Ray Burlington Poker Club

Artist’s statement:

Statement #1:

Without motion the still is unnecessary, without the still motion is impossible.

Statement #2:

The genesis of this project comes out of a long history of still and motion picture film work. Conceptually begun in the early 90’s the initial ideas sprung out of work that I was doing at the University of Iowa in both the Communications Department (Broadcast and Film) and the Art Department (Photography and Video Art). I have always been interested in examining the presence of motion within the still image and the fundamental physics and theory behind motion film. This project explores these interests by the melding of motion film and shooting techniques with the silver gelatin print process. This allows us to explore and examine motion as it is revealed in still photography while at the same time “exposing” the fundamental concept, persistence of motion, which makes movie and video presentation possible.

Statement #3:

While working in both still and motion film I was continuously struck by the similarities of the two mediums and I thought it would be fun to do a motion study with motion film then print them out as stills. People have asked me; why not just use a regular camera with auto-wind to do a motion study? The answer is that with still film cameras the frames are exposed horizontally while in motion film cameras they are exposed vertically, a completely different look and a completely different read. The original intention for the hand coloring was to highlight the motion aspects of the image but as tests progressed this idea was found to be impractical; however, I continued to use color because I liked the effect.

Statement #4:

There is a triangular relationship between the artist, the work and the viewer. There is communication in both directions along each side of the triangle. This communication continuously affects and changes all three.

Statement #5:

I like making pictures. I like making movies.

Conclusion:

Series One: Longboard

Project History:

In the Beginning:

Well, I’ve got to tell you, this project has been a long time in the making. I first started thinking about it while I was a student at The University of Iowa in the early 90’s. At the time I was in the Communications Department studying motion picture production, I was also pursuing a minor in Art with an emphasis in Photography. At the time my primary focus was on film production, I was interested in form and style as used to lead an audience within the narrative structure of the short film. In still photography I was exploring various methods of creating a sense of motion in stills by printing large, fracturing the image and working outside traditional framing and formatting. Due to the closeness of these two disciplines I was constantly using techniques learned in one department with the other and in my junior and senior years I was continually thinking of ways to hybrid the two.

By my senior year I had started to formulate the idea of shooting black and white motion picture film, using standard motion picture cameras, then printing the result using still photo enlargers and printing techniques. At this same time I got my first exposure to hand coloring. We were having class in a local painter/photographer’s studio as we had been forced out of the art building by the summer floods of ’93. The woman whose studio we were using was printing big and using pastel oils to highlight her images. I liked the effect, if not the subject, (lots of clowns and balloons and the like). I started to think about trying out hand coloring. Unfortunately due to many factors, primarily my impending graduation, I didn’t do any work using either the oils or the motion picture film.

One year later I was living and working freelance in Chicago on independent feature films, commercials, music videos, just about anything that I could get on. Freelance, especially early in a career, can give a person a goodly amount of time off and I started thinking about my photo project again. I wanted to print big, I’m talking 6’x 2.5’, big. I was also thinking about manipulating the shutter and frame rate in order to distort fast motions. It was about this time that I decided that the hand coloring should have a part in this project, giving the prints a little something extra. Over the next couple years I spent some time researching the project, making sketches, looking at different cameras, film stocks, processing and printing techniques and so on. I did a cost analysis of doing a series on 35mm and printing at the level that I mentioned before. That about killed the project right there. I barely had enough cash for the rent let alone what this monster was going to cost to shoot, process, print and hang at 6’ + each. I continued to think about it and talk with others about it but I began to despair that it would ever get done.

Throughout the next several years I thought about it less and less, it was always there in the back of my mind but I really thought I’d never get a chance to do it. Around 1996 I started collecting cameras, let me rephrase that, people started giving me cameras. Friends and friends of friends would show up at a party with an old musky box under their arm and would say something like. “Hey Russ, this has been in my Dad’s basement for just ever, I thought you might appreciate it.” And then hand me the box. I ended up with three or four 16mm cameras and a couple old 8mm cameras. I put them away and forgot about them.

