Going cross country, exhibit hopping!

**Darin Boville** · 26-Jun-2015, 15:30

Almost to Denver now. Hot, hot, hot. Glad I didn't head south, though I'm missing all sorts of good things in L.A., Albuquerque and Santa Fe. 118 as I went through Death Valley, 104 all through Utah. Plan to be at the Denver Art Museum most of the day tomorrow. Timed it badly--wont be able to go the Nelson-Atkins on the outbound trip (they have budget cuts are are closed Mondays *and* Tuesdays. Grrrrr. Might head to St. Louis Museum of Art. Looking for ideas between here and there.

If I was too obscure in the above post the advert in the guest book is from "C.E. Watkins" which is, of course Carleton Watkins. Doesn't get much cooler than that.

--Darin

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**Darin Boville** · 26-Jun-2015, 22:27

Oh, I did stop by Bishop, Ca and had a look at the Galen Rowell. haven't been there for ten years.

I am very much not a fan of Rowell but I thought I'd stop by anyway. I remember the building they are in being especially beautiful on the inside. It still is. It's a converted bank. Looks amazing. I wish I could have taken photos to share.

Rowell's work looked much better in terms of overall print quality than it did ten, eleven years ago. The prints, despite being large in size and from 35mm looked good. They are all digital now so they much have had really great scans done. It really shows. Before the larger prints were noticeably fuzzy. All-over fuzz that suggests enlarger issues rather than camera issues. Some were quite bad. All of the ones on display--there are many--looked sharp. Sort of made me rethink a bit what 35mm was capable of.

The colors were turned up even more than before, and they were turned up very high in the old versions. Super intense. I pity folks who knew this landscape only through Rowell's images. The real locations, should they decide to visit, will surely disappoint.

I asked and they said Calypso used to do the printing in the old days. West Coast Imaging does it now. (I'm assuming it was optical in the old days.)

Just thought this might be of interest.

--Darin