My New Black and White Photography Exhibited at the Rymer Gallery Nashville

Mothers, lock up your daughters. Parents, shield your children. I am very happy to let you all know that I am breaking my temporary exhibition hiatus. I will be showing a brand spanking new body of work at the Rymer Gallery in Downtown Nashville kicking off on the July First Saturday Gallery Crawl.

This show is significant to me for several reasons:

• Home turf. With other art pioneers I helped launch the Nashville First Saturday Gallery Crawl.
• The Rymer Gallery is located right across the street from the Arcade Building where my studio and gallery is located.
• The Rymer Crew, Including Tonia, Herb, Brian, and Mike have been close friends since I moved to Nashville and began this phase of my life. I can't say enough about them.
• My new body of work is strait black and white photography. I haven't shown black and white photography in over 10 years.

The Photo Capturing Process

I set out a month ago to find a theme or a style to present. Never content, my philosophy for creating a portfolio is very similar to creating a cohesive music album or record.

The one theme that I wanted the photography to center around was Nashville. The challenge was communicating Nashville without presenting cheese. This town is well documented photographically. In fact, we have some of the best photographers in the world here.

I went out to several historical areas and landmarks around downtown Nashville and began to create images. This was the research and development phase. From there I studied the weather and where and when the sun would provide optimal light for the images I envisioned. Thankfully weather is dynamic. The sun is predictable, but clouds and my schedule are not. There is perfect, negotiable, and total failure. That's life!

There were several times when I went to a location and the sun, light, and cloud combination were less then ideal. The solution is to wait or come back another time or day.

I came back to each location several times. Hustling to catch light, or waiting till an ideal cloud formation emerged

The Photo Printing Process

As I stated, I haven't created pure black and white prints since my days in the darkroom. Printing technology was holding me back. I now have a phenomenal Epson printer that creates luminous black and white prints that are both neutral and archival.

I chose to print the images on Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper which is a cold press fine art paper that renders deep blacks and striking tones.

Details for the Opening of My Photograpy Exhibition

• Opening: Saturday, July 3rd, 2010
• At: The Rymer Gallery, Downtown Nashville (map)
• Time: 6pm - 9:30pm Central
• The show will be up for a month. If you can't make it you will have plenty of time to visit. Just remember, the Rymer like most galleries, is closed on Mondays and Sundays.