featured artists 2007

What we think that needs a closer look.
Click on the photo and see more.  

  • ------->Pavel Horák

    Personally, I think the photography is the flawless way for expressing the inner feelings. For me, there is hardly any other technique for describing the mood I felt at a particular place. Obviously, it is not the subject, yet the atmosphere I capture. It is a kind of dialogue. At once, there are just two things on the world: the subject surrounded by its remarkable ambiance and my mind communicating through the camera. Suddenly, I start seeing the whole scene with my mind's eye, just like Ansel Adams used to say.
    Those are very precious moments for me.


    As an amateur photographer, I decided to use the best from today's possibilities. I take my photos with Hasselblad medium format cameras, develop the film (I develop the bw negative on my own), then scan the frames and adjust them on computer in the end. Virtually, there are no limits. I am able to produce huge prints, absolutely unachievable by any digital camera, and control the minor imperfections or improve some fine details at the same time. Nevertheless, it should be said that I am not a fan of massive Photoshop manipulations.

    Mostly, I prefer black and white film to the colour one. Not a strict decision, though. Black and white photo has a particular mood, it is sorcerous and magical, and with an analogue film grain, it is a world on its own.

    Obviously, there are domains where digtal beats analogue, especially medium or even large format, such as dynamic wildlife photography. But it is the 100% manual analogue camera which gives me the feeling of the freedom. I can concentrate on composition, enjoy the factual process or moment of taking the picture, have everything under control. This starts with the particular film selection. Also during the bw development process, I am able to control the gradation, contrast, grain and other characteristics of the final photo. I do believe it is much easier to do all this analogue rather than digital. And first and foremost, the result looks more natural. Besides, it is fun.

    Currently living in Prague, Czech Republic

    Pavel Horák on Flickr



     

  • ------->Marijn van Beers

    What i want to achieve could be described with keywords as patterns, balance, subtlety, serenity, stillness, simplicity, imagination and emotion. I want to make the ordinary look extraordinary interesting.




    I am currently working in 6x6 (Hasselblad, 50, 80, 150mm lenses) and 35mm (Contax g2, 21,28,45, 90mm lenses)formats. I used to develop my own b&w films but nowadays i use XP2 and colornegative film. The development is done by a lab. I scan my negatives and postprocess them with Photoshop&Lightroom. Just removing some dust and contrastcontrol. I want to keep it simple and that is very hard work sometimes. My main target is printing on fineart papers. Currently living in The Netherlands

    Marijn van Beers on Flickr



     

  • ------->Ernest Walker

    I can say that photography goes beyond just a long term interest for me, and it is really a way of life. As I wander along my way it has taught me to look at things more deeply, and in a better way inasmuch as the commonplace can take on a new meaning, mostly I just photograph what I see and experience as honestly as possible, that is probably why I still use film cameras, as they seem to connect better with the subject. Another reason for using film is I believe that the more physical input one makes in obtaining an image the more personality is evident in the final image and in most cases digital capture seems to sidestep this.


    My principle camera of choice is my Bronica ETRSi which I nearly always use more like a large format camera with a tripod, as having seen a picture I can set up my tripod and minutely adjust for composition, but mostly just wait for light or clouds to make the picture for me.

    I love colour, but I will always be a black and white photographer, as the extra dimension of processing my own film is another step in the creative process.
    Currently living in Sheffield, UK

    Ernest Walker on Flickr



     

  • ------->David Crawford

    I have tried and tried to think of something witty to write about myself. I just can't. It turns out that I am not as artistic as I envision myself to be. I just love photography, plain and simple.




    I have been photographing things almost as long as I can remember, since I was twelve when my stepfather gave me an old beat up pentax K1000 (Which I still use from time to time). Photography is more about the process than the end result for me. The waiting in the cold for the right light, all the time spent pondering the next frame, the feeling you get when you trip the shutter and know you have just snapped a good one. It's about life, moments in time, being present in your own skin and observing. Film photography, especially medium and large formats, creates patience and cultivates personal vision in a way that leaves the digital camera crying at the little kids table. I haven't touched my digital camera in over a year now. I have a deep, curious passion about film and printmaking and how they react to different treatments. You just can't get that hands on feel by staring at a monitor. Now, don't get me wrong, digital photography obviously has its place, it just doesn't give me that giddy "oooh, look what I have made!" feeling.

    I am currently working in 35mm and medium formats, preferring the latter. I lean heavily toward black and white work, usually using a hasselblad or yashicamat. I develop my own film and create my own prints using traditional darkroom techniques.
    Currently living in Champaign, IL.USA


    David Crawford on Flickr
    David Crawford on imagekind


     

  • ------->Mike Gray

    My passion for photography began over 20 years ago when I purchased my first SLR camera the Minota 7000 . I soon realised that there was more to photography than the camera. The work of Ansel Adams blew my mind and this was the direction I wanted to go. Black and white photography soon became an obsession and a darkroom was constructed where I would spend many hours practicing the art.
    I studied and learnt the zone system which I still apply to this day.


