Tag: gelatin silver print

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Daily Art Moment: Valentine’s Day

Sage Sohier, Gordon and Jim with Gordon’s Mother Margot, 1987, pigment print, 15 9/16 x 23 in. horizontal b&w photo with hot flash depicting 3 figures seated on a floral couch, the central male with his right arm around the elderly woman and left arm reaching out to male seated further away who is grasping it in both hands.

The Feast of St. Valentine’s Day has been celebrated in many different ways for well over a thousand years. No matter how you may feel about our contemporary version of Valentine’s Day, which tends to center romantic love, this can be a helpful reminder that love and connection are critical to our humanity. Photography has…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: William H. Walker

Image description: The New Year’s Edition (of the Oregonian), William H Walker, gelatin silver print, image 7 x 8 3/4 inches, sheet 7 1/16 x 9 ¼ inches. This black and white photograph depicts a newspaper vendor and customers at an outdoor newsstand on the sidewalk of a rainy street. At center right, a makeshift table holds mounds of large rolls of newspaper broadsheets. Three oversized broadsheets hang from the table and are half the length of the figure bent over the table. The figure, standing at the photo’s center, wears long dark overcoat and trousers with a hat. Behind them and to the left stands another figure, again in dark clothing and hat. The newsstand sits on the angled sidewalk which runs from the lower right to the upper left of the photo. Further down the sidewalk at far left is a streetlamp and another newsstand table heaped with rolled papers. In the distance, at far left another dark clad figure approaches. The background appears misty and the sidewalk shines with the fallen rain. At right, the hazy outline of buildings across the street are just discernible.

Curiously, this photograph is one of only two in the Museum’s permanent collection that includes “New Year” in its title. Made by Portland-based photographer Will Walker, it depicts people selling and purchasing copies of the New Year’s Day 1918 edition of The Oregonian. Thanks to @multnomahcountylibrary and its online research resources, I looked through the…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Frank Okada

Consanguineous, Frank Okada, oil on canvas, 72 x 72 inches. A square abstract painting featuring bold colors on a largely deep yellow ground. The lower left corner holds an arc of undulating stripes that dip slightly in their center. The stripes alternate from vivid red to orange then back to red again. A rectangular shape composed of trapezoidal shapes and stripes juts downward into the center space from the top center. The rectangle sits at an angle slanted to the left. It begins with a brilliant blue at the middle top of the painting followed by a thin stripe of deep red, then a dark olive-green trapezoid. A golden yellow that matches the background color follows, forming another trapezoid. It is followed by a cream trapezoid separated by narrow golden yellow stripe from a pale gray trapezoid shape. The textured golden yellow ground is bisected horizontally two thirds of the way down from the top. The upper portion of the painting is the largest segment with the bottom third containing the red and orange arc and three more golden yellow segments. The segments differ slightly in hue. The lightest is at left next to the red/orange arc. The remaining two segments continue to the right with a thin, sharp uneven streak of cream interrupting the yellow ground from the lower right edge. Brushstrokes are clearly visible with the edges of the shapes being slightly ragged and uneven.

Frank Okada once described his work as being “dedicatory in nature.” He said, “My parents, through good and bad times, always placed the first portion of newly cooked rice before their modest Buddhist shrine, dedicating that portion to the memory of those past and as an abiding affirmation of their faith. Occasionally, in thoughts conjured…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Lewis W. Hine

Image description: Lewis Hine, Making Stockings, gelatin silver print, 4 1/2 x 31/2 in. Vertical rectangular black-and-white photo of a young girl in profile sitting on a wood chair slightly tilted back that faces left, her hands and quiet concentration focused on a factory machine with stockings draped from it. She wears a dark dress, light apron, her hair appears to be in a low bun, and her lap is full of stockings which spill over to the floor and create a heap to her right. The background is out of focus and suggests disorderly conditions.
Lewis W. Hine (American, 1874-1940), Making Stockings, 1915, gelatin silver print, image: 4 1/2 in x 3 1/2 in; sheet: 7 in x 5 in, Bequest of Fae Heath Batten. Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 1997.58.73

I think of photographer Lewis Hine every Labor Day. He was deeply affected by the long hours and low pay he earned while working to help support his widowed mother and siblings during the 1890s in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Hine first learned photographic processes around 1904 in New York City, where he also became active in…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Dan Powell

Image description: The Dalles, Oregon, Dan Powell, 1989, gelatin silver print, image: 12 11/16 x 15 7/8 inches; sheet: 16 x 19 7/8 inches. A black and white photograph featuring a drive-in movie screen and a bare tree amid an austere hilly, landscape. The movie screen occupies the upper left quadrant of the photo and shows the screen in a three-quarter view. A triangular structure supports the screen and its crossbar construction creates further triangular shapes. A small leafless tree stands near the screen and its darker branches cover most of the surface of the white screen. A dark wooden post and wire screen fence starts at center left and juts into the space behind the tree. The surrounding ground is strewn with bare branches and scrub grass. In the distance at right center and even with the bottom of the movie screen, the Dalles Bridge crosses a portion of the Columbia River. Low-slung, far-off hills bisect the photo in half. The top half of the photo shows a pale sky with light, wispy clouds.

