As the number of images I’ve highlighted in the monthly “Story Behind Every Photograph” approaches 50 I’m finding images with exciting back stories are waning.  So, I began to think about a story of an image where I returned to the same location in the hopes of making a better image, or a better negative. That idea will have to wait as I came across one of my favorite 7×17 images, which happened as a result of a 2nd trip to the same location. 

   My good friend and traveling partner Jack Holowitz has driven and seen more of the state of Vermont than most natives. One spring weekend Jack and I found ourselves at the Carving & Sculpture Studio in West Rutland, VT. There were scores of marble pieces strewn all around the grounds as seen in a screen grab from their website. This particular Sunday there was no one around and we wandered all over the grounds looking for images. I made a 5×7 negative that day, seen here, albeit, what I call an exercise negative, nothing special, yet an opportunity to go through the setup process and sorting out composition options, with an eye towards remaining  fresh and in sync. Similar to playing a baseball game and going hitless, you were present in the game!

   There was a ridge-line behind the studio with 3 or 4 pockets of large granite walls, most filled with water and overgrown branches hanging down from above. While I had the 7×17″ camera system with me, I chose do make the longer hike in the hot midday sun with the smaller 5×7″ system. Naturally, about 3/4 mile from the car I came upon this particular wall of granite seen in a cell phone shot I grabbed. We all see in a horizontal format and this one spoke to me. Several talented photographers have told me I have a clear vision for the 7×17 perspective. The differing angles and textures of this wall suggested to me a meaningful 7×17 image could result here on a return trip. I could not have imagined what would take this image from a worthy 7×17 image to a top ten favorite from my panoramic camera!!

   With Jack spending much of the summer at his camp on Lake Champlain in northern VT, I reached out to a mutual friend and talented LF photographer Gene LaFord to see if he was up for a ride north to the quarries. Indeed, we made plans to head up to West Rutland during the 2nd weekend in July. 150 miles south of the quarry, I had no way of knowing there were heavy rains during the week leading up to our weekend visit. Those heavy rains would take my loosely formed idea of a granite wall from an average abstract of grey tones to an extraordinary “right place, right time” image. For me, the unforeseen magical composition falls easily into, “what am I looking at” category.

   The midday sun would present a challenge to carry detail in the brighter areas of granite while preserving the wonderful detail in the water saturated areas of the vertical wall, nevertheless, a little more exposure and a lot less development and a wonderful negative would contain the information I was aiming for. These large negatives can only be printed by way of a “contact print”, no enlargement simply lay the 7×17″ negative in contact with the paper and the result is a 7×17″ positive print. The clarity and vibrancy produced from contact prints is remarkable and should be experienced in person! For this particular print I was able to use a vintage paper known as AZO, 100 years ago this paper was state of the art, producing glorious long scaled grey tones by way of it’s Chloride emulsion. Naturally, Kodak in their infinite wisdom discounted production before their own demise. For my aesthetic, the AZO paper responds to the split-toning process with warm Goldish highlights and deeper and cooler middle & low values better than papers that are readily available today. The warm high values and cool shadows produces an impression of depth by projecting the warmer lighter values, while the cool tones seem to recede, a wonderful process when controlled to my preferences.

   The horizontal direction and textures of the rugged, but static granite wall with subtle vertical striations in the background add depth and interest to the 2 dimensional wall. The juxtaposition, almost lyrical water saturated staining is heaven sent for this photographer, giving birth to my title of this image “Teardrops, VT Quarry.” This image is an important part of my Rock Concert portfolio, Teardrops and about a dozen other images will be on display during the free Photo Arts Xchange weekend October, 21 & 22nd at the Hampton Inn, Rocky Hill, CT. Please reach out if you would like to sit in on approximately 25 visual artists showing and discussing their work over the Friday & Saturday later this year.