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Fractal Dreams Photographic Images by Roman Loranc

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:43:34 +0000

FRACTAL DREAMS:
PHOTOGRAPHS FROM TWO DECADES

Signed Trade Edition: $150

*Special Collector’s Edition:
Special Edition book and choice of original signed print (see below).
Roman Loranc introduces a singular vision to the West Coast photographic tradition as he expands its territory. Finding uncommon beauty in the fragile wetlands and ancient oaks of the Central Valley, as well as its rural back roads, hills and farms, Loranc’s exceptional prints make these subjects as memorable as famous views of Yosemite. Born in Easter Europe in 1956 and arriving in California in 1984, Loranc has injected a wealth of cultural tradition and emotion into his beautifully hand crafted photographs. In recent years, Loranc has returned to explore the surviving countryside and architecture of his Polish homeland, including the atmospheric interiors of its churches and synagogues.

Fractal Dreams presents the first twenty-year retrospective of Loranc’s images from both California and Europe, highlighting the unique lyricism and powerful drama of his bold photographic vision. His widely collected work is featured in museums and private collections an has appeared in numerous publications, including his acclaimed 2003 monograph, Two-Hearted Oak.

The essay by David Stroud, who lives and works in San Francisco, explores the important contribution Roman Loranc has made to the tradition of West Coast landscape photography as well as the biographical and artistic background that makes him a unique and original voice in the history of American photography.

Orders are now being taken for Roman’s new book, Fractal Dreams, published by Photography West Gallery and printed in the United States. The autographed and slip cased limited edition of the book comes with your choice of one of five original 9″ x 12″ photographs. Roman will be signing his new book at DeSantos Gallery on January 23rd at 5:30pm

To order a copy please contact Gemma DeSantos at 713 520 1200.

Drifting Away: Photographs and Book by Erika Diettes

admin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:49:47 +0000

Drifting Away.
Photographs and text by Erika Diettes.
Erika Diettes, 2008. Unpaged, 17 color transparencies, 9½x6″.

Publisher’s Description
‘In Drifting Away my intention is to draw attention to some of the victims of forced disappearances of the Colombian armed conflict. The project is a response to a number of press reports and news broadcasts which explain how the paramilitaries and the guerrillas torture people, mutilate them and make them disappear by throwing their bodies into a river. This is the source of the saying that the rivers of Colombia are the world’s largest graveyard.

I started by looking for clothing or objects belonging to people who had disappeared in Bogota, and then I went out to the areas of conflict in visits to Eastern Antioquia, Caqueta and Medellin, amongst other places.During these macabre visits I was able to talk to the families of the victims, who are indeed the voice of all Colombia, clamoring not only for the respect for life, but also for the right to be able to be able to bury their dead.

From a technical point of view, I decided to represent the idea of the river literally, submerging the clothing or objects in water, in order to highlight the way in which the turbulence of water is also a leading feature of the image. Ialso decided to pring on glass to give the feeling of ethereal and fragility character of the image – and so therefore, of life in those parts of our country.’ – Erika Diettes

In a limited edition of 250 signed and numbered copies.

Hardbound $250.00

Los Toros by Michael Crouser

admin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:40:52 +0000

Over the course of sixteen years, Michael Crouser visited the bullrings of Spain, Mexico, Ecuador and France, capturing the dark spectacle of the bullfights and the passions of the crowds who follow them. Select images from a multitude of bullfights have been sequenced to create a singular, compelling fight in a narrative form.

The book features an introduction in English and Spanish by renowned Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, recounting the childhood memories of his first corrida de toros, while also reflecting upon his personal philosophy on the contemporary bullfight.

International Photography Awards 2008
First Place in Book – Fine Art Category

Los Toros by Michael Crouser
First Edition Signed Copy $ 60.00

Michael Smith Tuscany: Wandering the Back Roads, Vol. II

admin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:31:43 +0000

Tuscany
Preface by Paula Chamlee and Michael A. Smith

The land of Tuscany has nurtured and inspired artists for centuries. In Tuscany: Wandering the Back Roads, Volume I, by Paula Chamlee, and Volume II, by Michael A. Smith, the glorious tradition continues and is even enhanced in their deeply personal and beautiful photographs of one of the most alluring and romantic places in the world.

