Lou Jones

We shared an incredible evening and presentation with photographer, Lou Jones. He spoke to a crowd of over 60 people about contemporary photography. He expressed his views on the art of photography by using his work as a platform to discuss not only what makes a good photograph, but also he spoke to the use of film, and the transition to using a digital platform to create an image. It was a rich and diverse presentation that created quite a lot of excitement and conversation with q & a following.   Please see postings below for newspaper article on this series.

 Our next lecture will be on April 3rd with Bruce Brown, a notable collector of photography. More soon!

Please re-visit our blog in the next week to see our video on this lecture.
I was so glad that Mayor Ken Gray (pictured in front row) was there and a big shout out to him for sharing in this new cultural lecture series and collaboration at the Chestnut Innovation Center http://chestnutic.com/. And special thanks to No. 8 Restaurant for providing us efficient service and an over the top meal!

Jack Fowler

 

 

Jack Fowler is an award winning photographer living and working  in the Massachusetts North Shore region.   Originally trained as a painter he initially bought a camera to take images as reference for paintings but fell in love with what could be done  with photography. Jack works in different styles, minimalism, ocean-scapes, and some black & white, but mostly enjoys shooting images that look much like color abstracts. 

 

Jack is affiliated with the Newburyport Art Association. Saatchi Galleries N>Y>C. and Blue Wave Gallery

 

Jack's work is represented by Blue Wave Gallery

This lecture series explores the nature of contemporary digital photography.   We hope to lend 'light and focus' to contemporary vision in photographic works;  to processes - notably the incredible capabilities to manipulate and process a digital image afforded photographers these days; and to production, including a focus on comparisons between traditional and new printing processes.   To say we are on an adventure states our underlying commitment to connecting and conversing on evolving ideas surrounding contemporary photography. 

 I chose to hold this series at the Chestnut Innovation Center,  11 Chestnut St. Amesbury, MA. in an attempt to blend industry and art.  Amesbury is a small Northshore town that was once the base of a bustling carriage industry and the home of the original electric car.  It is in one of the old factory buildings, currently being utilized by business incubator, Chestnut Innovation Center,  that we will host three prominent speakers for these free public lectures.

Lou Jones on Thursday, January 21, 2016;
Bruce Brown on Sunday, April 3, 2016; and
Lance Hidy  (schedule tbd).

Participating exhibiting photographers are listed in (near) alphabetical order below throughout this blog site and include:  Mark Antinoro, Jeremy Barnard, Thomas Barrasso, Leslie Bartlett, Jack Fowler, David Grover, Lance Hidy, Greg Nikas, David Saums, Cameron Sesto, Carl Sesto. Each photographer will offer a brief presentation on one of their selected works after the lecture so that the audience may be introduced to our regional photographers' exemplary work.

My gallery, the Blue Wave Art Gallery, is located at 52 Main St. in Amesbury.  This series is held in conjunction with Greg Nikas of Sweethaven Studios in Newburyport.   The participating artists posted in this blog also have work that is available for sale.  Prices will be available at each of the lectures but also available by contacting me at:  bluewaveartgallery@gmail.com or by contacting Greg Nikas at: greg@sweethavengallery.com.

Thank you for your interest and we look forward to your questions or comments on this site.    Asia Scudder,  Owner,  Blue Wave Art Gallery   www.bluewaveartgallery.com

Lynne Hendricks, The Art of Photography

The Art of Photography: Newburyport Daily News. By Lynne Hendricks Correspondent  LINK


"Today, anyone with a smartphone can snap pictures and post them online as an “exhibition” for their closest friends.
But that doesn’t mean that the photos we post of our vacations, our pets or our dinners have any merit to anyone outside our circle of friends.
After roughly 50 years in the business, commissioned to photograph some of the world’s most important people, places and events, Lou Jones can say with a reliable degree of confidence that most people’s photos aren’t very good. But there are artistic elements that can be employed to bring your contemporary images closer to fine, and Jones will share some of what he’s learned over his long and storied career during a free lecture next Thursday at the Chestnut Innovation Center in Amesbury. It’s the first of three lectures being planned in conjunction with “Bringing Ideas Together,” a photography exhibit currently on display at the innovation center. Jones was invited by [Greg Nikas, Owner of Sweethaven Studios, Newburyport], to share slides and stories with the region’s bustling community of artists and art lovers to help them better understand contemporary photography. The inspiration behind the series, titled “Processes,” came from the number of visitors who have expressed their confusion over what makes the pictures they can snap on their iPhones and cameras different from the images on the gallery walls, Scudder said...read more in article link ...