Then around the turn of the century things started to change. More investigation (make that lucky chance) proved to me that the cameras that had been sitting on my shelf for a couple years still worked and I had three sets of fabulous 16mm lenses (Cooke) that just needed to be cleaned. The Project started to bug me bad, I really, really, really, wanted to get it going, but I still didn’t have enough money so finally I said, “fuck it, if I can’t print big, I’ll start small”. I’d never done any practical testing of any of this so I figured if nothing else I could at least get some practice and start developing the techniques that I will need later when I do go big. In the winter of 2001 I got my baby, a vintage 1950’s Bolex, this camera was great, much more versatile than the Bell and Howell’s that I was going to use, unfortunately it was still non-reflex (the image in the viewfinder is slightly askew than that of the lens). In spring 2002 I loaded up and went down to the lakefront and shot a test roll. Well, okay, a quarter test roll. My baby ended up being temperamental and jammed after half a roll. Regardless I sent off the film that I could salvage and started looking for another Bolex. About the time I found my second Bolex I got the film back. The images were great! Practically exactly what I expected. Plenty good enough for me to start the first series.

With my first successful shoot behind me, in late summer 2002 I asked a friend of mine if I could go out with him and his buddies the next time they went skateboarding. He said sure, so I spent the day following these three guys around just shooting whatever they were doing. Mind you these aren’t your Popsicle stick, flipper-kick kids skating around. These guys go downhill and they go fast. I shot just one roll of film, 200’, but it was enough to give me what you see here, plus a lot more that you don’t see.

I took the results in and started printing tests; I had to work out any number of problems with the printing. Primarily with dodging and burning, also carrier size, and I had to figure out how big I could go with the small (16mm) negatives. I learned a lot that first winter. I got a set of Marshal oils for Christmas that year (thanks Vesna!!) and started painting. I also tested out a number of other paints, pencils, pens, tints, dyes, and toners to see which would give me the best product with the least effort. There was no doubt about it; Marshal’s Oils are hands down the best for what I am doing. In early 2003 I changed paper and darkrooms, I started working in fiber for archival purposes and moved from Triangle Photo on the north side of Chicago to Vital Projects, which is a lot closer to where I live and a lot more convenient for me. Ever since I have been working on printing and painting, printing and painting.

All prints in this series are hand colored with Marshal oils on silver gelatin. Due to the hand coloring process each print is unique and cannot be duplicated accurately from scratch. I mix all the colors myself generally relying on the three primary additive colors to get to what I want. Occasionally I will use black or white to deepen or lighten a color and also occasionally I will use a pre-mixed tint (Marshall’s makes a whole bunch of colors) and mix it in as well. Any additional prints in the series cannot, by nature, have the same coloration. I intend to follow these images up with more of differing subjects. I will continue to work in 16mm printing in different sizes until I’ve made enough to do a big run. That is still the ultimate goal. I want to print big, and I will. All proceeds from these earlier series will go into equipment upgrades, materials and a labor fund and ultimately, eventually I will unveil the big ones.

Special thanks: I would be remiss not to acknowledge some few people and places.

My Mother and Father for starting it all for me, and supporting my career choices even if they didn’t understand or agree with them.

The faculty and staff of The University of Iowa Communications and Art Departments. The faculty, staff and regulars of One Eye’d Jakes, my other family.

Julene (Sparky) McCoy: for getting me in and out of trouble for so many years, a true friend.

Ron Forsythe: for advising me in advance of some of the problems that I might face and making excellent suggestions on how to work through them.

Rich Frye, Nima Taradji and Sean Duggins, for letting me tag along while they had fun and especially for not ramming into me when I stood in the middle road while they went zipping past.

Vesna Jovanovic: for getting me back in the darkroom and helping me regain my sea legs, also for that ever important first paint set. Vesna has a great website where you can see her work, its really cool, check her out! http://www.vesnaonline.com/

Sarah Beckstrom: for opening up Vital Projects thus giving me, and others, a place to work. Also for her advice, guidance and overall support, not to mention her mounting and framing skills.

Also thanks to the following businesses:

Vital Projects, Chicago – Darkroom rental, mounting and framing.

Triangle Photo, Chicago – Darkroom rental and supplies during the testing period

The Film Emporium, NY – 16mm black and white raw stock

Alpha Cine Labs, Seattle – I’ve been using this place since college, they are affordable, pleasant and over all a top-notch lab. I really can’t say enough good things about them. They do all of my motion film processing, 16mm B & W in this case.

Helix, Chicago – Paper and supplies

Calumet, Chicago – Misc. supplies and hardware

Fletcher Chicago, Chicago – Expendables

SMS Productions, Chicago – Lens cleaning and maintenance

Russell R. Roberts,

Chicago, January 2004.


