why a compulsion to document?
Having just documented what I anticipated would be my final solo exhibition, I found myself thinking about the first time I photographed my work. It was May 1965 on the roof of Beechfield House, the men’s residence at Corsham (Bath Academy of Art).
Up until that time the college’s educational dictum - You are still learning. It’s all about process. It's too soon get precious about product - meant that everything was an exercise en route to a time when something may be produced that would be worth keeping. For would-be artists, it was pretty effective ego-suppression. But I accepted this philosophy then and I still do now. Student progress is better served when preciousness about one's work is not an overarching principle. But, in 1965, I was photographing the half dozen or so pieces that would comprise my final assessment exhibition. It felt that the time was right to record the ‘moment’ and also, I knew that none of those paintings would accompany me when I left Corsham so needed a visual record. 35mm slides were the best medium.
Once away from college and no longer making paintings that I considered to be mere exercises, I began to keep detailed records in the form of slides and file cards. In 1982, my file cards gave way to a rudimentary computer database. But slides were still required as the computer was low-resolution, black and white. The digital database had one advantage over file cards in that fields could be sorted and lists printed. I recall being impressed by the fact that it would only take fifteen minutes to sort a few dozen records. However, any perceived efficiency disappeared when digital compatibility became the issue. I switched platforms which effectively trashed the existing database. (This was never a problem when new file cards were needed – even ones of a different colour). My Radio Shack TRS 80 served me well for about five years but the transition to a Mac Classic proved to be the kiss of death to the initial digital database.
Early on in my record keeping, I also discovered the advantage of shooting multiple slides of a painting rather than relying on having copies made after the fact. It turned out that multiple originals were cheaper and the colour quality was certainly much more reliable. Up on the roof in 1965, I had thought that one shot of each piece was sufficient. But when submitting slides for exhibition and grant applications, I recognized the value of having taken a many as six originals.
Years on and several Macs later, the opportunity to digitize and store images on the computer opened up significant possibilities. I was able to stop carting boxes of duplicate slides from one home to the next. A small number had moved with me from England to Canada; a larger number from London, Ontario to North Bay, and more boxes than I care to think from North Bay to Nova Scotia: the solution, digitizing each slide and storing the images on discs.
Finally, along with the magic of Photoshop that restores faded colour, a website provided relief from disc storage together with a means to control viewing. One problem that I did discover however, was that the 1990 scanning advice did not serve me well in 2013. These early scans were low resolution in keeping with the capability, storage and delivery systems at the time. My first computer had just 16k of RAM which I upgraded at great cost to 48k. The Mac Classic was not much better and, while the bulk of the scanning did come much later, the computer I had at the time would not have handled a MB let alone a KB file. As a result, most of the early records on the website are, by today’s standards, relatively poor quality. That said, revisiting, editing, upgrading and organizing images previously stored as slide sheets, contact sheets, on ZIP and floppy discs has allowed me to assemble a comprehensive and representative archive of fifty plus years of activity.
Up until that time the college’s educational dictum - You are still learning. It’s all about process. It's too soon get precious about product - meant that everything was an exercise en route to a time when something may be produced that would be worth keeping. For would-be artists, it was pretty effective ego-suppression. But I accepted this philosophy then and I still do now. Student progress is better served when preciousness about one's work is not an overarching principle. But, in 1965, I was photographing the half dozen or so pieces that would comprise my final assessment exhibition. It felt that the time was right to record the ‘moment’ and also, I knew that none of those paintings would accompany me when I left Corsham so needed a visual record. 35mm slides were the best medium.
Once away from college and no longer making paintings that I considered to be mere exercises, I began to keep detailed records in the form of slides and file cards. In 1982, my file cards gave way to a rudimentary computer database. But slides were still required as the computer was low-resolution, black and white. The digital database had one advantage over file cards in that fields could be sorted and lists printed. I recall being impressed by the fact that it would only take fifteen minutes to sort a few dozen records. However, any perceived efficiency disappeared when digital compatibility became the issue. I switched platforms which effectively trashed the existing database. (This was never a problem when new file cards were needed – even ones of a different colour). My Radio Shack TRS 80 served me well for about five years but the transition to a Mac Classic proved to be the kiss of death to the initial digital database.
Early on in my record keeping, I also discovered the advantage of shooting multiple slides of a painting rather than relying on having copies made after the fact. It turned out that multiple originals were cheaper and the colour quality was certainly much more reliable. Up on the roof in 1965, I had thought that one shot of each piece was sufficient. But when submitting slides for exhibition and grant applications, I recognized the value of having taken a many as six originals.
Years on and several Macs later, the opportunity to digitize and store images on the computer opened up significant possibilities. I was able to stop carting boxes of duplicate slides from one home to the next. A small number had moved with me from England to Canada; a larger number from London, Ontario to North Bay, and more boxes than I care to think from North Bay to Nova Scotia: the solution, digitizing each slide and storing the images on discs.
Finally, along with the magic of Photoshop that restores faded colour, a website provided relief from disc storage together with a means to control viewing. One problem that I did discover however, was that the 1990 scanning advice did not serve me well in 2013. These early scans were low resolution in keeping with the capability, storage and delivery systems at the time. My first computer had just 16k of RAM which I upgraded at great cost to 48k. The Mac Classic was not much better and, while the bulk of the scanning did come much later, the computer I had at the time would not have handled a MB let alone a KB file. As a result, most of the early records on the website are, by today’s standards, relatively poor quality. That said, revisiting, editing, upgrading and organizing images previously stored as slide sheets, contact sheets, on ZIP and floppy discs has allowed me to assemble a comprehensive and representative archive of fifty plus years of activity.
February 2020