Category Archives: Photography Philadelphia

Philadelphia photographers and photographs.

Silicon Fine Art Prints at studio:christensen

Silicon Fine Art Prints at studio:christensen

Silicon Fine Art Prints at studio:christensenphoto by Jeff Stroud

Silicon Fine Art Prints at studio:christensen

Silicon Fine Art Prints at studio:christensen, photo by Jeff Stroud

Did you ever want to print one of your photos big, really big, like 64″ wide and almost as long as you want? Silicon Fine Art Prints has six Epson wide format printers at their disposal to make your dreams come true, plus they will help you realize your passion with expert advise. That’s why many of Philadelphia’s finest fine art photographers trek to Old City to have their prints made. And for the month of September studio:christensen, on 20th Streetis displaying a collection of incredibly imaginative images produced in the Silicon Fine Art Prints workshop.

studio:christensen is a unique gallery/design space/pop-up shop featuring art, furniture, fashion and photography for the discerning urban dweller. Just walking by the storefront is inspiring, going inside to meet the friendly owner Jt Christensen and his (may DoN say) glamorous assistant Joanna Babarakos is to step into a world of approachable yet unusual design and art.

Silicon Fine Art Prints at studio:christensen

Silicon Fine Art Prints at studio:christensen

Silicon Fine Art Prints at studio:christensen

Silicon Fine Art Prints at studio:christensenJoel Lederer

When one enters the gallery, the modern art mixed with beautiful furnishings is satisfyingly uplifting. But Joel Lederer‘s bold pair of enormous prints draws you towards them like a magnet. DoN asked Joel Lederer about the luminous prints, “The images are from a game called Second Life, it’s an on-line 3D virtual world, a massive multi-user on-line role playing game. What this project is, is essentially landscape photography, straight landscape photography, inside that virtual world. And it’s like a survey of essentially different styles that are used to create that community. What’s unique about it is that whereas other games have sort of a set narrative, and a set aesthetic, Second Life’s content is built by the users. You can go in there and rent virtual land and decorate it however you want and bring your own content and textures. I thought that was kind of interesting, so my goal was to bring as many different types of styles of landscape photography within that world.”

Silicon Fine Art Prints at studio:christensen

Silicon Fine Art Prints at studio:christensen

Joel Lederer continues, “In the beginning I was like how do I take a survey view? A documentary view? I figured since the virtual world is built from styles of the real world, I’d have to emulate the individual styles.” DoN asked if it’s a screen shot? “It’s a little more difficult than that, but it’s like a high resolution screen shot.”

Silicon Fine Art Prints at studio:christensen

Silicon Fine Art Prints at studio:christensen

Joel Lederers work is also on display at SITE Santa Fe, in a show called More Real. “A whole show about truthiness and virtuality.”

More Real? Art in the Age of Truthiness presents work by some of today’s most accomplished and promising international artists who are examining our shifting experience of reality. Over the past century, during a period of unprecedented technological change and global social upheaval, once-established beliefs, or “truths,” have been cast into doubt, changing and shaping our understanding and experience of reality. Through diverse media and in unexpected ways, this exhibition explores the impact and role of deception, play, memory, power, simulation, and new technologies on art and everyday life.”  SITE Santa Fe website.  

Written and Photographed by DoN Brewer except where noted, thanks to photographer, Jeff Stroud

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Derek Jecxz, Forsaken Waters, Twenty-Two Gallery

Derek Jecxz, Forsaken Waters, Twenty-Two Gallery

Derek Jecxz, Forsaken WatersTwenty-Two Gallery

Derek JecxzForsaken WatersTwenty-Two Gallery is a collection of photographs of desolate scenes of water, eerily beautiful and mysterious landscapes far from civilization. The exhibition is a combination of photographs printed on paper and aluminum, DoN spoke with the artist at the opening about the process to print on metal. Derek Jecxz explained, “About sixteen or seventeen of them are on aluminum and they were very difficult to do. There is probably between five and ten hours work in each one. Cleaning the aluminum, getting the chemicals off of it, sanding the aluminum multiple times and then prepping it again and then coating it with a chemical so that I could then get it through and printed on.”

