Upon emerging from the Grand Canyon on January 2nd, my first priority was to visit the rim of the canyon on the south side and take some panoramic photos, looking over the area I could not see from the two week trip inside the canyon itself, along the Colorado River. It was covered with snow. The light was diffuse in areas, and sharp in others, lending the images to mimick the harsh and beautiful nature of that desert wonder.
Step two, after driving up to Colorado, was to spend time editing all the images from the two-week river trip. Everything from my compact camera is posted in it's own gallery. Most of the images from the DSLR are posted in another gallery. The DSLR images (including the photos from the south rim) are taking quite a long time to edit. Most of the exposures are bracketted and have to be manually adjusted so that the full range of the landscape could be perserved. You an find the finsihed images in this gallery.
http://artandwater.smugmug.com/GrandCanyonDec2010Jan2011
I set up a gallery for everyone in our trip (who had a camera), so please enjoy all the photos.
The next order of business was to finish the sketchbook/journal that I started in the Grand Canyon. I forced myself to put the photos on hold, and spent 10 days completing the drawings. (these images will play here, in a week, as a slide show)
The sketchbook is shipped, and ready for the tour.
A faithful copy of the sketchbook was published as a book that is available through a few channels (most prominent of which is Amazon.com
the ISBN: for the book is 9780615444055
While in the Durango, CO area, I dropped into Open Shutter Gallery and had some great discussions with Bob about the Curtis gravure prints they have. He seemed very interested in alternative processes. The gallery opened a community show that week called "Entropy". There were some very litereal translations and some very loose ones. For a community show, it had more than a few good photos hanging on the wall. I'm impressed that Durango has so many aspiring photographers in the area.
The Spring semester, family and friends, and the studio space needed to complete this work were caling me back east by January 17th. I had time for a one-day stop in Denver, where I dropped into the studio of Mark Lunning of Open Press Ltd.. We discussed photo polymergravure, and the tremendous potential of this technique. Speaking to a master printer was a rare treat. After a visit to the Denver Art Museum I had an appointment with Jon Lybrook of Intaglio Editions to review my photo polymergravure images and process. He was shooting a new plate, and after talking about my work, seeing his portfolio, and discussing some troubleshooting, I watched his process. In many ways I am encouraged that I am mostly on the right track. A few minor adjustments should make a tremendous difference.
The only bad news (other than a very difficult journey back east) is that I have lost the only two proofs of this image...
This image is a revelatory image for my own polymergravure process. It was scheduled to be editioned next month. Unfortunately, if I do not find the two proofs, I have to assume that it is in the wrong hands and therefore cannot make a fully edition, with proper documentation. I will have to change the image, shoot a new plate, and run with that version. Hopefully, it's just sitting at one of the places I visited and they recognize the two proofs mixed in with their other work and get them back to me.
