Lightning in a BottleMonday, April 18, 2005 | 12:10AM |
We drove to San Marcos on Saturday night to attend the opening of a show called “Lightning in a Bottle” which featured a handful of the recent acquisitions by the Wittliff Gallery of Southwestern & Mexican Photography. It was the single best gallery opening experience I’ve ever had. I met Keith Carter (though it was merely one of those “I really enjoy your work… I grew up in Southeast Texas as well” kind of things), but more importantly, I met Bill Wittliff.
As it was recently relayed to me through my wonderful friend and co-worker, Polly Chandler, it seems Mr. Wittliff was/is in search of someone to print his photographs for him. She mentioned my name to him, as she wouldn’t be able to do it, and I took Saturday night’s opportunity to talk to him briefly face to face. He sounded quite interested and gave me his number, so I’ll be calling him Monday to set up a meeting. I can’t tell you how exciting it is, because he isn’t just some random accomplished photographer. One article I read from Texas Monthly a few years back referred to him as a Texas Renaissance Man. And it seems that some of the best photographers and printers in the world started out as printers or assistants to other, already well-known and established photographers. And how many other times have I gotten paid to print?
But one of the other highlights of the evening was talking to one of the best teachers I ever had (even if only once a week for a single semester): Nine François. I’ve learned over the past year or so that the only way an artist can usually (realistically) collect the art of others is to trade or barter. In my case, I’m going to create a web site for Nine, and she’s going to give me a print. Over a year ago, I did some work cleaning out a shed for/with my other photography professor, Eric Weller. He asked if he could partially pay me with a print of his, but I stupidly turned him down as I was a starving college student at the time and only saw dollar signs. And of course I regret that now. Polly and I will also be trading prints soon, so my collection finally begins.
The whole evening left me inspired. Not only was the work outstanding, but the panel discussion was quite interesting. I didn’t realize how revealing some of the panelists thoughts were until today, really.
Being the educator, I think Nine made it a point to introduce me to a number of people that approached her as we were talking. One was Jeremy Green, a photography professor at ACC, with whom I had a really interesting discussion on the digital/film issue. And the other was a photographer named Faustinus Deraet. He was the type of person that I could literally listen to for hours. His accent was quite fascinating, but he was just such an interesting character.
Justin (Big Dookie for those of you who’ve never heard me refer to his real name) and Jennifer came and visited us this weekend, which was a great surprise. We hadn’t seen them since the wedding last May, and Jennifer is pregnant, so we pretty much talked non-stop the whole weekend. In addition to dragging them all over Austin, they attended the opening in San Marcos with us (for which I can never apologize to them enough).
In other news, I wasn’t accepted to any graduated schools this time around (don’t worry; if I’m not concerned, you shouldn’t be) but things are looking up as Polly and I might just be venturing into the world of wedding photography in Austin and the surrounding areas this summer. It would be great to have the opportunity to work with her more after our jobs at the House of Representatives end.
Comments
Since you linked to everyone else…here’s a site where you can see some of Nine’s work.
Stacy | Thursday, April 21, 2005 | 3:45PM
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