I have always been as interested in the process of any work as much as the finished result. Maybe it’s the story I value as much as the thing it ends up being. I like the good and hard work of the creation – the building of the cabin, the experience of photographing people and places, the mixing of the margarita – the act of making is more meaningful and memorable to me than the finished results in many cases.
For this reason, I have been extremely intrigued by the craft and expertise it takes by devoted craftsman like Terrance Reimer to make something good into something great. I have never been to Terrance’s print house, West Coast Imaging, in Oakhurst, CA. I’ve never seen his ‘Black Pixel Magic’ in action. Terrance is a master printer whose years experiencing the world, using a camera, the darkroom, and printers and paper, make for a great example of how the process is as much an art as what is framed on the wall at the end of the day.
Perhaps all labor is art. I asked TR to send me some photos, so I could in some way witness this toil, this testing, this reprinting, the printer head-cleaning – the art. These photos will be included in a photography exhibit curated by Jesse Groves at the Visions Gallery, Brooks Institute of Photography, Ventura California June 10 – August 5, 2010.
“Art is man’s expression of his joy in labor.” – Henry A. Kissinger