Book Design, Digital Imaging and Photography

Re-reading the Book
The images in this portfolio are made by photographing Albrecht Dürer’s book, Hierin sind begriffen vier Bucher von menschlicher Proportion,1 his treatise on theories of proportion, especially as related to the human form. The images represent an activity that I call interactive reading. This term is of course a tautology. All reading is interactive. Reading is an act that not only involves the eyes but also the sense of touch as the book is cradled in the hands while the pages are turned. It can also be argued that the sense of hearing is also involved in that the words and images on the page are also capable of conjuring up sound in the mind of the reader. However, the most important aspect of reading is that the mind of the reader must participate with the page in order to make sense of the marks printed thereon.

To function as a metaphor for the act of reading, the portfolio employs a photographic methodology which seeks to inquire, rather than possess. It reveals that Dürer’s drawings, and the figures within them, even at their most dispassionate and descriptive, exhibit gestures, expressions and emotions which are deeply felt and often poignantly passionate. This method, in a way not too dissimilar from how distant planets are imaged and how barely legible ancient texts are revealed by infra-red photography, may well reveal data which is only part of the story. However, it is the nature of the book that even though the text remains fixed, the story can change as many times as it is read.

The images were made with a Nikon 990, 3.3 megapixel digital camera. The resulting image files were colorized in Adobe Photoshop™ and printed using an Epson 1520 inkjet printer on Stonehenge. The images were made to mark the occasion of the 25th Annual Conference of the American Printing History Association held at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester,N.Y., October 2000.The original copy of Dürer’s Hierin sind begriffen vier Bucher von menschlicher Proportion, is from the Cary Graphic Arts Collection, Rochester Institute of Technology. The portfolio contains 11 overmatted items, 20"x24," comprising 9 images, a cover page with image, and an essay. It is published on demand with a final edition size limited to 22 copies in portfolio form. A further three copies may be made of any single image if required.

This portfolio has been acquired by the National Gallery of Art,
Washington, DC and the McGill University Library (Rare
Books Division), Montreal, Canada.

Price $4,000.00.

[back to top]

The portfolio contains a short story which begins by re-calling a somewhat traumatic childhood event and concludes with a speculative vision of the nature of life after death.

It is comprised of 16 images, measuring 13"x17" and is published on demand with a final edition limited to 32 copies. The images are made with a digital camera, printed on Epson water-color paper, and are housed in a portfolio case hand made by the author.

Price is $1,000.00

[back to top]