Polaroid Transfer Narratives

• Prize
• Photographer
  Ken Smith, United States
• Date of Photograph
  online
• Studio
  Ken Smith Photography
• Website
  http://www.ksphotoart.com

Ken Smith Biography and Artist Statement February 2009

Ken Smith was born near the Sulphur Mountains in Madill, Oklahoma in 1947. His school years were spent in Oklahoma, North Dakota, New Mexico, Ohio, Kansas, Texas and Southern California graduating from High School in Stephenville, Newfoundland, Canada. After a four-year commitment to the USAF as a Medic in San Antonio, Texas, Ken worked for 10 years as a Respiratory Therapist in Central and Northern California. After obtaining BFA and MFA degrees in Theatre at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California, he worked on the East Coast and returned to San Francisco in the early 1980s to start a career in theatrical set design and lighting. While owning and operating a successful scenic design company, Ken re-ignited his passion for photography, eventually opening his first studio in 1987 and selling the scenic design studio in 1990. He currently owns and operates Ken Smith Photography in San Rafael, CA. He has studied photography with Ruth Bernhard, Morri Camhi, Michael Kenna, Larry Sultan and Stephen Johnson. Ken has taught photography at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

Ken began shooting digitally in 1995 and has rarely shot film since 1999. He currently uses Canon 16 and 22 mega-pixel digital cameras and Canon lenses as well as a Hasselblad H1 with a Phase One 31 Mega-pixel back for photographic assignments and artwork. He uses a Canon 5D converted to only capture infrared heat signature(IR) to produce the IR black and white images in his portfolio. Some of his printed images are derived from scanned color transparencies, Polaroid prints, silver prints, black and white negatives, Polaroid transfer prints and Betterlight digital camera files. Kenâ??s prints are produced on Epson 4800 and 7800 K3 Pigment Ink printers using archival papers for a nominal resistance to fading of 120 to 300+ years depending on how they are displayed or archived.

While visiting with the farmer and rancher subjects of the book, â??Marin Farm Families; Stories and Recipesâ?? in 2005, I became intrigued with seeing the Marin landscape in a new, more intimate way. I began seeing it more clearly for itâ??s uniqueness; itâ??s pure California-ness; itâ??s Marin-ness. I never tire of seeing it over and over again, in the morning light, the midday light, the sunset. Many of the places I have photographed, Iâ??ve visited a number times, though not always taking photographs. I see the landscape and the life upon it as icons, metaphors and mysterious indications of the source of myths, metaphysics and inspiration. I don't consider my photographs necessarily landscape images nor do I consider myself a landscape photographer. My photographs are a quest for icons, a quest for the best subjective representation of my point of view, a quest for envisioning something more than a flat, two-dimensional graphic and the perfect moment in the time of light and reflectance.

Previous Work-
I created approximately 150 Polaroid Transfers of a variety of composed still life, found still life, live model and floral arrangements from 1990 to 1994. Many of these images were sold at the
Sausalito Art Festival, through group shows and juried exhibitions. â??Into the Gardenâ??, a composed still life, is in the permanent collection of the University of Delaware Art Museum. Alternative process imagery has always fascinated me as an avenue to more creative expression in the
Photographic media. Manipulating the Polaroid process created a painterly, yet manifestly imprecise and non-repeatable series of images. Some of the Polaroid transfers from that series have been scanned and reproduced in the 16â?? x 20â?? digital print format after image manipulation in PhotoShop. These prints have been exhibited for the Marin Arts Council Open Studios in 2004 and with extensive revisions for the MAC Open Studios in 2007 and 2008.

In 1991, I completed a black and white portrait series of women I met through newspaper advertisements. The series, â??40 Womenâ?? is named for the number of portraits in the project.
Eight of the forty portraits were featured in a juried show at Fort Mason Center in 1991.