Jerry Burchfield

I would be remiss if I didn't include a post about the late Jerry Burchfield here on 52 Photographers. I can only think of two or three other people who have had such a strong and lasting influence on me as an artist.

I first discovered Burchfield in 2005. I was researching presenters for the National Conference of the Society for Photographic Education held in Portland, Oregon. I was in the middle of completing my BFA project, which dealt with public parks. One of the lectures given was about the transformation of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, which closed in 1999, into a park and residential use. Burchfield, Mark Chamberlain and four other photographers embarked on the Legacy Project (you can see the project's website here), photographing and documenting the transformation of the land from air field to public park. My research led me Burchfield's lumen prints, a term he coined. Before then, I (along with the vast majority of the photographic community) was oblivious to the existence of such a thing as a lumen print. At least, as known by that name. The lumen print, which is really a variation of the photogram, has it's roots in the photogenic drawings William Henry Fox Talbot did in the mid-1830's. Anna Atkins followed in Talbot's footsteps, publishing her book Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, which is considered to be the first book illustrated by photographs. Then the photogram process (though still not known by that term) became popular in Europe in a post-World War 1 art movement. First Christian Schad, a German, experimented with the process, humbly (note the sarcasm) naming his works Schadographs, then Man Ray made similar images, and named his works Rayographs. Then the Hungarian Laszlo Moholy-Nagy produced his own work, and named the process the Photogram, which is still in use today. 

For over 7 years, Burchfield traveled to the Amazon to make his lumen prints on-site, on the deck of a boat. His aim was to "create images that are free of inherent bias and commentary while still expressing ecological concerns by drawing attention to the beauty of the place."

I was stunned at the beauty of Burchfield's images, and even further stunned when I learned how simple the lumen process is, and that the different colors came from black and white photographic materials!

I learned only a few years ago that Burchfield passed away in 2009 from colon cancer, but his legacy still lives on, and his influence on my work is still greatly felt today.

Carol Panaro-Smith & James Hajicek

I've long been an admirer of and influenced by the work of collaborative duo James Hajicek and Carol Panaro-Smith. I discovered their photogenic drawing work around 2004-2005 when I was really getting into making Lumen prints.

Their work hearkens back to, and indeed is directly born from William Henry Fox Talbot, the originator of photogenic drawings, the experiments for which began in 1834. He discovered that paper coated with a salt solution, then brushed with silver nitrate turned black when exposed to light, and a final coat of salt halted that darkening. He then made what is essentially a photogram, placing botanical specimens on the sensitized paper, and exposing it to sunlight. Thus, the "photogenic drawing," and one of the first successful photographic processes was born.

Today, James and Carol use variations of Talbot’s early formulas, and create beautiful pieces that are layered, possess depth, and have fantastic textures. I remember being stunned at the colors and textures the first time I saw their work, and those same feelings return each time I look at their work.

Earth Vegetation 08/17

Their compositions are so simple and organic, as if they clamped the plants between the glass and paper right where the plants grew out of the dirt.

Earth Vegetation 06/01

A paragraph, and specifically the last half of it, of their artist statement for their latest body of work, Arc of Departure, resonates in me, and describes the experience of making this sort of work so much better than I’ve been able to in the past:

“The work evolved in stages from its initial intellectual underpinnings through a focus on the physicality of the remaining organic artifact to the spirituality of experiencing “the awe” of being in the immediate presence of this sacred transformative act - magic in its very essence, ruled by serendipity, elusive mysteries, fugitive images, and the ruling master of all – the ultimate impermanence of everything.”

Arc of Departure 09/09

Be sure to visit their website, and you can read an article about their work on Lenscratch. It’s well worth it to spend some time with their work, which can be seen at the Joseph Bellows Gallery, the photo-eye Gallery, and the Tilt Gallery.