From: Shannon Stoney (sstoney@pdq.net)
Date: 03/01/03-12:41:48 PM Z
Thanks for all the suggestions about fixing the fogging problem. I
think it's probably just that I was often kind of careless, hurried,
excited, or just plain cold when I put the film holder in, and I
didn't make sure it was seated correctly.
Just wanted to tell about some gum prints I saw yesterday at the MFA
in Houston. They were part of a show that surveyed the history of
Japanese photography. I went through it "backwards," beginning with
the late 20th century stuff and walking through rooms and rooms till
I came to the early 20th century stuff. where there were some
exquisite gum prints. I am sold on the gum idea now, whereas
previously I had not been too interested. They remind me a bit of
the look of the photogravures we are making at Rice with the
photopolymer plates, and that makes sense, since the chemistry is
sort of the same I think in the emulsion. My favorite gum print was
of a pumpkin on a vine, sort of floating against a white background.
It was sharp as a tack. The Japanese aesthetic is, as you would
expect, somewhat different from the European or American aesthetic,
and I love it. There were also some beautifully handcolored
landscapes from the 19th century on albumen paper. The one I loved
the most looked both Japanese and European: the colors were like
Japanese woodblock prints, but it was a kind of Luminist composition
too, with lots of still water in the foreground, and a low horizon.
There was a black and white panorama about fifteen feet long of
Hiroshima after the bomb leveled it. It seemed amazing that one bomb
could do all that. Lots of people looked at that for a long time. It
seemed to be made of contact prints made from 8x10 negatives.
In the late 20th century stuff, I was somewhat surprised at the genre
of Japanese photography that concerns itself with adolescent girls.
I think sometimes the girls are photographing themselves and each
other, and they portray themselves, deliberately it seems, in sort
of cheesy, quasi-pornographic poses. The Japanese seem to consider
this art photography, but I think to most Americans it just looks
like poorly done, unimaginative porn. One of the wall plaques said
that these photographic essays are usually published as paperback
books, and that cumulatively the snapshots the girls make of each
other, themselves, and their pastimes take on a sort of
documentary/art quality. I guess it is sort of like Nan Goldin's
body of work, but most of the photographs don't seem as formally
interesting or carefully composed as hers often do. Anyway, this
brought up some questions about the line between porn and art: Is
the line different for Americans and Japanese?
--shannon
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