3.06.2010

JONI STERNBACH: SurfLand

 Surfers: 10.02.08 #5 Hannah, unique tintype, Malibu
Copyright © Joni Sternbach / All rights reserved

 Surfers: 09.02.12 #8 Lakey, unique tintype, Rincon
Copyright © Joni Sternbach / All rights reserved

 Surfers: 10.02.17 #5 Chris and Dan, unique tintype, Refugio
Copyright © Joni Sternbach / All rights reserved

Surfers: 16.11.09 # Turtle Cove , unique tintype, Turtle Cove
Copyright © Joni Sternbach / All rights reserved

"I have a special fondness for Joni Sternbach's unique tintype images. Having lived in *Montauk for over 15 years, many of Sternbach's photographs were taken just down the cliff's from us at 'Turtle Cove' and 'Ditch Plains', and I recognize some of the locals in her book SurfLand. But it's the beauty and expertise of her wet-plate technique that really sets Sternbach's work apart from the rest of us."

"Working with a large-format camera, photographer Joni Sternbach concentrates on locations that are close to or directly on the water. In an era of rapid-fire digital snapshots, Sternbach employs the wet-plate collodion process and the distinctive appearance of her finished works echoes nineteenth-century traditions of anthropological photography. The wet-plate technique informs her careful compositions while producing intimate portraits imbued with spontaneity and the raw quality of the process reveals the dignity in her subjects. In SurfLand, photographer and subject overlap on the periphery of two powerful elements: the land and the sea. The singular, primitive act of surfing on the water is eclipsed by the social and negotiated state of human interaction on the shore. Sternbach's surfers are persistent elements in a shifting natural scene, acting as a bridge between the sea as an unbridled force of nature and the shore line, a place of leisure and cultural phenomena." –Flak Photo's March Weekend Series

AIPAD with Rick Wester Fine Art
April 4 through 7, 2013
Park Avenue Armory

ICP Travel Workshop Summer 2013
Into The Ether and on the Road, Wet Plate Workshop
Please contact ICP for further details
 

The Book: SurfLand | Photographs by Joni Sternbach
JONI STERNBACH WEBSITE

* Priscilla Rattazzi's Vintage Photograph of Matthew Avedon and me on the 'beach' in *Montauk for Italian Per Lui Magazine

14 comments:

Caio Fern said...

maybe the most universal kind of photography i have ever seen ... they seen to have no time , culture , race ....but belong to all at the same time .

thank you so much for showing this .... really .... now i want to "gig' these images as much as possible .

Yogi♪♪♪ said...

I don't use this word too much but I find the photographs charming.

Mauricio Sapata said...

Truly amazing ! I love tintypes and these are rather unusual... thanks for sharing.

Dallas Arts Salon said...

Really lovely.

Anne Bentley said...

Surfers, like musicians are often entities unto themselves - combining the subject with a medium most artists would not venture near is an inspired combination.

Ricky Bush said...

Luv 'Em!

Kelly M. said...

I had to stop and look again, believing these were taken perhaps in the late 1800s! Beautiful and delicate, I am reminded of Julia Cameron's work -- Montauk is a beautiful place (I grew up on eastern Long Island) -- beaches and ocean were part of the daily life back then!

Gary Keimig said...

really cool photos. Quite a blog that I need to go through as I have time.

Ange said...

Real talent and nice to know that the 'manual' techniques are still alive and as irreplaceable as ever!

dianasfaria.com said...

these are amazing. I love the old world feel to them.

Carlos Lorenzo said...

Thanks for giving her website link. The results are beautiful.

Andrzej Maciejewski said...

I am not a big fan of old processes - most of the time, but what Joni is doing is different. She is not pretending to step back in time. She uses an old process but this is just a technique - her photographs are very modern - maybe mostly because of the subject. I love this combination.

Fred Benning said...

Fantastic!
Abraço

Bruce Barone said...

My new favorite book!!! And artist!