History of Photography
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Straight Talk on Collecting Photography: The Contact Print
Today’s video addresses the subject of the contact print, one of analog photography’s finest expressions.
A contact print is one made directly from a photographic negative or paper negative placed directly onto a piece of photographic paper and exposed and developed. This 1:1 direct printing, is the purest expression of the negative, as opposed to an enlargement of the negative which is also a beautiful expression, but one that exhibits some amount of loss of quality. Sharpness and tonal qualities are slightly sacrificed when we enlarge negatives to make prints, but for most photographers, those sacrifices are worth the impact of the larger print.
Few prints compare to the luminosity, beauty, and depth of a well-executed contact print.
To view the video click here
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Straight Talk on Collecting Photography: Lynn Geesaman
This week’s video focuses on Lynn Geesaman
We are pleased to have the opportunity to exhibit the work of Lynn Geesaman who revived the historical approach of Pictorialism to a contemporary vision and pushed that approach even further than her predecessors to create beautiful and dynamic imagery.
To view the video click here
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Straight Talk on Collecting Photography: Packing Your Artwork
This week’s video focuses on packing your artwork for shipping. David gives a hands on demonstration on how to best pack matted prints to ensure safe travels while in transit.
Along with the video we want to provide you with resources for materials shown in today’s video, to help you pack and store your collection. Here are a few of the suppliers we have used over the years. We are also always happy to recommend professional art handlers and shippers to help with all of your packing needs.
To view the video click here
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Straight Talk on Collecting Photography: Beaumont Newhall, A Life in Photography
This week’s talk focuses on Beaumont Newhall. Newhall’s contributions to further the art of photography are numerous. His first curated exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art is legendary, as is the expanded catalogue from that exhibition, which became his The History of Photography. This publication continues to be one of the standard texts for the study of the history of photography. His move from MoMA to George Eastman House in 1947 helped to build the Eastman House’s collections and archives into one of the world’s premier institutions for photography.
Less is known about Beaumont’s own photographic practice, which chronicles and parallels his life as a historian and curator and is a visual journal of his career.
In this talk, David covers many highlights of Beaumont’s career and also concentrates on Newhall’s photography and David’s personal relationship with Beaumont for the last 14 years of his life.
We have scanned the original slide lecture to recreate this talk as a PowerPoint lecture. The talk is over an hour so please take your time with it, enjoy a drink, and don’t forget to stretch your legs.
To view the video click here
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Straight Talk on Collecting Photography: Eliot Porter, The Dye-Transfer Process
We have been asked so many times to explain the dye-transfer process. Within today’s talk is an illustrated explanation producing a dye-transfer print in Eliot Porter’s studio. This lecture was originally delivered at an SPE conference in Orlando, Florida, in 2012 on the occasion of the opening of Eliot Porter’s traveling retrospective exhibition by the Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. David discusses Eliot’s life, his and Janet’s relationship to Eliot, while also bringing us on a visit to Eliot’s home studio and darkroom.
We have taken the original slide lecture and scanned them to recreate this talk as a PowerPoint lecture. The talk is over an hour so please take your time with it, enjoy a drink, and don’t forget to stretch your legs. David has other slide lectures from his years of teaching, so please give us your feedback on this talk and let us know if you would like to have more of these types of lectures.
To view the video click here
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Straight Talk on Collecting Photography: Building a Collection, Our Personal Story Part II
This week we are continuing our series on collecting photography. We have produced a series of videos along with added illustrations and handouts that can be viewed weekly on our website. We hope to cover many aspects that we feel are important to both beginning and seasoned collectors. The topics for the videos are a result of many conversations we have had in our gallery with visitors over the past forty years.
Over the years so many of you have asked us about our personal collection. This week we share with you another one of the themes that run through our collection, which concentrates on making photographs rather than taking photographs. This aspect of our collection was inspired by Minor White’s work and teachings where he verbalizes, “We don’t photograph things for what they are, but for what else they are.”
In this week’s video David explains the importance and benefits of building a personal collection and how it can enhance your day-to-day life and those around you, both at home and in your community. Your collection is a reflection of who you are and can serve as your legacy.
To view the video click here
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Straight Talk on Collecting Photography: Building a Collection, Our Personal Story Part I
This week we are continuing our series on collecting photography. We have produced a series of videos along with added illustrations and handouts that can be viewed weekly on our website. We hope to cover many aspects that we feel are important to both beginning and seasoned collectors. The topics for the videos are a result of many conversations we have had in our gallery with visitors over the past forty years.
Over the years so many of you have asked us about our personal collection. This week we share with you one of the themes that run through our collection: Humanistic photography. We share an affinity for images of the human condition.
In this week’s video David explains the importance and benefits of building a personal collection and how it can enhance your day-to-day life and those around you, both at home and in your community. Your collection is a reflection of who you are and can serve as your legacy.
To view the video click here
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Straight Talk on Collecting Photography: 10 More Essential Books
This week we are continuing our series on collecting photography. We have produced a series of videos along with added illustrations and handouts that can be viewed weekly on our website. We hope to cover many aspects that we feel are important to both beginning and seasoned collectors. The topics for the videos are a result of many conversations we have had in our gallery with visitors over the past forty years.
Collecting photography books goes hand in hand with a photographic collection. New collectors are often interested in learning more about the history of the medium and some of the key artists, while others enjoy having volumes by or about the photographers that they collect.
Based on the overwhelming response from last week’s video we have been motivated to produce another trying to address some of the many questions and comments we received. In this week’s video David has selected more volumes that we feel cover essential topics or artists to be included in your library. Thinking more about diversity in our selection and trying to be a bit more contemporary we feel this video, in conjunction with last week’s video, will serve as a well-rounded core collection for your libraries as photographers and/or photographic collectors.
To view the video click here
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Straight Talk on Collecting Photography: 10 Essential Books
This week we are continuing our series on collecting photography. We have produced a series of videos along with added illustrations and handouts that can be viewed weekly on our website. We hope to cover many aspects that we feel are important to both beginning and seasoned collectors. The topics for the videos are a result of many conversations we have had in our gallery with visitors over the past forty years.
Collecting photography books goes hand in hand with a photographic collection. New collectors are often interested in learning more about the history of the medium and some of the key artists, while others enjoy having volumes by or about the photographers that they collect.
In today’s video David discusses what he feels are ten essential books that serve as a core to your photographic library whether you are just starting to build a library or already have one.
To view the video click here
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Straight Talk on Collecting Photography: Caring for your Collection
This week we are continuing our series on collecting photography. We have produced a series of videos that can be viewed weekly on our website. We hope to cover many aspects that we feel are important to both beginning and seasoned collectors. The topics for the videos are a result of many conversations we have had in our gallery with visitors over the past forty years.
Today’s video focuses on how to care for your photographs. The emphasis of this video is that as collectors we are custodians of the works in our collection. Most likely during your lifetime your photographs will either be donated to a museum, passed on to a loved one, or possibly resold. For these reasons, topics discussed in the video address best practices for the care, display, and storage of your collection.
To view the video click here
