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jen besemer - gorgeous hybrids and recombinant poetry
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Seeing Double: Two Kinds of Double-Exposures with Polaroid Cameras
Polaroid Spectra shots using Impossible Project films
Big Bang: New Studio Visit
My Treat
EmergencyINDEX is out!

Most Popular Posts

Poet Crush: Geof Huth
more sun stuff: advanced solar printing
Meet the new site--not the same as the old site!
Walter Hamady's work at Corbett vs. Dempsey
A Studio Visit

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News and Notes

photography

Big Bang: New Studio Visit

It's been a long time since I posted about what's happening in the studio.  I've lost interest somewhat in traditional oil painting, though I'm confident there will come a time when the paint imperative takes hold once more.  I've got a stash of new canvases on standby, for when I catch the flash of motivation for the painting project I'm toying with in my head.

Instead of painting, lately I've returned to photography (the discipline I've pursued for as many years as I've devoted to poetry).

My Treat

Last week I bought myself a treat to celebrate my participation in the "Visual Poetics" exhibition this month at Addison Center for the Arts. 

I went to see the wonderful people atA&A Studiosand bought a used Polaroid Spectra camera, as seen here.   I actually bought their advertised Spectra Starter Kit, because it came with a three-pack of all three Impossible Projectâ„¢ films created for use in the Spectra.  

In the days before digital photography (and way before cameraphones, much less smartphones and pads) the exciting Polaroid camera family made available vast new ranges of possibility for impatient photographers.

Happy New Year!

Here's a little photo I took called "Redeye." It's my own nod and wink to the new year, in hope of a brilliant if unclear future.  (And hey, if you look really closely in the top lens, you'll see me!)

Some of you might want to know that I have work inBlazeVOX11 Winter 2011, hot off the server today! You can view the issue in its fullscreen glory (and/or download it) here.  I've also included links on my Artist Info and Web Publications pages, for the sake of total redundancy.

more sun stuff: advanced solar printing

Yesterday, I wrote about how to make photograms using paper treated with UV-sensitive cyanotype emulsion, available from various manufacturers.  Now I'd like to share some ideas for how to take that process a little further, by using the same paper to create a more traditional photographic image.  I'll be showing you two very similar processes using inkjet-printer transparencies.  One procedure creates a print with inverted values--like a photonegative.  The other procedure uses a negative transparency and produces a fine blue-as-blue-can-be photo print.

sunny day fun: camera-free photography

Now that it's properly summer in Chicago, it's time to take the art outdoors whenever possible.  One way to do that is by taking the camera out and roaming the city (country, world); I've been doing that for a long time and obviously I love it.  But there are other ways to make photographs even without a camera.  One of these ways is to make solar photograms (often called "sunprints," in the same way that facial tissues are called by the brand name of their most popular manufacture).
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