TECHNICAL DETAILS

Leigh Beatty, Woodblock Printer, Centerville, Minnesota, 2019
Sony A7iii
Sony Zeiss 16-35 f/4 G OSS
ISO 50, 16mm at various exposures

THE CREATIVE SPACES PROJECT

I’ve always been fascinated by the spaces that foster creativity. When I was quite young—perhaps only five years old or so—the sculptor Charles Gagnon had his studio for a time in the basement of my parent’s detached garage. It was a hulking old building, somewhat heated by a huge ancient furnace that fill a corner of that basement space, which opened out into the alley running behind the property. I have vivid memories of going down there with my father occasionally when Gagnon was in. It was filled with mysterious materials, unusual smells and tools that filled this little boy with awe and wonder. And it was dark and full of spiders. What could be better? That space evolved through a number of studio iterations. My father did welding and mixed media. My brothers assembled various projects there. And I often used it as a retreat and project space during my middle- and high school years, from making my Pinewood Derby entries (successful) to attempts at distilling various intoxicants (unsuccessful!).

I’m not sure if these formative memories alone are accountable, but the end result has been a life-long fascination with working studio spaces. I’ve seen some great ones. And, truth be told, I’ve never seen one I found unappealing. They each have a character that provides insights to the working minds, patterns, and predilections of the person who creates there. The medium is not important; I find them all delightful. Ceramicists, painters, darkrooms, welding shops, presses, jeweler’s benches… They all share that special feeling and aesthetic: the air of creativity.

For some time, I had wanted to shoot a portrait of my wife, Leigh Beatty, working in her print-making studio in our basement. It’s a place of equal and endless interest for me and for our cats, who always lurk outside her door when she’s working, ready bolt in and flop on the floor at the slightest opportunity. They aren’t allowed in. I don’t go in, either, except for occasional trips to a storage closet in her space that holds winter clothing. Or when she’s working and I need to talk about something. But the visits are strictly needs-based and furtive.

She finally relented to the portrait entreaties earlier this year, and I made a—for me—atypical image of her carving a woodblock at her bench. I thought for some time about how to capture the mysterious feeling of that studio space. I wanted to bring out the drama and accentuate the surroundings and materials, while at the same time capturing the essence of the creative process at work. I ended up making a composite portrait, using more than 20 images in the end. I wanted a low, very wide camera angle, and I wanted total depth of field, so everything in the image was sharply focused.

I mounted the camera vertically at the back of her bench on a Platypod Ultra with a ball head attached and clamped to the desktop. I could not see the camera back or viewfinder because of the location, so I shot tethered, controlling the camera and capturing the images directly with my Macbook. This also helped with focus stacking, as the field of view was far too deep to capture in a single image, even with a 16mm field of view on the lens and shooting at f/11. To get adequate shadow and highlight details, I also needed exposure blending. I captured the background images for the exposure and focus stacks first, then put her into position and did separate captures of her body, hands and ultimately her face to position behind her large swing-arm magnifier. Many hours in Photoshop later, and I felt like I had the feeling and mood I wanted in the final image.

A month or so later, I had the opportunity to capture my dear old friend, the painter David Mataya, working in his studio in Wisconsin. The shoot took a similar approach, and also produced a satisfying image. And the root of this project took hold. I could feed my curiosity for studios by capturing artists working. Creative Spaces is the ongoing result. I have quite a few artists in the pipeline, and I hope to bring forward an interesting and consistent body of work from these sessions. Who knows where it might lead!

You can see larger samples of Creative Spaces images via the main menu, or by following <this link>.

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