Tuesday, September 8, 2015

The Last Dad Exhibition Photograph

Here is the last exhibition photograph (I managed to just finish off this last one) for the  coming Rosebud "My Fathers Last Days" exhibition. I have 12 "My Fathers Last Day" photographs ready for the show including 5 new images that were not shown at the Exposure photography festival exhibition in February. I also have 14 "Families of the Dump" photos ready and waiting to be loaded into the camper van.

I doubt I will enough room to hang 26 photographs in Rosebuds Akokiniskway Gallery but I will take them all down South with me and fit in what I can fit in. I will also take along some variations of individual prints that I can change out depending on the galleries lighting.

Here it the final "My Father" print, I spotted, cut the over mat and framed it during tonight's security night shift. I am quite happy with the print outside of a little colour shift in the shoulder area that was caused in the toning. I will have to try toning the Iford cooltone for less time next printing session from 2 minutes to 1 minutes or mix a more dilute concentrate maybe 1/40 versus 1/20. The Durst 138S condenser enlarger is a beautiful machine that did a nice job with this 5x7 neg combined with a #5 Agfa filter. I feel I did effective burning and dodging on the print, the bleaching also helps focus attention on my fathers face. Overall its a pretty strong print and photograph, one of the better ones I did of dad during his last year. I wish I could show the photo to him, he would be a bit shocked I think and sad to see himself like that but he would also accept the photo as a fair representation/interpretation of the reality he faced. I think he would appreciate the fact that he is being remembered (even in this difficult state).

I am trying to figure out some way to get mom to Rosebud to see all of dads photos hanging in the gallery. Maybe I can get her there on the October 24th before the work is taken down.

Note* Someday I would like to do a major exhibition of the photographs made this last year with dad. I would like to do a large show at an established important gallery, maybe 40-50 or so big 20x24+ size works, I think I have the quality and quantity of negs to pull that off.

Dad the last week of his life, February 2015