STARK

I have vivid childhood memories of my parents dressing up in beautiful evening clothes, preparing for cocktail parties. I always loved to see them dressed up, my Dad smelling of Aqua Velva, and my mom in her favorite scent, Joy. If the party was to be held at our house, my Dad would set up the bar and I loved watching him make fancy drinks with his shiny cocktail shaker. I distinctly remember a booklet he would refer to about how to mix all the drinks to perfection. I would study it, stare at the pictures in it.. It was a little publication showing each recipe right next to angular black & white graphic drawings of upscale cocktail-party goers, the women with long gloves, beautiful hats, and elegant gowns. This body of work came about from my desire to print my darkroom negatives in a more graphic manner, in a similar fashion to the drawings in Dad’s booklet. I wanted very simple outlines, devoid of much detail. By printing with a lack of information, it became all about the form, not the content. By eliminating much of the data that the negative held, I could show that the image held something other than what it originally was. I now had a bolder interpretation, devoid of elaboration. The resultant angular shapes gave me a more unadulterated perspective that resembled the artist’s renderings. This would now allow the viewer to fill in the blanks with his own imagination. My lith prints seen here show varying degrees of information left in the negative. All photographs are printed in a traditional darkroom using lith chemistry and suitable papers.