Report from APIS. loooonnnnggg
Well, APIS is over and sad to say we'll all part for another two years. I thought I would give a little gossip update for those who couldn't attend--certainly a lot of you because it was the smallest group this time ever! I know gas is expensive and flying these days is a b---h but we missed a lot of the regulars for sure. I've been coming every time since 1999 and the group seems to have dwindled down to the hard core alt addicts... The most important update was a good lesson for us all. Art Chakalis, brave man that he is, took a trip into the wilderness to photograph a remote pueblo, and ended up "spraining his ankle" there and had to walk out on his own (no cell phone coverage, no other people anywhere) on it for 2 hours. A trip to the hospital ER room revealed not just a sprain, but quite a bad break and he had to fly home, missing the entire APIS. He is awaiting news of whether surgery and plates are in order or if the cast he now has on is sufficient. Fresson will have to wait until he heals. What a stupid thing--Mark Nelson and I took him to dinner at 11 PM while waiting for his meds--where did we choose to eat? IHOP. And Art was. Send him blessings. Rondal Partridge's talk was wonderful as was his showing of his platinum prints that he passed around and through the audience like they were work prints. Beautiful imagery and very inspiring as well as funny talk. Kenro Izu's talk was really heartfelt. What a man--travels with this huge camera all over, still doing analog work and printing pt/pd with in camera negs--no digital. Barret Oliver gave an inspiring talk on his 7 year research on the Woodburytype and his book is just published. John Guider who traveled some 2800 miles in a canoe on the Mississippi etc. rivers and photographed showed his huge pt/pd prints and was the most wonderful story teller of all he encountered in his months of solitary paddling. Kim Weston did a retrospective of his work--primarily the nude--and those lately that he handcolors with oil paints, scans on a drum (?) scanner and prints HUGE. Ron Reeder (great wry sense of humor) clearly delineated the several different ways of skinning the digital negative cat and even was brave enough at the end to compare the different methods and mention names. He's a sweetie. And as usual, Howard Efner is tinkering with chemistry and coming up with the Physautotype--you'll have to ask him about it--and Joe Sarff lectured on the importance of vernacular photography. Two evening events were really delightful--a cocktail reception at the Sullivan house, and a free dinner for APIS participants in the Andrew Smith gallery--have you even eating BBQ right beneath $5000 prints??? My favorite part of the whole symposium is networking and blabbing away, putting names with faces (and calling Paul Lehman "Wayne" the entire time because I have a friend back home named that). And the "5 in 5" where we see a bunch of people's work, 5 allotted minutes apiece, including some newbie APIS people such as Daniel Belknap who printed for Irving Penn and prints for Mark Seliger (HUGE pds!!! 50ml pt/pd per print!!) and Sal Lopes who prints for Mary Ellen Mark and others I forget. Oh, and did I say there were pt/pd printers there??? How about gummists? Hardly. I am always especially interested in tracking female participation, sometimes feeling like the lone female wolf in a forest of male alt-ees. This time there was about 20% female participation--about normal it seems--but some of the quality of the work out of these women was really wonderful. Elaine Querry did large cyanotypes of sculptures framed with neat fabric patterns to complement the sculpture, Nina Pak photographed easily 100 shots of women in costume for a Tarot deck, etc. etc. OH and Bernie (what is his last name??) developed a copper cyano process that he HAS to name the Bernietype but I unfortunately did not get the formula which he so freely shared; Bernie is a chemist and the coppertypes are lovely pink. I hope that next time more will come. Talk of ideas to share/processes to teach ended this symposium. If y'all have any input, email the Sullivans and show up in 2009! The rest of the listees that attended will jump in, I am sure, with their experiences of APIS this time. I'm looking forward to a nice, pricey dinner downtown Santa Fe before I go back to reality and 2 days driving..... Chris Assistant Professor of Photography Photography Option Coordinator Montana State University College of Arts and Architecture Department of Media and Theatre Arts, Room 220 P.O. Box 173350 Bozeman, MT 59717-3350 Tel (406) 994 6219 CZAphotography.com
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