Cranial Czar, eh? / Carl Chiarenza, Rochester N.Y.
Photograph
Cranial Czar, eh? / Carl Chiarenza, Rochester N.Y.
Cranial Czar, eh? (Carl Chiarenza) (Sailboat and Shadow)
2003
Gelatin silver print
4/25
Image: 15 5/8 × 17 15/16 in. (39.7 × 45.5 cm)
Overall: 19 7/8 × 24 in. (50.5 × 61 cm)
Purchase with funds from Janet and Thomas A. Fink, 2005
2005.0364.0002
Inscriptions recto, mat (pencil): [signature]
verso (pencil): Photography by Stu Levy / 2740 SW Fairview Blvd. / Portland OR 97205 / 503-222-2553
verso (pencil) [title] / Print #4 / Edition of 25 and 5 artists's proofs / [signature]
verso (pencil): 5-26-5
verso (pencil): Photography by Stu Levy / 2740 SW Fairview Blvd. / Portland OR 97205 / 503-222-2553
verso (pencil) [title] / Print #4 / Edition of 25 and 5 artists's proofs / [signature]
verso (pencil): 5-26-5
Text(In a letter to curator Alison Nordström from the photographer, Mr. Levy stated, "I've also enclosed some written material about each [image], which I've been feeling more and more is an integrated part of the image and should be presented with the image when shown."):
My friend and "fellow” Portland photographer Cherie Hiser told me to give Carl a big hello when I went to Rochester, NY in June 1989. I was going to be an assistant at a workshop for photo educators at the Rochester institute of Technology, co-sponsored by the Ansel Adams Gallery and Eastman Kodak, and Carl was one of the instructors. We bonded immediately, and along with John Sexton who was also instructing, we critiqued participants’ prints until 2 or 3 A.M. every night, our comments seeming to perfectly intermesh. We immediately felt like old friends.
Carl was amazingly articulate, observant and analytical. At the time, he had been teaching at the University of Rochester for only a few years, having spent many years before teaching at Boston University. He was originally from Rochester, and became part of a Rochester-Boston axis of photographers in the 1960's called the Heliographers Society; other members were Paul Caponigro, Walter Chappell, William Clift, Marie Cosindas and a few other photographers whose names do not start with the letter "C."
Carl had recently published "Landscapes of the Mind” showing the evolution of his photos from the "real world" to his world of paper collages which appeared as monumental landforms. I was attracted to the luminescence and abstractness of his work.
I did not see Carl for another 10 years, this time at the Society of Photographic Educators National Meeting in Cincinnati. He had been named the Honored Educator of the year before, but developed heart trouble and his talk was postponed by a year, so there were talks by two honored educators that year - Carl and Jerry Uelsmann. Both had attended RIT together in the early 1950's, as part of the first class of fine art photographers in that technical institute. Magic was in the air in Rochester in those years and other photographic notables such as Beaumont Newhall, Minor White and Nathan Lyons were part of the community.
I had wanted to make a grid poster of Carl for a long time, but it was another 4 years before I found an opportunity to go to Rochester again. Carl had done a major remodeling project to his house and had built an incredible workroom and darkroom. He had published another book with Nazraeli Press and was planning another. I combined parts of the old and the new house, and also included his books and a figurine of Don Quixote. My impression during the photo session was that he both loved his home and life in Rochester but also dearly missed living in Boston.
A few months later I had a chance to show the resulting portrait to Anne Tucker from the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. She mentioned that a friend of hers, Joe Mills, had made an anagram of Carl's name - He Cranial Czar. Carl confirmed this and told me about other permutations, but I made up a slightly different version for the title of the photograph
My friend and "fellow” Portland photographer Cherie Hiser told me to give Carl a big hello when I went to Rochester, NY in June 1989. I was going to be an assistant at a workshop for photo educators at the Rochester institute of Technology, co-sponsored by the Ansel Adams Gallery and Eastman Kodak, and Carl was one of the instructors. We bonded immediately, and along with John Sexton who was also instructing, we critiqued participants’ prints until 2 or 3 A.M. every night, our comments seeming to perfectly intermesh. We immediately felt like old friends.
Carl was amazingly articulate, observant and analytical. At the time, he had been teaching at the University of Rochester for only a few years, having spent many years before teaching at Boston University. He was originally from Rochester, and became part of a Rochester-Boston axis of photographers in the 1960's called the Heliographers Society; other members were Paul Caponigro, Walter Chappell, William Clift, Marie Cosindas and a few other photographers whose names do not start with the letter "C."
Carl had recently published "Landscapes of the Mind” showing the evolution of his photos from the "real world" to his world of paper collages which appeared as monumental landforms. I was attracted to the luminescence and abstractness of his work.
I did not see Carl for another 10 years, this time at the Society of Photographic Educators National Meeting in Cincinnati. He had been named the Honored Educator of the year before, but developed heart trouble and his talk was postponed by a year, so there were talks by two honored educators that year - Carl and Jerry Uelsmann. Both had attended RIT together in the early 1950's, as part of the first class of fine art photographers in that technical institute. Magic was in the air in Rochester in those years and other photographic notables such as Beaumont Newhall, Minor White and Nathan Lyons were part of the community.
I had wanted to make a grid poster of Carl for a long time, but it was another 4 years before I found an opportunity to go to Rochester again. Carl had done a major remodeling project to his house and had built an incredible workroom and darkroom. He had published another book with Nazraeli Press and was planning another. I combined parts of the old and the new house, and also included his books and a figurine of Don Quixote. My impression during the photo session was that he both loved his home and life in Rochester but also dearly missed living in Boston.
A few months later I had a chance to show the resulting portrait to Anne Tucker from the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. She mentioned that a friend of hers, Joe Mills, had made an anagram of Carl's name - He Cranial Czar. Carl confirmed this and told me about other permutations, but I made up a slightly different version for the title of the photograph
