Barbara M. Ventura – Next Step Alumni Group Exhibit

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John Paul Caponigro’s Next Step Alumni Group

For over 10 years I’ve been mentoring a select group of individuals. Their progress has been thrilling to watch. It’s been a true privilege to be a part of their growth. July 7 their first Group Exhibit will be unveiled at the Maine Media Workshops. (link)
Barbara has been a member for 4 years. Here’s one important thing she learned and her work.
Alumni Insights
The most important thing I learned from my participation in John Paul Caponigro’s Next Step Alumni Group, other than the privilege we have to be able to partake of John’s artistic career as well as his insight and directive in our creative expression, is that we can become a part of a living organism rather than a Group organization.
Participation in the apparent difficulties that we ourselves go through as well as the success stories and journeys of others can become a personal experience to each one of us. We can see the fact that we belong to a group as a whole (one) rather than individually. We can get involved seeing the Group as a living organism rather than an organization with the assurance that what takes place when we meet, is far beyond those undeniable reasons to attend a workshop.
Artist’s Statement
My work is an anthology of what could be called “eternal moments”; images captured as an expression of my identification with Life in the form of Nature as an integral part of my Essence and Being.  I could also define it as occasions when I am at One with nature and the conscious distinctions between the self and the observed fade away. I believe one must move beyond the dualistic concept of “an artist and his work” in order to create and experience art in its essential timeless expression.
This expression is the resultant flow from an interminable encounter with Life.  Through this interaction, my life as a seeker has given way to the profound inner confirmation that art and artist are One. Therefore it has become an indescribable joy to experience the world as an observer while being inspired to transcribe spiritual truth into visual imagery.
See more of Barbara’s work here.
See the Next Step Exhibit at the Maine Media Workshops July 7 – 30.
Find Barbara’s Next Step Blurb book here.
Find out more about my workshops here.
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Karen Daspit – Next Step Alumni Group Exhibit

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John Paul Caponigro’s Next Step Alumni Group
For over 10 years I’ve been mentoring a select group of individuals. Their progress has been thrilling to watch. It’s been a true privilege to be a part of their growth. July 7 their first Group Exhibit will be unveiled at the Maine Media Workshops. (link)
Karen Daspit has been a member for over 5 years. Here’s one important thing she learned and her work.
Alumni Insights
The most important thing I learned from my participation in John Paul Caponigro’s Next Step Alumni Group is that a group can create a synergy that produces artistic progression and excellence.  Next Step has done that for me, personally.  Somehow, watching other artists work improve and establishing a close connection with them via the internet creates a platform for improvement.  Our group leader, John Paul Caponigro has set the standards high for critique, and quality of work submitted to the group. This has helped fuel the improvement I have experienced. It is almost a magical experience!
Artist’s Statement
The tropical environment I find in Hawaii inspires my images. The fauna here never ceases to amaze and provoke my creative spirit.  I enjoy working with an earthen palate and taking what I see around me and re-composing it to my liking.
I have always been blessed with a creative ability that allows me to “see” a finished image in my mind’s eye.This ability, combined with my experience in the computer industry has served me well in this metamorphic journey.
My work has matured over the last 12 years.  While conquering some of the technicalities of a camera, my work was basic and somewhat geometric and design oriented.  It has progressed through various themes of flowers and leaves, to what is now a much more intricate and creative product.
I enjoy this task so much. I have met amazing people who have encouraged and mentored me. Living in Hawaii is a blessing to my work.
I strive to charm the observer, as I have been charmed.
See more of Karen Daspit’s work here.
See the Next Step Exhibit at the Maine Media Workshops July 7 – 30.
Stay tuned for individual and group Next Step Blurb books.
Find out more about my workshops here.
Read More

Shayne Lynn – Next Step Alumni Group Exhibit

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John Paul Caponigro’s Next Step Alumni Group
For over 10 years I’ve been mentoring a select group of individuals. Their progress has been thrilling to watch. It’s been a true privilege to be a part of their growth. July 7 their first Group Exhibit will be unveiled at the Maine Media Workshops. (link)
Shayne Lynn has been a member for over 5 years. Here’s one important thing he learned and his work.
Alumni Insights
I signed up for my first John Paul Caponigro photography workshop looking to become a more technically efficient Photoshop user.  The workshop impressed me by going beyond Photoshop and illuminating how to see differently, to be witness to your own work and also use this new knowledge to be more creative – both before and after taking the picture.
I have been part of the Next Step Group for four years. Having an active dialogue with this community of diverse visual artists facilitated by John Paul has broadened my own interpretation of photography and the express power that lies within it. The group helps one clarify meaning and purpose in their own work, and has given me support to pursue my own projects.
Artist’s Statement
These images visualize internal spaces in nature, mirrored in myself – the depth of which I seek to explore and comprehend. They represent the small, simple, meditations of nature and moments I became comfortably lost in. By becoming still (sometimes disturbingly so), I released the pressure to “be creative”, and was able to witness my breath, to sense an image and compose it. The camera frame holds together the pieces of the world for me, defining the horizon, creating a center from which to focus on. I sought to capture a sense of energy moving in containment – a channel of “becoming in an unplanned way – flow”.
See more of Shayne’s work here.
See the Next Step Exhibit at the Maine Media Workshops July 7 – 30.
Stay tuned for individual and group Next Step Blurb books.
Find out more about my workshops here.
Read More

