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"
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
>
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