Thursday, August 27, 2009

Mr. Pool


Friday August 28th 2009
Giant Wet Plate blow ups
Mr. Pool
Boulder CO.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Rebecca DiDomenico on pure pleasure

The Pleasure of….
The pleasure of just right words,
the pleasure of a face lit up from within,
the pleasure of green, green moss as far as the eye can see,
the pleasure in the fragrance of a blooming rose,
the sensual pleasure in the mystery of the human body,
the mystical pleasure of intimacy, of baring one’s soul to another,
the simple pleasure of a bird song,
the pleasure of discovery, of travel to diverse, cultural destinations,
the pleasure of living with concern for the earth,
the pleasure of suspense, of anticipation,
the pleasure of hearing a story, of reading a story,
the pleasure of resonating sounds, of mind expanding music.
The pleasure of children’s pure beings, unabashed and unselfconscious,
The all too important pleasure of water, and the decadence of hot water,
the pleasure of stars sparkling in the dark blue, night sky,
the pleasure of touching an animal,
the pleasure of inventing a searchlight that moves from wonder to wonder, basking everything in it’s light,
The pleasure of work, of finding an impossible task and trying to tackle it.
the pleasure of unpretentious, unsensored creations.
The random pleasure of discovery, of research and information,
the pleasures of creating something out of nothing ,
the pleasure of creating similarities between seemingly disparate concepts,
the pleasure in experiencing seamless connection,
the pleasure of harmonies that make no sense, but are perfect anyway,
the pleasure of no time, just pure space,
the pure pleasure of enjoyment without too many preconceived notions.
The pleasure of deep, internal satisfaction from real accomplishments,
the pleasure of addictions, of going further than you know you should, or are supposed to go,
the pleasure of obsessive conviction,
the pleasure of breakthroughs,
the pleasure of no interruptions,
the pleasure in the freedom to run wild, to make up your own definitions,
the pleasure to express all emotion, good or bad, with no judgment,
The pleasures of shiny, glimmering situations, illuminating events like stars that connect in the heavens.
the pleasure to be under a spell , happy to be strangely affected,
the pleasure to be a genuine soul learning as you go,
the pleasure of a soul, who takes her shadow for a walk, her libido for a romp, her umbrellas for a procession ,
The pleasure of taste buds in contact with a bursting blueberry,
The pleasure of a dog leaping, ears caught in mid air.
The pleasure of snuggling, of warm, fluffy blankets,
the pleasure of making a secret fort,
The pleasure of a having a shelter at all,
The pleasure of ridiculous jokes and off color thoughts,
the pleasure of things that don’t quite fit, things that work even though they don’t make sense.
The pleasure of seeing and being seen,
the pleasure of complete relaxation,
the pleasure of solutions that rise up like miracles when you least expect them.
The pleasure of exploding color, the pleasure of texture, the pleasure of a new taste, the pleasure of a smell that sets off a memory, the pleasure of a familiar sound, the pleasure center of the heart where the senses are mixed together like a massive interconnected communication center, lines all touching with a universal language,
the pleasure in a child’s beautiful mistakes.
the pleasure of pure unadulterated joy,
The pleasure of risky business, of not knowing but jumping into the fire anyway,
The pleasure of aching desire, of unrequited love,
The pleasure of multiples, and the pleasure of one of a kinds.
The pleasure of continual striving,
the pleasure of evolution, of movement towards something.
The pleasure of waves, lulling sounds repeating over and over,
the pleasure of a million little strings attached to all sources at the same time.
The pleasure of following your fate,
the pleasure of being real,
the altruistic pleasure of understanding and compassion for all.
The pleasure of not pretending, of not holding stuff inside,
the pleasure in creative work , of never ending ideas,
The pleasure of true recognition,
the pleasure of familiar comfort,
the pleasure of listening deeply,
the pleasure of out of control, hysterical laughter,
the pleasure of being overcome by instinct ,
The pleasure of acute awareness,
the pleasure of acceptance,
the spontaneous pleasures of play,
the pleasure of loving and being loved, with your whole self.
and finally, the complete pleasure of being enveloped in a joyous exuberance for life!
Rebecca DiDomenico

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Pure Pleasure in Boulder


BOULDER MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART

GRAND RE-OPENING EXHIBITION

PURE PLEASURE

June 5th - September 6th 2009

BMOCA.com




Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Nofound


Nofound is a blog-project where contemporary photographers are invited to show fragments of their diary.

