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Dennis Murphy
"Tribal Document" by Dennis Murphy
"Tribal Document" by Dennis Murphy
In the mid-eighties, after borrowing a friend's camera, I began to use black & white infrared film to chronicle the people and times of New York City. Up until that time I hadn't considered myself an artist in the visual sense having instead been involved in the East Village music scene. I found that the city and its inhabitants made their own compelling landscapes and, like John Ford in Monument Valley, I would let this scenery do most of the work for me. My early black and white images were candid street shots imbued with ethereal highlights and shadows I wanted from the infrared effect in hopes of the work my own signature. In those days, in downtown New York City, anywhere you looked were fascinating looking people just begging to be photographed. It was almost as if I couldn't take a bad picture.

It was about this time that I seriously started to research the history of my new pastime while keeping tabs on the art world markets, Christie's/Sotheby's, media critiques and publishing trends, I couldn't help noticing a curious discrepancy peculiar to the photography medium; black and white work was automatically designated noteworthy and / or serious art, whereas color was dismissed as some Johnny-come-lately bastard child. Vulgar and untrustworthy. Right about then, in '85 or '86 I switched over to color infrared.
To go into the problematics of shooting people in action using infrared would fill a small book, so to be concise, I spent a few years experimenting with filter combinations until I got the one that seemed to work for me. Filter combinations not endorsed by the Kodak book of rules that soon discarded. Then my camera and I took to the streets much as before.

Every once in a while, if you are lucky, someone comes along and tosses a brand new road map in your lap for a brand new direction you hadn't thought possible. I don't remember the name of Nan Goldin's early book of color photos that I picked up in a bookstore, but I couldn't put it down and I wanted to know why. After scanning several times through her volume of intimate, snapshotty color work, I realized that her subjects were all friends and acquaintances. People she knew. Involvement. Right then I knew that I couldn’t rely on the objective approach I had used so far. I put down the book and began the Tribal Document series the next day.
 
Canvas Printing

Printing on canvas is incredibly versatile and a great way to create a ready-to-hang image or artwork. Every canvas that we print  is protected with a UV coated acrylic finish to guard the print from dust, moisture and fading. Do you want your canvas stretched on bars or non-stretched? Framed or unframed? Customize the work to make it truly your own.

 
Art Prints – How are they made?

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Photography by Laurie Barone-Shafer
Nowadays just about anyone can take a good quality photographs with a digital camera. Or take a few hundred pictures and the chances are few will be good, and even one or two outstanding.

Here are a few tips, tricks and techniques on how to make art print poster ready photographs and print ready digital files. Don’t get overwhelmed, there is a lot of information here, but a lot of it is just intuitive. Well, a bit of patience will always help.

First thing – Photo Size

If you taking a digital photo of you family or friend the largest size you would print is usually 5 by 7 inches, maybe 8 by 10 at the most. Even small size digital photographs (2MB or less) are ‘good enough’ to create a decent print. But if you want to create prints that are 16 by 20, 20 by 24 inches or larger you need more pixels (in pixels 20 by 24 inches photo is actually about 40 times larger than 3 by 4 inches photo assuming they have the same resolution).
 
Learning to Paint Watercolors

Watercolor is an easy, fun medium for creating art.  Color theory, composition and design can be explored freely with watercolor paint, paper, and brushes.  Several techniques may be used with watercolors for varying effects including painting wet on wet, wet on dry, layering washes, and more.

Watercolor paper comes in cold press, hot press, and rough.  Rough paper has the most texture, and its hills and valleys can result in interesting effects when paint is added.  Hot press is the smoothest and has the finest texture.  Cold press has a moderate amount of texture and is the paper most commonly chosen by watercolor artists.

Watercolor paper comes in several weights ranging from 90 lb. to 300 lb. based on the pounds per ream of paper.  Most artists prefer to use at least 140 lb. paper.  Papers vary somewhat between manufacturers, so sampling different papers is advisable.  Paper can be purchased in pads, in blocks or in large sheets.  The large sheets are usually the most economical and can be torn into whatever size is desired.
 
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