Camera Arts by the Artist from Black Master Printer John Sexton Shares His And-White Negatives
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CameraArts JULY I AUGUST 1982 VOLUME 2, NUMBER 4 DEPARTMENTS PHOTOGRAPHS Editor's Journal Philip Alan Rosenberg AND THE WINNER IS ... ASLEEP IN THE DEEP 4 -Jim Hughes 26 Underwater photographs of the Japanese fleet sunk by American airpow Correspondence er in the lagoon at Truk. PATENTS AND PRESERVATIONS -Philip Alan Rosenberg 7 George W. Gardner AMERICA ILLUSTRATED Perspectives 34 PHOTOGRAPHY IS NOT ART Middle America, seen through the eye of an itinerant chronicler of the 8 A surrealist master considers the un American scene. easy relation between photography and -Jim Hughes painting, between art and craft, and won Dr. Erich Salomon ders when the human hand will catch up KING OF THE INDISCREET with the camera. -Man Ray 46 A selection of revealing shots of 15 the diplomatic upper crust taken una MAN TO MAN: A distinguished wares, between the world wars, by the American poet recalls his several meet man for whom the term "candid camera" ings with Man Ray. was coined. -Ron Padgett -Peter Hunter Books John Sexton THE STUFF OF HISTORY ISOLATIONS 16 Instantly, the present becomes the 56 A portfolio of black-and-white past. Neighborhood, a photographic record landscapes which concentrate on ele of contemporary East Baltimore, Mary ments in a vista, and interpret them in land, underscores the characteristic pow glowing prints that define the state of er of the camera to memorialize the liv the art. ing subject. -Robert Baker -Richard F. Snow Todd Walker Technique THE PRINTED DESERT GENESIS OF A FINE PRINT 7 4 66 Photolithographic color images of The secrets of a fine print lie with the Arizona desert created specifically in the printer, not in chemicals or paper. for Camera Arts by the artist from black Master printer John Sexton shares his and-white negatives. techniques and philosophy in the dark -William Johnson room through a step-by-step presenta tion of his craft. SERVICES -John Sexton with Steve Pollock 80 End Paper NOTES ON THE PHOTOGRAPHS EPILOGUE 82 NEW & NOTEWORTHY 1 0 2 -Robert Lowell 86 TOOLS OF THE ART Photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson Page 56 98 PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITIONS CAMERA ART S (ISSN-0271-1583) published monthly by Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, One Park Avenue, New York, New York 10016. Richard P Friese, President, Selwyn Taubman, Treasurer, Bertram A. Abrams, Secretary. One-year subscription in U.S. and Possessions, $18; Canada, 521; all other countries, 523, cash order only, payable in U.S. currency. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Camera Arts, PO. Box2783, Boulder, Colorado80302. Second-class postage paid at New York, New York, and at additional offices. COPYRIGHT c 1982 BY ZIFF-DAVIS PUBLISHING COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Isolations Photographs by John Sexton Text by Robert Baker ohn S xton draws quiet, printing," he says. "I spend a � . Jsometimes mystenous lot of time on my prints; I photographs from the land, find it exciting. There are few and he prints them in lush places where time travels tones of black and white with faster than in the darkroom." tangible presence and depth. Watching Sexton work in In one decade of work in the the darkroom, it becomes clear medium, he has become that he is perfectly happy and known as a talented at home there. His movements photographer, workshop have a fluid and efficient teacher, and superb darkroom quality that bespeaks long craftsman. practice. He moves lightly "I've always been interested around the baseboard of his in the unique qualities that enlarger, counting his can be conveyed by a burning-in times to the black-and-white silver print," rhythmic tick of a he says. "To me, the print is metronome-a lesson he very important as an object in learned from Ansel Adams' itself. Sometimes printing can books long before they met. be a pretty emotional Sexton is now photography experience, perhaps as assistant to Adams, and he important as making the works full time in Ansel's photograph." darkroom studio in Carmel, His photographs bear out California. his words, each clearly the A product of the Los product of meticulous care. "I Angeles area, Sexton says his love to print. I tend to be first love in high school careful, especially in making was-naturally enough-the negatives, but I also do automobile, and he turned to whatever works, or whatever ·photography as a means to feels good, when I'm document his fascination with Trees, Mist, Yosemite, California; Qknegative, 1978; print, 1980. 