				*Series One: Longboard* *Artist Statement / Project History / Special Thanks*



	Home \| Page One \| Page Two \| Page Three \| Page Four \| Page Five \| Page Six \| Artist Statement / Project History / Special Thanks


		Artist’s statement: Statement #1: Without motion the still is unnecessary, without the still motion is impossible. Statement #2: The genesis of this project comes out of a long history of still and motion picture film work. Conceptually begun in the early 90’s the initial ideas sprung out of work that I was doing at the University of Iowa in both the Communications Department (Broadcast and Film) and the Art Department (Photography and Video Art). I have always been interested in examining the presence of motion within the still image and the fundamental physics and theory behind motion film. This project explores these interests by the melding of motion film and shooting techniques with the silver gelatin print process. This allows us to explore and examine motion as it is revealed in still photography while at the same time “exposing” the fundamental concept, persistence of motion, which makes movie and video presentation possible. Statement #3: While working in both still and motion film I was continuously struck by the similarities of the two mediums and I thought it would be fun to do a motion study with motion film then print them out as stills. People have asked me; why not just use a regular camera with auto-wind to do a motion study? The answer is that with still film cameras the frames are exposed horizontally while in motion film cameras they are exposed vertically, a completely different look and a completely different read. The original intention for the hand coloring was to highlight the motion aspects of the image but as tests progressed this idea was found to be impractical; however, I continued to use color because I liked the effect. Statement #4: There is a triangular relationship between the artist, the work and the viewer. There is communication in both directions along each side of the triangle. This communication continuously affects and changes all three. Statement #5: I like making pictures. I like making movies. Conclusion: Series One: Longboard Project History: In the Beginning: Well, I’ve got to tell you, this project has been a long time in the making. I first started thinking about it while I was a student at The University of Iowa in the early 90’s. At the time I was in the Communications Department studying motion picture production, I was also pursuing a minor in Art with an emphasis in Photography. At the time my primary focus was on film production, I was interested in form and style as used to lead an audience within the narrative structure of the short film. In still photography I was exploring various methods of creating a sense of motion in stills by printing large, fracturing the image and working outside traditional framing and formatting. Due to the closeness of these two disciplines I was constantly using techniques learned in one department with the other and in my junior and senior years I was continually thinking of ways to hybrid the two. By my senior year I had started to formulate the idea of shooting black and white motion picture film, using standard motion picture cameras, then printing the result using still photo enlargers and printing techniques. At this same time I got my first exposure to hand coloring. We were having class in a local painter/photographer’s studio as we had been forced out of the art building by the summer floods of ’93. The woman whose studio we were using was printing big and using pastel oils to highlight her images. I liked the effect, if not the subject, (lots of clowns and balloons and the like). I started to think about trying out hand coloring. Unfortunately due to many factors, primarily my impending graduation, I didn’t do any work using either the oils or the motion picture film. One year later I was living and working freelance in Chicago on independent feature films, commercials, music videos, just about anything that I could get on. Freelance, especially early in a career, can give a person a goodly amount of time off and I started thinking about my photo project again. I wanted to print big, I’m talking 6’x 2.5’, big. I was also thinking about manipulating the shutter and frame rate in order to distort fast motions. It was about this time that I decided that the hand coloring should have a part in this project, giving the prints a little something extra. Over the next couple years I spent some time researching the project, making sketches, looking at different cameras, film stocks, processing and printing techniques and so on. I did a cost analysis of doing a series on 35mm and printing at the level that I mentioned before. That about killed the project right there. I barely had enough cash for the rent let alone what this monster was going to cost to shoot, process, print and hang at 6’ + each. I continued to think about it and talk with others about it but I began to despair that it would ever get done. Throughout the next several years I thought about it less and less, it was always there in the back of my mind but I really thought I’d never get a chance to do it. Around 1996 I started collecting cameras, let me rephrase that, people started giving me cameras. Friends and friends of friends would show up at a party with an old musky box under their arm and would say something like. “Hey Russ, this has been in my Dad’s basement for just ever, I thought you might appreciate it.” And then hand me the box. I ended up with three or four 16mm cameras and a couple old 8mm cameras. I put them away and forgot about them. Then around the