Beginning in december 2007.
« Someone once told me 'ok, so what you like about photography is : sex, drugs and rock and roll!'. I don't like rock and roll ! With 'nofound', I chose to open a space for contemporary photographers to show fragments of their intimate diaries. Go and find the moment wether it was intentional or not. Who cares ? I don't... The look through the eye of the storm, the one picture that will bring out memories, the universal image allowing us to say 'me too'. The one showing us our one humanity through a presence, a glimpse of happiness, a violence, or an absence. This isn't a photo lesson, I wouldn't dare, just a try to search, universes. That's why, 'nofound'. » Emeric Glayse

« One of the best things about the internet - in fact one of the few saving graces of the internet - is the abundance of great little projects : online galleries and portfolios one stumbles across while playing link tag from one website to the next. Often I find myself spending an afternoon indulging in the digital equivalent of 'six degrees of Kevin Bacon.' I discovered 'nofound' on one such afternoon. The brainchild of Emeric Glayse, a French-born connoisseur of beautiful contemporary photography, 'nofound' excels in the unknown, both in terms of content - dark brooding nudity and blurry intimacy blend seamlessly with ghostly landscapes and private moments - and contributors. Emeric Glayse likes the underdogs, the newcomers, and those fresh on the heels of established photographers ; he's created not only a platform for these whippersnappers, but also a community. Names both familiar and soon-to-be-familiar link, discuss, and exhibit together on a regular basis. Ryan Foerster, Olivia Malone, Brad Tromel, Lina Scheynius (who shot a fashion story for our upcoming issue), Sean Orena, Jonnie Craig and Dana Goldstein will all make regular appearances both in your book collection and your bookmarks folder before too long. Spend a few minutes wandering through 'nofound', and you'll understand why Emeric Glayse chose his contributors and confidants ; spend an hour longer and your fingers will be sore from all the googling, url-ing, and picture saving. » Philip Watts for Dossier Journal

Produce by nofoundproject (http://www.nofoundproject.com)
Email:
Website:
Location:
Paris, France

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Monday, April 13, 2009

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Jack Kerouac and friends in NYC



Silent footage of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Lucien Carr, and others in New York, Summer 1959. The location is in and around the Harmony Bar & Restaurant at E 9th St. and 3rd Ave. Others seen are Mary Frank (wife of film-maker Robert Frank) and children Pablo and Andrea, as well as Lucien's wife Francesca Carr and their three sons, Simon, Caleb and Ethan. Does anyone recognise any of the others?

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Crushed Fireflies and white lead.

CARAVAGGIO USED 'PHOTOGRAPHY' TO CREATE DRAMATIC MASTERPIECES

Renaissance artist Caravaggio used an early form of photography to project images of his subjects onto a canvas using a noxious concoction of crushed fireflies and white lead.

By Nick Squires in Rome

10 Mar 2009


The 16th century master used modern darkroom techniques to create his masterpieces, more than 200 years before the invention of the camera.

Italian researchers claim the technique explained why many of his subjects were left-handed - the image projected onto the canvas had been reversed.

Art historian Roberta Lapucci said Caravaggio's dramatic 'chiaroscuro' style of light and shadow was based on "a whole set of techniques that are the basis of photography".

Art history scholars have long known that Caravaggio worked in a sort of darkroom, illuminating his subjects through a hole in the ceiling and projecting the image onto a canvas using a lens and a mirror.

But Mrs Lapucci is the first researcher to suggest that he treated the canvas with light-sensitive substances, including a luminescent powder made from crushed fireflies, in order to "fix" the image as 19th century photographers later would.

He then used white lead mixed with chemicals such as mercury, to outline the image in greater clarity, she believes.

Mrs Lapucci, who teaches at an arts institute in Florence, the Studio Art Centers International, based her hypothesis on research by British artist David Hockney, who wrote in his 2001 book "Secret Knowledge" that many old masters used optical instruments to compose their paintings.

"There is lots of proof, notably the fact that Caravaggio never made preliminary sketches," said Mrs Lapucci.

An "abnormal number" of Caravaggio's subjects are left-handed. "That could be explained by the fact that the image projected on the canvas was backwards," she said.

Caravaggio's use of mercury might explain his violent temper - prolonged exposure to the chemical can affect the central nervous system.

Caravaggio was notorious during his lifetime for becoming involved in brawls, one of which ended in the death in 1606 of a young adversary, which forced the artist to flee from Rome to Malta.

Dr John Spike, a Caravaggio expert based in Florence, said that to prove the thesis that the Baroque master used chemicals to "fix" projected images, the paint in the pictures would have to be subjected to laboratory testing.

