Digitalsilverimaging

The Fine Art of Printing in a Digital World

DSI Blog

DSI Moves into New Space

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Looking into 2000sf of new production area

It’s official – we’re moving….about 50 feet.  After 3 years in the former accounting office of Zeff Photo, we will be expanding into 2,500 newly renovated space at 11 Brighton St.  Our new space is triple the size of our previous location at the same address.  Once Zeff Photo closed, the building was purchased by Jon Wardwell of JW Construction and they have begun renovating the building and giving it new life. We can’t say enough about how great they have been at working with DSI to expand our space and help us with our move.  Stay tuned for exciting news about the building and other new tenants.

The new space will consolidate our production into one large area that will enhance our product offerings.  Our newly expanded finishing area will accommodate DiBond mounting, more matting & framing and our large format fine art color printing with our new Epson 9900 HDR inkjet printer.

Our true black & white silver gelatin printing services will be delayed a few days during our relocation.  Durst technicians will be here Mon – Weds (1/23 & 1/25/2012) to assist us moving the Durst Theta 51 and getting her all setup and recalibrated.  So, please be patient over the next few days as we expand into our new space.  We will be offering more services in the near future, including classes, workshops and more!

By the way, mark your calendars for Feb 25th – we’ll be having a Grand Reopening day filled with events with XRite, Pro Photo lighting and Nik Software.

Rock & Roll

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©Brian Babineau

The title of our current exhibition at the Digital Silver Imaging Gallery says it all. This exhibition covers more than 50 years of Rock and Roll photography from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones first US tours to Lady Gaga and Phish.

Given the confines of our gallery it was difficult not to have floor to ceiling images but gallery director and curator J. Sybylla Smith has produced a stunning show. Just a few of the highlights of the exhibition include:

• Early Beatles photographs from Astrid Kirchherr, including John, Paul, George, Pete and Stuart!

• Mike Mitchell’s recently discovered images of the Beatles first US tour.

• Intimate Rolling Stone images by the late Bob Bonis

• Never before shown studio portrait of Led Zeppelin by Herb Greene

• Ron Pownall’s sensual onstage portrait of Blondie’s Debbie Harry

• BC Kagan’s photos of vintage Cars and a boyish Billy Idol

* Pearl Jam’s sound check at the Boston Garden made iconic by Brian Babineau

• Steven Tyler of Aerosmith being Steven Tyler in beautiful B&W as captured by Melissa Mahoney

• Ethereal play of concert lights at Phish and Radiohead and My Morning Jacket concerts by Ryan Mastro

• Kerry Brett’s elegant panoramic studio image of the Dropkick Murphys

• Face-to-face portrait of Lady Gaga by Mitch Weiss 

This exhibition opens Thursday December 8, 2011 and runs through January 28, 2012. A gallery talk will be held on January 26 at 7:00 pm. Speaker(s) TBA (we are working on something really cool so keep an eye out for this event).

Griffin Museum of Photography by Digital Silver Imaging Gallery, 4 Clarendon Street, Boston MA

The Science of Art

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Howard Schatz refers to his studio as a research laboratory. Before a single image is
captured an extensive production is engineered with details on the sun, wind, and water
conditions, exact placement of invisible markers and an artful application of industrial
strength make-up. Only then do Howard, his assistants, stylists and models strap on
weights, hyperventilate and jump into a 92 degree pool of crystal clear water for a timed
minute of silence and rapture; repeatedly, all day long.

© Howard Schatz, Courtesy of Staley Wise Gallery

Listening to Howard describe his work is as delightful and incredulous as the imagery
created in his Underwater Study Series. The Griffin Museum/DSI gallery was beyond
SRO with people sitting in the aisles and up the staircase to view his slideshow
presentation and hear his gallery talk. On view through November 6th are five images
from H2O his third book published from this body of work.

A swimmer, competitive tennis player and until the 1990’s, a retinal surgeon, Schatz,
has an eager curiosity and intrepid passion. With joy and determination he manipulates
the limits of biology to capture the fancy of his relentless imagination – underwater.
Riveted by the properties of light and water that mirror and distort Howard sees infinite
possibility.

Vanity Fair features his ongoing series; In Character: Actors Acting. With lens posed
inches from an accomplished actors face, he immortalizes their instantaneous
interpretation of his scripted synopsis written to illicit their intense emotion. Howard
loves to be on the observing edge, catching creation and life with awe and wonder.

Fresh off the press last week is his 18th book. With Child is the culmination of 20
years of photographing women in all stages of pregnancy. Defying gravity he explores
the living sculpture that is gestation. Schatz has met yearly with these mother’s and
their children for a portrait. Each child is given age appropriate questions exploring
how they feel about their life at that stage. A hybrid of conceptual art and humanistic
therapy these missives are collected in a time capsule without being read or published.
Effectively, Harold is mirroring pregnancy itself.

Splashdown!

