Richard Sullivan (richsul@earthlink.net)
Tue, 13 Jul 1999 10:09:29 -0600
APIS 99 Blow by Blow
Whew! I've finally caught my breath. All nine of our house-guest volunteers
have departed. No more campers in the driveway.
From all perspectives I think it turned out to be a wonderful event. I am
getting out hard copy letters to all of the presenters thanking them but I
do want to express my gratitude to them now as there are many here on the
list.
We have had a multitude of wonderful comments about the presentations and
the fact that each and every one was professional, educational and
entertaining to a tee.
Thanks to:
Bob Shlaer on Daguerrotype. His opening presentation was very informative
as well as amusing. Bob is the world's only full time professional
Daguerrotypist. Bob discussed Daguerrotype in detail and showed slides of
his system for processing in the field including the Mark I and Mark II
portable Dag labs, which were formerly a 70's vintage Toyata and a Van. Bob
loaned the now decommissioned Mark I to Galina for tooling about town. Bob
aslo showed some real live incredible Dags.
Gene Laughter and Maija McDougal (who flew in from England) had a flawless
2.5 hour presentation on Bromoil. Folks went away with a new found
appreciation of Bromoil. Gene has explored the medium extensively and has
introduced many innovative techniques in Bromnoil printing. We had a
powerful video projector which we used to show Maija inking a print in a
billboard sized video projection. We used the video throughout the
symposium and it helped a lot.
Tom Mezzanotte installed his huge camera obscura out on the campus lawn.
Tom sits inside and makes negatives but this time we just let folks in to
see the wonders. Everyone pitched in the first morning to get the monster
up. Tome showed his large alt prints made from negs inside. Truly cool work.
Suzanne Izzo discussed and showed her work in gum and other processes.
Suzzane breaks all of the rules and prints from drawn on smoked glass,
rolled ink on glass and a host of weird and innovative methods. Suzzane's
work is lyrical and childlike (not meant in any pejorative sense at all!)
even all the more impressive coming from... ahem... a mature woman.
Helcio Magalhaes from Sao Paulo Brazil knocked them dead with his gums on
handmade paper. Helcio makes paper from banana palm and other fibers found
in the amazon basin and has learned some techniques from the local
aboriginal peoples. Our translator failed to show up so Helcio gamely
proceeded in what turned out to be nearly perfect English. As it turned out
when he did get stuck on some words during Q&A, one of our attendees was
also Brazilian and took over the chore of helping out in the sticky parts.
Jewelia Margueritta Cameroon did a performance piece showing her work and
how it relates to gender issues. Jewelia, now a woman, has spent a good
deal of her life in the body of a man, so she has a unique vision on how
gender affects art. Jewelia got a standing ovation from those left in the
auditorium. Hardly anyone was neutral.
That evening we had the banquet at the Loretto. James Enyeart was the guest
speaker. Not only were we lucky to have Enyeart speak but we were able to
arrange to have Van Daren Coke introduced Enyeart.
Martin Becka came in from France. Martin is one of the founders of the
Helios Group. He showed some incredible Le Gray and Calotypes. Martin also
showed other current french alt work. Incredible.
Our own Sil Horwitz knocked em dead...(hmm... wrong terminology?) Sil built
his first darkroom in 1929! Sil talked about chemical safety and took a
very reasoned middle road stressing "know what you are dealing with"
approach. Sil provides a light of reason in a very dark room.
My very dear friend for over a quarter of a century, Joan Myers, did a
retrospective showing of her work. She has had published many books and a
considerable body of platinum work. She did a superb polished presentation.
Karl Koenig did a presentation of his work in gumoil and some technical
info on the gumoil process. Karl is currently doing a series on the WWII
Nazi extermination camps. Gumoil can become a deep brooding medium that is
so apropos for this work.
After lunch Nancy Marshall did a stint on alt photo educational techniques
and got them so thrilled that a group of alt photo educators is being
formed. Nancy showed her own work which was superb!
Dan Welden did a great presentation on polymer gravure. He gathered the
assembled masses down to the apron in front of the stage so we could pass
prints around. Dan prints for David Salle, Eric Fleishl, and a host of
other big names. Dan got me thinking about exploring this little known art
medium.
Friday night saw us doing an art walk to see Gordon marks's Hobo pics at
the Wild Oats Gallery, then to Andrew Smiths to see Arnold Newman's work
and to chat with Mr. Newman who was in Attendence, and then on to the
Photoeye bookstore and gallery.
Saturday morning saw Galina Manikova doing a presentation on
photo-ceramics. It was truly marvelous. Galina has to be one of our premier
artists working in photographic media. A giant in the making. Lots of
technical information on photo ceramics was presented. Enough to get me
thinking about some new ideas. Check back to B+S later, I think we will
have her CD of her work for sale.
We ended with Dan Burkholder. I've known Dan for over 15 years and fully
expected him to do a professional presentation on digital negative. Little
did I know that he would be so entertaining when he did it. A great
informative lecture but one that also had everyone rolling in the aisles.
I forgot to mention Wednesday night's reception at the utterly amazing
Marion Center.
Again thanks to all the presenters and hard copy letters coming in the next
week or so for presenters to send back to the grants people.
--Dick Sullivan
505-474-0890 FAX 505-474-2857
<http://www.bostick-sullivan.com>http://www.bostick-sullivan.com
http://www.workingpictures.com
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