Our newsletter.
Newsletter March 1, 1994
We send warmest greetings to you from our very cold clime. With all the ice and snow here, it has been impossible to travel in and out of our property except for a few very lucky opportunities to get out for the necessary provisions. Fortunately, we had planned to be in the darkroom throughout the winter anyway, so this isolation has enabled both of us to catch up with all of our printing. Now, as Spring reluctantly approaches, we look forward to being on the road again for some exciting trips and hopefully a visit with you.
Last year we traveled for much of the year, our longest trip lasting for seven months, during which time we photographed mostly in Northern Arizona and Southeastern Utah. The main highlight was our 12-day trip with our big cameras down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Truly it was the "trip of a lifetime." At the river level, the Grand Canyon is simply magical. We were with a group of people whose primary interest was in hiking, and although we thoroughly enjoyed many of the hikes (see Paula's account of one of them), we were unable to stop and photograph as frequently as we would have liked. We want to go back, and since there are no other workshops in the Grand Canyon for the serious photographer, we decided to offer one. Because the Grand Canyon offers so much more than a photography experience, non photographers will be welcome, too. So, whether you are a photographer or not, do let us know if you would like to join us, and we'll send you the details. The trip will be during the last two weeks of April in 1995. We have learned that over a year in advance is needed to set up arrangements with the outfitter to secure this desirable time.
Another thrilling highlight of last year's photographic journey was our time spent on the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands National Park. The White Rim Trail is an 85-mile-long, four-wheel drive road located 1,000–1,200 feet below a surrounding mesa and 1,000 feet above the floor of many canyons below. Thousands of buttes, spires and pinnacles beckoned as we looked down into the canyons or back toward the mesa from an almost infinite number of overlooks and vantage points. And there were endless possibilities for photographing plant life, eroded rocks and natural still lifes on the rim itself. On the White Rim Trail the photographic opportunities are in such abundance that we decided to offer a workshop there, too. This week-long workshop will be offered in October of this year. Let us know if you are interested and we will send more information. These will be the first workshops that I (Michael) have offered since I stopped full-time teaching at the end of 1974.
In our newsletter last year we mentioned that there was a book of Paula's photographs being planned. This project is now in full swing and a book of her landscape photographs interspersed with writing from her journals will be out later this year. The noted writer and biographer, Estelle Jussim, is writing the introductory essay. As we did with my two books, we (Lodima Press) will be publishing Paula's book. To insure a beautifully designed book with the finest photographic reproductions, we have learned that self-publishing is the only way to go. We hope you will be very pleased to see it when it is released.
This year will see a first for us—we will be going to Europe together. In May we will spend three weeks in Prague where we have been invited to teach a workshop at the Academy of Film and Music, and lecture in other cities in the Czech Republic. Our travels in the U.S. this year will take us seemingly everywhere—to the South, the Midwest, New England, California, the Northwest, and the Southwest. As we have done in previous years, our trips will combine photographing along with showing and selling the photographs from our previous trips. It is only through the sale of our work that we are able to keep going and make more photographs. Attempting to live from our work as artists is more often than not a precarious endeavor. To those of you who have purchased our photographs, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support and your belief in our work. It has been invaluable and is always appreciated.
There is so much work to do that it seems that we just can't do it all. We have been so busy making photographs and working on our books that we have not been able to put any energy toward having exhibitions. Plans are in the works now for both of us to have exhibitions that will travel to many museums. For now, the only exhibition scheduled is one of Michael's—again at the Bill Bace Gallery in New York City. It will run from June 14 – July 23. with an opening from 6–8 on Thursday, June 16. The exhibition is titled: Recent Photographs—Landscapes and Nudes.
The response to the enlargements that I made for last year exhibition at the Bill Bace Gallery has been wonderful. We are happy to report that the prices for these 2' x 5' prints will stay the same as they were last year, although we are near the mid-point on a couple of the print editions. Prices for these enlargements from my 8x20-inch negatives begin at $3,500 and increase at the mid-point and as the edition is exhausted. These 2' x 5' prints have been printed in very limited editions of 5 or 10 except in one case where there are 20 prints in the edition.
Update on other print prices: Paula's prices will be going up slightly this year. Michael's prices will remain at the current level for another year.
Michael 8x10 $800 Paula 8x10 $450
8x20 $1,000 5x7 $350
18x22 $1,500 4x5 $350
We do look forward to seeing you on our travels. Do remember that if you would like to reach us while we are on the road, we are rarely out of touch as we retrieve phone messages daily and mail is forwarded weekly.
We hope this letter finds you happy and well, and we hope to see you sometime later this year.
With all best wishes,
P.S. Please note: Our telephone area code has now changed to 610. It is no longer 215-847-2005. It is 610-847-2005. During this year, calls will go through either way, but beginning next year you must dial 610.
And for those of you who missed it last year: our mailing address is now just P.O. Box 400. It is no longer Box 400 Bunker Hill Road. If Bunker Hill Road is included with the P.O. Box, our mail gets delayed. (Nor is it Box 218 Bunker Hill Road, as a few of you still have in your files. Box 218 is more than 10 years out of date now and insures delayed delivery.) For shipping, our address has been changed to 25 Bunker Hill Road. Town and zip remain the same.