Cameron Sesto

Cameron Sesto:  Where the spiritual nature of the mundane world is illuminated through drawings, paintings and photographs. I am a self-taught artist finding inspiration from ordinary encounters and through a process of meditation and visual expression. Since 1987 I have been teaching workshops called: Drawing into Creative Wholeness. I invite you to visit my creative endeavors as well:  http://www.cameronart.com/

David Grover

Project Grover

Project Grover was started in January of 2015 by David Grover. He started it to help Missionaries and other non-profit organizations so that they can have better photography and marketing materials. He believes that by doing this they will be better able to raise money so that they can keep on doing the good works that they have been called to do. Any money taken in goes to one of 3 thing, Future trips, The ministries directly or towards equipment needed to better serve the ministries.

If you have any further questions or you would like Dave to come to you ministry please feel free to contact him and to see more incredible images:  

http://projectgrover.com/about.html

Greg Nikas, Owner, Sweethaven Studio

Greg Nikas has been photographing the world around him since he was a young man growing up in Ipswich, MA.  From those early days, his work has brought him much recognition in the commercial photography world.    Nikas, “lives and breathes photography”.   He has over twenty years’ experience working as a professional portrait and landscape photographer. His big dream? To live the concept of "life as art" pure and simple. Sweethaven Studio

Lance Hidy

Biography

A native of Portland, Oregon, Lance Hidy began his formal art education in 1964 at Yale University's Jonathon Edwards College. There he demonstrated his interest in graphic arts with the design and printing of two books (one with Hidy's own illustrations) using the college's printing press. After graduation, Hidy received a grant to study with Leonard Baskin, an artist with similar interests in engraving and typographic design, who was teaching at Smith College.
In May of 1969, Hidy joined the Godine Press in Brookline, Massachusetts, where he worked in a variety of roles, including designer and pressman. From there he moved to New Hampshire to work at the Coos County Democrat, then owned by the respected printer Roderick Stinehour. In 1974, Hidy went into business as a free-lance designer. One of his most noted book designs was for Ansel Adams's Yosemite and the Range of Light.
Hidy designed his first poster in 1977. His work is distinguished by his use of flat, solid colors and expressiveness with minimal detail.
Therese Thau Heyman Posters American Style (New York and Washington, D.C.: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with the National Museum of American Art, 1998)

David Saums

Mountains-of-the-Sky:  Fine Art Photographic Images by David Saums

Artistic Goals

Photography is a medium that can be used in a tremendous variety of ways portray what one sees.  My specific choice is to create by traditional craft a detailed image of the outdoor world as we see it.  The use of the term craft is meant in the traditional sense, with a very focused effort to provide an image with minimum grain to maximize detail and crispness.  All of my images are made with manual exposure, manual focus, traditional films, and hand-printed.  I prefer to use my own interpretation of exposure and focus for my images.  Black-and-white photography has been my life-long preference.  Many times a scene or image works exceptionally well in color; many images, however, are striking in black and white but not in color.  Railroads and lighthouses, special subjects for many of us, have been a life long preference since 1970.
My fine-art prints, fully framed or ready for framing, can be ordered by telephone.  My images have been purchased for corporate and personal collections around the United States and Canada.

Equipment

I originally used Minolta SRT-102, SRT-202, and the rare XK professional model with a wide variety of lenses.  In 1994, I added a Hasselblad 500C and several of the Hasselblad Carl Zeiss lenses.  The Hasselblad 2-1/4" x 2 1/4" format is especially appealing in landscapes and large images; however, so much of my 35mm work involves very slow speed films with minimum grain and high resolution that I find that use of the Hasselblad is the exception.  In 1996, I began using Nikon 35mm equipment, in addition to the Minolta and Hasselblad systems.  This includes 3 Nikon F3HPs and a variety of lenses.  A Nikkor 28mm PC (perspective control) wide angle is an excellent tool for many uses beyond architectural views, for which it was designed.  Other favorites are Nikkor 85mm f /1.4 and 105mm f /2.5 short telephoto lenses.
Films used include: Black-and-white:  Kodak Panatomic-X (until discontinued in 1990); Kodak Technical Pan (shot at ASA 25) - A very fine grain film with incredible sharpness and resolution; Kodak T400CN (since introduction in 1997).  Color transparencies: Kodak Kodachrome 25, 64 and 200, and Ektachrome E100S.  Color negative films (1985 to 1988): Kodak Ektar 25 and Ektar 100; Royal Gold 25 and 100. 

Leslie Bartlett

"Bartlett’s stonescapes are a sensitive tribute to the basic elements of earth, air, fire, and water. Demonstrating how careful documentation can become poetry, Bartlett records the world as he finds it, but with a frame of vision that intends to act upon the viewer and shift one’s perception. Landscapes that would otherwise be passed by quickly, are given due attention and take on a monumentality of scale and importance...

