Prints at the NM State Capital Building

[Kirk Gittings]

I was recently honored by the acquisition and permanent installation of two of my Chaco prints in the NM State Capital-"the Roundhouse". The Roundhouse also houses the state legislature.This is a premier art collection in the state and I am very honored to be in it. It is a very selective collection of some 600 works-all of which are on permanent display. As space runs out they become increasingly selective. Some years ago I approached them twice and got nowhere and basically gave up, but last year a board member approached me at a group show I was in at the Albuquerque Museum and it finally happened. Thank you Fay!

[Bill_1856]

What size are they?

[Kirk Gittings]

That's important information-how could I forget :)........8x10 on a 16x20 mat.......................

[Tin Can]

Congratulations! It is an honor!

[Michael Kadillak]

Powerful images! Even though I am a contact printer, these deserve to be printed in a larger proportion IMHO. I would start with 16x20 and increase in size as necessary.Congrats Kirk.

[al olson]

Congratulations, Kirk. Those images are very substantial and deserving of the honor.

[John Olsen]

It's about time! What were they doing with their walls all this time?
Congratulations.

[Kirk Gittings]

Powerful images! Even though I am a contact printer, these deserve to be printed in a larger proportion IMHO. I would start with 16x20 and increase in size as necessary.Congrats Kirk.

Thanks all. There was no way to compete for attention with all the large colorful paintings so I just went with what I like-small jewel like B&Ws with rich tonality that suck you in for a closer look.

[David Karp]

Congratulations Kirk.

[Richard Wasserman]

Beautiful photographs Kirk—congratulations!

[Robert Langham]

Nice job! Great collection to be in.

[jnantz]

congratulations, and well deserved !

[Greg Y]

Kirk, I look forward to getting a chance to see your photos next time I'm in New Mexico. It crossed my mind to ask you whether the prints are silver-gelatin or 'other?' Thanks & congratulations. It is a well- deserved honour.

[Kirk Gittings]

These are inkjet. On both these particular images there were aesthetic problems I struggled with over the years printing traditionally-best solved via a hybrid approach.

[Greg Y]

Thanks Kirk, I'm still going to look 'em up. :)

[Kirk Gittings]

Thanks. Of course why would that make a difference? They are great prints. The board, made up largely of serious collectors and museum directors raved about them. They meet my standards and every museum and collector I have dealt with for the last few years.

[Wayne Lambert]

Congratulations, Kirk. A great honor!

Best,
Wayne

[Bob Sawin]

Wonderful work...congrats!

Best regards,

Bob

[Greg Y]

Thanks. Of course why would that make a difference? They are great prints. The board, made up largely of serious collectors and museum directors raved about them. They meet my standards and every museum and collector I have dealt with for the last few years.
I have no doubt, they are great prints. I print silver gelatin enlargements & contact prints & live in a place with usually only a small selection to see, so when I travel I look for silver prints. When I go to galleries & museums that is the medium I seek out to inform my printing. As far as other aspects of photography & art in general just about anything intriguing goes.... that's why I asked & it is only from that perspective that it matters to me, not as a collector. I have no interest in the digital / silver image debate.

[Robert Langham]

I'm sure I would trust Kirk on the print quality. When I opened the recent portfolios- both the Rock project and the print exchange, I couldn't tell the darkroom prints from the inkjets. Printing has gotten pretty good and going to get even better.

97329 Shiprock, shadow from West hill, 2013.

[Tin Can]

I did not know an expert cannot tell the difference...

Not sure if that is good news or bad news!

Perhaps Kirk will comment?



I'm sure I would trust Kirk on the print quality. When I opened the recent portfolios- both the Rock project and the print exchange, I couldn't tell the darkroom prints from the inkjets. Printing has gotten pretty good and going to get even better.

97329 Shiprock, shadow from West hill, 2013.

[Kirk Gittings]

The new William Clift exhibit is a better example. I know now about 6 people (all expert b&w printers with decades of experience) who have visited this exhibit and the debate rages-are they all inkjet? No question as to whether they are superb prints. I don't think they all are inkjet for various reasons and I think I too would have to be considered an expert. BUT the mere fact that this debate rages says TONS about the current state of inkjet vs. traditional prints.

William Clift printing inkjet? This is the photographic equivalent of Nixon going to China. I am dead serious. William Clift was/is (I know he still does silver) one of the best silver printers I have ever seen. A legend in his own lifetime. I would put him in the top three ever from my personal experience. But think about it. Remember his book "Certain Places" 1987 one of the first quad tone fine art books ever produced. He was renowned for pushing the printers far beyond their experience and producing IMO the finest printed quality book to that date. One problem he said (I heard). In some ways with the book reproductions were too good-he could not produce silver images that were as good (his opinion I heard) as good as the book reproductions and people were ordering prints from the book and were not satisfied. Fast forward to current inkjet and the total control one can exercise.......................its a natural progression.

For myself I have no problem hanging inkjet next to my silver prints in an exhibition.

[Greg Y]

Robert, as a photographer, when I'm on a road trip, it amounts to choices. I agree that printing has gotten pretty good, but if I have a choice of driving several hours out of my way to see photographs & the choice is inkjet prints in one direction and hand done platinum or silver chloride or silver gelatin in another.... The parallel for me is live music, although I like and listen to a wide variety of music on CDs and radio, when I have a choice of going to a see an electric show or an acoustic show, my personal preferences come into play.
If music or photography comes to my neighborhood I can sample from a wider range because the time frame is larger & the cost is less. BTW, I enjoyed seeing your neg scans from Shiprock & I regard Kirk Gittings' work very highly.

