Remembering OLIVER GAGLIANI

[arthur berger]

100 years ago Oliver Gagliani was born in Placerville, California. He died 15 years ago at the age of eighty five. In my opinion he was one of the true
" Masters" of 20th century photography.
I will never forget the first time I saw his photographs at the Focus Gallery on Union Street in San Francisco in 1968. I returned a few times to study
the prints and saw Oliver himself there looking at his work. Unfortunately I was too much in awe and too timid to approach him. Fast forward 10 years
and I was taking his Virginia City Workshop.I got to know him and his work and was friendly with him for many years.
Recently my daughter moved into a new house and asked me for some of my photographs to decorate her bare walls. I framed and hung some of my
work and decided to give her one of Olivers photographs that I had recently reframed but had not yet hung in my house.
After hanging his photograph and seeing it again in a new light ,so to speak, I was so impressed with the beauty and power of his work that it rekindled my interest in the things he had taught me.

[Alan9940]

Unfortunately, I never got a chance to meet Oliver, but I'm intimately familiar with his work and totally agree with your statements! Thank you for reminding me of this wonderful photographer!

[dasBlute]

thanks for sharing, had never heard of this artist [I know, I grew up under rock, right?]

[Merg Ross]

A true "master". Thanks for remembering Oliver.

http://gittermangallery.com/exhibition/11/exhibition_works/

[Two23]

He understood how to use Light.


Kent in SD

[Steve Sherman]

Agree with everything said about Oliver's work, I truly admired and aspired to understand his vision and technique.

[tgtaylor]

If the link is representative of his work, I find the dark undertones too pervasive: Even the white piano has a skull sitting on it.

Thomas

[arthur berger]

Unfortunately it is difficult to appreciate the beautiful dark tones and the nuances of the light from that link. I was at the show at the Gitterman Gallery and the prints certainly didnt appear as dark or with so much blackness as they show on that web site. Oliver certainly liked darker tones and told me it was his Pyro developer that
made it possible to have so much separation in his darker tones. Having been a musician, Oliver compared the deep blacks to the bass notes.

[tgtaylor]

If he died 15 years ago at the age of 85, that would place his coming of age during the Great Depression and WWII - certainly a time of great uncertainty with the dark undertones that characterizes Film Noir which appeared in the '40's. I believe that many photographers from that period gravitated towards the "dark side."

Thomas

[Merg Ross]

Unfortunately it is difficult to appreciate the beautiful dark tones and the nuances of the light from that link. I was at the show at the Gitterman Gallery and the prints certainly didnt appear as dark or with so much blackness as they show on that web site. Oliver certainly liked darker tones and told me it was his Pyro developer that
made it possible to have so much separation in his darker tones. Having been a musician, Oliver compared the deep blacks to the bass notes.

Thanks for the clarification. When I linked his photographs to the Gitterman Gallery, my thought was that they appeared much darker than Oliver printed. His originals have a real glow to them, with depth to the blacks.

The last time I saw Oliver was in 2000 at a gallery south of Market St. in San Francisco. Perhaps you were there. It was an exhibition and gathering of his former colleagues in the Visual Dialogue Foundation. Jack Welpott, Don Worth and Leland Rice were there with their work displayed on the walls; what a treat!

[mdm]

Thanks, amazing work. The way he feels space, and even finds a sense of space and light in abstract subjects is very interesting.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Very nice work, indeed.

[lab black]

In addition to Oliver being an exceptionally talented artist, he was also a uniquely kind person.

[Luis-F-S]

Oliver always wanted to be a musician. However he lost part of his hearing in the war which made that path impossible. He found in photography many of the qualities he found in music. When he saw a Paul Strand show in San Francisco he was hooked. I got to know him through one of his workshops in Virginia City and own some of his photographs. He was a great photographer and a great human being!

[tgtaylor]

I believe that I ran into him at Welte's tavern back in the , '80's when I lived in South San Francisco.

Thomas

[Jim Noel]

If the link is representative of his work, I find the dark undertones too pervasive: Even the white piano has a skull sitting on it.

Thomas

Viewing an image on a computer screen is not a good way to judge any part of the picture. HIghlights may be too dark , or burnt out. SHadows may be too dark or too light, and midtones only fall where the scanner puts them. The same is true of images in a book. If one wants to criticize an image,they must be judged only from an original print without glass to interfere.

[Jim Noel]

The favorite group photograph of all those I have made during the last 80 years depicts my friends Oliver Gagliani, Pirkle Jones, Al Weber and Phillip Hyde. A gathering of 4 of the giants of 20th Century photography. Each worked in a different genre and were the greatest of friends.

[Joe O'Hara]

Incredibly I had never heard of this man before. His work is haunting and memorable. Thanks to the OP for this remembrance.

A trip to NYC to see the prints may be in order.

[Drew Wiley]

Thanks for at least posting that. I never really knew him; and the only time I personally encountered him he looked exactly like in the video except a bit bushier in beard, perhaps because the wind was blowing. But the local photographic community nicknamed him the "Little Master" because he wasn't well known like some of his contemporaries. I didn't even know he shot color; but his forte was clearly large format black and white anyway. A lot of Bodie in that brief flick, and some of the predictable philosophical fluff that in my opinion just detracts from the prints themselves, which work better on their own, unexplained. I've never been overwhelmed by his body of work, and continue to think of him as a "minor master", but should leave it at that.

[Luis-F-S]

I took Oliver's workshop in Virginia City, Nevada in 1987 (or 1988). I still use his methodology for the Zone system, exposure, developing, etc. Oliver had a number of prints of his work at the workshop and I purchased several. He was just starting to experiment with color at the time, I don't believe he had any finished color prints there. I have several projection contacts from the workshop that Gudmundur took of Oliver, Rod Klucas, myself and several of the students and was nice enough to send.. It was a great learning experience and he is truly, sorely missed.

192312

[Kevin J. Kolosky]

100 years ago Oliver Gagliani was born in Placerville, California. He died 15 years ago at the age of eighty five. In my opinion he was one of the true
" Masters" of 20th century photography.
I will never forget the first time I saw his photographs at the Focus Gallery on Union Street in San Francisco in 1968. I returned a few times to study
the prints and saw Oliver himself there looking at his work. Unfortunately I was too much in awe and too timid to approach him. Fast forward 10 years
and I was taking his Virginia City Workshop.I got to know him and his work and was friendly with him for many years.
Recently my daughter moved into a new house and asked me for some of my photographs to decorate her bare walls. I framed and hung some of my
work and decided to give her one of Olivers photographs that I had recently reframed but had not yet hung in my house.
After hanging his photograph and seeing it again in a new light ,so to speak, I was so impressed with the beauty and power of his work that it rekindled my interest in the things he had taught me.

What did he teach you?