group

I know that I forget to update regularly here, but..


New Facebook group for my photography. Feel free to join and tell others. Thanks.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rik-Garrett-Photography/195893806921

Still catching up. Much work behind the scenes.

Albedo: Self Portrait (#3)

I leave tomorrow for a 3 week trip to Ireland. More specifically, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burren
This should be interesting.

Scanned lots of new images. Will upload the images when I get a chance.

wet plate portrait

8x10 contact print from 6x8 glass plate negative, wet plate collodion process.

Cicada. Wet plate.

Cicada. Contact print from 3x4 inch glass plate. Wet plate collodion process.

wet plate collodion portraits

Fernroot

More wet plate collodion images. Prints from glass plate negatives, 3x4 inches.

wet plate self portraits

Sarracena

Print of a pitcher plant from wet plate collodion negative.

wet plate photography

I recently have begun to learn how to make photographs using the wet plate collodion method ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collodion_process ). I can now rest assured that I can continue with my photography even if every single manufacturer of film falls prey to digital pursuits. Here are a few of my first experiments.

self portrait

Spring

It finally feels like spring. Plants are growing. Watching things change daily.

In case you missed it, take a look at the videos of my handmade books that I posted in my last entry.

videos of me discussing my handmade photography books

I've had a lot of interest regarding my handmade books recently. Which is interesting, as there wasn't much interest when I was working on the first one. Maybe that's because I didn't really tell anybody about it. I also realized that I understand these things better as I speak about them. So I decided to make a video.

These were originally one video, but it was too long to upload to Youtube. So I divided into two parts.



part 1 - the black book from 2004/2005


part 2 - the white book, currently in progress

If you are in Washington, make sure to visit the Seattle Erotic Art Festival ( http://www.seattleerotic.org ) this weekend to see two of my photographs. And a ton of work by a ton of other artists.

For those of you in the Northwest, plan on visiting the Seattle Erotic Art Festival from May 1-3 at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall. I have been invited by the festival to include two of my photographs, one of which I've been keeping a secret. This will be the 6th year that I have had work in SEAF. If it's at all possible, stop by and check out the great array of artwork on display.

I haven't said much about this yet. I knew it was a big project, and I didn't want to mention it until I was sure that I was in the right frame of mind to finish it. But I'm making a new handmade book.

Some of you might remember the last book that I made, between December of 2004 and January of 2005. I called it "Hexentexte" and it was black. The longer I worked on it, the more work it took. I started out planning on making a photo album and ended up making something much more elaborate, with audio excerpts and other things. There are some photographs of it here: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=hexentexte&w=86332536%40N00

It's been 4 years, and finally it's time for me to start work on the next in the series. My white book. I'd always intended on making a black, then white, then red book. It was only later that I found out that this is the progression of colors in Alchemy. It seems fitting.

I've only just recently begun. Here are the back sides of a few of the pages so far.

Inclusion of dried plants used in photographs. Also other things. Photobooth documentation, etc.

Expect more later on.

New now.

New things. Coming.

"Life Songs" test

This is a test image from what ended up being used for secret inside album artwork for the Plague Bringer's album "Life Songs in a Land of Death." I still haven't shown the finished piece (besides inside of the album). I'm very happy with the finished image (which involved a lot of work - collage, retouching by hand, etc.), so I will definitely be showing it sometime in the future.

This image is from November, but I got so busy that I forgot to scan it.

--------------------

The temperature rose by a few degrees here in Chicago and all the snow has disappeared finally. While that may not last for long, I was happy to walk around my neighborhood and collect some samples of fallen flora to include in upcoming photographs. A small part of me wished that I was able to find more greenery, bu I realized that I like including seasonal plants as images and textures in my work. Photographs I take in March will be different from those taken in August, those taken in Chicago will have a different feel from those made in Washington.

So right now I'm collecting branches and bark, gnarled and hardened vines and dead plants that have been hidden under snow for three months.

assorted things

shot on long expired Polaroid Spectra film

and


This is how much film I have left. It's been discontued and is no longer in production. Whenver I sell a print, I attempt to track down another box of the extinct film on the internet so that I can continue to make new work.
(Since taking this snapshot, I have already used some of what's pictured here)


The opening at Per Populus Gallery on Friday was a great success! See some of the snapshots on my Flickr page, and more on Sara's page. There's a bit of overlap between the two.

I re-scanned a negative

"Aurora"

I scanned this negative on a better scanner, and the difference is remarkable.  You can actually see the details present.  I'm not deleting or replacing the other scan just so that anyone interested can compare.

new photograph, Saturday

another new photograph

I realized that if I don't put a title for each post, they don't show up in the listings on this page.  

Exhibitions next week - Chicago and Zurich

Dirty Show Zurich through the Museum of Porn in Art
At Kino Roland, February 13th - 15th.




3 Feet High & Rising
Inaugural exhibition for the new gallery Per Populus
in Chicago's Pilsen district

PEP! Magazine

I was recently interviewed for the current issue of PEP! Magazine in Hungary.  They asked me some great questions, though unfortunately I am unable to read the final article (and online translation services are only moderately helpful).

Those of you in Europe should be able to see this on newsstands.  Everyone else can find more information here: 

http://pepmagazin.blogspot.com

http://myspace.com/keresemot

Arrived in the mail on the same day: A package of the discontinued film that I use, and my bass amp that has been sitting in storage for over two and a half years.

Yes, I use a very expensive film that has not been produced for the last year.