    Photography has made me view the world in a different way and beauty can be found in almost any subject. Capturing this beauty is not always easy and many visits to a location are sometimes needed to capture the magic moment.

    The 35mm camera did not satisfy my quest for quality and medium/large format cameras were purchased. I have several cameras from 6x6 to a 5x4 view camera. The view camera used to be my first choice but I now use 6x6 or 6x7 for most of my work. The Mamiya RB67 is my favourite camera which is now used for most of my work. The only downside to this camera is the weight especially with tripod but I always say to myself “no pain no gain”. I like the slow methodical approach of medium format photography and being alone in a landscape with my camera is magical.


    Michael Gray Photography
    Mike Gray on Flickr

     

  • ------->Otto Kitchens 

    I photograph because I have a passion for it. It's that simple.

    I have struggled in the past to find the right words to describe what drives much of my art. And then I read an article on the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi: finding magic in the ordinary...in the flawed.
    As Leonard Loren said: "Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is a beauty of things unconventional." Wabi-sabi is what I seek when I explore an abandoned factory or walk the streets of a city or find a deserted house in a field.


    "Wabi-sabi is an intuitive appreciation of a transient beauty in the physical world that reflects the irreversible flow of life in the spiritual world. It is an understated beauty that exists in the modest, rustic, imperfect, or even decayed, an aesthetic sensibility that finds a melancholic beauty in the impermanence of all things." Wabi-Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence, by Andrew Juniper

    I shoot with a growing arsenal of film cameras, ranging from high precision cameras with multiple lenses to cheap plastic cameras to a very basic pinhole camera. I have a digital SLR that works quite well, but I just don't use it that much anymore. I love developing film and working in the darkroom, getting my hands wet so to speak. There is something magical about creating images in the analog world, and I just don't get that same feeling with digital. However, you might find images on my site from a digital camera...my previous life, so to speak.

    Although I got my first film SLR in high school, it wasn't until several years ago that I got very serious about photography. I got back into photography to record my travels, but it grew into a real passion as I realized that photography satisfied creative needs that I initially wasn't aware that I had. I lose time when I put a camera up to my eye. The world can just fall away except the scene in my viewfinder.

    Otto Kitchens Photoblog, Portfolio, and on Flickr.


     

  • ------->Wayne Mackeson

    Each of these images was made with a Zero Image 69 pinhole camera, with the little black pieces of wood inside adjusted
    to make a 6 by 9 image. I like to use Kodak E100VS color slide film.
    Although there are ways to calculate the time of exposure, I go by “feel,” with 5 seconds on bright days and 10 to 20 seconds on overcast days being a good rule of thumb.

    Usually, I mount the camera on a tripod and use a cable release. However, I have experimented with shooting hand-held images with Ilford 3200 Delta film and a 1 to 2 second exposure.

    Each pinhole image is a meditation on light and form and, for a few moments, you inhale and exhale the world around you.

    I treasure the Kodachrome slides made by my father in the 50s and 60s. I remember that he could calculate the aperture and shutter speed in his head without the need of a light meter. He had some kind of a Japanese 35mm camera which he acquired when he was overseas in the United States Air Force.

    My guess is that it was a Yashica. I remember it had a green cord in lieu of a strap.

    Wayne Mackeson on Flickr
    Sueño con Serpientes (Portraits) by Wayne Mackeson on Youtube

    Have a look at Wayne's Youtube presentation, brilliant (FP)



     

  • ------->Tim Mitchard 

    After spending three years on a creative
    black and white photography course at my local college, I thought it was time to introduce colour into my work. However I wasn’t sure what form this would take, until I was walking past a second hand shop and spotted a Lomo LC-A (Russian 35mm) sitting in the window. I bought it for £5, took it home and realised I’d bought a camera of cult status.

    That was 18 months ago and since then I carry the LC-A with me all the time. I shoot colour slide film but cross process it as if it was negative film. The results vary, but give a new dimension to my photography. The Lomo LC-A also produces a vignette as well and is great in low light. I normally take pictures of every day things that then have a totally different appearance in the finished picture. I post my work on my flickr page without any photoshopping.... my pictures are straight from the camera.

    Some film is better than others to cross process. And the results also vary from lab to lab. My favourite film is Agfa CT Precisa and Kodak E100VS, and the lab that I is Palm in Birmingham. It’s now becoming harder to find Agfa since the factory closed, but I do have a good number of rolls still left.

    My Lomo LC-A travels with me all the time now, I love it. Its great fun and has made a change from the black and white pictures, which I still shoot.

