Under Review

[On the Reed Magnet Wall] are just some of the gallery cards that Gary Reed & Barb Pullin acquired over the course of their visits — plus their well-used schedule of events

On the Reed Magnet Wall are just some of the gallery cards that Gary Reed & Barb Pullin acquired over the course of their visits — plus their well-used schedule of events

The Month of Photography 2015 was a roaring success! This year’s MoP ran from mid February to the end of May with one show going all the way to July. Gary and I put together a weekly list of openings that we planned on attending, and invited friends to join us. We were out every week from Wednesday to Saturday and hit a grand total of 72 openings — it was exhilarating!

The MoP organizers really had their stuff together on the www.mopdenver.com website. The photography and information of each Gallery, Coffee House and Sponsor was effective, colorful and clear; a helpful feature that made it super-easy to find out each day what and where events would be happening.

After a few times out, we discovered a consistent theme going on with the exhibits: White walls, white frames and white mats seemed to be the standard presentation. After several weeks everyone else was talking about it too. I have to admit, this style lent added visual punch by making the photographs stand out and not compete with their surroundings.

This event also brought the creative community together and gave everyone an opportunity to make new friends, see old ones and see to it that photography was the buzz around town!

 

There were so many fantastic photography exhibitions. Here – in no particular order – are the ones that left the strongest impression on us:

 

Donna Rae Altieri: 50 Years in Your Face / Ironton Studios and Gallery

In a word: “Fun”. Donna’s photography over the decades is just so entertaining and a joy to see.

 

Jason DeMarte: Confected / Rule Gallery

“Amazing and Beautiful” Congrats to Valerie and Rachael.

 

The Long Road: A Photographic Journey / The work and legacy of Hal Gould and Denver’s Camera Obscura Gallery Dona Laurita Gallery in Louisville

Being there at the opening and it also being Hal’s birthday made it a special day. It was like a taste of the old Camera Obscura days. Gallery owner Dona Laurita put together a fantastic exhibit.

 

Role Play – CPAC Group Show Exhibition / Redline Project Space Gallery

Well-presented and engaging. Great job Rupert Jenkins and Connor King.

 

Liz Hickok: Ground Waters / Michael Warren Contemporary Gallery

Liz’s work is so unique. We loved it and the mural at 34th and Downing was spectacular.

 

Mike McClung, Barb, Liz Hickok, Gary and Warren Campbell at the Groundwaters show

Mike McClung, Barb, Liz Hickok, Gary and Warren Campbell at the Ground Waters show

 

 

Analog / Mike Wright Gallery

Mike and Sarah hit a major home run with this blockbuster.

 

Carol Golemboski, Barb, Bill Adams, Marti Foxhoven and Gary at Mike Wright Gallery

Carol Golemboski, Barb, Bill Adams, Marti Foxhoven and Gary at the Mike Wright Gallery. Selfie by Gary Reed

 

 

Focus Spark / Gallery

A group show, this one curated by Mark Sink had wonderful style and variety and Reed’s own Marti Foxhoven sold one of her pieces!

 

Grays Space Gallery / Curated by Sarah LaVigne

Sarah always pulls together a great show and this one certainly did not disappoint — a fantastic way to kick off the MoP season.

 

Entre Nous: The Salon Romantique / Presents The Nude / Entre Nous Galerie

Elegant — to say the least.

 

Mark Sink, Rupert Jenkins, Barb and Gary outside at Entre Nous

Mark Sink, Rupert Jenkins, Barb and Gary outside at Entre Nous. Photo by Sam Nguyen

 

 

Not As It Seems & Vigorous Revelations / Valkarie Gallery

Two exhibits at Belmar that were well curated and worthy of a top MoP listing. We even bought two pieces! I’d like to put a shout out to Bob Jewett and his amazing show.

 

What Has Never Been… Is / Hinterland

When Sabin Aell puts a show together you know it’s gonna rock!

