Photographic Legacy.' Contact Visual Arts Alberta at 780.421.1731, info@visualartsalberta.com , or Jerome Martin (jmartin@spottedcowpress.ca).

Understanding Photographs Workshop, Nov. 28, 2009

I will be presenting a workshop entitled Understanding Photographs for the Visual Arts Alberta Association (VAAA), November 28, 2009, at the Visual Arts Alberta Gallery in Edmonton. It's the first of a series of workshops on photography which I'm preparing; the other three will be presented in 2010.

This workshop will focus on the aesthetics of photography as well as the history of the medium. I'm enjoying creating the material and look forward to presenting it.

Join me if you can.

Workshops

The Colours of Saskatchewan VIII

I started this series last year so that I could post various digital photographs from my visits to Saskatchewan, photographs that include colours and images that are typical of my favourite Province.

We returned from North Battleford today after attending last night's launch of Inspired by the Land. It was a fine day for driving and photographing: late fall colours, thousands of geese flying out to feed in stubble fields, and a temperature of 10C.

Saskatchewan

The Colours of Saskatchewan VII

We drove from Edmonton to North Battleford this afternoon. It's late fall on the prairies. There's still a bit of harvesting to do as a result of snow and rain during the past two weeks.

Fall colours on the prairies are not as brilliant and showy as they are in eastern Canada or New England, but they are just as appealing.

Saskatchewan