A STRUCTURED L IFE A STRUCTURED L IFE A STRUCTURED L IFE A - - PDF document

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Note: Kirk Gittings has been photographing the prehistor- ic, historic and contemporary architecture of the Southwest since the summer of 1973, where as a Vista volunteer in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico, his interests in structures as icons of the cultural landscape began to evolve. Since then his architectural photography has regularly appeared in publica- tions around the world and widely collected and shown by

• museums. This year, New Mexico Magazine and The Albu-

querque Museum will present a 32 year retrospective book (in June) and exhibit (in September) of his photography entitled “Shelter from the Storm: the Photographs of Kirk Gittings”. As a visiting artist and instructor at the Art Institute of Chicago and many other institutions and workshops he has shared his knowledge and experience with countless students. This arti- cle summerizes his personal evolution in the genre of architec- tural photography from the 1970’s to the present day. My entrance into the world of com m ercial architec- tural photography was m ore an act of econom ic desper- ation than career planning. For years after graduation in 1972 from the University of New Mexico, m y black and white landscape and architectural im ages had shown in sm all photo galleries around New Mexico and the west coast, but m aking a real living as an “art” photographer had eluded m e. Meanwhile I supported m yself with jobs as diverse as a Vista volunteer, sawm ill worker, construc- tion worker, plum ber, union organizer, welder, photo lab grunt and even a Volkswagen m echanic. The starving artist m yth was wearing thin. In desperation (and despite m y art school prejudices against com m ercial work), in 1978 I took a good hard look at m y Tachihara 4x5 with a 90m m and 210m m Fujinon lenses and asked m yself what I could do with this equipm ent to actually m ake a living. I had long been a fan of the architectural photographs

• f Ch arles Sh eeler, Walker Evan s an d especially Paul

Strand who’s “Tim e in New England” still stands today as a m asterpiece of the genre. I was aware of Ansel Adam ’s and Morley Baer’s com m ercial photography but had dis- m issed it as “m ere” com m ission work. I had even had a

A STRUCTURED L IFE A STRUCTURED L IFE A STRUCTURED L IFE A STRUCTURED L IFE A STRUCTURED L IFE

Above - The “Bosque House” in Albuquerque by Jon Ander- son, 1992. Kodak daylight transparency film w ith 4 halogen accent lights, 90 second exposure at f22 w ith no filter. Right - “Emanations of Cabezon”, at Cabezon Peak in New M exico from the Anasazi Guadalupe ruin, 1993. Kodak T-M ax 100 film w ith No. 23a red filter, developed in T-M ax RS developer.

by Kirk Gittings

V I EW C AM ERA 7

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show with Laura Gilpin and talked with her about every- thing but the architectural photography she had done for John Gaw Meem . Now with the clarity of necessity I took a fresh look at that work and began reading every- thing I could find on the subject, which turned out to be very little. There was an Am photo book (that I no longer can rem em ber the title of) and Julius Schulm an’s 1977 book “Th e Ph otograph y of Arch itecture an d Design ” which was full of excellent but (by the tim e of its publica- tion ) already tech n ically dated m aterial. For in stan ce Shulm an described in detail how he lit interiors with flashbulbs which by 1978 were already h ard to fin d an d basically obsolete. In New Mexico in the 1970’s there were no technically oriented workshops or knowledge- able people who were willing to share inform ation. The three existing architectural photographers were poten- tial com petitors and not willing to help a novice. My path to m astering the technical and aesthetic challenges

• f architectural photography becam e the school of m is-

takes, m isadventures and experim entation. Except for a three year detour to Canada to work on an MFA degree, the subsequent years were defined by an ever growing and dem anding client list dom inated by high profile architectural firm s and m agazines. The ca- reer defining m om ent was the m id-1980’s when I began doing assignm ent work for Architecture (Washington DC) and Architectural Digest (New York) m agazines. In the face of the seem ingly overwhelm ing dem ands of a national caliber com m ercial clientele, the biggest strug- gle over the years has been to find the tim e and energy to m aintain the personal black and white photography and after a few years I turned m y attention m ore to the local m arket for the sake of m y personal work and m y blood pressure. Surprisingly the Tachihara 4x5 proved an adequate cam era for architecture. Once broken in, the bellows al- lowed for extrem e rises with a 90m m lens, which are the m ost com m on lens and m ovem ent required for architec-

• ture. It also was great for travel as it was so com pact when
• folded. While not the m ost rigid of cam eras, one had to

be very careful that extrem e m ovem ents did not force the cam era out of alignm ent, but never-the-less I used it for years even during the tim e I traveled for the national m agazines. Stolen in 1992, I replaced it with an even

• lder and m ore unlikely cam era, a 1940’s vintage Calu-

m et Wide Field which I have used ever since. The Wide Field was actually designed to shoot architecture and with a few m odifications functions perfectly fine. Its advan- tages are the very flexible bellows and stepped back stan- dards which allows one to use even a 47 XL Schneider without a recessed lens board or bag bellows. Powder coating the parts black and along with som e m odifica- tions to the knobs and a longer bale m ake it a perfectly adequate looking and functioning cam era today. Many well m eaning clients look at it and ask if it is a Hassle- blad? I of course say yes. In the spirit of keeping it sim ple, for years I used four len ses for 4x5 m ostly Fujin on s in cludin g a 65m m , a 90m m , a 120(Nikkor) and a 210. When I needed a “long- er” lens I used a 6x7 Calum et roll film back so I could give clients a “full fram e” longer view. When the Tachihara

V I EW C AM ERA 9 “Aztec in Fall”, at the Aztec ruins w hile teaching a View Camera M agazine w orkshop, 2002. Ilford FP4 film w ith No. 16 yellow /

• range filter in T-M ax RS developer.