 

Travelers 5, It’s all in Black and White, Focal Points / Tbellphotographic Studio

The three shows for MoP at Tbell Gallery. The Travelers show curated by Sharon Meriash is always, always a fun and interesting exhibit. Reed’s Bob Jewett and Gary Reed were amongst the selected photographers. The Black and White show is also a MoP tradition that we would never miss, and the final show, Focal Points, was another wonderful collaboration of Terri Bell and Sharon Meriash. So good, we bought two pieces here also! And BTW, Jody Akers took Best of Show in the Black and White Show.

 

Gary and Barb at Travelers 5 Show

At the Travelers 5 Show. Photo by Mark Sink

 

 

The Origins of Photography, Past and Present / The Pattern Shop Studio

Wow, what a collection of vintage imagery. No wonder it ran for over two months.

 

Damak to Denver: A Picture Me Here Project / Curated by Brigid McAuliffe Denver Photo Art/John Fielders Colorado Gallery

Get to know their story and all you can say is “Amazing!”. Images that really make you think about how and where you grew up. Not only that but by far the best food!

 

The Dairy Center for the Arts, Boulder

There were three shows here at the same time and each was well displayed, well curated and totally fascinating.

 

Alternative Processes / Art Students League of Denver

Now how great was it that ASLD was showing photography! This was a small but very interesting exhibit.

 

Lift / St. Mark’s

OK, so the girls rocked it again with fantastic images of all shapes, sizes and styles.

 

Surface Film / Anthology Fine Art

Zach and Kendra’s annual photo show/ fundraiser for Trout Unlimited. This show gets stronger every year and this one had some very cool images.

 

Barb Gary at the Anthology Show

The Anthology Show. Selfie by Gary Reed

 

 

 

Far Between / Robischon Gallery

Well done, Jim. This exhibit was definitely in our top five.

 

Gary and Barb at Robischon Gallery

At the Robischon Gallery. Photo by Richard Alden Peterson

 

 

 

Kristen Hatgi: A Tented Sky / Gildar Gallery

Delicious!

 

Redline was once again the mothership of MoP and hosted ‘Playing with Beauty’.

This was another show curated by Mark Sink that was both big and beautiful. The opening night brought everyone together for a great time, great art and a chance to see and be seen with some of the incredible talent Denver has to offer.

It was an amazing journey and we’re sorry it’s over. Looking forward to 2017!

 

Happy Earth Day

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Happy Earth Day! Did you know that we offer and Eco Friendly Product? Well, we do. Let me take just a quick second to tell you about our Gallery Mount Collection and how you can be Earth friendly every day of the year, not just on Earth Day.

We use premium MDF with a Composite Panel Association (CPA) certification of 100% recycled/recovered fiber in compliance with their Environmentally Preferable Product (EPP) specification CPA 3-08. These products are also certified for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) chain-of-custody and controlled wood recognition. Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) has awarded certification to our supplier for producing products using recovered and recycled materials. UltraStock Select, Premium and Lite MDF are certified to contain pre-consumer recycled fiber on a dry fiber weight basis of 75% and 80% depending on manufacturing facility.

WOW! What does all of that mean? It means that we are doing our best as a company to help our clients be as eco friendly as possible and still create beautiful finished photographic pieces of art to put out into the world. Art is beauty and beauty does not have to hurt (our planet). We also reuse and recycle our shipping materials and no longer use incandescent light blubs, something we can ALL do everyday of the year to keep our planet green! *Image provided by NASA

Farewell To MoP

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Denver’s Month of Photography is over. The scope and talent that the local art community brought to this global event was impressive, and, we would venture to say, as ambitious as many of the larger urban centers.

Local offerings were many and eclectic; from a fascinating presentation by Jay Kinghorm on current publishing models in multimedia; to Navajo artist Will Wilson’s exhibition and discussion of not-so-classic portraiture of Native Americans. And of course, The Big Picture Project, an event that Reed Art & Imaging was honored and excited to participate in.

The ‘wheat pastes’ will be coming down soon but anticipation is already high for the next go-around in 2015.