57 racing cars. He pursued photography in college, but for his first few years, he cast a somewhat suspicious eye on all art and artists. His ambition then was to be a hard-boiled industrial photographer doing executive portraits one day and recording corporate landscapes from the firm's helicopter the next. John Sexton's idea of what photography can be changed drastically after he attended Ansel Adams' Yosemite Workshop in 1973: "For the first time, I saw people who didn't put down their cameras at 5 o'clock and go home." When Sexton went home, one of the first things he did was to quit his job as a wedding photographer. He was later offered a scholarship to attend Chapman College in California as a photography major, and began devouring art courses he had previously shunned. A few of his photographs from these early years have survived among his personal favorites. But where many of his early photographs portray the beauty of the landscape, his more recent work reflects complexity and ambiguity. One influence in this direction was Wynn Bullock-what Sexton calls "the quality of strangeness" in some of unset, Panther Beach, Near Santa SCruz, California; negative, 1978; print, 198 1 (opposite). Frost Covered Boulders, Yosemite National Park; negative, 1980; print, 198 1 (following page). 59 Bullock's work, particularly the ghostly images of water in motion. He also credits Paul Caponigro as an influence on his seeing. "The things that strike me, photographically, are often those that are eerie or strange: With some of my forest photographs, for example-! don't know how long people would want to wander in that forest. And I'm not sure I want it to be completely comfortable for them. Of Sunset, Panther Beach, one of the more mysterious and evocative of his images, the photographer says, "It has some universal quality; it's not just about that one person in the ocean. I have another negative I made there without the man in it; I guess at one time I would have printed that one. But I selected the one with the figure in it because it has that eerie quality." Cows is another mysterious image. Sexton likes the "unreality" of it, but there is another element that appeals to him: "I consider it humorous. We photographers sometimes take ourselves a little too seriously." No one ever accused Sexton of lack of humor; he is well known in the Carmel area for his impish impersonations of ite Branch, Merced River, wYosemite Valley, California; negative, 1974; print, 198 1. 63 I voice and mannerism. He once Friends of Photography in startled Ansel Adams out of Carmel. With fellow his chair by addressing photographers Ray McSavaney him from behind in the and Bruce Barnbaum, he unmistakable voice of Brett directs the Owens Valley Weston. Photography Workshops in Sexton's photographs tend Agoura, California. to speak softly. Seldom does Sexton manages to be he portray the landscape on ebullient and serious about a grand scale, and he notes photography at the same time, that relatively few of his and students clearly find this images even include sky or an appealing combination. At clouds. Instead, he approaches the Yosemite Workshop, he the large issues of life through became known as someone details and isolated views. who gave unstintingly of his Isolation, in fact, is a word he time; print critiques and considers more relevant to his discussions in his class became work than the more usual a principal focus of activity notion of composition: into the small hours of the "What is left out of the morning, night after night. photograph is probably at least This energy and dedication as important as what is are typical of John Sexton. included. You can certainly "It's a lot of fun, and it's change the effect of a a lot of hard work. photograph by leaving out a But above all, I enjoy telephone pole, or a car, or a photography," he declares. person. Photographs at best "I try to give a lot to are all contrived to some photography because it has extent, and you have to make given me a lot." a determination as to the information you are going to John Sexton is represented by supply the viewer. I like the Susan Spiritus Gallery, Newport fact that I can partly Beach, and Weston Gallery, manipulate what the viewer Carmel, both in California, and is going to feel or see." Eloquent Light Gallery, Rochester, Sexton's other great love is teaching workshops. He has Michigan. taught at and directed Adams' Robert Baker is collaborating on Yosemite Workshop, and a revision of Ansel Adams' others-the Maine Photography Series books; The Photographic Workshop and Camera and The Negative are several offerings of the completed. ws, Reflections, Near Mariposa, California; neCgative, 1980; print, 198 1. Please turn page for technical information. 64 65 TECHNIQUE By John Sexton with Steve Pollock through development. So I always re-meter and fre Photography has a technical accuracy and realism that quently have to give quite a different exposure than I other visual media may not share.