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was stolen, I purchased a whole new array of prim arily Schneider lenses, 47XL, 65, 90, 120(Nikkor), 150, 210 and 305. To ease the burden of travel photography, I switched to roll film over the years for com m ercial work with Calum et C2N 6x9 roll film backs. Loadin g 4x5 film holders in m otel bathroom s after a long days shooting got very very old! Lighting interiors is perhaps the m ost difficult thing to learn in architectural photography. I wasted the better part of a year chasing Shulm an’s outdated flashbulb tech- nique, before I gave into the m ethod practiced by m y local com petitors who were lighting interiors with strobe and checking their setup with Polaroid. After trying to do flash lighting on the cheap a very knowledgeable Cal- um et salesm an told m e that I needed at least two 2000 watt power packs with three flash heads and som e halo-

• gens. Over the last 25 years that has grown into four

2000 watt and three 800 watt Norm an power packs with ten flash heads and nine halogen lights. Assistants to help carry everything becam e a necessity and I have been blessed with som e great ones over the years notably An- thony Richardson, Jam es Burbank, Alan Labb and cur- rently Jim Hunter. We don’t always need that m uch pow- er but it provides back up in case of equipm ent failure. Som etim es though, we need that m uch power and m ore. Because of depth-of-field issues we try never to use an aperture larger than F/22. By using self-cocking press shut- ters on all your lenses, one can m ultiply that m uch flash power exponentially by breaking an exposure down into m ultiples. For instance an exposure that looks pretty good at ½ second at F/22 but still needs m ore shadow fill from the strobe can be exposed twice at ¼ second at F/22 for double the flash power but with the sam e am bient light exposure or four tim es at 1/8 second at f/22 for quadruple the flash power. Eight exposures on one fram e are very com m on. We use self-cocking Prontor press shutters be- cause we find them the m ost durable but unfortunately they are no longer m ade and are m ore difficult to get repaired than the m ore com m on Copal press shutters.

Above - John Gaw M eem’s “Hollenback House” (1932) in Santa Fe w ith architectural w oodw ork salvaged from 17th century missions photographed 1989. Kodak daylight transparency film w ith 3 strobe accent lights, 1 second exposure at f22 w ith no filter.

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BR BR BR BR BRUCE’S FIELD CAMERA ST UCE’S FIELD CAMERA ST UCE’S FIELD CAMERA ST UCE’S FIELD CAMERA ST UCE’S FIELD CAMERA STORE ORE ORE ORE ORE BR BR BR BR BRUCE’S FIELD CAMERA ST UCE’S FIELD CAMERA ST UCE’S FIELD CAMERA ST UCE’S FIELD CAMERA ST UCE’S FIELD CAMERA STORE ORE ORE ORE ORE

“Overview , Santa Fe Rail Road Yards”, in Albuquerque, 2002. Ilford FP4 film w ith No. 16 yellow /orange filter in T-M ax RS developer. “La Purisma Conception”, at Quarai (1633), Salinas Pueblo M issions , New M exico photographed 2002. Ilford FP4 film w ith No. 16 yellow /orange filter in T-M ax RS developer.

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What has changed m ost over the years? Film is m uch m ore forgiving now with m ixed light sources. In these situations we used to have to correct fluorescents with colored gels to keep them from going green. Now film s like Kodak EPN an d Fuji NPS an d Fuji Velvia 100F are so forgiving that we don’t worry about the fluorescents in a m ixed light/strobe fill lighting situation. Film s also have less reciprocity color shifts with long exposures like twi- light shots. We also worry less about balancing interior and exterior light as we can do two exposures and blend them in Photoshop. Digitals m ain im pact so far has been

• n the lab side. Like m e m ost architectural photogra-

phers including major national players like Hedrick-Bless- ing and Tim othy Hursley are shooting film and then scanning it. Most m agazines still want film originals. Most architectural firm s want digital files. Scanning film satisfies both types of clients. This m ay change in the next couple of years as digital capture solves som e lasting concerns like industry calibration standardization, ex- posure speed (with scanner backs), file size, noise etc. (with chip cam eras), equipm ent dependability and cost. Since 9/11 I don’t fly to jobs anym ore. It’s too m uch hassle with so m any cases of equipm ent. If I can’t drive to it, I probably don’t need the job anyway. That lim its m y range to an area encom passing Denver, El Paso, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Lubbock. But there is plenty of work that close to hom e. Architectural photography is physically very dem anding and I wonder if I can keep this up into m y 60’s. Roam ing the landscape with a field 4x5 and a few lenses and film holders m aking im ages for m yself always seem s effortless com pared to com m ercial shoot- ing and I hope to spend m ore tim e doing that in years to com e com pleting som e personal book projects that have been on hold too long. “Shelter from the Storm: The Photographs of Kirk Gittings” is available from New Mexico Magazine at 1-800-711-9525 or www.nmmagazine. Signed copies are available directly from the artist at 1-505-344-5436 or www.gittingsphoto.com

Above - “Window on the Cabezon Shrine”, from the outlying Chacoan Guadalupe site, contemplating the mythic Cabezon Peak, 1988. Kodak Tri-X film w ith No. 16 yellow /orange filter in HC-110 developer.

V I EW C AM ERA 1 3 The M cOlash residence, in the Albuquerque foothills, by Westw ork Architects AIA, 2002. Kodak EPN 120 daylight roll film w ith 2 halogen accent lights, 90 second exposure w ith no filter at f22.