The plan was to photograph the new exhibit for publication and cover several keyboard wells and other instrument details. Surprise! Instead, more accurately, as well, we jumped into full instruments. Their full keyboard collection had been largely photographed years ago, but there were 6 instruments that had not.

So we squeezed the instruments onto the paper I had and with a little post magic I got the 6 instruments without completely dismantling the exhibit. It helped that several instruments were on rolling platforms, but the ideal set up for this would definitely have been to evacuate one end of the entire hall to run large sweeps of paper up the wall for a huge seamless backdrop. We got this done with one 109″ wide roll on a 6′ deep platform!

I photographed this small project at the Common Ground High School last fall for David. You can see my post on it here.

The project was also featured shortly after on the website World-Architects.com (article link), with an interview with David.
 

Years ago now I had the early privilege to photograph the renovation of the Louis Kahn building, home to the Yale Art Gallery. That project was done before I fully worked for myself and started out on 4×5 film. This spring I had the privilege to photograph the construction complete, but empty spaces of the newest additions to the Art Gallery.

These renovated and expanded buildings are: Swartout and Street Hall. Swartout, which previously had gallery space, adjoins the Kahn building. The building has been extensively cleaned on the outside and in the great stone sculpture hall (inside the arched windows), but also sports the new very “white cube” upper stories. The expansion includes a 4th Flr, a mezzanine space in the tower, and a new terrace. Street Hall, attached via the High St bridge, was most recently the home of the Art History Dept. In many instances the changes are careful restorations of spaces, especially in Street Hall where sky lit galleries now look close to what they did when they displayed art in the first half of the 20th century.
 

 

Below is a comparison between a mid-construction image of the Swartout building I made from ground level in 2010 and a finished image in 2012. From the 2010 ground view, one can’t see the old glass skylight roof that now has a 4th Floor on top of it. Probably the most striking change is the amount of cleaning done. A close eye will also note the addition of a stone cap to the main wall that signals the new terrace behind. The terrace (as seen in an above exterior image) is accessed from the 4th Floor addition.

Swartout

 
The deconstructed 3rd floor skylit gallery that now sports expansive 3rd floor ceilings and a new sky lit 4th floor gallery on top.

 
In Street Hall this lecture hall as seen in 2007 has been turned back in to the open gallery it was over a century ago when Yale’s early art collection was shown here.

 
An interesting project personally, and especially for the many layers of art and buildings that have housed art at Yale in one way or another for many years.

Thanks to all: Yale University Art Gallery, Ennead Architects, and Dimeo Construction Company for having me, it’s a lot of fun to be involved with a building project over so many years and see things change.
 

[UPDATE: 2012-06-01] You can catch the first image in this post (view up Chapel St.) now on the front page of artgallery.yale.edu.

Another reason, variation, and use of a tilt table (of sorts) to make possible photographing in tight quarters. This time for a heavy 10ft+ weaving that is meant to be displayed hanging vertically. The object had recently been cleaned and was still being stored rolled. Additionally there were no walls tall enough to hang the weaving or space high enough for me to rig it temporarily.

Working 99% of the time on location I need to be able to accommodate many types of objects with the space allowed. That means planning ahead and staying flexible on site. The most difficult of course is a new residential location with only descriptions and measurements from a collector (which I often do without the luxury of a preliminary visit). Luckily I had been to this location a year ago and knew the space. As well we had spent the previous day photographing a group of ceramic works from the same artist.

I made this large tilt table and tested it before arriving to photograph. Aside from just making the table, pre-departure testing included setting up a mock photography scenario. This meant testing for table tilt (angle), tripod height, and distance back, everything would need to fit the room width, depth and height. Room width was easy, but I couldn’t get further back or make the ceiling higher on site.

Mat

Elevated

~45deg

Supports

The table was made from two shortened sheets of 3/4″ plywood and a 2×4 to join them. The plywood was covered in grey paper on site and then a double thick (and a little tacky) rubber carpet mat was stapled to the surface. The goal was to make a table strong enough to support the object safely, stay flat under weight, and of course be as compact as possible to transport. With the addition of two geared tripods the table ended up as simple and compact as one could hope. The only unknown was if the weaving would stay put once raised up to 45deg (my optimal photographing angle for the space). The rubber mat did it’s job perfectly, nary a slip, and the table supported everything perfectly. Happy me and happy client.
(previous tilt table use with poster size art)
 

Not CERN scale cool, but great vintage steam(punk) cool.

The image will run as a two page spread. Many thanks to George, who helps maintain the system, for stepping in on short notice.
 

Just after this image was made I started to descend the hill, and because the fog was so thick, you could look directly at the sun. At that moment there were some power lines crossing in front of the sun and what I first thought were two birds sitting. The “birds” however were moving along with the sun and not staying on the power lines. When the sun is so low you can actually see the sun (of course more accurately the earth) move rather quickly.

The nut I am I turned to my client and said, “Do you see those two black spots on the sun?”. The reply was, “no”. And shaking my head I say, “Well I swear I can see two spots on the sun”. Or that was approximately the dialogue. Not two days later I stumbled across this National Geographic article about massive sun spots on the sun, large enough to see with the naked eye.

Sometimes you’ve got to trust what you see!    -it is after all our greatest way to perceive our universe.
 

In the field (another view from a field) and light where there was not any.

Sometimes the vision for the ideal view of a project is just not the current reality. This Garden Pavilion serves as the entryway and main gate for the Common Ground High School teaching vegetable garden. We photographed the finished structure in the fall as seemed appropriate for fruitful gardens. But the school had opted to hold off on electrifying the building (while still planning surrounding services).

While I’d say today’s trend, and definitely among my clients, is to photograph projects under natural light conditions, as well as use the designed light environment instead of sticking in a big photographer’s nose. In this case David had designed lighting that he envisioned illuminating the translucent roof, a great way to create atmosphere for evening outdoor events the school might hold. So in addition to making day images we had the task of illuminating the roof from within to create a glowing roof at dusk a reality. The logistics turned out to be easier than if the building had been more enclosed. We used a series of wide open faces light down the rafters on each roof side and a couple smaller spots on the floor interior. And of course the generators to power everything while we waited for dusk to descend.

Generators

Lighting

Lighting

Scouting

And the finished image. With a second preset camera in the garden we were also able to make a matching broadside image from within the garden.
Thankfully in the fall, in a field, at dusk we weren’t eaten alive waiting for the right moment!
 

I had the interesting opportunity to photograph some archival documents, posters, paintings, etc at the residence of artist Richard Artschwager for an upcoming Whitney retrospective. Nothing too different in the photography, though I tested out a nice new portable tilt photo table (new meaning: my construction). Barring hauling a studio column this makes poster size flat works manageable on location with just a tripod. Also, though ceilings were not a problem here, the tilt table allows a shorter ceiling height. Anyway, it was a privilege to photograph the work and meet such an art luminary (lunch was great!). I can’t post any inside tour pics, but the converted church residence was a trip.

Poster

Stencils

I couldn’t help but make the first here after I saw it (made it on the way out, after covering the bases). I knew it wouldn’t make it with space constraints. The reason being that without the help of a heavy caption one understandably would assume the left wall of names is also from the Civil War (which it is not, World War II, I think). Anyway, point is outside of editorial clarity or expediency I like the architecturally formal strength here. In this I think I have a sense of space and a visually longer lasting image – the building lines are there to follow, loop back on, and interlock.

The second image as well was not published, as this whole wall was. I want to share this here because it is a good editorial image for me as it feels different than many I have made. It is closer of course, perhaps, but (and maybe it is just the subject matter) it feels more intense.