The Departments of Ohio

One last post for January. Below is a photograph made and taken (last Friday) from the Double Tree hotel parking structure in Columbus, Ohio looking over to the Ohio Judicial Center (the former Ohio Departments building) on Front Street. Not a true archive image but a flash back to the 1930's.

from the lobby looking in

As promised, a quick snap of the installation looking from the High Street side of the Riffe Center lobby looking into the gallery. You can see a group of people listening to Kay Koeninger and Leesa Haapapuro during the curator tour for "Here's Looking At You: Portraits in Ohio" last Friday. You can see James Pate's portraits on the far wall as well as (from left to right) Jaime, Noel, Rudy, Andrea and Josef.

say hello to my multiple personas

Tomorrow night, if you can get out on a mid-winter's night, come say hello to my multiple personas. I will be showing ten of the "mis-taken" banners along with the work of thirteen other Ohio artists as part of "Here's Looking at You: Portraits in Ohio" at the Riffe gallery in Columbus. The opening is tomorrow night from 5-7pm and the exhibition runs until April 17th, 2011. 

Other artists in the exhibition curated by Kay Koeninger are: Amy Kollar Anderson (Dayton), Leslie Adams (Toledo), Sid Chafetz (Columbus), Ruth Finley (Cleveland), Leesa Haapapuro (Dayton), Marcella Hackbardt (Mount Vernon), Chas Ray Krider (Columbus), Baila Litton (Cleveland), James Pate (Dayton), Ellen Jean Price (Oxford), Leslie Shiels (Cincinnati), Marty Shuter (Columbus) and Chun Arthur Wang (Columbus). 


If you read my artist's statement, you will be sure to find my secret 11th persona, which is the most me of me.

before the Fisher Price Work...

I just may make Mondays my archive day. A little before I found out about the Fisher Price Creative Effects camera from Dan Burkholder -from a lecture at the Museum of Photographic Art in San Diego, Dan doesn't know me- I had a slightly complicated path towards making images. During a restless night of parrot sitting (and desperately wanting to photograph) in 1998, I pointed a 4x5 camera loaded with Polaroid Type 55 at the TV and photographed movies off of AMC (no VCR on pause). I was taking a Cibachrome printing class which meant that the negatives the film produced needed to be converted to a positive and color added. My solution...Lith film, dilute dektol and colored cellophane over the dried positive.

Here is a scan of the interpositive. I think I even tried to tone the image on the left to get color.

BTW, if your curious, it is Richard Widmark but I can't remember the western. One of these days I will photograph the final image which hangs in the bedroom, a present I gave to Bridgette one Christmas a few years back.

all good things must...show me your papers!

Here's a scan of the last piece of paper to come out of an original Fisher Price Creative Effects Paper cartridge. These cartridges are necessary to take ... oops...make pictures with the Fisher Price Fun Photo Maker camera. I did figure out how to reload the cartridges with thermal paper (register tape) but imagine that this is the last, last piece of the original paper from a camera made for a short period of time in 1996.

And yes, there is a preview of my next pair of glasses. Another vintage set of Rodenstock frames made in Germany in the 1970's. Show me your papers!

They are all me: Mis-Taken at the Riffe gallery.

From the gallery looking towards the lobby of the Verne Riffe Center in Columbus, Ohio you can see five of the ten Mis-Taken personas. Thank you Mary Gray for the cell phone pic.

Next week, I'll get an image from the lobby looking into the gallery so you can see who's on the other side of these hanging Tyvek banners.

One more thing. They are all me!

in between days there is an archive

One of the few New Year's resolutions I am attempting to keep is...well...this. School has started back up and there has been a flurry of last minute activity not related to any studio work. The only news I have is that I have to install the Mis-Taken work on Thursday (with magnets) and a snow storm is bearing down on Ohio. I may be driving into the white. At least the anthotype is doing its exposure thing.

So in the between these days of madness and chaos I give you a vintage (2004) Dr. Frangst image made on Polaroid type 59 film.

Portraits in Ohio "Preview" Write Up

The Dayton Daily News has published a preview noting the four Daytonians who are part of “Here’s Looking at You: Portraits in Ohio.”

http://www.daytondailynews.com/lifestyle/local-artists-in-portraits-exhibit-1055532.html

Four Peep Bunnies in New Cyanotype

Four Peep Bunnies in New Cyanotype
Originally uploaded by frangst

Rediscovered last night during an opening for Kevin Harris at Sinclair Communitiy College's Triangle gallery.

Glacier and waterfall

Glacier and waterfall
Originally uploaded by Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane

I think the photographer and "the photographer's brother" need to go to here.

back in the window again

I moved the anthotype to the window yesterday (pre-snow storm). Judging by the last two anthotypes, I may have something to show by around St. Valentine's day. I have to admit that I haven't seen a lot of Jim Dine's work so if someone could point me to an artist's monograph with his bathrobe series, I would appreciate it.

Back down to the cold basement to make a little more headway on the Governor's Awards.

pajama collar and lapel with button in pokeberry (Anthotype)

Of course there are a thousand other more important things to do but the paper I coated with pokeberrry juice in early in December has been calling to me.

I obtained the original pajama top from an online catalog. Depending on how I feel about the lack of sharpness or the artifacts that crop up from upscaling this may end up only being a test. My intention for this project is to create photogram anthotypes from actual pajamas obtained from thrift stores which is why this afternoon I coated  36" x 30" and a 48" x 30" pieces of Fabriano Artistico (hot press).

This "test" is approximately 14" x 11" and, weather permitting, I'll begin exposing it tomorrow.

Image Ohio 11 and Toning Vandyke Browns

Yesterday I installed "Roots with Dirt Clumps in Sixteen Pieces" for Image Ohio 11. My first or second year in Ohio, I was part of what may have been the second or third version of this annual juried exhibition. That was back in 2001.

In the basement studio (my dimroom), I've been making a little progress on the Ohio Arts Council Governor's Awards. I am immersing the unfixed prints in separate toning baths to create gold and palladium toned vandyke brown prints. The results are warmish highlights and really deep brown shadow areas. The toning is being done to make them have a bit more longevity than an untoned silver image and to give them a bit of precious metal cachet. After all, they are awards.

Lucky June in Kodachrome

From when I was just getting obsessed with photography, here is a Kodachrome slide of June Nguyen and Lucky in Balboa Park sometime in 1993 or 1994. If these don't load, I will post them on my flickr page, http://www.flickr.com/photos/frangst/