Living With Photography

You have acquired a stunning collection of photographs. Now what? There is nothing more paralyzing than facing that blank wall and wondering how to begin. The good news is that there are a few guidelines and suggestions that will help you make that commitment, hang the pictures and still keep the “Wow!” factor that drew you to the images in the first place.

Start by studying your collection and looking for patterns or themes. Are they mostly Black & White? Do you prefer color landscapes? Or is it an eclectic mix? How about your room décor? Is it traditional and formal? Or do you lean toward casual and unstudied? You can choose an arrangement that complements the space.

If you have one large eye-popping image, your job is a little easier. But a small or medium sized photo can look lost on a large wall. Grouping a collection of photos can have more impact than dotting them around the room. Group photos by topic (architecture, landscapes, rusting cars, etc), style (black & white, color, dark and somber, etc), or by frames (black metal, brown wood, barn siding, etc). And sometimes the unifying theme is its diversity.

This process is highly personal and there are no right answers, only results that make you feel good. Here are a few tips to get you started:

-Use newspaper or brown craft paper cut in the size and shapes of your art and try out different arrangements by taping them on the wall. Or lay the artwork out on the floor to help you visualize the result.

-A grouping of photos works best with 2-3 inches between frames, you can tack strings on the wall using a level to keep a consistent space between photos.

-Framed photos can be grouped on shelves.

-Arrange smaller pictures around a large anchor picture.

-A row of photos hugging a chair rail emphasizes the architectural detail.

-Anchor your art to a large piece of furniture. As a general rule of thumb, a large grouping of pictures over a sofa should be about two-thirds of the width of the sofa and about 6 or 7 inches above the back.

-When not anchoring to furniture, hang at eye-level.

-But the most important thing to remember is; always follow your gut and break the rules when it feels right.

--Janet Worne

Douglas Kent Hall Exhibit

The Albuquerque Photographers’ Gallery is pleased to host a very special showing of the work of the late photographer, Douglas Kent Hall (1938–2008). “Precious Metal: Rare Platinum-Palladium and selected Silver Prints” will be on display from November 2nd to December 5th, with a reception on Friday, November 4th, 6:00-9:00 PM.

Born in Utah, Hall went on to a prolific career as a fine art photographer and writer. After acquiring his first camera in the 1960’s, he photographed such subjects as rock stars, cowboys, Native Americans and bodybuilders, to name a few. He published twenty-five books and has taught and exhibited widely. He has won numerous awards for his photography, books and writing, including an Academy Award for a documentary film on the American Cowboy.

In the 1990’s, Douglas Kent Hall produced a small series of platinum-palladium prints. He chose some of his most evocative images of the American West to reproduce with this special process. Hall’s platinum-palladium prints display an astonishing amount of warmth and depth, including a purity of black tones seldom seen in these types of prints. Moreover, the photographer used a paintbrush in the dark to apply platinum-palladium emulsion to sheets of hand-made paper, so that each print appears surrounded by its own unique field of painterly strokes.

During this special show, the Albuquerque Photographers’ Gallery will display a selection of the few remaining platinum-palladium prints made by Hall. Individual images were only printed in multiples of two or three, and the last time they were available to collectors was over a decade ago at the Platinum Plus gallery in New York City. This will be one of the year’s most exciting events for local photography connoisseurs.

The Albuquerque Photographers’ Gallery is located at 303 Romero St., NW, Suite N208 in Old Town, Albuquerque.
For more information call (505)244-9195 or visit: www.abqphotographersgallery.com
For more information on Douglas Kent Hall visit: www.douglaskenthall.com

Henri Cartier-Bresson Quote

“Composition must be one of our constant preoccupations, but at the moment of shooting it can stem only from our intuition, for we are out to capture the fugitive moment, and all the interrelationships involved are on the move.”

--Henri Cartier-Bresson