Brandywine Photo Collective

Kathy's Photo Notes

Notes of January, 2008

Meeting, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008, at Colourworks

In attendance: Beth Trepper, Carson Zullinger, Gerry Piotrowski, Eric Russell, Ken Francis, Jon Foltz, Randy Ciurlino, Mickey Freed, Danny Schweers, DeVere Patton, Bill Pepper, Bill Lindsey, and me, Kathy Buckalew.

ABOUT SHOW AT COLOURWORKS:

We’d already sent out a notice about when framed prints were due to Colourworks for hanging show, and I sent out an e-mail reminder the day before the prints were due.

Danny, Carson and I hung the show on Thursday, Jan. 30. Carson and Danny did most of it, with some of the staff of Colourworks starting to hang before we got there. That was a big help, so thanks to them.

Danny came down earlier and copied all the info from the backs of the photos, and had labels already made up when we hung the show. They looked great! Thanks, Danny.

Carson brought in a couple of lights to hang over the entrance foyer, to give some light to the work hung there. That helped a lot, thanks, Carson.

Everyone brought something for the opening reception. To those that did not, please help Mickey with the cost of the sushi platters.

We all agreed that we should all pitch in and divide the cost of the remaining postcards among all those who were in the exhibition. Even if you didn’t send any out, and even if you already paid for what you did use, there were still quite a few cards left. I will figure it out with Carson what is left and what we all owe him.

OTHER BUSINESS:

Talking about where we want to continue meeting, since the Delaware Art Museum is now out, as they want to charge us $100. per meeting! Danny said that the Buzz Ware Center in Arden is only available the 2nd Thursday of the month. But the county library on Foulk Road has free meeting space, and we would sign up each month. The 3rd Thursday is already taken for February, but we should discuss and see if that is what we want to do from here on. I’d already spoken to Stephanie about using her home for a Saturday meeting, which she has agreed to do. So, I guess we’ll be talking about meeting space at the February 23 meeting.

Danny and David McClintock met with Susan Rosedale Smith, an attorney, who is ready to go on our Delaware application for a 501c3 application. She says that it is important how you set up your mission statement, including educational goals. Randy said he could help Danny with the bureaucratic language, since that is what he has to deal with on a daily basis at work.

As soon as we get the 501c3 status, we will have to file a tax return, #990. The tax return is based on fiscal year, and the fiscal year starts whenever the 501c3 is granted. And along with the non-profit status, and the tax ID number (which Carson already has), and having to do a tax return, we will also have to have a Board of Directors, officers, and by-laws. So put your thinking caps on, start coming up with names for board members, and come up with ideas for by-laws.

Carson said organizations like the Delaware State Arts Council are very interested in supporting start-up groups like ours, so this could be very beneficial for us.

SHOWING WORK:

Okay, now we finally get to the fun part of the evening: looking at photographs!

Jon Foltz brought in a hard-bound book of his photos he had done by www.blurb.com. It was 136 pages, 11x13, at $86./copy, without shipping. He had some beautiful photographs of his trip to London, Edinburgh, and walking Scotland. We talked a bit about the Blurb books. Some concerns are that the paper stock is thin, and that the printing quality is uneven. Efotolab at Colourworks works with blurb.com to get books printed. They work with other printing places as well, that use heavier paper, at a higher price.

Danny Schweers brought in a digital photo frame that he’d loaded with B&W photos of cloud-streaked skies. Very abstract, like Steiglitz’ series of photos he called Equivalents.

Bill Pepper showed a photo of “Water Over the Dam”, which is in the show at Colourworks. Nice angle of the falls, can’t quite tell what is going on, or what viewpoint you’re looking at, the reflections kinda throw you off. Very striking.

Eric Russell showed a beautiful shot of Vernal Falls in Yosemite, from a recent vacation. Interesting composition, the falls are not the main focus of the photo, but it is what the photo is about. Also can be seen in the exhibit at Colourworks.

DeVere Patton always brings in interesting, and often, surprising photos for us to look at. This one was of people in a mall, but he had worked on about 10 layers of different people, so they looked like mannequins, and they all looked like they were floating above the floor. Very intriguing, and thought-provoking, if you wanted to get into the various layers of meaning on the consumer culture, and people, and malls, etc.

Carson Zullinger show a couple large, beautiful prints of nudes. See below.

Beth Trepper brought in her two photos for the show, both of bodies in the landscape. One was a male body against striated rock, the angle of his body forming a strong counterpoint to the dense, heavy rock behind him. And the other was a very pregnant woman, leaning against a rock in a desert landscape, as if the weight of the baby inside her was pulling her down toward the ground. Both are dealing with the natural form of the human body in contrast to the various elements of nature.

Gerry Piotrowski brought in a couple of large photos, done with his little Elf camera. The shots are taken very close to the ground, it’s a micro landscape, basically shots of ground cover. Printing it very large, as he did, transcends what it really is, and it becomes a kind of fairy landscape. Very interesting, and it shows that you can do terrific things with a little camera! One of these can be seen in the show at Colourworks.

Randy Ciurlino brought in a number of self-portraits that he had done to show his class what you can do with the idea of portraits. One was an extreme close-up of his eyes and glasses, another was of just his father’s eye-glasses, with words around the frame of the photo. And he did a lot of playing around with various textures and solarizing, again to give them a different feel, and to give his students something else to think about.

Kathy Buckalew brought in a bunch of 5x7 work prints of some of her farmers, and a set of local artist, Andre Harvey. Mr. Harvey’s wife wasn’t particularly impressed with the portraits of her husband, but the group liked them very much. We picked out the ones we liked the best.

Gerry and Eric had a few books done by photographers that we looked at. One by Greg Probst, printed at a place in Canada, absolutely stunning book. Another one about Cuba, but I didn’t write down the title or the photographer — sorry.

Thanks to Gerry and Eric for letting us use the Colourworks space. And the other good thing about meeting there is that we get to see them and see some of their work!

OTHER NEWS:

Lisa Tyson Ennis had some folks from the Delaware Art Museum out to her studio to look at her work, and they purchased two pieces of hers: Moonlit Tent 2 am and Winter Tree! Yea, Lisa!! Congratulations.

Jim Graham has a show up at Hardcastle’s Gallery, up on Rt. 52, in Centreville. Beth and her mom and I went up the day after our show at Colourworks and Jim was there, so we had a wonderful time talking to him about the work. It is very worthwhile to take some time to go up and see it.

Kathy Buckalew will be showing her set of artists’ portraits at Santa Monica College in March of this year. Anyone want to come out for the opening?!

Danny Schweers won an on-line contest in January. Every month, the Joy of Giving Something website asks photographers to submit photos that best exemplify a quote. January's quote, by Natan Sharansky, was, "The fact that democratic societies are not built overnight is not evidence that they cannot be built at all." On Sunday, March 30, 1:00 - 3:00 p.m., Danny will display his work at the Arden Craft Shop Museum.

That’s all the news I can think of, or have written down in my notes. If you think of anything else, please send it on. If I’ve missed anyone or anything, I apologize.

Next meeting:

Saturday, February 23, 2008, 10:00 a.m., at Stephanie Kirk’s house, just over the line in PA. I sent directions in the last e-mail. Call or e-mail me if you didn’t get them.

Kathy's Notes:

2008: January | March - the latest!