AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

I have just returned from APIS a seminar held in Santa Fe New Mexico which is hosted by Bostick and Sullivan.

They are also the folks who make the chemicals for platinum, carbon, cyanotype, gum bichromate, and bromoil printing processes.

www.bostick-sullivan.com

Every other year they put on this wonderful seminar and bring guest speakers who talk about these alternative printing processes.

Or gave slide shows of their work and talked about their life's work and experiences as photographers.

Gordan who is second from the left is a Carbon printer. His images are beautiful!

I had the good fortune of finding out about APIS through Patrick Alt http://www.patrickalt.com/

Patrick is an amazing photographer and has been making images with very large format cameras for years. He is a platinum printer as well.
He brought with him a pin hole camera he built, (one of his many artistic talents includes wood working skills)..

Patrick and his large pin hole camera made with Zebra wood.
Patrick picked me up on his way from LA to New Mexico. When we arrived Dick Sullivan gave us a demonstration on Carbon printing.

Then let us make prints ourselves. His son Kevin made large negatives from two of my digital images which we then used to make the carbon prints. The first one
was a little problematic I didn't squeegee it right and it had a line across it. The print is quite delicate when it's wet. The second print
turned out very nice. I love the look of the carbon prints, there is a wonderful quality of depth and richness to the blacks.

I met Christina Anderson

She wrote two books on Alternative Process printing. She is a very she nice woman, who is extremely generous with her knowledge. Her books don't have any fluff in them, they are packed with detailed information, and the wealth of her experience. Check out these websites:

Christina Anderson

Alternative Photography

One of the guest speakers was Rondal Partridge. He is the son of Emogene Cunningham. He passed around some lovely Platinum prints and told great stories about his childhood and his life and experiences as a photographer. He has a great humor and entertained everyone. Rondal has a beautiful book out titled The Quizzical Eye. Here is a link for the book:
http://www.heydaybooks.com/public/books/qe.html

Another guest speaker was Kenro Izu http://www.kenroizu.com/

Kenro and his wife Kenro and me
He is doing something honorable in Cambodia. He built a children's hospital which is funded by his art photography books.

This link will take you to his website: Sacred Places

At APIS he gave a slide show of his sacred stones series and told stories about his sojourning. He is a lovely gentle natured man.

Take a look at his humanitarian project at this link: Friends Without Border

I met Russ Young and his wife April. Both are photographers. Russ has just completed his dissertation for his PHD which is about lenses, I think, something very technical and brilliant and he is considered The authority on this subject now, and i am ashamed to say I don't know anything about it, so I can't be any more specific. In addition to this he is an expert on Pin Hole cameras and has helped to design a number of different camera, which are like little pieces of art in themselves. Russ has also taught photography and was kind enough to take a couple hours to review and critique my work at his home. It was the most helpful and detailed review of my images anyone has ever taken the time to give me. He looked at every photo as if it were something special, and took in all the elements of the image, commenting on the design, composition, the color, and all the small details. His wife April and Patrick Alt were also very helpful, I felt honored to have their attention.

Sal Lopez was there at APIS. An extraordinary man and wonderful artist. He was the photographer for the Vietnam Memorial project, and the Aids Quilt Project. He makes platinum prints for some of the top fashion photographers in this country. He was not a speaker at APIS but he should have been. There were a number of people at the seminar who would gather around him asking his advice about making negatives for printing platinum images. His years of printing experience has giving him a wealth of information that he was happy to share. Sal very kindly took the time to review my work, he liked it, and he gave me much encouragement and some specific advice about how to proceed for which I am very greatful. His new series are portraits of horses, they are tender, lovely images. The close up details are beautiful, the expressions on the horses faces are almost human. He has a spiritual connection with them. Here is a link to his website:

Sal Lopes Photographs