New zine / proof. Some small changes made and the go ahead to print an edition of 50 on 100# smooth Mohawk paper has been approved. The images in These Windows Are Tinted To Help You Sleep were made during a bus trip to Viñales, Cuba, out a dark window, in an R.E.M. state of consciousness, after 4 long, hot Havana days and nights. An 85mm lens pressed against the window at f1.2. I like exploring and illustrating the psyche amid landscapes unknown.
More info and portfolio to come in coming days.
I interviewed with Spanish publisher and printer La Imprenta CG on behalf of their interview series with photographers published in their “Hello Photography” 2017 calendar. It’s Now featured on their blog.
The English translation can be read here: ENGLISH TRANSLATION
The image chosen for the month of August is from my photobook “a musing from the rocking dock”, which La Imprenta printed in September of 2016 on behalf of publisher The Unknown Books.
Original interview (Spanish): INTERVIEW at La Imprenta
I hung a show of my photo etchings this afternoon . . . . Happy to be a part of 187 Rue Principale’s environment, a farm-to-table, French-inspired restaurant in Emmaus, PA. The exhibition is on view through the month of August.
Print Info:
Hand-pulled photo etchings made from original photographs, utilizing the intaglio printing process of photopolymer gravure. Some prints incorporate a second “aquatint” etched plate.
All prints are made on Hahnemühle Cooperplate 300gsm paper.
Photo Etchings, Solo Exhibition at 187 Rue Pricipale, August, 2017 © Michael Ast
“KINSEY” portfolio in the works featured on Phosmag:
“Kinsey is an ongoing series of hand-pulled photo etchings and photographs made at an abandoned, pre-Prohibition whiskey distillery and industrial warehouse park. The sight lies within a 10-mile emergency planning zone of the Limerick Nuclear Generation Facility in Limerick, Pennsylvania. I’m drawn to the dichotomy of the century-old, bygone facilities, and those relentlessly churning in the immediate distance.
The industrial park, with all its ephemeral detail of desertion, has intimations of destruction, chaos and ominous occurrences. From decayed, imploding rooftops, Limerick’s cooling towers are seen billowing out steam over old neighborhoods and new suburban developments. Imagination turns frail upon such viewing from the grounds of ruin.
Historically, I choose to understand little about the environment’s transitions and decline. Instead, I’m acting on a consciousness taunted by harrowing evidence of neglect, to form images from foreboding thoughts. In that sense, Kinsey has little to do with documenting a place, and more with illustrating human anxiety in the wake of intangible record, hypothetical detritus, and utilities as far reaching as apocalyptic possibility.”
Happy to have donated a copy of “Trying to Find the Ocean” to the recently inaugurated Urbanautica Institute, under the command of curator, editor and art director at large – Steve Bisson. U.I. has opened its doors in Asolo, Italy (just north of Venice), where Steve has transitioned his excellent art journal into a dedicated gallery, bookshop and library.
Signed copies of a musing from the rocking dock are now available at Dashwood Books, NYC.
Pleased to be featured in the Spain printing house La Imprenta’s 2017 “Hello Photography” calendar for the month of August.
from “a musing from the rocking dock” (calendar / August) © La Imprenta, 2017
An 8-month hiatus from the printmaking studio was a bit too long. Happy to get back to etching plates.
This photo etching here, originally photographed in Costa da Caparica (Portugal) in the Fall, proved difficult in transposing to a plate. Rather than trash, I overpainted it with watercolor. Food for thought moving forward.
Costa da Caparica (overpainted photo etching) © Michael Ast, 2017
I will be signing copies of my latest photobook a musing from the rocking dock this Saturday, 4:00 pm (11/26) at publisher The Unknown Book’s table during the Lisbon Photobook Fair in Portugal.
This is Lisbon’s 7th annual book fair, I’m excited to receive the invite and visit the great city for the first time.
7th Annual Lisbon Photobook Fair, Nov. 25 – 27th, 2016
Trying to Find the Ocean (Indie Photobook Library, 2014)
Amazing news! The Indie Photobook Library’s collection of more than 2,000 photo-based publications produced by self-publishers and independent imprints are now permanently collected in Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. I’m pleased to have my first photobook “Trying to Find the Ocean” and a few curated publications make up a small part of this permanent collection, and elated as well for many fellow photographers. As a self-publisher and dedicated supporter of indie-run publishers, it goes with great honor to hear such institutions respect the immense time, creative energy and insight we employ to keep visual language at the foreground of our culture. A giant thank you and congratulations to Larissa Leclair for commanding IPL’s ambitions and accomplishments in making a global initiative reach such fruition!
