SKETCH BOOK - 2015

 “Sketch-book” is a series of silver-gelatin photographic images that reference the book in some form. The artists’ sketch-book is a place where ideas are tested, angles-of-view re-worked, and skills developed and honed. Countless artists stack and store their sketch-books, exhibitions are curated around the sketch-book, and museums and libraries collect the most worthy. Unlike the artist’s sketch-book, the writer’s pad has been supplanted by the digital medium and the writer’s false-starts, workings, deletions, and re-organizations are now invisible. Likewise instead of the linear development of ideas represented by photographers’ contact sheets; photographers now edit away the evolution of their photographs. In my digital archive, I now keep only my marginally acceptable images and better – all the rest is digital dust. So this is my digital sketch book, referencing the freedom and playful potential of the artist’s sketchbook – rendered as silver-gelatin photographs – that most durable and long-standing of photographic media.

“Sketch-book” is part of a larger photographic series about the production properties of photography and books. It questions the veracity of the photographic image at a time when both photography and books have gone through an inflexion point – moving from the physical object to the electronic. Along with more lofty objectives, the project also addresses the realization that a large part of my knowledge and skills, once deemed essential, are now Instagram filters.

Each image is 15" x 15" and printed on silver gelatin photographic paper

The grid, as shown here, is 12.75 feet x 4.4 feet