Jim Graham – Next Step Alumni Group Exhibit

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John Paul Caponigro’s Next Step Alumni Group
For over 10 years I’ve been mentoring a select group of individuals. Their progress has been thrilling to watch. It’s been a true privilege to be a part of their growth. July 7 their first Group Exhibit will be unveiled at the Maine Media Workshops. (link)
Jim Graham has been a member for over 6 years. Here’s one important thing he learned and his work.
Alumni Insight

I first came to John Paul 8 years ago.  And from that workshop and my subsequent inclusion in the Next Step Group  I have been able to develop a voice that speaks through my work.  John might say that I always had one and that he only helped untie the strings that has bound it.  But, I’d argue differently.
My inclusion in this group helped in my ability to articulate a visual language.  An Artistic language.  For I do believe that when we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change, to hear and to see; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not ready. The challenge will not wait.
And it was not only John Paul who taught, but each member of that group as teacher.  Each offering their own individual gift to the other. Each part having their own unique attributes that bound us all together.  Not just a whole community but a visual chorus.
I’ve also been fortunate that others have valued my input about their work and that curiosity has given me the courage to begin to teach on my own.

Artist’s Statement
The work I choose to show in a gallery is typically made while traveling. I usually just photograph whatever interests me. Documenting where I am or what my surrounding environs are.  The resulting imagery inevitably ends up integrating my experience with the natural world. I seem to have an inner agenda, which is always seeking a harmony between the two, as well as a need to reconcile the inner, psychological world with the outer world of my everyday experiences. Each of my images has it’s own story.  I may not have known the story when I released the shutter.  But, the journey home and the time taken to suss out the images I have created, each stories unfolds.  They are perhaps an afterthought – a way to make sense of a fleeting moment or a memory.
In the naming of my images I try to give a bit of meaning to the moment I’ve tired to render.  I try to find a way to finish the image as a final piece and to bind the group as a whole. Each image has it’s own place and it’s own narrative.  While I have my own story for each, I hope that the viewer find his own stories within them.
See more of Jim Graham’s work here.
See the Next Step Exhibit at the Maine Media Workshops July 7 – 30.
Stay tuned for individual and group Next Step Blurb books.
Find out more about my workshops here.
Read More

Exhibit – Holbert and Steinhardt in Seattle

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Last night presenters at the Epson Print Academy (Caponigro, Gorman, Holbert, Resnicki, Schewe) attended a gallery opening in downtown Seattle at the Benham Gallery showcasing images by members of their own ranks – Mac Holbert and Dan Steinhardt. Also on display were works by Robert Wade and Esther Sirotnik. Also in attendance was permanence expert Henry Wilhelm. Not surprisingly, the gallery talk quickly moved from early inspirations to a spirited discussion of process and permanence. “Giclee is meaningless!” “Archival is meaningless and no longer used by the ISO!” “C prints are no longer considered for collection by the Getty! They fade too fast!” “Color is now permanent!” You’ve got to see and hear it to believe it. What’s worse than being in a room with an expert? Being in a room with ten experts. Seriously though, it’s always interesting.
Mac Holbert described what it was like to leverage his 18 years of experience printing other people’s work when printing his own work several years ago for his first exhibit and more recently for this follow up. Dan Steinhardt also made interesting comments about why he chose to ask Mac Holbert to print for him. After a lifetime in photography, first as a photographer, then as a marketing expert for both Kodak and Epson, and recently in the last 5 years becoming more active in making his own images, he still decided to have an expert make the finest possible prints from his images. It’s an interesting decision that every photographer faces. Do you make your own prints? Do you have the time and knowledge base to do this? Or do you enlist master printmakers to make prints for you – a time honored tradition both within and without photography. Do you have the financial resources to enlist them and are you willing to engage in a collaborative process? There’s no right answer. It’s an individual decision. And you may make different decisions at for different projects and at different times in your life.
Mac also shared a story about his work. In the image above, he saw the Bible and the little girl when he made the exposure. But he didn’t see the ironic 666 written on the box in pencil until he made the print. So often, new things come to light when you make prints of your images.
The exhibit Placement of Place is on display from January 7 to February 14.
Find out more about Mac Holbert here.
Find out about the Benham Gallery here.
Improve your printing skills at the Epson Print Academy.
Learn to make master prints in my workshops.