[Tin Can]

I doubt I will make it to New Mexico Museum of Art to see the exhibit.

Maybe when I hit Lotto, oops i don't play Lotto.

But, I sure would like to see those prints!

[Kirk Gittings]

Well I have traveled far and seen a ton of shows in my life that were crappy traditional prints. Two of the worst show prints I ever saw was a Henry Cartier Bresson show (terrible silver prints) and a Joel Merowitz Cape light exhibit (dust all over the negs during exposure). I love superb silver prints but I also love superb PP or inkjet or any method done masterfully. Of course I have seen a lot of crappy inkjet prints exhibited too. No medium inherently rises above a pile of shit without mastering it. The medium an artist chooses to master is his business. What's important is whether he has mastered it or not. Anyone who doesn't go to the WC exhibit because they heard it was inkjet is (IMHO) making a really foolish choice-as this is a superb show-one of the best I have ever seen. Period. I would put it up there with a Wynn Bullock show I saw in 1970 that changed my life.

Another good example is Robert Heineken's photo work. He used what ever fit his vision including Xerox and I never felt his work was diminished by it.

[Greg Y]

I appreciate your comments Kirk, I was in SF a few weeks ago & saw & greatly enjoyed the William Clift exhibition. As I wrote to you in a PM, the gem for me was the Laura Gilpin photo around the corner. I saw a show of H Cartier-Bresson in Tokyo & the printing was less than inspiring, so I get that. Last year I asked you about prints of yours in Santa Fe & unfortunately the only day I had there was monday, and the gallery was closed...but I got to see some terrific photos at the Georgia O'Keefe museum. My original question was about your prints not the Wm C show. The sub text is would I give up limited time (let's say half a day) to drive to Albuquerque & back to see three prints.... By the same approach I wouldn't spend half a day to drive to see the Rolling Stones at a stadium, while I would to see Edgar Meyer & Joshua Bell & YoYoMa. For the record.

"Re: Prints at the NM State Capital Building
Kirk, I look forward to getting a chance to see your photos next time I'm in New Mexico. It crossed my mind to ask you whether the prints are silver-gelatin or 'other?' Thanks & congratulations. It is a well- deserved honour."

[Kirk Gittings]

I appreciate that. I really do but you are not getting my point-I don't think. Images are more than the print quality. There is also the image. I am very familiar with that LG image having seen a number of that image over the years and I they personally, aesthetically don't do a lot for me. Her work never surprises me-even stuff I have never seen before. It is competent no doubt, but beyond that....eh. Her portraits in particular are wooden-interesting as documents but not much else. Her life was interesting to be sure but........her landscapes could have been done by any of most of the f64 people-except Weston who was far beyond such.

[Greg Y]

I do get your point Kirk, Of the prints I saw that day...for whatever reason, the WC show & a visit to the Andrew Smith gallery, for whatever reason that one printed made an impression on me..(maybe the way it was hung , the light). I also spent an hour or so after that in the SF Library & looked through a book of LG's prints ...& I concur w/ your opinions & especially about Weston. I've seen (I think we've had this discussion before) Jay Dusard's monumental prints (as an example) & they are very well done. I wouldn't buy one though, if I could...it's not my style...but I do have a smaller silver gelatin Dusard, & a couple of platinum prints. For me as a photographer & printer, looking at prints is like ordering off the menu.... I get to choose what restaurant I go to, what I choose off the menu...& ultimately I get to decide whether the offering satisfies me.

[Kirk Gittings]

I love Jay Dusard, met him a couple of times-we used to show in the same gallery in Canada. But I agree. Ironically I look at these artists much like I view myself-hard working and dedicated-but no genius.....................which in the long run may be worth more than genius? I hope!

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Kirk, a well deserved honor. Congratulations!

[Greg Y]

Interesting quote from a 2009 piece on Wm Clift (http://parallelmajor.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/on-william-clift/):
"Clift reasons. 'I have my medium and I know it well and that’s what I do. Let somebody else shoot in digital'."

[Tin Can]

Today is June, 22, 2013.


Interesting quote from a 2009 piece on Wm Clift (http://parallelmajor.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/on-william-clift/):
"Clift reasons. 'I have my medium and I know it well and that’s what I do. Let somebody else shoot in digital'."

[Kirk Gittings]

While we know from this that he is not shooting digital. We also know that he is printing some of his film digitally.

[Greg Y]

Nonetheless, interesting article about Wm Clift, I thought. I found the entire Santa Fe show was incredible in it's presentation, & I wasn't going out of my way to differentiate prints. I did sit down at the end of the hall & look through the book & thought like Robert L that the show was much more powerful. Overall I thought the book was too low in contrast to be appealing to me.
"We also know that he is printing some of his film digitally." (KG) They were all wonderful prints.

[Alan Curtis]

On my visit this week to Santa Fe I went to the Capital Building to see your prints Kirk. They are excellent and a well deserved honor to be included in New Mexico art. It took me a while to find them I think I should have asked you for GPS coordinates. Your photos were so recent they weren't in the catalog but information sent me down the correct hall.

[Kirk Gittings]

Thanks for the kind words. I haven't been by to visit them yet. Even I don't know where they are!

[Alan Curtis]

Ground floor, first right past the east side information desk and down the corridor through several doors, follow the light blue tiled floor. Your photos are across from a photograph of a very intimidating female boxer. Very nice to see your real prints compared to the ones you posted here.