Derek Jecxz, Forsaken Waters, Twenty-Two Gallery

Derek JecxzForsaken WatersTwenty-Two Gallery

“And then it has to dry for five days, then I have to varnish it, and then I have to trim it off the big metal sheet.”

“Wow!” said DoN. “I know!.” said Derek, “I think I bit off more than I could chew. And then you have to try and keep it flat. I’m using an Epson 9800, but I’m not running the metal directly through, I attach it to a carrier sheet, I didn’t have the confidence of running the metal right through. So I tape it to a big sheet of paper and run that paper through, this way I’m not going to ruin the printer on the edges. That was my main fear.”

Derek Jecxz, Forsaken Waters, Twenty-Two Gallery

Derek JecxzForsaken WatersTwenty-Two Gallery

DoN asked if it’s such a laborious process how did Jecxz decide which images to use? “Well, I knew the subject of the show was going to be water because that was my predominant theme. When I did a series of tests I noticed that if a picture had a light element in it, it allowed the luminescence of the aluminum to shine through, so that was an easy decision for me. The process was difficult because of a lot of false starts, I tried stainless steel, I tried different sanding techniques – a lot of false starts.

DoN wondered why the photographer didn’t use a commercial producer? “I did find two vendors, one vendor sells aluminum sheets with a max width of twenty inches, I can’t use that with medium format photography for big prints twenty inches doesn’t work. Another company sells very, very shiny aluminum and it’s not what I liked.”

Derek Jecxz, Forsaken Waters, Twenty-Two Gallery

Derek JecxzForsaken WatersTwenty-Two Gallery

Distinguishing between the aluminum and paper prints is difficult, which is which?  Derek Jecxz explained, “Anything with plexi is paper anything that has no cover is aluminum. You can see my hand from sanding it, everything is personal, I stamp each one and everything is unique. So this starts out as a three by three foot sheet, I hand sand it for about five hours multiple times and then the process goes from there. The smaller ones were easier than the larger ones but you can see where the white really came through.”

Derek Jecxz shoots with Hasselblad , some film, some digital but most of the photographs are digital. DoN commented that whenever he takes his camera to the beach it doesn’t work so well because of the humidity. Derek said, “I was standing in the water, probably knee deep or higher, with the waves crashing in. I will risk the gear to take the shot, the gear is irrelevant. You’re there to make a picture not protect your gear.”

The illusion of whiteness in Derek Jecxz‘s photographs is uncanny, the somewhat matte finish to the metal shows through where white in the picture is because printers don’t print white ink. The presentation is exquisite with the photographs mounted in hand-made frames, the room filled with images of distant places and primordial seascapes. Twenty-Two Gallery is located on 22nd Street and has twenty-two member artists, the solo show in the front gallery visible from the street and an intimate gallery with works by the twenty-one other member artists.

Written and Photographed by DoN Brewer

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Absolutely Abstract 2012

John Styner, Absolutely Abstract 2012 at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

John Styner, Kerovac, digital painting, Absolutely Abstract 2012 at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

As a little DoNsterDoN dreamed of becoming an abstract artist. Stop reading if you’ve heard this story before but when Donnie was in the second grade he announced one evening at dinner he wanted to be an abstract artist when he grew up. Life magazine wrote about Jackson Pollack with color pictures of the wild action paintings seemingly anyone could do, Maynard G. Krebs was a beatnik icon on TV and American in Paris was a dream life-style for an artsy little boy. DoN‘s parents were appalled.

Kenneth Weiner, Quarks, Absolutely Abstract 2012 Philadelphia Sketch Club

Kenneth Weiner, Quarks, acrylic, Absolutely Abstract 2012 at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Abstract art is popular and accessible because it takes elements of reality and transforms them into something new allowing the viewer to see and feel whatever the image is transmitting. A mid twentieth century invention, abstraction is now everywhere in modern culture, how then do artists invigorate the style. Kenneth Weiner‘s Quarks layers colors in deep tones and lifts up through complementary films of washed on tones interjected with slashes of fire red in animistic actions and impressionistic light. This style of painting is recognizable as abstract yet has a narrative explained in color.

