Celebrating heavy metal in the visual arts

Published 4:31 am Tuesday, September 4, 2012

ASTORIA – LightBox Photographic Gallery hosts the opening and artists’ reception for the “Heavy Metal” exhibit, a collection of photographic images printed by the photographers using the historic platinum/palladium or silver gelatin printing process. The artists’ reception will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 8, for more than 40 photographers featured in the show.

Both of these historic printing processes date back for more than a century, but still their fine qualities make for two of the most treasured methods of printing in the photographic arts. The platinum print exhibits a fine gradual tonal range, making tonality one of the special qualities of the platinum print. Also, a platinum print has an archival stability rated in the thousands of years, which makes the platinum print the most permanent of all photographic printing processes as well as one of the most beautiful. The silver gelatin print, in contrast to the platinum print, has its own substance and beauty, and when processed properly has an archival stability rated at 100 years before noticeable fading.

LightBox has always exhibited the platinum prints of represented artist Ray Bidegain. Recently, members of the gallery learned the method of platinum printing, and silver gelatin printing has been practiced in the LightBox darkroom for the past three years. With LightBox’s love for these two historic photographic processes in mind, the “Heavy Metal” exhibit was born.

The exhibit is juried by Terry Thompson and Kathleen Malan Thompson of Portland. Terry’s background in photography includes an art education at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, working with artists as diverse as Diane Arbus, Andy Warhol, Vito Acconci, Gary Winogrand and Tad Yamashiro. He was one of the first photographic artists to revive the platinum print process in the 1960s and his prints are represented in the collections of the Hallie Ford Museum, Portland Art Museum, Ruth Bernhard, Emmit Gowen, Bostick and Sullivan, Henk Pander, Dianne Kornberg and Steve Josefsberg. He and his wife, Kathleen Malan Thompson, moved to Portland in 1992 to form with Josefsberg the renowned photographic art gallery, the S.K. Josefsberg Studio. Kathleen’s education in the arts includes drawing, painting and photography, with a special focus in the hand-coated alternative gum bichromate and bromoil process.

“Heavy Metal” will remain at the gallery through Oct. 9.

Visit the gallery show page for complete information at http://lightbox-photographic.com/shows/heavy_metal

LightBox Photographic Gallery promotes the creative photographic arts on the North Coast, offering photographic scanning, photo restorations, archival printing and framing. LightBox is located at 1045 Marine Drive. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Contact LightBox at 503-468-0238 or info@lightbox-photographic.com