I met Beth Moon this morning to look over some vintage and modern photogravures I've picked up recently. I brought books The Sonnets from the Portuguese, Taken from Life, and The Artistic Side of Photography. I brought a portfolio of photogravures by Laryew titled Nus: Cent Photographies Originales de Laryew circa 1920, and two separated photogravure leaves from Stieglitz's publication Camera Work.Beth suggested we meet at Cavallo Point Lodge, where Elizabeth Opalenik and Brigitte Carnochan had taken her for her birthday. This is a very cool find. The hotel is situated at the base of a turnoff on the road to Sausalito just over the Golden Gate Bridge in the historic Fort Baker. The converted army quarters from the turn of the 19th century are beautifully appointed and afford a stunning view of the bridge spanning to San Francisco. Beth's reason for this meeting place was the public spaces are used to display photographic exhibitions.
I arrived a bit early, as there was no traffic. I walked into the restaurant area to grab a table and a cup of coffee. As I put down my backpack, I saw above my table a print of a magnolia by Imogen Cunningham. I walked up to the hostess and asked if there was a description of the Cunningham exhibition, and of course there was. All works from the Imogen Cunningham Trust are for sale. I walked around the room between sips of coffee.
Beth arrived and mentioned that all the rooms have works by contemporary photographers, and the gift shop offers monographs describing the work to accompany your stay in a room. We looked through the books above, and compared the photogravure leaf of Rebecca from Camera Work by Frank Eugene to a smaller photogravure of the same image in The Artistic Side of Photography. The Camera Work piece had much greater detail and tonal scale than the book print, and was gorgeous.
The last book we looked at was Volume III of the Journal of 21st Photography, The Clandestine Mind. Featuring the work of photographer John Dugdale, the deluxe book has seven photogravures (printed by Jon Goodman) and remaining images printed in lush tritone. The photogravures had a depth and a texture the excellent tritones lacked that held our gaze allowing little escape.
Beth took me to another common area on the second floor that was showing several large works from the series Ashes and Snow by Gregory Colbert before we ran off on our separate ways.
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