I received my introduction to photography while I was in the Navy from 1967 through 1971. I was stationed on an aircraft carrier in Norfolk Virginia. There, I became friends with some guys who had 35mm cameras and immediately, after seeing some of their photographs, wanted to get a camera of my own. They took me to the ship's store where I purchased my first 35mm camera, a Pentax Spotmatic. Since this camera was entirely manually controlled, I learned the camera basics of shutter speeds, F stops and selective focusing. Upon being discharged from the Navy in 1971, I returned to California and enrolled in a basic photography class at Pierce Junior College in Woodland Hills. There, I learned traditional darkroom techniques and soon after, built my own darkroom at home. For the next few years I learned all I could about developing film and printing by reading what other photographers had done and by my own experimentation.
From 1971 until 1973 I worked at several jobs that just provided income to live on. I then decided to take a camera repair class at West Valley Occupational Center, right across the street from Pierce College, where I had taken the photography class. By learning the very basics of camera repair, I was placed at my first job as an apprentice in an established camera repair shop in Sherman Oaks California. There, I received on the job training from some very skilled technicians on how to repair motion picture cameras. This would be my main source of income for the next 40 years. In 1982 a friend of mine came by the repair shop I was working in and showed me a flier she had picked up at a local photography store. It was from a place called Cameravision in downtown Los Angeles. Cameravision was a fine art photography gallery and the flier was about them having what was known as "Exchange Night", where photographers could bring work they wanted to share with other photographers and artists of various types. At first I was reluctant to even go see what Exchange Night was, because the only people who had seen my photographs were family, friends and the photography instructor and people in the class I had. I suspected that the people I would be meeting at Cameravision were probably much more accomplished in the world of fine art photography. I thought it over for a couple of weeks and just so I wouldn't have to think about it anymore, decided to go find out about it. When I arrived, there were two people who identified themselves as facilitators. One was Chuck Britt and the other was a woman named Larkin Higgins. We were seated in a circle of chairs and asked to introduce ourselves and make a brief statement about our involvement with photography, or any other form of creative expression. As I had thought before, the people there were clearly more knowledgable in the world of art than I was, but I liked what I was experiencing. I kept coming back and on my fourth visit Chuck asked me if I would like to bring some of my photographs the following week. I told him that I didn't think I was ready. I still felt intimidated by the work in the gallery and by the work that was being shown at Exchange Night. Chuck assured me that it would be a safe place to share my photographs. So, at the next Exchange Night, I brought some black and white natural landscape photographs. They were received well and I got some nice compliments on my printing ability. That experience broke the ice for me. After that night, I brought more of my work on a regular basis. If I could say just one thing about my experience with Exchange Night and Cameravision, I would say, "It was a very important fork in the road of my life in terms of getting an extremely valuable education in creative self expression". I met some very accomplished artists there and felt compelled to branch out from the photography I was doing primarily because of knowing them and their work. I was invited to be in several group shows there and then had my own shows. A couple of years later Cameravision had to close down due to a substantial rent increase. By this time Chuck and I were good friends and had started playing acoustic guitars together. I was also going to performances of his group "Transvalue" and taking pictures of them playing. After Chuck moved north to Washington, I continued on with photography and playing guitar and mandolin. We have stayed in contact with each other and our friendship has grown.
A couple of years ago I got my first digital camera. I decided to get it mostly just to see if I would like it and not to replace my film cameras. I have grown to really embrace digital photography. This showing at The Ululate Gallery is my first showing of digital images. I hope you enjoy this work as much as I have liked exploring this new photographic medium. I will still be doing traditional film photography. Digital photography is an additional road I will be traveling on.
Because of the creative inspiration I have gained from knowing Chuck, he plays a significant part in these images.
RICHARD CLINE
Come to the opening Saturday, October 20, 2012.
Meet the artist visiting from Los Angeles.
We will have a conversation.
Photographer
RICHARD CLINE
OPENING:Saturday, October 20, 2012: 5:00PM to 7:00PM SHOW: Monday, October 15, 2012 -thru- Saturday, February 9, 2013
CALL THE GALLERY TO SCHEDULE A PERSONAL VIEWING. 360-336-3882 chuck@ululate.org
ON THE PROCESS
All of the images in this show are from found objects I discover during my daily activities. For example, I may be out flying one of my model airplanes, or just on a trip to the grocery store and come across a rusted sign and stop and take a picture of a small portion of it in a composition I like. I then download it on to my computer and work with the image on my photo program called "IPHOTO". When I get the colors and textures where I like them, that is a finished image. Sometimes they happen quickly and other times it's a long process and for some, they just don't ever get to be a final image I am content with. In this respect, digital photography is not much different than traditional photography I have done in my darkroom for the past 40 years. I am happy not to be using chemicals and wasting materials in the making of these digital images. One thing I want to mention here is that many people have had their hands in the making of the original image I capture. As in the rusted sign example above, some people made the sign and others installed it. Then maybe some other people came along and sprayed paint over it and then more effort was made to remove that paint and finally nature took over and rust set in. These kind of images are everywhere, so subject matter will never be limited. My last subject was a large excavator machine that had a lot of scraped yellow paint on its rear quarters. Someone spray painted job related numbers in white paint over the old yellow paint and rust scrape marks and the best part of this scene was that some of the spray paint, which was put on way to heavily, had run down through the yellow and rust. So, as I said above, there have been lots of hands in the formation of these objects and finally in the images seen here.
VIDEO OF THE EXHIBIT
CLICK ON IMAGE BELOW FOR PRINTABLE POSTER
THESE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE NOT ABSTRACT AT ALL
By Chuck Britt
RICHARD CLINE
LIST OF IMAGES IN THIS SHOW
CLICK IMAGE TO PRINT
ULULATE THROUGH TIME CLICK THE ARTIST'S NAME TO SEE THAT SHOW