In the spring of 1999 and 2000, and in the fall of 2001, the photographers Michael A. Smith and Paula Chamlee shipped their old Land Rover to Europe, after configuring it to accommodate their large-format camera equipment and camping gear. They then drove to Italy, where they traveled together, yet worked separately while exploring the landscape and the small towns and villages of Tuscany—each recording their own visual responses to a land they had come to love.

During their travels and adventures, Smith and Chamlee photographed from the quarries in the Carrara region in the north to the old Etruscan towns in the south, and from the Val di Chiana and Cortona in the east to the Island of Elba off the coast to the west. Their photographs, full of warmth and life, yet demanding in their complex visual elements, are the culmination of those three extensive trips. Selections from each of the photographers are here collected in this extraordinary two-volume set of books.

Chamlee’s 8 x 10, 5 x 7, and 4 x 5-inch photographs are presented in Volume I, along with an essay by the noted Curator of Photography, Robert Sobieszek, a foreword by the well-known writer, Ferenc Máté, and a preface by the photographers. Volume II is a long-format book and contains Smith’s 8 x 20-inch photographs.

To insure the exacting standards that are a hallmark of Lodima Press, every detail in the production of these exquisite books was supervised by the photographers. The reproductions of the photographs, in 600-line screen quadtone and printed on heavy coated stock by Salto2 in Belgium, achieve unmatched fidelity to the original prints. Sturdy French-fold dust jackets protect and complete the elegant production of these fine books.

Publisher: Lodima Press

First Edition Signed Copy Price $ 95.00

Tony Mendoza : Flowers

admin — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:28:36 +0000

ISBN: 1-59005-170-x
Hardcover, 18 x 13, 64 pages, 50 four-color plates.

$75 First Edition Signed Copy

I had been a photographer for over 30 years and I had never taken pictures of flowers, mostly because I had always been a black and white photographer and photographing flowers in black and white seemed like an insult to the flowers. One of the reasons why I only worked in black and white is that I’m red-green colorblind and I’ve found it difficult to color balance prints in the darkroom. I noticed, though, that with Photoshop, even I could easily color balance images in the computer.

Printing pictures with a digital printer seemed like an improvement from printing in the darkroom. I could do it in the comfort of my office, listening to music while breathing clean air, and it would be a great relief to my back, which was starting to get seriously misaligned from bending over the darkroom sink. In the summer of 2004 I finally decided I had done enough darkroom work and closed it down. I bought a stack of Photoshop books, a digital SLR and an Epson wide printer.

On my first outing with the new camera I wanted to photograph something colorful — a major challenge in Columbus, Ohio. Carmen, my wife, who is an avid gardener, had a plot in the Grandview Community Garden, so I went down to her plot and started taking pictures of the flowers she had planted there. The neighboring plots, mostly vegetable gardens, also had some flowers.

From the beginning, I photographed with the camera very close to the ground, probably because I have a long history of photographing cats and dogs from a low vantage point, at their eye-level, and I’m used to looking at the world from down there. I liked how the low angle of view seemed to render flower pictures that were unfamiliar to my eyes, closer to the tradition of landscape photography or architectural photography than flower photography. I also found that stormy, foggy and overcast skies created great backdrops, like the backdrops in a photographer’s studio. Every picture shown here was taken with a strobe, partly because the flowers were always backlit by the sky, but also because I like what strobe lighting does to pictures.

All the pictures I made in 2004 were taken in the Grandview community garden, about one square block in size. I spent the following winter printing flower pictures, liking the results, and couldn’t wait to photograph a second summer.

I exhausted the Grandview garden rather quickly the second time around; Ohio had a dry and and very hot summer in 2005 and the flowers in the community garden looked awful. I found a small, well-watered horticultural garden at the Ohio State University and photographed there. I liked how the flowers were more varied and exotic.