As a devotee of the local art and photography scene, Reed Art & Imaging would like to join with the rest of the art community in thanking everyone who sponsored, exhibited and attended this important and stimulating event.

A special thanks must go out to Mark Sink for his invaluable leadership in making The Denver Month of Photography a raging success!

The Pinhole Camera: A Simple Revelation

“Who would believe that so small a space could contain the image of all the universe?”

Thus spoke Leonardo Da Vinci as he waxed poetic on the mysteries and wonders of the human eye. He could have just as easily, though, been describing the mysteries and wonders of the camera obscura and its successor, the Pinhole Camera.

The methodology of pinhole optics was first recorded back in the 5th century B.C. when the Chinese philosopher Mo Tsu noticed that images appeared inverted when projected through a small hole or ‘pinhole’ in a darkened room. He later referred to this as a “collecting plate” or “locked treasure room”.

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—Photo courtesy of Jody Akers

A century later, Aristotle noted that “sunlight traveling through small openings between the leaves of a tree, the holes of a sieve, the openings of wickerwork, and even interlaced fingers, will create circular patches of light on the ground.” (It is not known whether the great philosopher pursued the idea much beyond this observation.)

It was during Leonardo’s study of perspective in the 16th century, that the first technical description of pinhole projection appeared in his collection of notebooks, the Codex Atlanticus:

“When the images of illuminated objects pass through a small round hole into a very dark room…you will see on paper all those objects in their natural shapes and colors…Here the figures, here the colors, here all the images of every part of the universe are contracted to a point. O what a point is so marvelous!”

Translated from its original latin, camera for “room”, obscura for “dark”; the camera obscura can be any sealed, lightfast enclosure with a hole to admit ambient light, and an opposing inner surface to reflect and view the projected image. To a more or less degree, every illuminated object reflects light. The pinhole allows this reflected light to pass through the small opening (relative to the enclosure’s size) and project a perfectly linear, distortion free, albeit inverted, reflection of the subject.

—Photo courtesy of Jody Akers

—Photo courtesy of Jody Akers

Later refinements saw the addition of lenses and mirrors within the enclosure to ‘right’ the upside-down image—photographic principles that are still in use today.

A pinhole camera can be almost any size and constructed out of virtually anything in which you can place emulsion in and poke a [pin]hole. Egg shells, peanut shells, hollowed out peanuts, soup cans, spam cans, oatmeal boxes, old Macs, old cameras; the list goes on…

Justin Quinnell, a photographer in Great Britain, has devised a pinhole camera for your mouth. He’s dubbed it the “Smileycam”. And then there’s also the garbageman from Germany who’s turning dumpsters into pinhole cameras. What does he call it? The “Trashcam”, of course.

Photographer Jody Akers converted this old Speedgraphic into a Pinhole camera. Note the Grateful Dead patch "shutter".

Photographer Jody Akers converted this old Speed Graphic into a Pinhole camera. Note the Grateful Dead patch “shutter”. — Photo by Greg Osborne

A popular small-form pinhole is this 35mm film canister method.

The largest camera obscura in the world—the Camera Obscura in Aberystwyth, Wales, boasts a fourteen inch lens and reflects a 360 degree sweep of the surrounding sea and landscape. Yes, you can literally stand inside the camera/building!

Aside from the mere entertainment value of the camera obscura, some of the Renaissance and Dutch masters were reputed to have used this device in the creation of some of their most celebrated works, allowing them to achieve near photo-realistic, distortion-free perspective in the layout and composition of their paintings.

The transformation of the camera obscura from a viewing and drawing tool, to a true recording device, happened in 1850 when Scottish scientist Sir David Brewster took the first known pinhole photograph. He is also believed to have coined the term “pin-hole” in his 1856 book, The Stereoscope.

—Photo courtesy of John Harris

—Photo courtesy of John Harris

With the addition of the film component, the pinhole camera was born.

