ORIGINAL PRINTS BY JOHN AVAILABLE ONLINE AT DISCOUNTED PRICE

As 2013 draws to a close I have decided to offer two new Special Collector's Edition prints. I am pleased to offer one of my best know images, Corn Lily, Eastern Sierra Nevada, as one of these prints. This photograph is the cover image, as well as Plate 22, in my first book Quiet Light.

Corn Lily, Eastern Sierra Nevada, California
©1977 John Sexton. All rights reserved.

You can place a secure online order for this print at the Ventana Editions web store.

In addition to the print above, I am pleased to also offer an 8x10” print of my image Painted Window.

Painted Window, Anaheim, California
©1978 John Sexton. All rights reserved.

You can place a secure online order for this print at the Ventana Editions web store.

The California Corn Lily (also know as California False Hellebore) graces boggy areas in alpine meadows for only a few weeks each year after the snow melts. Among a group of nearly 100 corn lily plants in the Upper Rock Creek region of the Sierra Nevada I made the photograph of Corn Lily, Eastern Sierra Nevada. Along the edge of a bog, the forest formed a dense canopy over the lilies. Beneath a hazy sun the light filtering through this canopy created a singular "spotlight" effect on this particular plant.

To make the photograph the camera had to be suspended upside down with the center column of the tripod inverted so the camera was just inches off the ground. To look through the ground glass I lay on my stomach in the mud. (Most 4x5 view cameras, including the one I was using, are not made to be operated upside down! The controls do not lock, nor do they unlock properly, and nothing works smoothly. Not exactly a recommended procedure). To obtain adequate depth of field at this close distance, I used a 4 second exposure at f/64, as there is considerable distance from foreground to background and a small aperture was needed to achieve sharp focus throughout. I used my 210mm lens-which was perfect for this subject. That is a good thing as it was the only lens I owned for my 4x5 view camera until 1980! The Kodak Tri-X film was given N+1 development in Kodak HC-110 developer. The negative later received overall selenium intensification to further increase the contrast.

The image Painted Window, reproduced as plate 27 in my book Recollections, was made in Anaheim California in 1978, not far from my parent’s home - where I was living at the time. A photographer friend and I had learned that an old abandoned hotel was scheduled for demolition the next day, and we thought there might be some interesting images in the soon to be destroyed building. We snuck in to the structure, and found the badly damaged and dilapidated interior to be interesting. It was clear that individuals had been living in the abandoned structure. As I entered one room I was immediately struck by a window that had been spray-painted with deep red primer paint - evidently to provide a bit of privacy.

The window had a metallic quality that was enhanced by the fact it was transilluminated by the soft skylight. I set up my 4x5” view camera (the same camera used for the Corn Lily image mentioned above. It worked much more easily as it was being used in its proper orientation!). The Kodak Tri-X film was given an exposure of 6 seconds at f/22, and the negative received Normal development using a variant of Edward Weston’s ABC Pyro developer formula.

After making two identical exposures (that’s how I still work today - two identical exposures of every image when possible) I was saddened by the fact the window would be destroyed - along with the rest of the building - the next day. I decided to see if I could break the glass out of the wooden window frame as I noticed the caulking had long ago failed. I gave the glass a substantial hit with my fist, and out it came. It came out so easily that I almost dropped it three stories onto the sidewalk below! I still have the window safely stored in our studio. I have photographed it a number of times over the years. I made a number of images of my defaced window in black and white with the 20x24 Polaroid camera, and there is an 8x10 Polacolor image of my window included in The Polaroid Book: Selections from the Polaroid Collections of Photography.

All of the prints ordered will be shipped no later than March 31, 2014. All the prints are carefully prepared and packaged in specially designed protective shipping boxes, and shipped fully insured via UPS ground.

If you have any questions about the prints, please feel free to contact Anne at 831-659-3130, or email: info@johnsexton.com Our office hours are Monday through Thursday from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, Pacific Time.

©2014 John Sexton. All rights reserved

Site last updated January 2, 2014