"If evidence was found, that would be amazing. But it would involve taking samples from some of the world's greatest masterpieces, which is not ideal.

"We know that he worked in a dark room and that he was fascinated by mirrors, and he was living in Rome at a time when it was a hotbed of scientific inquiry. "Might he have used this technique? It's possible - his protector, Cardinal Del Monte, was also the protector of Galileo, and they were all fascinated by optics and the new physics."

Leonardo da Vinci, who lived in the century before Caravaggio, was familiar with the principles of the "camera obscura" but Mrs Lapucci believes Caravaggio was the first to use it in paintings.

Roberta Lapucci: Mrs Lapucci is the first researcher to suggest that Caravaggio treated the canvas with light-sensitive substances <http://tinyurl.com/d8con2>

Caravaggio's Supper at Emmaus <http://tinyurl.com/dmshs6>

© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2009

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Friday, December 26, 2008

Denver Post review


Arts and Entertainment

New photos, vintage process
By Kyle MacMillan
Denver Post Fine Arts Critic
12/26/2008

The imperfections inherent in the 19th-century wet collodion process only enhance the mystery and timelessness of "Kristen Floating," a unique 4" -by-5" -inch print by Mark Sink and Kristen Hatgi. (Images from Rule Gallery )
* Andy Warhol pictures that you haven't seen

For centuries, artists have turned to the past to inspire the new.

So it is with Denver photographers Mark Sink and Kristen Hatgi, who collaborated earlier this year on a series of 79 spellbinding, anachronistic-seeming images on view through Jan. 17 at the Rule Gallery.


The two have revived the nearly forgotten wet-plate collodion process, which replaced the daguerrotype in the mid-1850s but was itself supplanted by less laborious dry-plate techniques a few decades later.

In the demanding collodion process, tin or glass plates are immersed in a silver nitrate solution, and then they must be exposed in the camera and developed in minutes while still wet. The negative images appear as positives when mounted on dark paper.
Figurative images, including "Charlotte in Bow," dominate the 79 wet collodion photographs on view at Rule Gallery.

Using a vintage 1850s camera, Sink and Hatgi traveled back into photographic history for this ambitious project, mastering the intricacies of the venerable technique while simultaneously updating and revitalizing it.

The enticingly dark-hued images that resulted — most 4 1/2 by 5 1/2 inches — have a sometimes murky, sometimes shadowy look, with serendipitous flaws and imperfections that are an inevitable part of this imprecise process.

Their intimate size and inherent inexactitude mean that viewers have to look more closely and spend more time with these photographs to fully appreciate their power — a welcome antidote to today's nonstop, instantaneous imagery.

Because viewers cannot help but associate the antique appearance of these photographs with some bygone era, the subject matter, however modern it might be, is inevitably refracted via the past. And, paradoxically, this intersection of past and present gives these pieces an unmistakably contemporary feel.

In many of these works, the two collaborators deliberately play up the ambiguity of time. Selections, such as "Rose in Water," possess a vaguely and probably deliberate Victorian flavor.




In addition, some of the apparel worn by the
A graceful quietude pervades Sink and Hatgi's "Datura in Hand." 5.5 X 4.5 inches
women, such as big, flowing skirts, also suggests the past, as do some of the accompanying props, such as the ungainly, old-fashioned brace in "Lauren With Leg Brace."

While these pieces cover an impressively broad range of subject matter, including still lifes and stunning landscapes such as "Small Aspens," most are devoted to portraits (including some self-portraits) and nudes.

The nudes (some recalling E.J. Bellocq's alluring portraits of New Orleans prostitutes in 1912) are suffused with freshness and sensuality, even eroticism at times, with nearly all of them coming off as refined rather than crass.

These figurative images are obviously staged, some with intriguing props, such as the odd, open hoop in "Sascha in Hoop Skirt," that add a kind of enigmatic air. Most are successful, but a few, such as "Mark and Kristen" go too far, becoming stagey and forced.



Sink, by far the better known of the two photographers, has been such a ubiquitous presence on the Denver scene for some three decades that it is easy to take him for granted.

It doesn't help that he is so prolific that much of what he does gets exhibited little if at all. The result is that viewers see a tree here and there, but never the full forest that is his extensive oeuvre.

This exhibition, along with a smaller, accompanying look at his portraits of Andy Warhol from the early 1980s, provide a strong reminder that it is time for a local institution to undertake a mid-career survey of his work.

Meanwhile, photography cognoscenti and people who simply enjoy intriguing, unusual imagery can bask in this compelling show.