Drive-in theaters were a staple of American popular culture during the mid-twentieth century. According to the New York Film Academy, more than 4,000 drive-ins dotted the landscape during the 1950s and 1960s, particularly in rural locations. By the 1970s and 1980s, smaller automobiles, the emergence of the VCR, and other factors like the rising value…  Read more

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Write Around PAM: Ansel Adams

Image description: Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, Ansel Adams, 1941, (negative) printed later, gelatin silver print. A black and white, landscape photograph showing a moon in a dark night sky over mountains, a church and graveyard. The photo is divided roughly in half with the top portion holding the dark, almost black sky. Towards the center of the work the sky lightens, and wispy clouds stretch across the photo. An almost full moon sits just left of center in the lighter sky above the light gray clouds. A snow-peaked mountain range sits under the clouds with scrubland below it. At far left a pueblo-style church with steep flat walls rises in the foreground topped with a small white cross. Low lying outbuildings and trees continue across to the right side of the photo where they meet with a cluster of crosses and headstones. Each cross is slightly different, and all seem to reflect the light and show up brightly against the darker background. Dark scrubby bushes continue to the bottom of the photograph.
Ansel Adams (American, 1902–1984), Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941; print date: 1965–75, Photograph, gelatin silver print, 2018.2730, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Lane Collection © The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust, Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Ansel Adams took this photograph on the side of the highway, after glancing out the window while driving. It has since become one of his most famous pieces. We invite you to use it as inspiration in your own writing today. First, think of a moment when you were out in the world and caught…  Read more

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Write Around PAM: Ansel Adams

Image Description: Cemetery Statue and Oil Derricks, Long Beach, California. Ansel Adams. 1939. Photograph, gelatin silver print. Square black and white photo of a statue of a female with flowing wavy hair parted in the middle and gently falling onto her shoulders. Her eyes are closed and she has a peaceful, but solemn expression on her face. The figure is wearing a flowing robe-like garment with several ripples and folds. Her chin is gently resting on the folded fingers of her right hand and her elbow is resting on her knee. Her right foot and toes peek out from under the robe. She holds a wreath of daisy-like flowers in her left hand as it rests on her lowered left knee. The sculpture is on a cement pedestal that is partially visible with rounded corners decorated with filigrees. The figure seems illuminated while the evergreen trees, fifteen oil derricks, and sky in the background are much darker.
Ansel Adams (American, 1902–1984), Cemetery Statue and Oil Derricks, Long Beach, California, 1939, Photograph, gelatin silver print, 2018.2572, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Lane Collection. © The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust. Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

In addition to grand sweeping vistas, Ansel Adams spent time photographing the urban landscapes surrounding his home. This weekend, we invite you to spend some time closer to the city, writing within this place. Take a moment to imagine standing where Adams did when he took this photograph. What do you notice? What if you…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Ansel Adams

Image description: Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, Ansel Adams, 1941, (negative) printed later, gelatin silver print. A black and white, landscape photograph showing a moon in a dark night sky over mountains, a church and graveyard. The photo is divided roughly in half with the top portion holding the dark, almost black sky. Towards the center of the work the sky lightens, and wispy clouds stretch across the photo. An almost full moon sits just left of center in the lighter sky above the light gray clouds. A snow-peaked mountain range sits under the clouds with scrubland below it. At far left a pueblo-style church with steep flat walls rises in the foreground topped with a small white cross. Low lying outbuildings and trees continue across to the right side of the photo where they meet with a cluster of crosses and headstones. Each cross is slightly different, and all seem to reflect the light and show up brightly against the darker background. Dark scrubby bushes continue to the bottom of the photograph.
Ansel Adams (American, 1902–1984), Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941; print date: 1965–75, Photograph, gelatin silver print, 2018.2730, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Lane Collection © The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust, Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Tonight’s waxing gibbous moon has me thinking about how folks love to photograph the moon, and how difficult it is to capture this celestial orb in a way that matches what we feel when we observe it with our eyes. One of the most famous photographs of the moon is currently on view at the…  Read more

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Art and Writing During the Pandemic: Celebrating the Write Around Portland Partnership

It has been more than one year since Write Around Portland and the Portland Art Museum began collaborating on weekly, art-inspired writing prompts to sustain our souls and our sense of connection during the pandemic. Write Around Portland staff and writing workshop facilitators have created over 60 writing prompts inspired by works in the Portland…  Read more

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Write Around PAM: Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams (American, 1902–1984), Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park about 1937, Photograph, gelatin silver print, 2018.2722, *Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Lane Collection, *© The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust, *Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Photographs take us to places and times we might never see otherwise. Even on this summery day, this picture by Ansel Adams transports us to snowy grandeur shrouded by clouds and fog. If you were on one of these rocks in the clouds, how would you feel? Let your imagination take you there today as…  Read more