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I haven’t used the internet all that much lately. School has managed to keep me quite busy, and up until last week, Best Buy was taking up any free time I had. So I’ve been taken off the schedule at Best Buy until December so I can focus on school and actually have a life.

In lieu of Best Buy, I’ve started working at the school in the equipment checkout area, or “The Cave” as it’s known around here. I’m actually at work right now, and it’s been good because I have all the resources of the department at my disposal while I’m here.

It’s been slow in the darkroom at night because there aren’t any prints due in any of the classes this week. And since the majority of the students here are undergrads, they’re going to wait until the last minute to print anyway. I anticipate a rush at the end of the quarter.

I signed up for classes yesterday, but unfortunately there are two courses I’d love to take that are scheduled during another two courses that I’m taking. So I’ll be a TA next quarter in Steve’s Large Format class. I’m looking forward to the experience, and I plan to TA as much as I can while in school.

So the two courses I’m enrolled in are Digital Craft II (it’s an elective, but the first one isn’t) and Art Criticism, which is apparently a follow-up to Contemporary Art, since that’s the pre-requisite. Professor Erpf is teaching that class, and Steve Aishman is teaching Digital Craft. I was going to take Alternative Processes with Elizabeth Turk, but it’s the one that conflicts with Digital Craft. And the other class I was interested in was Introduction to Lithography. As an undergrad, we didn’t cover anything beyond serigraphy (screenprinting) and woodcut in the one printmaking class I took. And since there’s apparently some kind of photo-litho process, I’m particularly interested in that.

Also, I’m apparently the only grad student who won’t be taking Photo Arts I or II. I took that this quarter, and since I only have to take it four times, I have plenty of other opportunities.

The color print processor is now up and running, and I have some 20x24 paper on order along with 8x10 color film, so I should be using by the end of the weekend or at least next week. The maximum print width is 20 inches, so you can either print from a 20” wide roll or up to 20x30 sheets. Since most of my stuff is 4x5 or 6x6, 20x24 is best suited for full-frame prints. However, I’ve been shooting with my Graflex 6x9 a bit lately, which conforms to the same aspect ratio as 35mm film (24x36mm) and would fit nicely on 20x30, so I might make that my next order. 50 sheets of Fuji 20x24 RA-4 paper was $99 at B&H. However, 10 sheets of Kodak Portra 160NC 8x10 film was an astounding $85. I also bought some 8x10 Fuji color paper for contact prints and test sheets (100 sheets in a box).

Speaking of 8x10, we will (hopefully soon) have some 8x10 enlargers up for black and white and (eventually) color printing. However, we already tested out the mammoth 8x10 camera that the school owns. It’s a beast, and at this point only an undergrad named Andrew and myself are interested in using it, so it should be quite available. Fortunately, most of the other students are turned off by the exorbitant cost of the film.

I’ve become more interested in shooting color lately, if you can’t tell. There are many reasons, which I won’t go into here, but I think I’m going to start printing color big and when I do black and white, limit it to a more manageable size. I’m talking about using 11x14 and even 8x10 paper.

I entered work and was accepted into the Atlanta Photography Group’s show recently, curated by Jane Jackson or Jackson Fine Art here in Atlanta. When I arrived at the opening, 30 minutes after it started, I found my print to be the first one, by the door. This would have been great, except that the print had fallen from the mat. Normally I would have dry-mounted the image, but I am reusing the mat and frame and glass, so I taped it in place with acid-free artist’s tape. Do not ever do this. It’s just not tacky enough. So I will continue taping, but I’m going to use acid-free masking tape, which is higher tack.

So what did I do? I took the print off the wall. One of the important people in the Atlanta Photography Group came over and told me I couldn’t do that, and that the print was their responsibility once it was hung. Well, sorry, but I won’t have my work looking like that. So they took me back to the kitchen to fix it.

I was then informed by the same guy (who was actually very nice) that I had under priced my work. Maybe so. 16x20 print, 20x24 frame, 8-ply mat, glass… $200. It’s an image no one will probably ever buy individually, so I doubt I missed out on a sale (or even encouraged a sale, for that matter) but it brought up some interesting questions. If I simply priced higher, would the work be more appealing to a collector/buyer? I won’t try to answer that question here. Feel free to leave your own thoughts on the matter.

We went to a lecture last night at the High Museum put on by Atlanta Celebrates Photography. It was awful. My advice? Never attend a lecture by Shannon Ebner. Plus, her work was pretty bad. Bad printing, bad concept (imho) and bad execution. She started eating during the lecture, never made eye contact with the audience, and said “uh” over 275 times (Dave started counting 20 minutes into the 1.5 hour lecture). Awful.

I know I’m all over the place with this post, but it’s been awhile, and a lot has happened. I’m writing as I remember it. Tom Fischer, the chair of the photography department at SCAD (all campuses) visited the school yesterday and attended our critique in Photo Arts. It was nice to have a different perspective, and Steve mentioned having other professors sit in on crits occasionally.

Professor Fischer was in town because the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools was visiting the campus to find out how the ACA/SCAD transition has gone over. I was asked to be on a small panel of grad students to speak with some folks from SACS. We were told it was concerning accreditation, but they only asked us about the library and computers/technology.

And last week, I had a chance to meet with the president of the college, Paula Wallace. She was very nice, and it was great to get to talk about my experience here and the school in general. I was a bit embarrassed to admit I have yet to even visit Savannah, but she told me that if/when I make it out, to let her know and she will hook me up with someone to show me work in the photography collection there. Hopefully Stacy and I will make it up there soon.

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Polly Chandler | Thursday, October 26, 2006 | 8:50AM

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