In August I flew to San Francisco. I lived there in 1967, during the Summer of Love. I remember driving cross-country in a convertible, my hair flying in the wind, while the song which always seemed to be playing on the radio advised: “If you are going to San Francisco, make sure you wear flowers in your hair.” I remembered the flowers in Golden Gate Park, not only those worn by the flower children but also those growing in its many gardens. The fog that hovered over the park during my recent visit was an excellent neutral gray backdrop for flower photography.

— Tony Mendoza

Two Hearted Oak: The Photography of Roman Loranc

admin — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:48:34 +0000

Two Hearted Oak: The Photography of Roman Loranc

The Central Valley is the heart and soul of Two-Hearted Oak, a collection of photographs by Polish-born photographer Roman Loranc. Eloquent essays and poems by Lillian Vallee complement the photographs.

Capturing the drama in places that most people only drive past on their way to another destination, Loranc’s photographs shimmer with a vision that is at once romantic and magical, yet tinged with loneliness, melancholy, and longing. But ultimately we feel the artist’s relationship with the land, a connection that is full of love, beauty, and above all, reverence. These are portraits of places and moments deep in the heart of the Central Valley, places that resonate in the photographer’s art. Stark visions of freshwater marshes, valley oak woodlands, rain-swollen streams, and other scenes reveal themselves to us. Visually stunning and sometimes ephemeral, they are testaments to the workings of the human heart and psyche.

Two-Hearted Oak will delight anyone with an appreciation for nature and the art of photography. Roman Loranc’s visionary reflections are those of a unique artist whose palette captures light and form and transforms them into images reflecting a depth of feeling rarely found in nature photography. It is a fitting homage to the Central Valley.

Publisher: Great Valley Books / Heyday Books

First Edition Signed Copy: $450.00

Luis Delgado Power Ties

admin — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:46:56 +0000

Power Ties 2006
Poem by Shelley “Ozymandias”
25 Numbered editioned artist books 8.5” x 11”
Two accordion prints 8” x 75”, K3 pigment inks on alfa cellulose paper, two part aluminum box, four ply museum board, mirror & archival paper.

“Power Ties.” Photographer Luis Delgado cleverly investigates the physiognomy of leadership in this larger-than-life installation. Like clones of Mount Rushmore, statues of past presidents, captured in giant photographs, gaze impassively from opposite sides of the gallery. Each figure is composed of two images, a face and a bust, and the two halves are mismatched, exquisite-corpse style, so that no portrait appears in its original entirety. Instead, each image is a combination, not only of two personalities, but of two time periods and styles of dress.

So a face that looks like Gerald Ford (but could be William McKinley? I admit, I don’t know all my presidents by sight) appears atop a cravat more befitting John Adams. These small dissonances bring out similarities among the faces — Delgado has wisely omitted the most recognizable mugs like Lincoln and Washington — resulting in an installation that overwhelms and surprises us with sameness. All the craggy, presidential visages start to look alike. The overall effect is a bit like a fun-house hall of mirrors, in which every image is grotesquely distorted, yet familiar. As if in recognition of this effect, Delgado has placed a mirror in an elaborate gilt frame dead center between the rows of presidents so you can add yourself to the pantheon. Perhaps appearing “presidential” is more about the frame than the man.

Please contact the gallery regarding purchasing this book.

LISDEBERTUS aka Luis Delgado UNFATHOMABLE HUMANITY

admin — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:45:34 +0000

Unfathomable Humanity by Lisdebertus aka Luis Delgado 2006
Introductory text by Sharon Mizota
Edition of 25 numbered artist books
14 Interleaved plates, K3 pigment inks on alfa cellulose paper, bound with Chicago screws, masonite covers, aluminium hinges, and archival papers.
11” x 17” x 1”

Unfathomable Humanity is comprised of collages of photographs from various sources. The images are a free mixture of iconic historical images and pictures from the mass media. Luis Delgado has collected them over the years, and under the pseudonym Lisdebertus composes a new, personal statement on religion, history and social systems from them. By making connections between ineffable acts of violence and those who commit them – the leaders, who go unpunished – he reminds us that all violence has a perpetrator.

