|
In 1969 I moved to New
York City to become the director of Norbert Kleeber’s Underground
Gallery. At the time, this well-known gallery was the oldest photographic
gallery in New York City. It was a year of meeting and working with
the photographic greats: Andre Kertesz, Ansel Adams, Minor White,
Garry Winogrand, the list was endless. The photography world was a
small family, everyone knew one another and all pulled together. That
same year, this spirit of community was changed forever when the success
of the New York’s Witkin Gallery showed that photography could be
commercially viable. As photography became a big business, the sense
of community I had strongly valued diminished.
I landed a job as Director
of Photography for the Photo-Graphics Workshop in New Canaan, Connecticut
in 1972. I increased the number of photographic courses from six to
twenty-six in one semester and brought in artists from all over the
East Coast to teach. It was a very exciting time. It was here that
I saw my first platinum/palladium print made. I was intrigued by platinum’s
visceral quality and depth, as well as by its purity and the lack
of manipulation in the process. I knew in that instant that this was
to be my primary medium, and I set about learning how to do it myself.
| |
|
|
