Results of dART St. Louis

ON APRIL 30, 2009, ONE HUNDRED ST. LOUISIANS stepped up to the line at Ferguson & Katzman Photography and threw their dart at a giant map of St. Louis City. They then had a month to visit the block where their dart landed and make a photograph. The results were fabulous! Here’s a few images from all the entries.



(Above) Lauren Gosling - Park Avenue & Broadway
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(Above) Matthew Smith - North Spring Street & Lindell Boulevard
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(Above) Tom Townsend - 21st Street and St. Louis Avenue
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(Above) Demond Meek - 13th Street & Sullivan Avenue
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(Above) Dave Vehige - Vandeventer Avenue & Forest Park Parkway
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(Above) Steve Wienke - Hadley Street & Warren Street
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(Above) Scott Ferguson - Gravois Park
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(Above) Emily Beckett - Oakland Avenue & Newstead Avenue
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(Above) Geoff Story - 39th Street & Folsom
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(Above) Mike Smith - O’Fallon & 2nd Street
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(Above) Mark Katzman - North Garrison & Franklin
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(Above) Karin Soukup - Elliot & Cole
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(Above) Jay Baker - Russell Blvd. & Broadway
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(Above) Curt von Diest - Kennerly Avenue & North Taylor
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You can see all of them on FK’s blog. I was very impressed with the quality and diversity of images presented.

What Remains

(Above) Cover of 19th century book with photo, c. 1875.
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BUYERS OF BOOKS AND OTHER FINE OBJECTS OCCASIONALLY FIND surprises, especially when one buys what is called “a lot ” from an auction house. In a situation like this, the buyer may have his eye on just one thing that he wants, and the rest is along for the joy ride. If something turns up in addition to what he was wanting, it’s a bonus. That is what happened to my friend Mark Katzman, who runs FK Photo in St. Louis and also has a not-for-profit, educational web site called Photogravure.

Mark collects photography, photogravures, to be exact. When he bought this particular lot, he was happy to get this book, dated to 19th century Glasgow, Scotland. The new art of photography was thriving in Scotland in the latter part of that century, and this book (see top of post) had a nice example of a photograph embedded on the cover. That is what interested collector Katzman.

I was visiting him recently when I noticed the box of varied, old books on the table outside his studio office.

“Oh-h…” Mark said, immediately after I spied the pile books. “…I saved something here to show you. I think I have something here you will like.” He picked up a small glossy, caramel-colored book and handed it to me. “Open it.” he said.

I took the 6” x 9”small book into my hands and opened it. There was no printed text anywhere in the book, just blank pages of 100% fairly thick cotton leaves with cryptic marks here and there on the pages, in a sepia colored ink. I hadn’t quite soaked in what I was looking at when Mark said: “Looks like someone 125-years ago used the blank pages of this book almost as blotter paper, to soak up the “bleed-through” from letter writing.”

Almost before the words were out of Mark’s mouth I suddenly “got it.” I think I uttered something unintelligible, like “Oh-uh-oh. Ohh-h, wow!”

“We all thought you would like this,” added Mark’s partner at the photo studio, my other friend Scott Ferguson.

Indeed I did. This book contained random “left-behind” marks of messages written over a century ago. To me, it was beautiful. The traces of distant words became art. Were these the remains of a poem? A cryptic piece of a letter to a loved one? I really didn’t want to know. What remained in this book was enough for me.

FK Photo: “dART St. Louis”

(Above) The Dark Room is “in-use” again— this time for the first annual event, “dART St. Louis.”
(Above) dART party-goer Deborah Flanagan from California and Bob Henningsen share a Schlafly beer with Teenuh Foster, photo rep at Ferguson Katzman Photography.

(Above) A giant digital map of the city of St. Louis was projected on the wall, then dART throwers took turns throwing their dART.

(Above) Designer Liz Sullivan shows perfect form with her dART throw.

(Above) Tia Liston, an art director in St. Louis, is caught in mid-throw.

(Above, left to right) Ria Sharon, Allen Lambert and Suzanne Tucker are all smiles after throwing their dART! Ria and Suzanne are the forces behind the wildly successful web site mymommymanual.com.

(Above) Photographer Scott Ferguson strikes a serious pose for his portrait.

(Above) Students from some of the nearby colleges were in attendance at the first annual “dART St. Louis.”

(Above) Deborah Flanagan, who lives in California—was in town to see her best friend Teenuh Foster, and is seen here with Bill Kumke, Senior Creative Director at Checkmark.

(Above) Charlotte Schweppe of Schweppe Studios visits with fellow designer Sandy Zub of Checkmark.

(Above) The dimly lit room for the projection of the dART board made room for the dramatic. Here, a dART thrower’s profile seems to mimic the winding path of the Mississippi River. (at least, at THE TIME, that’s what I saw).



ONCE AGAIN, FK PHOTO HAS PUT ON ANOTHER INCREDIBLE EVENT AT “THE DARK ROOM,” which is fast becoming “the place to be” amongst the culturally aware in St. Louis. The event, dubbed “dART St. Louis” was a smashing success. The Dark Room is simply the “party room” of FK Studio.

