Stan: Thanks for this. Indiana U has some online exhibits of Sinsabaugh, if your interested. Cheers, Christine
----- Original Message ----- From: "Stan Halpin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Pentax-Discuss Mail List" <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2008 12:24 PM Subject: Museum visit report (Large format photography) > My family are all from small-town rural areas, sometime in the next > few years I'll be retiring and moving to a small town, but during my > adult life I have always lived in cities. And one thing I have always > appreciated about cities are the museums and galleries. Here in > Kansas City the Nelson-Atkins is a mid-range (not great) museum, but > last year finished a major expansion with the construction of a > highly acclaimed (by architects nationally) and frequently ridiculed > (by local rubes) new modern space adjoining the original 1930's > typical neo-gothic pile of stone. Coincident with, or maybe because > of, the expansion, Hallmark Cards (headquartered here in town) gave > the museum their entire collection of hundreds of thousands > photographic images. And so the new space has large spaces devoted to > photography. One relatively permanent section with images of the > Masters, a second section with rotating collections of lesser-know > artists, and sometimes a photography exhibit in one of the two > Special Exhibits sections. > > Yesterday through early April one of the Special Exhibits is on the > work of Art Sinsabaugh. Some of his early work while a student in > Chicago in the early 1950's, and then images from his midwest > landscape series and his Chicago series, both done in the early-mid > 60's. > > Sinsabaugh used a large format camera. I mean, really large! 12'' x > 20" large! His camera (and the very sturdy wooden tripod) were there > as part of the exhibit. One of the fascinating aspects of his work is > that they were all printed 20' wide (presumably contact printed from > the negative.) However, for many of the midwest landscape shorts, the > print was only 1-2" tall, and none were over 5 inches tall. So you > have a panorama effect achieved through selective cropping from the > top, with a very successful result. Though there were a couple I > would have liked to have seen full-frame; I think the huge empty sky > that he cropped out could have been at least as effective as the very > short very wide panoramas. (His Chicago prints tended to be taller > because of the greater vertical content he was dealing with in the > city.) > > A smaller exhibit had photos by contemporary photographers Mark Klett > and Bryon Wolfe and by Mark Ruwedel. Klett&Wolfe have done many > recreations of the masters' work, locating the exact spot, angle, > time of day etc. where Muybridge or Adams must have stood to take > some of their iconic images. Their prints are mostly stitched- > together panoramas overlaid with reproductions of prints from the > original artist. So you can see the broad view, and see what elements > of the scene Ansel or whoever chose to focus on. In one particular > image, they found a spot on the shore of Lake Tenaya (Yosemite) where > at various times Muybridge (1872), Weston (1937) and Adams (1942) all > stood and took three very different pictures. A fascinating > demonstration of the art of composition. > > I am not sure about the Sinsabaugh exhibit, but I wouldn't be > surprised if the Klett&Wolfe work showed up at a gallery or museum > near you one of these days - worth an afternoon. > > stan > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
