ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Joan Bobkoff has been a freelance photographer and photo instructor for over 20 years. She is currently an adjunct professor in the Laney College Photography Department. Ms. Bobkoff teaches privately and conducts workshops for people of all ages and experience levels and from a wide range of backgrounds. Joan Bobkoff's own documentary and fine art work has been published and exhibited nationally.

Andrea McLaughlin is a film, digital and iPhone photographer in the San Francisco Bay Area. She also owns Photolab and the Picturish Gallery.

Ed Miller graduated from the Chicago Art Institute with an MFA and went on to establish a successful career as a commercial photographer. He has taught classes including Introduction to Large Format and Advanced Large Format Photography at the Academy of Art.

Kristin Satzman is an award winning fine-art photographer who has worked in the field for over 15 years. She is a master printer and an expert in traditional photographic processes and photographic restoration. Her work has been exhibited and published nationally.
 

THE INSTRUCTORS' STATEMENTS

Joan Bobkoff
“ Bobkoff's interest in cosmology and mysticism finds expression in her semi-abstract photos of glass as metaphor for water and perhaps a metaphor for our psychic states too.”
Dewitt Cheng, from the East Bay Express

I appreciate Dewitt Cheng's remarks about these images because I have had a difficult time describing this body of work. These photographs come from both a “New York (and a Torah) state of mind.” They are informed by my studies in Kabbalah, cosmology and by photographs of the cosmos taken by the Hubble Telescope.

Responding initially to descriptions of water in Genesis, I began to photograph glass as water. Through this “looking glass,” strange creatures seemed to be arising from the deep. Spherical forms suggesting the cosmos showed up as well.

Inspired by these unexpected elements in my work, I began to create alternate worlds of my own. As I worked on the Mystic Forest composite, I found myself in a trace-like state. Although all visual elements were taken from my own photographs, what the whole piece had to tell me (or communicate to others) was far from clear.

Now I consider the Mystic Forest and all the images in this “AWE STRUCK” series to be like dreams, or rather like my dreams. “Abiding with the dream,” rather than
rushing to interpretation allows me to see what rises to the surface.

Recently I reread The River of Light  by Lawrence Kushner and was struck by a passage in which he enjoins the reader to “suppose scripture were like a dream and we were its vessels.”…“Scripture, then might be understood as what has been saved for us of our collective memory, ….a kind of journal of forgotten, reworked and remembered holy moments, too awesome to be described in everyday conscious language.”

Perhaps these images inspired by scripture and science are not only fragments of my dreams but “shards of light” from awesome moments of our “collective memory.” Or
they might be dreams of “worlds to come,” worlds that were or states of mind. This “Awe Struck” body of work may well be a form of “contemporary visual midrash  on the Jewish myth of the creation.

As I move forward with this project, more (no doubt) will be revealed.

Joan Bobkoff
8/26/11

 

Andrea McLaughlin

In this series of photos, I decided to explore the often quoted photography adage attributed to Chase Jarvis: "The best camera you own is the one you have with you" which, I have discovered, actually translates to "The best camera you own is the one you are already holding in your hand." And that camera is usually my iPhone 4.

A vast world of photographers has emerged with the advent of the 5 megapixel iPhone 4 camera. They gather together on-line or in-app. They upload images to many different sites, increasingly sites not on the World Wide Web and some refer to themselves as iPhoneographers. The new photographers process images in the phone, employing many of the rapidly accumulating number of photo processing apps available for the iPhone and Android. Taking and processing photos is nothing without the ability to share. New photographers can do a lot after uploading images for others to see. They discuss, hash-tag (searchable keywords)  and "like" images with such enthusiasm that communities and friendships flourish.

Over the past year of shooting with the iPhone 4, have employed several techniques to create these photos, including iPhone photo processing the photos with Filterstorm, Photofx, Retouch, PhotoStudio, Photogene, PicGrunger, Blender, Diptic, MagicHour, Pano360, and many more,  I also used several types of lenses on the outside of the iPhone, mostly to shoot macro close-ups.

I post to Instagram, Flickr, Glmps and EyEm. So far.

 
THE INSTRUCTORS' SHOW
Joan Bobkoff, Andrea McLaughlin, Ed Miller,
and Kristin Satzman


photo by Kristin Satzman and Joan Bobkoff

August 27 through October 8, 2011
Reception Saturday, August 27 
6 to 8pm
gallery hours:
Monday through Friday 9-6 Saturday 10:30-2:30

A HUNDRED YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

This photo exhibition features the work of instructors/artists: Joan Bobkoff, Andrea McLaughlin, Edward Miller and Kristin Satzman. From tintypes to digital imaging, from large format film to iPhoneography, each instructor offers a fresh and exciting perspective on the photographic process.

During this exhibit invite you to see their work and learn about their experience by visiting the Picturish Gallery where you can sign up also for the upcoming  Fall 2011 Workshops.

THE PHOTOLAB WORKSHOPS offer beginning and advanced photographers, and everybody in between, an opportunity to learn skills to enhance their craft, explore their photographic tools, and connect with other photographers.

The Portfolio Workshop: Develop your portfolio, start a new project or edit work in progress.

Kristin Satzman
John Muir once said that "every natural object is a conductor of divinity." It is with this quote in mind that I present this series entitled Heaven & Earth: a collection of silver prints and tintypes featuring images of trees, stars, and sacred spaces. Each piece reflects the peaceful and divine energy I seek when I am making photographs.

The selenium toned gelatin silver prints were made over the course of a few days early this year when the fog was exceptionally low and dense over the East Bay hills. I worked in my favorite location - the El Cerrito Hillside Natural Area - where the oak trees hug the land and create an intimate forest that I’ve always found nurturing and creatively inspiring. It is a sacred place for me and these photographs are an expression of that earthly divinity found in unspoiled places.

The tintypes (originally a 19th century process) are metal plates which I coat with photographic emulsion and expose using my 4x5 view camera in the darkroom. I photograph my own images which I’ve made in churches, temples, and gardens, as well as images from the Hubble Telescope. Each plate is unique in its color and quality. As a culture we have become saturated with photographic imagery. These plates transcend the photographs they were created from and force us to look with a fresh eye. They serve as evidence of the divine experience found reflected in the heavens as well as here on Earth.

My goal in creating photographs has always been to draw people’s eyes to the beauty that surrounds us in our everyday lives. I work best close to home and I don’t feel that one has to travel to exotic places to witness marvelous sights. The most powerful experiences can be had in our own backyards where our everyday human existence can mix with the divinity of all that surrounds us. That is where I find my inspiration and I hope you may find yours there as well.

Ed Miller

i "take" photographs..................
these photographs already exist.............
                          waiting for me...................

sometimes i have the ability to see them...............
sometimes they are easy to find,.........................
sometimes not......................

i consider this ability a gift.....................
photography enriches me.....................

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THE PHOTOLAB WORKSHOPS offer beginning and advanced photographers, and everybody in between, an opportunity to learn skills to enhance their craft, explore their photographic tools, and connect with other photographers.