    Tim Mitchard on Flickr
    lomoHome here
    LomoLand Book Here


     

  • ------->Mike Stacey

    Many of my images are the result of numerous trips to the same location in order to realise a certain quality of light or form.
    The image capture process using large format camera gear is a contemplative and exacting form of photography where a single shot can take 15 minutes to set up the camera, compose the image on the ground glass, measure the light and finally trip the shutter.

    However the results, when everything goes right, are unsurpassed by other camera techniques.

    The final print is the measure of success in photography, not the computer monitor. Galleries don't hang 60 inch computer monitors, not usually anyway. I've tried all other camera techniques and the final print from a 4 x 5 inch transparency is incomparable in all respects, especilly if you want a tack sharp 50 x 40 inch print that will withstand close scrutiny from the most ardent critic.

    I also enjoy the creative control that a LF camera gives me with image perspective through camera movements. This is not possible with any other kind of camera unless you get a shift lens for a digital camera, which is limited anyway.

    I live in the Blue Mountains of NSW Australia and draw much inspiration from my immediate environment although the images I seek could be found within any landscape; coastal, mountainous or desert. The search for photographic depictions that elude description through natural language is a primary motivation for many of the images.

    Mike Stacey on Flickr
    Mike’s web site

    Mike is a master of landscape and large format photography. FP

     

  • -------->Kent Mercurio

    Infatuated with film, black & white and medium format.






    Black and white photography is something that I am passionate about whether I am in the process of capturing an image or viewing a fellow photographers work. If after having viewed one of my photographs, ones imagination is sparked; in my eyes the whole process was a success. In my experience, film allows me to capture this much better than digital.

    Though I am not one to say I hate digital, it was a helpful tool for me to learn quickly. Photography to me is a relaxing process which helps me mute all distractions around me. In the end, black & white film is what really captures my heart and is what I prefer to usually shoot with.

    How I usually work:
    Nothing special I think. I just head out to a place where I imagine a good photograph is waiting to be taken. Then when I do see the subject, I try to visualize different perspectives. Currently I'm trying to challenge myself by photographing more of the ordinary things around me. I get a lot of inspiration on Flickr and the photographers who impress me the most are the ones who see the not so obvious beauty in everyday things.
    I think this will only help me grow as a photographer.

    Kent Mercurio on Flickr
    The Kance Blog

    His dark, fluid photographic style is a class on it’s own. (FP)



     

  • ------->Velco Dojcinovski

    "Shooting film in 2007 is receiving that hand-written letter from home while your inbox gets flooded with viagra mail"



    Velco Dojcinovski stylist in street photography, Velco’s use of the 50mm lens, wide-open, make’s his work very cinematographic.”. (FP)

    Velco Dojcinovski on Flickr
    Velco Dojcinovski on redbubble.com


     

  • ------>Lauren Simonutti

    A dangerous thing for a woman who has been locked up for hearing voices to say but comes a point in telling the story where you have to stop trying to direct it and simply do as you’re told. Even if you like your characters you cannot force a happy ending.

    As for my working technique: All work is 100% digital free. Any manipulation has been done either in camera (occasionally), or in darkroom (usually).



    Let me clarify that I have nothing against digital. I do not desire to disparage, denigrate or disrespect it. I simply prefer to get my hands wet.
    Nearly all my images are large format (4x5 or 5x7 inch negatives) contact prints, exposed under a 100 watt bulb, then selectively bleached and toned. I apply the chemistry with brushes.
    While I have my preferred techniques, (sepia, selenium and silver bleach are my main palette), there is always the element of chance. Chemistry does not always react the same, water does not always run in the same direction. I have been known to spill things. Each print is different.
    For some reason I only listen to music in the darkroom. I find watching clocks tiresome so I time film processing by music — I have a range of songs of the proper length. Film goes in, music goes on (Tom Waits, Bowie, Bauhaus), song ends, film comes out.
    I don’t time prints, I print by inspection. My favourite papers have both been discontinued to date, (Azo & Bergger contact printing papers), so at some point I will have to adapt my working technique, as I have virtually no supply. I am curious to see what will happen.
    Lauren

    ( note by FP) The Madness is the Method. watch this and you will not understand. I do not, but it is so intense that I have to. Just watch and listen to Tom Waits or Bowie and take in this fantastic work of photographic painter Lauren Simonutti (Baltimore, USA)

    Lauren Simonutti on Flick
    Lauren Simonutti on deviantART


     

  • ------->PARALLAX(e)

    PARALLAX(e) is a joint venture of two photographers: Sylvia Vuarnet (France) and Marnix De Keukelaere (Belgium) who like working with film and digital without any prejudice nor awkwardness.




    This brilliant work was shot using a Mamiya C3 with portra400nc and Tri-x400 (FP)

    our blog : PARALLAX(e) en mots & images
    PARALLAX(e) on Flickr