Today, pinhole art is considered a legitimate sub-genré of photography. In addition to its place in art, pinhole cameras have proven their value to the hard sciences through their use in space flight and for high energy photography in the nuclear industry’s laser plasma research.

Perhaps the defining characteristic of the pinhole is the absence of a “proper” lens. With only the atmosphere separating emulsion and subject, the camera’s depth of field is nearly infinite, wide angle images appear almost distortion-free.

Sounds simple enough, but the Pinhole is hardly without its quirks. Since the device operates without a viewfinder, framing ones subject can be a hit or miss proposition. Once, however, the photographer gains familiarity with his/her chosen camera, they will gain a feel for position and placement.

—Photo courtesy of John Harris

—Photo courtesy of John Harris

This placement, along with timing and exposure, relies heavily on the artist’s intuition and expertise. “Shutter” operation is a manual proposition, to say the least. Methods run the gamut, from electricians tape to, in the case of photographer Jody Aker’s modified Speed Graphic—a velcroed-on Grateful Dead patch.

Despite what some would call “limitations”, many accomplished fine art photographers revere this simplistic approach to their craft for the stripping away of technology that, may or may not, help in the creation of photographic art.

Twenty years ago, noted Colorado lensman, David Sharpe, felt “boxed in” by the sometimes tedious nature of traditional photography. He liked the way the Pinhole allowed for a more poetic interpretation of his subject matter—without the often cloying technology that had come to define modern photography. Hooked for good, Sharpe embraced the pinhole aesthetic and never looked back.

Although he agrees that the pinhole leaves a lot to chance, Sharpe actually likes not having to look through the viewfinder, relying instead on the intuitive feel that the pinhole requires of its adherents. “I love the alternative approach; the softer, not as ‘dead-on’ nature of this medium.”, David observes.

"Waterthread 24" by David Sharpe

“Waterthread 24” by David Sharpe

Sharpe’s platform of choice is the “small-form” film canister pinhole. Typically, he will bring 16 to 19 of these set-ups on photo excursions. Experimenting with different focal lengths and short exposure times, David has achieved amazing results with what he calls his “pinhole instamatics”.

Often, an artist will, at some point in their career, decide if they are photographing for the image or for the process. Many artists will agree that the process IS the art, or at least as important as the final image itself. The beauty of the pinhole camera, is that it lends itself so well to this creative process by almost forcing one to engage the subconscious creative power that technology often subverts.

The pinhole camera doesn’t overwhelm or try to ‘lead’ the artist with endless technology-driven choices. It is a collaborator that, by way of an almost misleading simplicity, works with the artist to reveal the art within.

"Waterthread 1" by David Sharpe

“Waterthread 1” by David Sharpe

Sound intriguing?

Get Pinholed!

You don’t have to be a professional artist-type to enjoy the existential rewards of Pinhole Photography

April 28th is Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. To celebrate, we have made this week’s Facebook Photo Theme, drumroll please… “Pinhole” Drop by our Facebook Page and show us your stuff.

The Last First Friday of MoP

1stFriday_April_2013First Friday Art Walks in Denver are always a blast. The galleries open their doors to the public for later the normal viewing and a little “wine and cheese” type atmosphere. Whether you are in the Santa Fe Art District, known as the hub of the Denver art scene, or any of the seven others around town, you are bound to see amazing art and some fascinating characters.

The creative community in Denver is

Month of Photography at Bardo Coffee House

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Bardo Coffee House at 238 South Broadway in Denver has an exciting show featuring 3 fantastic artists for the Month of Photography. The show titled Sensual Fiction at the Bardow highlights 3 female artists at their best.

Curated by Richard Peterson for Month of Photography, the show features photographs by Terri Bell, Valerie Photogoddess and Wendi Schneider.
A recent outing with several members of the ReedArt & Imaging TrueArt team gave the show (and the lunch with coffee) a unanimous two thumbs up. Drop by Bardos for a cup of coffee, the friendly service, and the fantastic fine art photography.
The show hangs through April 1, 2013.

Artwork by: Wendi Schneider
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