Real World Inkjet Installment
By Rick Braveheart
This B&W photography project, a resulting exhibition and a fine art book began five years ago on a photo shoot in a remote region of New Mexico on BLM land shared with the Navajo reservation. There, during an early morning hike into the desert, as the sun rose I watched in fascination as rock formations suddenly transformed into mesmerizing shapes prehistoric beings. These were not stones arranged at random that suggested a form. Instead they were huge, individual rocks sculpted like monuments into the shape of dinosaurs, birds, camels and alligators in which the central figure, often dozens of feet in length, was clearly discernable. From that moment on I was hooked on researching, locating and photographing these formations which were part of Native American life for thousands of years, and sharing their beauty with others. The project eventually became a journey spanning four years and 6,000 miles traveling across the Colorado Plateau and producing over 800 black and white images.
This work subsequently captured the interest of the Museum of Northern Arizona. There, I was selected to serve as artist in residence and provided access to their extensive art, historic and geologic resources on the Colorado Plateau. I was also invited to exhibit the work in a month‐long exhibition which opens December 3, 2011. That research also provided the historic background material that was used, along with the images in a fine art book titled Standing With the Ancient Ones.
AN EXHIBITION BUILT UPON RED RIVER PAPER
Two years ago I began a search for a photographic paper that would reproduce black and white images on an Epson 3880 that looked similar to what I could create in the dark room. While papers I’d tried from various manufacturers produced lovely images, I felt they all lacked some characteristic such as sharp rendering, perceived image depth or a wide grayscale gamut. Then I tried Red River’s UltraPro Satin and found it to not only met, but exceeded all of the characteristics I was looking for. In addition, I found it’s reduced use of optical brighteners produced the ideal level of realistic whites which are critical in B&W prints and that will also resist fading. Since then, UltraPro Satin has become the paper of choice for all my B&W and the majority of color fine art prints that are exhibited or made available to collectors.
Because Standing With the Ancient Ones is a traveling exhibition consisting of 44 framed images that will be shown in different venues (museums, galleries, etc.) and each with varying amounts of wall space, I’m producing it in two different sizes using UltraPro Satin: 10x15 prints matted and framed to 16x20, and 8x12 prints matted and framed to 12x16. Each exhibition also features four large display panels printed using UltraPro Satin 16x20 paper and framed to 26x30.
A LIMITED EDITION BOOK WITH RED RIVER PAPERS
A fine art trade book featuring this work and titled Standing With the Ancient Ones has been published in both soft and hardcover editions. For collectors and museums that are especially interested in this project, a custom made 114 page Collectors Limited Edition version of the book is also available and limited to 15 signed and numbered copies. That book, which is limited to 15 signed and numbered copies is produced one at a time and on demand with the Epson 3880 using Red River’s double-sided paper for the text and UltraPro Satin for the plates, then stitched hand bound within a linen cover.
Last updated: May 02, 2019