Perhaps, it is the beneficent light - the kindest aspect of the fire element that gives warmth and life – that accords with the observer. Bartlett’s arresting photographs offer a perpetual opportunity to experience the natural world with an immediacy and freshness that few are able to find, as well as a lesson on how to behold.

Rebecca A. G. Reynolds, Curator of the John and Margaret Manship Collection, 
 formerly of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

 60 Canyon Abandonment

Description:

This is a 6 panelled folding screen based on my panoramic image of ‘Wells-Lamsen Quarry,” 

Graniteville, Barre, VT.

Size:

Each panel is 18 inches wide by 36 inches high.

Each panel is printed on silk and gallery wrapped to archival stretcher frames.

The panels are in turn assemble mounted to a pair of 7’ x 5’ stretched raw linen panels.

Thomas Barrasso

Thomas Barrasso is a geologist and chemist with more than 28 years of experience with environmental issues in both the public and private sectors.  He earned his geology degree from Salem State College where he also studied photography. 

He grew up in Boston in the 1960s and always had some form of camera at his side.  In the early days that was an Argus twin lens medium format, or a Polaroid.  Fascinated by Ansel Adams by the 1980s he was making images in the Salem State darkroom attempting to bring those techniques to his landscapes of New England, mainly the Mount Washington Valley region of New Hampshire.

The camera became a tool for seeing the world and blending science and art.

Translating his interest in music to photography was made by photographing concerts and events of many of his music interests including: The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane members, Galaxie 500, Miles Davis, Ray Charles, and Dave Brubeck.  In the 90s most of his photography revolved around local Boston bands that used his images in CD covers and The Noise Magazine. 

At the turn of the century the move to digital photography unleashed unparalleled creativity.  Real time monitoring of the image, Photoshop, and non-destructive editing has meant a complete rethinking of the process.  Without the luxury of a fulltime darkroom for most of the time he was behind the camera the change to digital meant full control of the process from start to finish.  The process now involves Nikon and Fuji cameras and a variety of software for correcting image variances, simulating films, and bringing out what the mind sees.  This has really gone from capturing the moment to creating an image that attempts to show the viewer what the photographer has experienced while in the moment.

Mark Antinoro

It’s in the details…

That’s been my design philosophy
for over two decades.
Whether I’m creating a brochure, website, catalog or logo, I consider every angle, every possibility. I seek out the right color, image or typeface – and work with all the tools at my disposal to transform these elements into a powerful design statement.
My training as a fine artist, musician, and photographer informs my design approach, too, by bringing a sense of light/shadow, rhythm and balance, and a refined eye to everything I do.
Because my clients range from companies to individuals to artists, I understand the need to balance aesthetics with the goals of reaching a wide commercial audience.

In my toolbox…

Along with being a certified web developer, I am proficient in the following design applications and programming languages:

• Photoshop
• InDesign
• Illustrator
• Dreamweaver
• Flash
• Fireworks
• Acrobat
• CSS
• HTML
• Javascript

Who I’ve designed for…

Small to large companies:

• L-com Inc.
• RPP Corporation
• Boston Scientific
• Directech
• Fidelity Investments
• Reebok
• Staples

Jeremy Barnard

 
 Jeremy Barnard has been primarily a practitioner of black and white photography for the past forty plus years. He is self-taught, his craft having been molded and influenced by the photography and writings of some of the great masters. “My love affair with photography began when I developed my first roll of film and created my first print. I fell in love with the process, the magic.” His passionate pursuit of technical excellence has kept Jeremy involved in every step of the photographic process. He retains control even into the presentation stage by doing his own post processing, mounting, matting, and framing.

    More than twenty-five years ago the computer made its appearance in Jeremy's work environment. In the beginning he viewed it as an overly complex typewriter. As it began to insert itself into the world of photography it was easy to be skeptical about its photographic future, since the early results of digital imaging were disappointing. Things, as we now know, have changed radically in the digital world of photography. Output quality has surpassed that of film. At this point it has been over twenty years since Jeremy has shot a roll of film, and he's not looking back.

     Mr Barnard's approach to his work can best be described as an ongoing  process of self discovery. His photographs walk a fine line between abstraction and realism. “My process of observation begins with a wide view of my subject, seeing it in its environmental context. With the knowledge that my image will lack impact if I don't get close enough, I ask myself what it is about the scene that captivates me, and I move in to isolate that element.” The resultant images possess the abstract qualities of shape and form. Jeremy prefers natural to artificial light, but has over the years learned to be comfortable in the studio. In his artistic work he prefers to make images that do not contain people. However, his images frequently contain evidence that people have been there, adding an element of mystery. “I like to make pictures that ask more questions than they answer.”

    Artist/writer David Raymond wrote in Art New England  that Barnard's photographs “not only convey a sense of place, but a sense of time transcending place,...his work is poetic in unexpected ways.”