SKC students to exhibit at Hangin Art Gallery
Berl Tiskus
Cloud artist Linda Ferris looks over work prints, choosing images for the student show.
Berl Tiskus
Nationally acclaimed photographer David Spear and student Katherine Dagnall look over Dagnall’s work.
Berl Tiskus
Katharine Dagnall works with transparencies of imaged layered over the original image.
Berl Tiskus
Linda Ferris, a graphic design major at SKC, smiles as she enjoys David Spear’s gallery card display.
Berl Tiskus
Thomas Fleming lays out work prints before David Spear’s advanced black and white photography class.
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PABLO —The red-rimmed eye of the security lights glows in the darkroom at Salish Kootenai College where Linda Ferris and Thomas Fleming finish up work prints for David Spear’s advanced black and white photography class.
Ferris, Fleming and classmates Katherine Dagnall and Felicia McDonald are working furiously to produce 10 exhibition prints each for a show at the Hangin Art Gallery, home gallery of the Killdeer Artisans Guild.
Titled “To Whom Grey Matters:” the show will open with a reception on May 30 and run through June 20.
The idea of completing an exhibition is not always available to a class, and this advanced class is one Spear proposed to SKC five years ago.
“This artist exposure fell in their laps,” Spear said.
At the beginning of the class, Spear asked each student up with two or three ideas each, that she or he thought would make good pictures, each student was connected to and cared about or had meaning for the person. Then the students shot two rolls to share with the class, and as a class they edited the contact sheets heavily. With three more rolls, they shot again, remembering what images they had shot before and how to build on that. Spear brought work of important photographers who chose similar subject matter and/or technique and shared with his students.
With four rolls of film, they shot, processed and edited these images and returned to class with work prints.
Fleming likes the process of photography, developing film since “it’s mechanically straight forward,” and creating sprocket holes in his camera that carry over to his prints, creating a kind of window, a square. He’s also been taking photos of his children, introducing them into landscapes.
“A cloud person,” Ferris photographs clouds, and she also thought to take pictures of people smiling, people who are following their passion, as well as multi-faceted images of Indians.
Street life and landscapes with words were McDonald’s ideas.
Still focusing on Ravalli, Dagnall photographs people, an old bus, and added more texture and details, such as sand, bark bits, wire, and wood.
With work prints spread out on several tables, Spear and the students look at the photos, talking about which ones they like and possible changes. They also divvied up the work on publicity, show cards for invitations, hors d’oeuvres for the show.
It’s crunch time, and Spear and his students will print this weekend and next weekend, from noon to 5 p.m. each day. Each 11 inch by 14-inch print taking approximately an hour and a half to print, Spear said.
“This is the lonely part of being a photographer,” Spear said. “You make the pictures alone, you stand in the darkroom alone and you process the pictures alone.”
“I’m getting nervous because in three weeks your show opens,” Spear told his students.
Over the weekend, Spear’s students worked hard. McDonald made two prints and shot more rolls of film, Ferris produced 10 cloud prints and Fleming printed six of his unique spocket prints. Dagnall continued to work on hers.