Su Knoll Horty, Absolutely Abstract 2012 Philadelphia Sketch Club

Su Knoll Horty, Deception in Pink, oil on canvas, Absolutely Abstract 2012 at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Alan Fetterman, Absolutely Abstract 2012 Philadelphia Sketch Club

Alan Fetterman, Area, oil, Absolutely Abstract 2012 at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

The Absolutely Abstract 2012 show represents a particular vision of the state of the art of abstraction in The Philadelphia region, a school of thought that permeates the show with many styles, techniques and media. Alan Fetterman‘s dense layers of color and multiple dimensions reads like a compendium of thought on the once controversial now ubiquitous style, easily drawing the viewer into an imaginary world where paint can do anything. The mastery of paint and brushwork, the illusory landscape, surreal dreamscapes still inspires the artistic memories of a little boy who wanted to grow up to be an abstract artist.

Absolutely Abstract 2012 at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Absolutely Abstract 2012 at The Philadelphia Sketch Club – click the thumbnail

Look Mom & Dad! Little Donnie grew up to be an abstract artist after all. light being (Frank) appears to be the only photograph in the show, it is an honor to once again be included with the fantastical abstract paintings filling the historic gallery at The Philadelphia Sketch Club.

The artist reception and awards ceremony is Sunday, September 9th, 2012, 2:00-4:00pm, 235 South Camac Street, Philadelphia, The Avenue of the Artists.

Written and Photographed by DoN Brewer

light being (Frank), Absolutely Abstract 2012 at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Absolutely Abstract 2012 at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Absolutely Abstract 2012 at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Absolutely Abstract 2012 at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

light being (Frank), Absolutely Abstract 2012 at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

light being (Frank)DoN Brewer, digital photograph, Absolutely Abstract 2012 at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

On the way to deliver my entries for the annual Absolutely Abstract show at The Philadelphia Sketch Club I had the usual reservations entering a landscape photograph in the abstract show. But once again another of my abstract landscape images from the light being series is included along with the painters, I am humbled and honored to have my work recognized as an abstract image drawn directly from the real world.

Absolutely Abstract 2012 at The Philadelphia Sketch Club 8/31 – 9/22/2012, Reception 9/9/2012 2-4:00pm

Written and Photographed by DoN Brewer

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DoN Brewer, Abstract Photography

DoN Brewer, Abstract Photography, Sky Holes, digital photograph, inkjet print © DoN Brewer

DoN Brewer, Abstract Photography, Sky Holes, digital photograph, inkjet print

Sky Holes, a photograph of tree shadows on garden gates has been accepted in this year’s Art Ability International Juried Arts Exhibit for People Living with Disabilities at Bryn Mawr Rehab Center in Malvern, PA. The image plays a few optical tricks and color ways that are intriguing – the gray color on the left where the sun hits the black wood is the same tone as the shadow falling on the white door on the right, the green in the middle appears in the shadow but turns white in the light. The illusion of soft focus is the result of light shining through the spaces between the leaves and branches of the trees making sky holes of illumination. The term abstract is appropriate to apply to this landscape photograph because the image modifies the objects in the setting to patterns and colors, separates the elements from a concrete reality and emphasizes generalized shapes.

DoN Brewer, Abstract Photography, light being (Dee), digital photo, © DoN Brewer

DoN BrewerAbstract Photography, light being (Dee), digital photo

This photo appeared in The Plastic Club‘s Members Choice Art Show in August, read my story about light being (Dee) at SideArts.com.

DoN Brewer, Abstract Photography, light being (Frank), digital photo, © DoN Brewer

DoN BrewerAbstract Photography, light being (Frank), digital photograph, 2012

light being (Frank) is for all the departed Franks – Zappa, Sinatra, Anne – but the title is influenced by a favorite dance song called Frank Sinatra by Felix da Housecat – the lyrics go:

every night with my star friends

we eat caviar and drink champagne

sniffing in the v.i.p. area

we talk about frank sinatra

you know frank sinatra?

he’s dead…dead?

ha, ha, ha

The first DoNster who guesses the location where light being (Frank) was shot will get a free print.

Through SideArts.comDoN is offering online and in-person one-on-one consulting services to visual and craft artists and art businesses.  Read all about it here.

Written and Photographed by DoN Brewer

Follow DoN on Twitter @DoNNieBeat58

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