Frank's Pizza

If you've read this blog for very long you'll remember my unplanned overnighter in Green River, Utah last August.  That's the burg that was closed due to lack of interest but that yielded a bunch of poignant photographs like the erstwhile pizza joint called Frank's.

Short and sweet this time.

Then again

The Sketches of Winter series has enjoyed a blissful retirement these last three years. The thing is a done deal, finis and terminado. Yesterday's newspaper and so forth. Then again, when is a portfolio ever finished especially for me? So while snowshoeing at 10,000 feet near the height of land on NM Highway 64 between Tres Piedras and Tierra Amarilla this stand of twiglets appeared.

And this little number stripped bare by the wintery winds.

As to the fog series, it finally resides on my website. To see it go to www.steveimmelphotography.com and click on, surprise,The Fog Series in Portfolios.

Let me know what you think.

In the beginning

According to the gallery book that I put together for Open Shutter’s Tones of Black and White exhibition, the Fog Series began in 1970 with a photograph of a shambling old barn in Mendocino County just inland from the town of Mendocino on the way to Ukiah. I still remember the moment that I jumped out of our VW Beetle to catch the iconic scene.  Ever since the mysteries of fog have lurked in the deep reaches of my creative self only to emerge one summer morning at the Presidio of San Francisco in 2009.  It happened again while shooting the Putney Rowing Regatta on the Connecticut River of southern Vermont and once more on a more focused trip to the northern California coast this past summer. 

Here's that image from long ago. That it's from a scan of a forty three year old 35mm negative is pretty remarkable

Tones of Black and White

Tones of Black and White opens at the Open Shutter Gallery of Contemporary Photography in Durango, Colorado next Friday, January 10.  I am one of five photographers in the show, two of whom are luminaries, Mitch Dobrowner for his dramatic sky filled landscapes and the legendary Paul Caponigro for landmark still lifes and much more. James Cammack, Marshall Gould and I round out the roster. To be in a show with Paul Caponigro is pretty special and a major surprise.  I just learned about Paul and Mitch on Friday and have pretty much been walking on air since.

Included in the exhibition are eight images from my Fog Series, ones that were taken at the Presidio of San Francisco, Point Reyes National Seashore (both above), the Connecticut River Valley in Vermont (Just below) and the Maine coast. There's also one from a rare foggy day on my back forty here in Taos.

According to the press release from Margy Dudley at Open Shutter the show takes photography back to its visual roots and the photographers in the exhibition display elegant black and white images using different tones and perspectives. From Taos, NM Steve Immel’s sepia toned photographs of foggy landscapes elicit a feeling of quiet contemplation. Marshall Gould from Milpitas, CA provides crisp storytelling and composition. James Cammack from Bayfield, CO renders humorous and touching street photography. Mitch Dobrowner’s stunning black and white landscape photography and the timeless still lifes of legendary photographer Paul Caponigro complete the exhibition.

If you are know my Sketches of Winter series, the high contrast black and white photographs that resemble pen and ink drawings and have next to no midtones, you'll see that the images in the Fog Series are quite the opposite in that they are all about the grays,  toned as they may be. I've included a representative Sketch of Winter, Solo, to show how very different they are and yet how similar in abstraction and point of view. High key or low key they're all from the same warped mind.