Harold Davis's Blog, page 43

Announcing new Homage to Blossfeldt limited edition prints

We’re pleased to announce a new series of eight limited edition Harold Davis prints in homage to the great botanical photographic artist Karl Blossfeldt, now available for sale on Saatchi Art. Click here for the collection of Homage to Blossfeldt prints, and here for Harold’s Saatchi Art page.

Queen Anne’s Lace © Harold Davis

Related stories: Tulip Petal Detail after Blossfeldt; Special Pandemic Prints.

Skeletons in the Hood

This year, there seems to be plenty of pre-Halloween activity in the neighborhood. Perhaps in the same pandemic spirit as the many close-by home improvement projects: the psychology seems to be, we’re home, we’re bored, we have time on our hands, let’s have at the new patio or deck.

Or, along with boredom at sheltering-in-place, with some conscious or unconscious irony: what better time of year to consider how easily death might invade our daily lives than Halloween?

The schadenfreude hardly needs to be pointed out: we and our neighbors are here at the periphery of this plague to enjoy Halloween displays in the neighborhood, while others are dead, or sick, homeless, or unemployed.

Spectral Light © Harold Davis

Masks © Harold Davis

Halloween in the New York that Was

I made the photos shown in this story in or around the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade in the 1980s in New York City. The versions of my images shown here were re-photographed using my iPhone from the reproductions in the book Masked Culture: The Greenwich Village Halloween Parade (Columbia University Press, 1994).

Mask of the Plague © Harold Davis

For the most part, to make these images I used Kodachrome slide film, with direct flash connected to the camera using an extension bracket. My habit was to talk to the subjects and ask their permission to make the photo (most were enthusiastic since of course a great deal of work went into their costumes).

I would also ask them to say what they were costumed as, which usually became my title for the image (although sometimes the costume was pretty obvious, and the caption became merely descriptive).

Punk Dog with Cigarette © Harold Davis

My kids are incredulous when I tell them that phone booths used to be a thing, so the photo (below) of the witch does double-duty as evidence.

Witch in a Phone Booth © Harold Davis

As I noted, the original photos were photographed on Kodachrome, and I still have my archive and these slides (hidden in plain sight somewhere in my larger archive!).

One of these days I am going to go through the old images and make some high resolution scans. The problem, of course, is that I would rather look ahead and make new work rather than recycle the past. In the meantime, if New York City before the fall of the World Trade Towers interests you, you can check out this story.

Finding the Mysterious in Photography webinar on Saturday

Please consider joining us for a wholesome-but-spooky pre-Halloween photographic experience at Finding the Mysterious in Photography on Saturday October 24 at 11am PT. Click here for more info and here for registration.

You are cordially invited to submit images for this webinar. After you have registered, click here for submission guidelines.

Click here for our currently scheduled webinars and workshops.

Asclepias physocarpa © Harold Davis

Metamorphosis to Autumn

Even here in the Bay area, in a season rife with wild fires and air that is unseasonably warm, we can feel the shift towards autumn. Renewal, I am reminded, comes after the darkest time of year. So it is with hope that I look forward to the metamorphosis to autumn, and bring hope to the thought that come November we will collectively start to find a better way forward.

Metamorphosis © Harold Davis

I photographed these beautiful sunflowers, dahlia, and roses—all a little past their prime in a wabi-sabi kind of way—using an old baking sheet as the background. To finish the image in Photoshop, I added some texture overlays and a frame. 

The title of my image, Metamorphosis, represents the change that autumn brings, followed first by the coolness of winter, then the reprieve of renewal.

Click here for our current webinar offerings.

Coming Up Soon! And, hanging in there…

I hope everyone is doing well, and hanging in there (as we are). We have four kids doing distance learning from home (two in college, one in high school, and our youngest Katie in middle school). They are doing surprisingly well in terms of academics, but I am concerned about the long-term impact on their relationships with the world, and with other people.

