The Scene

"My little stove is already burning. Oh, boy, how I wish we could sit together some evening, looking at the drawings and sketches and wood engravings. I have a splendid new one."
Vincent van Gogh, letter 237

Finally had a day where I feel like I am recovering from my illness. After running 3 miles I went into the darkroom and worked for 2-3 hours.

I worked on 2 more railyard snow negatives which I exposed last week, and then I chose a negative developed a few days ago from Door County - a small wooden fishing pier extending into Rawley Bay at sunrise. Of course, any time I see a pier jutting into water I think of Kenna's famous photograph at Lancashire. A photographer sent me a reproduction of it a few years ago, and it hangs in my darkroom.

Plank Walk, Lancashire, England
Michael Kenna

When I made the initial print of the pier and stared at it floating in the water tray, I knew it had the potential to be something special. I decided the sky could remain light and unobtrusive, as it only extends 2 inches into the picture. Obviously the pier was the focal point, but what made it stand out was the water, which was an off-shade of white in most areas.

As I tried to determine how to make the picture better, I gazed at Kenna's pier, and saw that he had purposefully burned in the right foreground to an almost solid black. This was an obvious exaggeration of the original scene, but that small patch of black is part of the mystery of the picture.

I tried to imagine the left foreground of my picture being black, and it struck me that it could work. So I planned out a 4 tiered dodging/burning scheme, and ended up with a print which I am very excited about.

Print Info Sheet for Rowley's Bay

So excited that for the first time I called Rachel down to the darkroom to have a look. I have always avoided calling Rachel down to the darkroom because she once told me that her father would sometimes call her mother down to have a look at his works in progress (he is a very talented b/w photographer). But I could not resist, and I teasingly told Rachel as she looked at the print in the water that I had just graduated from the Michael Kenna School of Photography.

I will plan to tone the prints tomorrow, I can't wait to see the finished print.

I had an unusual experience yesterday evening. Jim Becia stopped by my house to pick up the 3 prints he purchased, and as he looked through 2 boxes of my photographs I had a chance to listen to some of his photography stories. It occurred to me that living a solitary artistic life does not give me many opportunities to share insights and ideas about art and life. I enjoy my solitude, but I was reminded of my college days when I immensely enjoyed my time spent with Ward Smith, a painter, poet, musician, and mystic.

Portrait of Ward Smith
Printed 2002 or 2003

One striking thing Jim told me was that he had outgrown some of his earlier work. He could not now understand what had made him like it, because now he thought it not so good. "If we always like all of our work, doesn't that mean we are always remaining the same?" he said. This struck me because I realized that even my earliest pictures which I thought good, I still thought good. I have never wavered on my ability to judge what made a picture worthwhile.

During my first year or two of making pictures, I would not have many good pictures, maybe 1 negative out of 100. But that 1 picture which I thought good, still stands as good in my mind today.

I printed one of my first successful negatives (exposed in 1992) for a gallery in Switzerland in 2006. I made it on 5 x 7 paper, and included it for the gallery owner as a gift, as I thought a little 5x7 unsalable. However, not soon after I received some cash from him because he had sold the 5 x7. It was a good feeling, to have sold a photograph printed from a negative made during my first year of photography.

I think van Gogh once wrote, "either my work is all good, or it's all bad." I think what he meant by this, is that if an artist is always working for the truth, and is making an effort to always remain faithful to his vision, then the work will have a line of sincerity which runs from picture to picture, from first to last. Of course there will be some which miss the mark, but the pictures which are good, will always be good.

Does this mean Jim had strayed from his vision in some of his earlier work, or, did his vision progress to another place, leaving the old vision stale and unpalatable?

Just this one segment of our conversation ignited my mind and inspired it to contemplate and philosophize. While I will remain on my path of solitude, the rare times when I can speak one to one with an artist will not be shunned.

The 2 prints from yesterday's short session dried. Only average, but it led me to the pier print today, so it all fits together.

The Railyard, First Snow, No. 1
Printed 2008

Wim Mertens :