NVIDIA Speak Visual Show

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In 2009 NVIDIA will host The Speak Visual Show, featuring massive projections on buildings across the globe and simultaneously broadcast online. All types of artwork are being accepted.
You can enter online. Look at the rights granted before you enter. To my mind the usage is too open ended. That’s why I haven’t entered. And I’ve told them so. Maybe the terms will change.
In the meantime, the concept is fascinating and the event should be too.
Check out the Speak Visual Show here.

Paul Caponigro – HMCP

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“The Hallmark Museum of Contemporary Photography is privileged to exhibit a special group of Paul Caponigro’s photographs chosen by HMCP’s Director, Paul Turnbull, from Mr. Caponigro’s voluminous archives. Entitled, “Select Photographs: 1956 thru 2005″, the seventy-five silver gelatin prints can be seen in the museum’s Gallery 52 and Gallery 56 facilities, on the corner of 2nd Street and Avenue A, downtown Turners Falls, Massachusetts. The exhibition will hang from September 25 through December 14, 2008. The opening reception is on Saturday, October 11, 2008, from 1-5 pm with lecture at 7 pm.” Read More

On Press – Banding

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We’ve been finishing the last prints for my annual open studio exhibit where I unveil New Work from 2008 for the first time. We ran into subtle banding in a few prints. So how do we trouble shoot it?
First check the file at 100% screen magnification. If it’s in the file add a touch of noise. If you need to use more noise than you’d like, use Noiseware afterwards.
Second check the printer. Is the data transfer fast enough? (Don’t perform other calculation intensive operations while printing. Close other programs if necessary. Make sure your cable connection isn’t too slow or too long.) Are the heads aligned? Are you sure it’s banding and not nozzle clog? (Nozzle clogs are tiny light lines. Banding is dark lines, often thick with soft edges.) Are you printing at high speed? (Try printing it slower.)
Third, as a last resort, rotate the image 90 degrees and try printing it again. Huh? Right! Many of my files are particularly difficult to print – semi-neutral fields with very smooth gradations. These types of images display incompatibilities with printer drivers and their screening frequencies that just don’t happen in most images. It has to do with screening frequencies. Why does rotation help? I don’t have an explanation for it. But it works.
Hopefully all of this will help you with your prints.
Get information on my Annual Exhibit here.
Check my blog for the most up to date information on the event.
Check out my blog during the event to see video of my new installation events.
Check out my Gallery to see more images.
Check out my Gallery during and after the exhibit to see new images.
Check out my workshops series The Fine Digital Print here.

Exhibit – New Work / Annual Open Studio

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You’re invited! My Annual Open Studio Exhibit (in my gallery/studio in Cushing, Maine) of New Work from 2008 is open for one weekend only – August 2-3 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. I’ll discuss my work daily at 2 p.m, sign books at 3 p.m, and post content online at 6 p.m. This is the best time to see and purchase new work as introductory prices are available for a limited time only. (Thereafter, private viewings for print purchases will scheduled by appointment only.)
This summer’s event simultaneously presents two galleries of work – one highlighting bold color and the other highlighting drawn forms. These new images are my most painterly to date. Upstairs, bright, bold colors exude a lush sensuality, producing an almost physical sensation while evoking strong emotional responses. These new additions to several of my most popular series simply glow. Downstairs, spaciously atmospheric compositions are filled with subtle iridescent whites, grays, and blacks. New work from the series Refraction reveals an evolution in my recent explorations into incorporating drawn elements with photographs.  If photographs are light drawings, these are also drawings of light. Simultaneously representational and abstract, this daring new work contains a powerful energy that transports the viewer.
During the exhibition, video documenting my recent related explorations with environmental performance art can be seen in the studio and here on this blog.
And don’t forget to see the Two Generations (father and son) exhibit at the Maine Media Workshops.
You can see two exhibits in one day!
Get information on my Annual Exhibit here.
Check my blog for the most up to date information on the event.
Check out my blog during the event to see video of my new installations.
Check out my Gallery to see more images.
Check out my Gallery during and after the exhibit to see new images.
Contact us here for print purchases.