turn of the century things started to change. More investigation (make that lucky chance) proved to me that the cameras that had been sitting on my shelf for a couple years still worked and I had three sets of fabulous 16mm lenses (Cooke) that just needed to be cleaned. The Project started to bug me bad, I really, really, really, wanted to get it going, but I still didn’t have enough money so finally I said, “fuck it, if I can’t print big, I’ll start small”. I’d never done any practical testing of any of this so I figured if nothing else I could at least get some practice and start developing the techniques that I will need later when I do go big. In the winter of 2001 I got my baby, a vintage 1950’s Bolex, this camera was great, much more versatile than the Bell and Howell’s that I was going to use, unfortunately it was still non-reflex (the image in the viewfinder is slightly askew than that of the lens). In spring 2002 I loaded up and went down to the lakefront and shot a test roll. Well, okay, a quarter test roll. My baby ended up being temperamental and jammed after half a roll. Regardless I sent off the film that I could salvage and started looking for another Bolex. About the time I found my second Bolex I got the film back. The images were great! Practically exactly what I expected. Plenty good enough for me to start the first series. With my first successful shoot behind me, in late summer 2002 I asked a friend of mine if I could go out with him and his buddies the next time they went skateboarding. He said sure, so I spent the day following these three guys around just shooting whatever they were doing. Mind you these aren’t your Popsicle stick, flipper-kick kids skating around. These guys go downhill and they go fast. I shot just one roll of film, 200’, but it was enough to give me what you see here, plus a lot more that you don’t see. I took the results in and started printing tests; I had to work out any number of problems with the printing. Primarily with dodging and burning, also carrier size, and I had to figure out how big I could go with the small (16mm) negatives. I learned a lot that first winter. I got a set of Marshal oils for Christmas that year (thanks Vesna!!) and started painting. I also tested out a number of other paints, pencils, pens, tints, dyes, and toners to see which would give me the best product with the least effort. There was no doubt about it; Marshal’s Oils are hands down the best for what I am doing. In early 2003 I changed paper and darkrooms, I started working in fiber for archival purposes and moved from Triangle Photo on the north side of Chicago to Vital Projects, which is a lot closer to where I live and a lot more convenient for me. Ever since I have been working on printing and painting, printing and painting. All prints in this series are hand colored with Marshal oils on silver gelatin. Due to the hand coloring process each print is unique and cannot be duplicated accurately from scratch. I mix all the colors myself generally relying on the three primary additive colors to get to what I want. Occasionally I will use black or white to deepen or lighten a color and also occasionally I will use a pre-mixed tint (Marshall’s makes a whole bunch of colors) and mix it in as well. Any additional prints in the series cannot, by nature, have the same coloration. I intend to follow these images up with more of differing subjects. I will continue to work in 16mm printing in different sizes until I’ve made enough to do a big run. That is still the ultimate goal. I want to print big, and I will. All proceeds from these earlier series will go into equipment upgrades, materials and a labor fund and ultimately, eventually I will unveil the big ones. Special thanks: I would be remiss not to acknowledge some few people and places. My Mother and Father for starting it all for me, and supporting my career choices even if they didn’t understand or agree with them. The faculty and staff of The University of Iowa Communications and Art Departments. The faculty, staff and regulars of One Eye’d Jakes, my other family. Julene (Sparky) McCoy: for getting me in and out of trouble for so many years, a true friend. Ron Forsythe: for advising me in advance of some of the problems that I might face and making excellent suggestions on how to work through them. Rich Frye, Nima Taradji and Sean Duggins, for letting me tag along while they had fun and especially for not ramming into me when I stood in the middle road while they went zipping past. Vesna Jovanovic: for getting me back in the darkroom and helping me regain my sea legs, also for that ever important first paint set. Vesna has a great website where you can see her work, its really cool, check her out! http://www.vesnaonline.com/ Sarah Beckstrom: for opening up Vital Projects thus giving me, and others, a place to work. Also for her advice, guidance and overall support, not to mention her mounting and framing skills. Also thanks to the following businesses: Vital Projects, Chicago – Darkroom rental, mounting and framing. Triangle Photo, Chicago – Darkroom rental and supplies during the testing period The Film Emporium, NY – 16mm black and white raw stock Alpha Cine Labs, Seattle – I’ve been using this place since college, they are affordable, pleasant and over all a top-notch lab. I really can’t say enough good things about them. They do all of my motion film processing, 16mm B & W in this case. Helix, Chicago – Paper and supplies Calumet, Chicago – Misc. supplies and hardware Fletcher Chicago, Chicago – Expendables SMS Productions, Chicago – Lens cleaning and maintenance Russell R. Roberts, Chicago, January 2004.







		All images Copyright © 2004 by Russell R. Roberts