First Project: First Antietam Set

“Old Simon” at Antietam National Cemetery.

Twelve Easy Prints

Projects.

Aesthetically: internally consistent.

Thematically: coherent.

I’ve spent decades making pretty pictures, technically stunning pictures, sentimental pictures, but this late afternoon, one that marks the end of a long process over time, is the first on which I’ve printed (completed, done) a set of a dozen coherent, internally consistent interpretations of one of America’s great historic landscape: Antietam National Battlefield Park.

I’m having a drink over it, rum and coke, this still warm July afternoon, windows open, fans running, Joe Pass (“Bernie’s Tune”) coming down from a cloud.

Is this how it feels to have something finished, I wonder.

Must be.

Manhattan or Venice Beach or some little spot off the road, Cumberland Valley, twenty minutes driving north of all that death, glory, sacrifice, the announcement in blood of the beginning of the end of slavery (and “separate but equal”, truth to be told) in the U.S.A., it’s the same thing.

Although not quite a wrap — I could stand to print the set a few more times.

In any case, I have something to ship.

I’ve a minimum in mind.

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The HP B9180 survived this round!

Specification: HP B9180 with the Vivera inks on A3+ (13×19-inch) InkPress Fine Art Matte, minimally bordered and at the bottom numbered by volume and print order (left), and signed (right).

Production Run: I’m tempted not to do another set!  However, I’ve in mind placing six to a dozen sets, no more, of this project.

If the HP printer fails (beyond fast repair) on any subsequent order, then I’ll print on the Epson 3880 with the Ultrachrome K3 (with “Vivid Magenta”) inks.

Gig Snaps + Fireworks

I would like to tell you how hungover I am, but cannot, for I am only a little partied out.

🙂

And getting over it with coffee bean from Nicaragua.

However, if I weren’t fighting “Dunlap’s Disease” (as in, “honey, my belly done lapped over my belt!”), this would be fine morning hour for a cold beer.

Gig Snaps –> “If I’m to perform — guitarist, vocalist, singer/songwriter — I may bring a camera; if I bring a camera. what I shoot around the gig goes here” (http://www.flickr.com/photos/23673974@N04/collections/72157626640831218/).

So it goes, but here I may remove the “I may bring a camera” part, for the high-end point-and-shoot Lumix Lx5 fairly assures I will have at least that camera with me.   

Greg Trumpower picking a tune out in the wilting heat of the late Fourth of July afternoon, 2012, Hagerstown, Maryland.

Greg Trumpower has been knockin’ at rockabilly and Americana in music for decades.  Retired from writing mortgages for Wells Fargo, he’s had more time for house, garden, and music (http://www.reverbnation.com/gregtrumpower), and every Fourth of July, he’s hosted a Home Concert and Block Party, now fairly well attended and with a terrific locaton for watching the “North End” Hagerstown Fireworks.

Dave Violet (L) and Greg Trumpower (R) pick one.

Greg’s friend Dave Violet has a fine ear and plays well, but as others of our cohort do between age, economy, and fate, he’s been struggling with health and house and here has borrowed Greg’s old Gibson, a little hard to play, stiff action, so Dave says.  Pay him no mind on that — he’s very smooth and jazzes it up as if the old flat top had been built and setup just for him.

Finale – Fourth of July — Hagerstown, Maryland 2012.

Not bad for a hand-held point-and-shoot!

Well, it’s colorful. 

Technically, hand shake and fire in motion may have conspired for effect. 

It has been very cool working in three arts and along multiple parallel career tracks, but when one gets “inside” the less visible machinery and methods of an avenue of expression, it becomes very difficult managing (alone) each art (or research) system: I’d rather have recorded the fireworks with the D2x on a tripod, but . . . outside . . . public party . . . in town . . . Mustang parked a block away . . . chair and gig bag (day travel base camp) slung over my shoulder and guitar case in hand — one system per mission, please.

Of course, as all in production now — film, music, photography — locations come with their own package of encouragements by way of amenity, convenience, and security, so perhaps I will find my way to another house party but out in the countryside with ample parking and other music-supporting and photography-encouraging features.

We shall see!

In the meantime, enjoy my memory of my town’s fireworks 2012.

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Antietam Set

Bloody Lane, Antietam National Battlefield Park. Also known as the “Sunken Road”, along its length a scene of remarkable violence and carnage. The monument is that of the 132nd Pennsylvania Volulnteer Infantry.

Antietam Set – 12 Prints – 13×19 inches

With the “Antietam Set”, I’ve set  on my own table a very limited edition project — a dozen orders and I will be done.

Specification: HP B9180 with the Vivera inks on InkPress Fine Art Matte.  If the HP should not survive the work, then I’ll move on to an Epson 3880 and the Ultrachrome K3 (with “Vivid Magenta”) inks.

The slide show to which I’ve linked has an e-mail link in its upper right corner.

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Misc., Spring 2012

Misc., Spring 2012, originally uploaded by James S. Oppenheim.

My studio will scrape up the dollars for a few more HP B9180 Vivera Ink cartridges, and it may even prove ambitious enough to get into that machine and produce the most luscious, perfect, and permanent prints from images such as this one, taken “on-the-fly”, hand-held, with a point-and-shoot.

I need some places to go now.

I need a few farms, gardens, and parks, public or private . . . lonely beautiful spaces with much for eye and mind.

Click here to view additional photographs from the series..

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