SPE and alt update
Dear all, What a month...way too busy. But one thing that did NOT keep me busy was reading the alt list--jeesh! What a quiet month! Where are you 500 members anyway? SPE (Society of Photographic Education) was once again a well-worth-it conference. Ed Burtynsky's talk and images of huge manufactured landscapes were wonderful. So was another guy named David McMillan who had returned to photograph again and again to Chernobyl. These were only two of many great talks. Of course one could only imagine how beautiful their prints would be in gum... Little did I know I would not get to enjoy a lot of the conference because I had 30 hours of board meetings to attend! I saw Darryl Baird passing in the hallway quite a few times, and Janet Neuhauser briefly, Scott Weber briefly, but all in all it was a visit BUST for me. Never got a chance to visit Jon Lybrook at his and Angela Faris Belt's opening...oh, could have to do with getting the flu while there, too. Which made hanging out at the wine/whine bar next to impossible. I spent more time talking to Dick Sullivan at his booth than anyone else and that wasn't even a lot. Which brings me to my first point--Bostick and Sullivan sells this really cool screw in twisty UV light bulb for maybe all of $25, so with two of those and a couple cheap table lamps from the hardware store, presto, instant UV light table for those monetarily challenged alt wannabes. Second point: what a dearth of alt process there was at the conference. There was a huge portfolio sharing Friday night with a grand ballroom filled with table upon table of work. The only alt I remember was a couple cyanotypes, a couple VDB's, a portfolio of platinum prints by Gary Auerbach who I think is on this list (?), and verrrrry little gelatin silver prints either!! 7 of my students came, 6 of whom had their portfolios on tables, two of whom showed alt/experimental work. We live in a time of digital c-prints, and large ones at that. Kind of...ubiquitous. Now, granted, I might not have seen every table, but I think it is a very fair statement that alt was barely visible. More power for us altees to shine. I was most impressed when I met Alida Fish at the U Arts booth. I got to see her tintypes. They are gorgeous. They may be at Schmidt Dean gallery schmidtdean.com still because I have a brochure of her images from there. But I bet she has a website also. It's so much fun being a creative anachronist, isn't it? Maybe we should scan our alt prints and all print huge digital c-prints of them??? A lot of people seem to be using whitehouse custom color for digiprints... Enough for tonight, Chris _______________ Christina Z. Anderson CZAphotography.com _______________
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