Here’s the way it worked: Participants in “dART St. Louis” threw one dart at a giant projected map of the city of St. Louis. Using the computer, we digitally marked the exact location of the actual dart that was thrown, zoomed in to that location, and identified the cross streets for the “dartist.” An assistant then wrote the location down on a sheet of paper for the participant and now their photo location was identified.

All participants will have a month to go to their location and take photographs. Dartist’s will later be given instructions on how to upload their photo to FK Photo’s FTP site. A month from now, everyone will join again at The Dark Room for a multi-media presentation of the work produced. Any kind of camera may be used.

I have been given credit for the idea of dART St. Louis, which is only true here on a local level. The original concept for an event like this comes from Heather Holbus, of Chicago. Heather created Dart Chicago, which was open to writers, artists as well as photographers. We were hoping that Heather and her friend Lindsey Helms would come down to help us kick off this, but they were not able to make it.

Refreshments for the event was kindly donated by Schlafly Brewers, who offered quite a few of their products for the tasting. Especially delicious was the Helles-Style Summer Lager, which was a medium-bodied ale, perfect for the evening. My second favorite was the Raspberry Hefenweizen, an unfiltered wheat ale.

The “Dark Room” Is In Use

(Above) Come on in.
(Above) Photographer Scott Ferguson and unidentified friend.
Above: The Dark Room is cultivating a new audience of young art directors, designers and photographers.


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(Above) This scene, with the last spike of sun just before the sky turned black, was on-screen for exactly 3 seconds. I was lucky.
(Above) Definitely click on the above pic.
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Above: The house is falling.

IT’S ALMOST 1:30 am AND I AM FALLING ASLEEP, but tonight my wife and I watched The Wizard of Oz (1939) in it’s entirety to the music of Pink Floyd’s 1973 album, The Dark Side of the Moon.

It was at FK Photo, run by Mark Katzman and Scott Ferguson. The Dark Room is a part of FK Studio, a large party room that is beautifully designed—and the ultimate place to get to know folks in the industry. Why, I even met a beautiful young woman who claimed to be a descendant of Robert E. Lee? Wow. I was seriously impressed. I had to sit down. The movie was about to start.

Anyhoo, the film was projected at least 20 feet across in Blu Ray, Hi-Def. The quality was AMAZING. Fifteen feet in front of me the quality was just about like a giant print. Except it was moving. I knew I was seeing something special.

Because the image was Blu Ray Hi Def, I started shooting images right off the wall with my digital camera. I was just blown away by the incredible sound and images and the detail I had NEVER seen in this film before. After all, I remember seeing the film for the first time it was shown on color TV! That was analog euphoria. This was hi-def euphoria.

Some of these pics—to me—very much mimic the haphazard style of many snapshots I like. Additionally, what I like is the way these pics are so familar, but way darker. And even scarier than I remember.

If you have seen the Pink Floyd music and video—let me know what you think. Was this an accident, or an intentional Pink Floyd mind freak? I say it is an accident— that we’re locking onto the occasional coincidence—forgetting all the places it doesn’t match.

The Dark Room is a private room, a part of FK Photo in St. Louis. FK Studio can be reached at 314.241.3811.

Later.

Mark Katzman and the Wet Plate Process

This is Mark Katzman’s camera, which has a portrait lens made in 1860.


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IN THE FALL OF 2006, NOTED ST. LOUIS PHOTOGRAPHER MARK KATZMAN decided to use an obscure photographic process called “wet plate” collodian process to photograph the people on the street outside his studio. Many of the people he photographed were on their way to or from the St. Patrick Center (a homeless shelter) just down the street. When I asked Mark about this series, he said: “You know, I was overlooking the fact that some of the greatest faces I had ever seen were right here—walking past my studio every day.”

The wet-plate collodion process, commonly referred to as an Ambrotype, requires the emulsion to be hand applied to a glass plate. The photograph must then be exposed and developed before the emulsion has a chance to dry. For this process to work outside of the studio Mark used a custom portable darkroom installed in the back of his Suburban. Most subjects stayed for only one single photograph before continuing on their way.

The images are not only strikingly different than most images you see today, they expose the flaws, ripples, uneven surface and unique suface of each image made. No two processes are alike. There is always the chance you will develop something too little or too long—and the plate itself must be carefully prepared. Not only that, the process uses deadly chemicals, specifically potassium cyanide for “fixing” the image to the glass.

Mark’s images in this series are fabulous, rich and deep. I was fortunate one day about a year ago to have my portrait made by Mark Katzman in this wet plate process. I thought it was so interesting I decided to use this as my photo I.D. on my blog.

Katzman is a highly published photographer, and one of the most important collectors of vintage antique photogravures in the United States, and perhaps the world. He has a Web site that is devoted to the art of the photogravure. It’s thorough and educational, and you’ll want to go there. It’s called Art of the Photogravure.

A special Web site about Mark’s wet plate Ambrotypes, like the ones shown above, can be found at www.mark-katzman.com.