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Torrential rains did little to dampen the energy or crowd gathered to celebrate our new South End location and Boston Fashion Week. Over two hundred visitors made Splashion their destination.

The crowd spilled into our courtyard out back and the front side walk. A Street Frames loaned space for a portrait gallery where Nathan Fried Lipski playfully captured guests sporting neon green pool tubes or their own array of umbrellas. Check our website for a gallery of opening shots.

This effervescent group show spans 70 years of editorials featuring water and fashion by 8 international artists. The first nude to be published in Harper’s Bazaar in 1935 was shot by

Hungarian photographer Martin Mankasci. Known for taking women out of the studio he heralded modernism and the notion of beauty in motion.

“Today the world of what is called fashion is peopled with Mankacsi’s babies, his heirs.” according to Richard Avedon.

German post-war photographer F.C. Gunlach and Martine Franck, one of the first women to join Magnum, are included with vintage silver gelatin prints on loan from the Howard Greenberg Gallery.

New York-based, Jodi Jones, fresh from shooting a backstage story on NY Fashion Week shoots

designer ad campaigns including a NYTimes billboard. Boston photographers Sadie Dayton, Bob Packert and Conor Doherty shared bold, new work. Find them in publications including Vanity Fair, W, Time, The New York Times, Boston Magazine, Boston Common and online in international webzines including Spirited/US, Complexed/China and Labb/UK.

 

Vanity Fair contributing photographer, Howard Schatz, built an underwater studio and published his underwater study series in three books: Water Dance, Pool Light and H2O. Exhibited are five images that exemplify his range of capturing the mystical to expressing wit and power. His work is featured in Vogue, Vogue Italia and GQ Italia.

October 13th  Howard Schatz conducts our gallery talk from 7 – 8:30 PM at 4 Clarendon Street Boston. He will sign copies of, H2O and his latest book, With Child. Join us!

Anne Berry Fine Art Photography

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We are please to feature the work of Anne Berry.  Anne is a fine art photographer based in Atlanta, GA.  She has received numerous awards for her work and has been working with Digital Silver Imaging for over a year.

“In today’s society pets are pampered and anthropomorphized, but animals are often overlooked and dismissed. My photographs are about the beauty of animals but, more importantly, about their plight. The pictorial quality of these images softens the shock, but the punch is there in the eyes and expressions of the animals. I anticipate the moment that I can capture something in the essence of an animal, so that through the photograph it speaks. Each animal begs the viewer to consider his place in a world where bulldozers are rapidly destroying animal habitats; he is an ambassador for all the animals in his species My work is currently featured in the Center for Fine Art Photography’s Black and White exhibit, and I am honored that Catherine Edelman chose Singe Noir (Black Monkey) as Juror’s Selection Runner Up: “The photograph captured the unquestionable link between ape and man in a way I have never seen.”

“My materials are a combination of old and new. I now capture the image digitally, but my habits are from shooting film: I do not look at the display screen, and I focus manually. I convert the image to black and white and manipulate it as I would in the darkroom, dodging, burning, and creating photomontages. The black and white medium is central to my vision. It helps me select only what is essential. Without color, form becomes the most important tool.  Also, the absence of color removes the image from reality and helps to emphasize the spiritual value. The animal becomes not a document of reality but an archetype of universal significance. I especially love the quality and mood of true silver gelatin prints. There is a depth in these prints that pigment prints cannot create. I am excited to have found Eric Luden and Digital Silver Imaging.”

All You Need is Love

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The Beatles Illuminated: The Discovered Works of Mike Mitchell

Photographer Mike Mitchell is getting well deserved rest and deep satisfaction after last night’s auction of his work at Christie’s in New York.  His iconic collection of 46 silver gelatin prints sold for over $350,000, well above the estimated value of $100,000.  Mike was one of a few photographers who captured The Beatles on their first US concert, just 2 days after their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.  The hero image, shot from behind with stunning light and radiating an intimate happiness of the Fab Four, sold for $55,000.

The SRO crowd maintained a party atmosphere with a tangible sense of excitement and joy at seeing this iconic collection come to life after being dormant for almost 50 years. Rapid fire bidding ensued over several desirable images with a global reach being managed by phone and on line. Auctioneer Cathy Elkies carried encouraging men to not consult with their wives and deadpanned “I smell a divorce coming on” as bidding broke 10K, then 20K.

DSI was thrilled Mitchell chose us to print these silver gelatin prints. Our production staff worked diligently to bring every digital tool to bare to create rock star results. Mitchell decided to limit production to one print and devised a moniker, or stamp, which he embedded in each image. We were excited to be the first to see these prints and we take this privilege very seriously. We state up front our ethic which is to uphold and protect the creative rights of all our clients. We were so pleased to be in the audience and cheer with the crowd as each image found its new and rightful owner.   Congratulation Mike!

The Associated Press broke a story about the auction shortly after the auction closed. You can also view Mike’s interview in London at the Grovenor House Hotel at the preview exhibition last June.

 

The Beatles, Christie's Auction, The Fab Four