I hate scanners

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Swiss band Sum of R released an album on Utech Records a couple of months ago, and I provided the artwork for the front cover and the insert.

Reto from Sum of R provided me with a few reviews of the CD that mention the artwork itself.

Visit http://www.utechrecords.com to purchase

Visit the band's website at http://www.sumofr.ch for more information, and to see what the insert looks like.

Bad Alchemy

Dec. 2008

The artwork of SUM Of R (Utech Records, URCD025) – a eerie female 
nude, silver on black – corresponds to the breathtaking 
Utech-Standard. In addition to this Vanitas motive “Death and 
Girl” (or “as girl”) Reto Mäder (RM74) composed toghether with Christoph Hess and 
Roger Ziegler (Herpes Ö Deluxe) - based on bass guitar, 
strings, electronics, piano, turntable, harmonium and effects - not a 
morbid, but a creepy dreamscape consisting of gloomy sounds, dismal 
and dark beats and ominous hallucinatory voices.
If you allready know Excursion and other works of RM74 or Havarie (2003) and 
Kielholen (2007) of Herpes Ö Deluxe, you are listening with SUM OF R 
to something completely different. The clock goes crazy, the sounds 
seem to flow forward and backwards at the same time. The sound 
sources merge into one another and silver vibrations create black 
whirls.



’Our Karma is broken' consists of only one four-tone-motive, moving 
around in a circle. Throughout ’Bones Beer and Muscles' lead 
intense ritual drum sounds and lash guitar storms.
At the beginning of ’Eleventh Rib' you should be enough adjusted to 
the light conditions to discover wiry string arpeggios which are run 
through percussive scratches. Guitarlike riffs boom also in ‘Requiem 
for a Liar’ and descend – defined through bass sounds – in 
‘Pack Mule’. Here the feedbacks and rustling sound clouds 
superimpose every single word that is declaimed somewhere in the 
background. ’Unlisted Desasters' drags along like covered up sound 
of flourish of trumpets and ends in the dream trap of ’Basics of 
Sleep' (13:21). This starts with a stagnating blubber which changes 
into an sublime impetus. Dark roaring harmonies alike to rumbling 
tubes and trombones arch about a woven pattern of guitar and muffled 
pulse beat. Here SUM OF R takes the same way as KTL does, especially 
on IV, with its fantastic surges into the grandeur.
Finally ’Good Night Francine' (8:00) is a single tremble, like of 
raging hammered gongs or cymbals, pierced of the dark shine of 
standing waves like the black sun of the imaginary may send out.



The three Swiss complete the dreamscapes of her congenial label 
collegues Dead Air of Final (Justin K. Broadrick), Shivers & Voids of 
The Stargazer’s Assistant (David J. Smith of Guapo and Miasma & The 
Carousel Of Dead Horses), Schwarzhagel of Klangmutationen of Kuala 
Lumpur or Trembled of Nadja as just new Böcklins and Füsslis in a 
time flown through X–rays and gamma rays would be able to, if they 
had not already enough to do as setdesigners for Hollywood gothic 
movies. [ba 61 rbd]

www.NormanRecords.com

Dec 2008

This new Sum of R thing on Utech comes in probably the best designed digipak I've ever handled. I actually can't stop looking at it. I'm a horrible vinyl snob but after opening this I think I might go home, sell all my records and re-buy all my collection on CD.. Basically living my life up until now in reverse. I can't stop looking at it but I really should write something about the music, I'll do my best to avert my gaze.. In common with much of the label's output that I've heard up until now, this self-titled album is gloomy, experimental stuff that I suppose you could tag 'dark ambient' if you really must. There's a fair bit of drone that often crosses over into weird ambient noise sort of territory, with distant slow-motion riffs and lovely controlled feedback. Very dramatic and evocative. Plus the secret goth in you will probably lap up the titles ('Physically Deformed', 'Requiem for a Liar') without ever dreaming of admitting to it. Looking at the inlay I'm assuming this lot are Swiss and the music is a pretty good answer to Orson Welles' cuckoo clock jibe in A Touch of Evil. And look at that thick, untreated card they've used on the packaging.. Yum. Oh, and there's a tit on the cover - WAAHEEEY LADS EH LOL!!!

The Sound Projector

SUM OF R is a side project of RM74, for which he is joined by two members of Herpes Ö DeLuxe – both of these are Swiss noise, drone and electro-acoustic projects which have managed to summon up and portray vast fields of unknowable, metaphysical murk in their slow-moving scapes of sludge. On their eponymous CD (UTECH RECORDS URCD025), Reto Mäder, Roger Ziegler and Christoph Hess use some conventional instrumentation (bass guitar, piano) alongside a turntable, a harmonium and lots of electronic studio effects to create ten substantial episodes of vaguely morbid, doomy and perplexing musics. Well not always doomy maybe, but always strange and compelling. Their ideas about layering and slowly-shifting dynamics could teach a few lessons to many of our American stoner-rock brethren! A fine record whose black digipack and grainy photographs printed with silver ink enhances the flinty atmosphere.
By Ed Pinsent.
directlink: http://www.thesoundprojector.com/2009/01/10/ural-umbo/

an introduction

Aurora


Since this is my first post, I thought I'd introduce myself.

My name is Rik Garrett. I take photographs. I use film and print in the darkroom.

Some links of possible interest:

RikGarrett.com - my photography website

my Flickr page

Luvzya - my music project's Myspace profile

Feel free to follow my journal, comment, etc.