Stephen Johnson Photography Blog: The View From Here

Glacial Dome, Iceland. 2009

THE VIEW FROM HERE

Exquisite Earth : A Photographic Exhibition Constructed and Open

The show is up, the Opening a good success, a few weeks have gone by and I continue to be pleased as I walk the hall of the Exquisite Earth installation. It might be that it doesn't get any better than that.

As we now try to document the Exquisite Earth show, edit video of the opening, and continue efforts to let people know it is here, it now seems like a completely different entity than when it was in creation. And it is. This Exhibition is now a business as well as an artistic statement. Now the value of having created this show is measured by exposure, income and still most importantly by viewers being moved. And of course how it drives me forward.

These photographs are now fixed renditions of my experience. The distance from the creation of the prints is now sufficient to see the photographs as separate from their making. Now they are jewels of the earth and process, still mostly unbelievable, even to me, even with my eye behind the camera for each exposure. The detail, real color, the re-creation of my visual experience, these are the qualities that make my heart warm and give me the satisfaction of creation.

The moments remain magic and have moved back into the realm of feeling like I couldn't have had anything to do with this work, it is beyond my capabilities of seeing or creation. A little distance and the work moves beyond me, quickly. It sounds full of ego or pride to say it's too good to be from my hand, but mine are such imperfect hands. I think it is really that curious mixture of asking much of ourselves, trying so hard to reach high, and even when the reach is far less than perfect, it can be rewarding to a degree that pushes us forward, into more work, harder work, more risk, more heart, more soul poured into the art. Satisfaction, seduction and a big kick in the butt to do more work.

Maybe this is how we keep working. Driving ourselves to follow our creative compulsions and asking more than is reasonable. Reaching part of that distance feels great, as we forget just how hard it was and we are amazed that we could have done it at all, feeling like it would be impossible to ever match the same level, then driving yourself to prove it again, at least to yourself.

I continue to be humbled by what I've been privileged to see as I've wandered this planet and now put on these walls. It feels like a touch of wonder.

A Virtual Walk down the Gallery. QuickTime pano of Exquisite Earth Installation East Wall (photos are digitally tipped-in).

A Virtual Walk down the Gallery. QuickTime pano of Exquisite Earth Installation West Wall (photos are digitally tipped-in).

Of course one of the fundamental and ongoing issues is how do we get people to see the work? My studio and gallery may be in an Art Center, and near one of the great cities of the world, San Francisco, but street traffic is low, and visitation has to be intentional. Setting up shop in a more commercial urban or tourist center is not a goal for me.

We have to reach out for the work to be seen. Letting people know it is here via the internet, scheduling open gallery days and evenings when we can be here beyond normal work hours, and a show closing event as we ready the next exhibition may all be worth doing.

Extended Gallery Hours:

Thursday February 3, 2011 7-10pm
Saturday February 5, 2011 12-5pm

Acknowledgments

A special thanks to my assistants Elizabeth Bredall and Emma Simmons for their help with the exhibit. And to my friends and former students Darin Steinberg and Carl Schwab. movie

Video of Opening December 10, 2010 by Tom Adams.

A Video Record

I asked my friend videographer Tom Adams to make a video of the exhibition opening, including the 15 minute talk, the conversations, the questions and the repartee. Linked above is our first take on an edit of the the evening's events, concentrating here mostly on excerpts from my talk, later to come an expanded version including discussions of the photographs and other conversations.

Building An Exhibit and an Experience by Emma Simmons

Many or most of us have been to art exhibits. Some of us have had our own work as a part of an exhibit, but for me, it wasn't until I was working side by side with Steve for his Exquisite Earth exhibit where I realized all of the details and intricacies that go into showing your own work. With limited time and an abundance of absolutely stunning images that fit the theme Exquisite Earth, each day leading up to the exhibit had its own challenge.

Decisions such as which pen or pencil to use to sign the prints, the placement and spacing between hanging the photographs, to which images would actually make it into the exhibit, were made in the days leading up to the opening. Helping Steve with this exhibit from the initial ideas to critiquing the show, I felt rewarded in his trust for the opinion of us helping with his show. The hallway was lined with possible candidates to be hung on the wall and the question kept rolling through my mind "how do you show one piece and not the other?"

It wasn't until we had everything printed and we were rearranging the photographs that it all worked out like a puzzle, everything perfectly fitting. Some images worked exceptionally well with another image hung directly above or beside it, others were complimented on their own from places that still continue to amaze me, no matter how many times i have looked at the image on screen, by proofs or physically hanging on Steve's gallery wall, truly an Exquisite Earth.