Please contact the gallery for more information 713.520.1200

Texas Rangeland by Burton Pritzker

admin — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:43:50 +0000

“If, upon completing your passage through this book, you believe that this work is solely about cattle, then you must go back and start seeing instead of just looking.” –from the Foreword Drive any highway from Austin to El Paso, and you’ll find the Texas of the imagination. When the towns string out like barbs on a wire fence and the cattle outnumber the cowboys, stop and you’re there. Squint in the sun’s glare, rest your eyes in the shade of a mesquite. Feel the day’s heat and the southwest wind that cools your skin. Breathe in the good smell of earth, and listen to the lowing of the drowsy cows. This is the Texas of dreams. And when you can’t go there, open this book. Burton Pritzker has sojourned in the Texas of dreams and brought it all back in these evocative, black-and-white photographs. In making pictures of those most Texan of icons–cows, bulls, and steers–Pritzker captures whole moments in time and place with all their play of forms, textures, and light. In his cattle, you’ll find sweetness, fragility, bravado, strength, and monumentality–the underlying essence of Texas itself. Accompanying the photos is a running commentary that blends the voices of many Texans looking at the images into a single voice telling stories of ranch life, of working with cattle, and of learning to see the realm of dreams in the everyday world around us.

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Signed Copy: $39.95

Big Bend Pictures by James H. Evans

admin — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 22:13:51 +0000

“Resisting the temptation of melon-hued sunsets, Evans works with documentary-style black-and-white photography. The landscapes he captures are not simply blasé, wide-angle homages to the hallowed frontier: they reveal Big Bend’s quirks and bemused attitudes, suggesting the hitherto blasphemous–namely, that the American West can have a sense of humor, and at times be downright weird. Above all, Evans is exposing beauty from its proper angles. To see Big Bend through his eyes is to gaze upon an altogether alien world, and in so doing, to feel our innocence reawaken.” -Robert Draper

It takes a long time to get to know the Big Bend. Just to look at all the mountains and canyons and desert horizons can take weeks of driving and hiking. And to get acquainted with the independent, self-contained, slightly quirky people who call this place home . . . well, that can take a lifetime. James Evans understands that. Recalling his decision to make the Big Bend his artistic muse and photographic subject, he says, “I moved here in 1988 to dedicate my life to the Big Bend and its people. I don’t shoot pictures and leave and make a book. This work is a slow accumulation of years of being here. The mountains are familiar friends and the people my heroes. I am one of them.” In this book, James Evans records the landscapes and the people of the Big Bend in all their beauty, harshness, and character. Images such as
Big Bend Pictures by James H. Evans

“South Rim with Agave,” “Eyes of the Chisos,” and “The Road to Candelaria” capture the distances, openness, and rough loveliness that draw people to this remote part of the Texas-Mexico border.

Evans’s photographs of people–legendary ranchwoman Hallie Stillwell, Kickapoo girls at a ceremonial dance, national park superintendent Ross Maxwell, school boys in Boquillas, Mexico, to mention only a few–show a deeply felt, but anti-sentimental understanding of his Big Bend neighbors. Other images, such as “Snake and Jesus,” “Drug Blimp,” and “Rope-O-Matic” reveal the whimsical, offbeat sensibility that sets Evans apart from others who have photographed the Big Bend. Also included are equally distinctive “Notes and Stories,” in which Evans talks about how he came to photograph each particular person and each place and what they mean to him. Robert Draper’s foreword pinpoints why Evans’s work has such irresistible appeal. In his words, “The photographs of James Evans celebrate the unburnished beauty of Big Bend country as a way of celebrating the free spirit. I see no way out of voicing the cliché: this is a deeply life-affirming collection.”

Publisher: University of Texas Press

First Edition Signed Copy: $50.00