While this is no time to relax one’s vigilance, and my fingers are deeply crossed regarding the upcoming election, I do believe that we can see, if not the light at the end of the tunnel, at least the light at the end of the tunnel refracted on the internal curvature in the tunnel’s wall. In other words, I am hopeful that sometime towards the middle of 2021 we may be able to resume more-or-less normal life. 

Although, of course, it is hard to predict things, particularly about the future. These days, even my short-term crystal ball seems pretty cloudy.

This week, I want to call your special attention to the Patterns, Abstractions & Composition webinar on Saturday October 17, 2020. Click here for registration, here for more info, and here for our ongoing webinar schedule.

A special thanks to those who have reviewed our new book Creative Garden Photography. I am deeply appreciative, and these reviews contribute greatly to our ability to successfully continue with my work.

We are continuing to offer special edition prints to individual collectors for the duration of the pandemic at a very special price. Click here for details. Of course, if you’d like a larger size print, these are available as well. Please contact us to discuss the specifics, and for a quotation.

Finally, I want to call out and thank our great panelists Jennifer King and Alan Shapiro, and all of you who attended their webinar. Collectively, we were able to contribute a tidy sum to the NAACP.

Our next Master Photographer panel is on November 14, 2020 and benefits the Center for Policing Equity. With panelists the inspirational floral photographer Anne Belmont and legendary photographer and author Bryan Peterson, you won’t want to miss this one. Click here for registration, and here for more information.

Eureka Dunes 5 © Harold Davis

Special Pandemic Prints

I’d like to remind potential print collectors that we are still offering a “pandemic” print special (please click the link for the details of our offer). Of course, we are hoping for respite from the pandemic as soon as possible, and for things to go back to normal. And, inevitably, normal will mean an end to our pandemic print special.

But until then, it is great to be able to put my work in tangible form in the hands of collectors at an affordable price, and great when I hear from a discerning print recipient (as I did the other day): “Thanks Harold for the print. It is deliciously delicate and I love it!” Another collector writes “[Our print is] so beautiful and we will enjoy it in our home. We knew it would be wonderful, but this far exceeds what we imagined.”

It is worth pointing out that pandemic print special applies to almost all of my images. The choice of image is yours, and I will try to match the image with the best paper to make the most graceful and beautiful print possible!

Print of ‘Sunflower X-Ray’ © Harold Davis

5-Star Reviews of Creative Garden Photography

I am very pleased and thankful for the positive reviews of our new book Creative Garden Photography on the publisher’s website and on Amazon. These reviews are tremendously helpful to us, and mean a great deal to me personally.

If you’ve written and placed a review, thank you very much indeed! If you are a considering writing a review, thanks in advance.

Here are a few of my favorite snips:

“One could never be disappointed looking through this book for ideas on what to try next. … I can’t wait to read it again.”
“The book is full of great information, inspiration and lovely photos. Thank you Harold for another fantastic work of art.”
“So many great ideas to try. A book of exploration and inspiration.”

Click here for Creative Garden Photography on RockyNook’s website (the publisher, use the discount code GARDEN40 at checkout for a 40% discount) and here for my book on Amazon.

Contribution to the NAACP

Thanks to you—our photography community—and the very special panelists, photographers Jennifer King and Alan Shapiro, we were able to contribute $839.08 to the NAACP. Thanks again!

If you weren’t in the audience, I think you’ll find watching the recording very rewarding (and if you were there, you might want to take a second look!). The recording of the Master Photographer webinar panel will be posted to the Harold Davis Photography YouTube channel (subscribe to channel to be notified as we upload webinar recordings). 

Click here for a schedule of our upcoming webinars.

Black and White Cookie © Harold Davis

Starfish Mandala

I spent much of yesterday creating this Starfish Mandala designed on my light box (the LAB inversion is shown above on black, and the “straight” light box version below). Yesterday also included photography the mandala. Because petals dry out and curl quickly, this usually needs to be done expediently.

Today I processed the image.

Stay tuned for an upcoming webinar about how I make mandalas on the light box. Click here for our schedule of upcoming webinars.

Starfish Mandala Inversion © Harold Davis

Starfish Mandala © Harold Davis