"Light and Time: Wet Plate Collodion Photographs"

Photography. Rule Gallery, 227 Broadway. An exhibition of 79 collaborative images by Denver photographers Mark Sink and Kristen Hatgi that make use of an obsolete yet still viable 19th-century process. Extended through Jan. 17. Noon to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Free. 303-777-9473 or rulegallery.com.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Mary Voelz Chandler, Rocky Mountain News

Images reflect bygone process in photography
By Mary Voelz Chandler, Rocky Mountain News
Published December 18, 2008





Dawn Curls, a collodion wet plate image by Mark Sink and Kristen Hatgi.


More than a search for comfort steers photographers back in time to work in archival methods when the rest of reality is navigating a high-tech future at warp speed.

The need to experiment and understand unusual photographic techniques keeps things interesting, for one thing, and offers a reminder of the way in which humans have captured images since the 1830s.

That's the intellectual takeaway from "Light and Time," a generous selection of glass-plate images on view at Rule Gallery.

Area photographer and arts advocate Mark Sink and partner and photographer Kristen Hatgi have stepped back into the 1850s to work in the exacting - i.e., unforgiving - process in which a piece of glass is coated with the chemical stew called collodion, dipped in silver nitrate, put in the camera, then exposed as a photograph was shot. This needed to be done quickly, while the plate was still wet.

Sink and Hatgi have a knack for innovation and a penchant for the romantic side of photography, and here have parlayed that into a beautiful exhibition.

Part of that derives from the plates themselves: almost 80 small, blue or black glass objects displaying nudes, fanciful scenes, dreamy landscapes (lots of ethereal aspen here), and the skillful use of props and costuming. These shimmering works are displayed on shelves, lined up in a fashion that plays up the historical nature of the work on view. It has the air of a photography museum, exploring a process that had its day in the sun and is back for a brief reappearance.

That's the other element that adds to the appeal of "Light and Time." Gallery owner Robin Rule again has capitalized on the long, narrow confines of her space to install this show, and two others, to good advantage.

Behind the wet plate imagery she installed "The Untold Story," a small show of photographs by Sink from his days in 1980s New York. These are predominantly candid silver prints and chromogenic prints of Andy Warhol in a range of situations, at work and at play - another recollection of a decade in which the creation of art and the spirit of the time was different from today.

The standout image, though, is the 1988 photograph Man Dies, a shot of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat standing near a work bearing those words. Sink notes that he took the photo shortly before Basquiat's death, at a show at the gallery run by Vrej Baghoomian.

There is a sweetness to this piece, countered by the shock of realizing that the artist - so young, provocative and influential - was coming to the end of his very short life.




Mark Sink's Man Dies, an image of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, taken at his last show a few days before his death in 1988.
---------------------------------------------------

Light and Time/The Untold Story

* What: Wet plate collodion photographs by Mark Sink and Kristen Hatgi, with 1980s portraits by Sink of Andy Warhol and others in the New York art scene.

* Where and when: Rule Gallery, 227 Broadway; through Jan. 10

* Information: 303-777-9473; rulegallery.com

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Bettie Page 1923 - 2008



1950s pinup model Bettie Page dies in LA at 85

This undated photo provided Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008 by CMG Worldwide shows AP – This undated photo provided Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008 by CMG Worldwide shows Bettie Page. Page, the 1950s …

LOS ANGELES – Bettie Page, the 1950s secretary-turned-model whose controversial photographs in skimpy attire or none at all helped set the stage for the 1960s sexual revolution, died Thursday Dec. 1tth . She was 85.

Great Debate

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Denver Connects Review


Warhol, wetplates at Rule Gallery

light-and-time.jpg

Walking into Rule Gallery this month, it appears as if someone has raided a museum and put all the beautiful, antique glass photo plates on display. It is surprisng, then, to notice one of the models standing in modern clothes at the other end of the gallery, chatting away with friends.

Indeed, photographers Mark Sink and Kristen Hatgi harkened back to the early photographic method of wet plate collodion to capture scenes that are both antique and modern all at once.

A popular technique for photography in the 1800s, wetplate collodion creates an image that is almost ghostlike on the glass plate, and the images at Rule sparkle as if lit from some mysterious source.

On the other end of the gallery, Mark Sink’s photographs of Andy Warhol fill the walls for the show Untold Story. Smiling, laughing, and posing, Warhol looks amazing and real in these photos, giving viewers who are just crazy about the man (like your truly!) a feeling of being right there with the famed artist.

The shows run at Rule through Jan. 10th and are definitely something to see.