Well, I have been working steadily on all the images from Civita. So many I do not know what is good and what is not any more. I would like to add at least 10 more images so I can get around 25 uploaded and make a portfolio. What have I learned so far?
My scanner is dusty. I spend a lot of time cleaning it and getting rid of dust on the files. I love working with Photoshop and really do not mind the dust. It is a way to zoom in to about 300 percent and look at all the details. It makes me homesick for Civita. But in order for it to be good photograph, for me, the dust has to go.
I love the exaggerated color. It is so powerful this color. I am not enhancing in Photoshop. There is no need to. And while in this surreal place, the colors did pop out and make me stop sometimes and catch my breath.
I need to return to Civita in a different season. In the winter when I was there, a big fog hovered over us. That mixed with rain, made colors pop. A different season will mean different light. I would love to see how the evening light looks on film..
Of course I have learned so many things working on this project other than the three items above For example a question I am seeking the answer to: What makes a good diptych? How does one shoot to ensure that what you get is what you saw? There are many more questions to be answered but this is not the place.
I feel incredibly lucky to have these images. I am often surprised by them and do not think that they were made by me. But I did this, I took these images. People have asked me, why take photographs that are jumbled together and not “real”. They are not always easy to look at I understand that sentiment. But they are also different than the millions of other photographs taken of this touristy place. The fact is that they are very real. Everyone who knows this place, Civita, will recognize the streets, the cliffs, the buildings, the church, the fog. I did my best to simply take photographs as I saw them. Thanks for looking.
The featured image is the entrance to the tunnel that runs under Civita.
Other possible titles:
Etruscan Caves
Street View
San Donato #5
Lone Cypress
Street View, Landscape and Tiled Roofs
From the Garbage Storage Area
Apartments
Cats
San Donato Disappears
Gate and Street on the Edge
The Valley and the Tunnel Entrance
Fog in the Valley from the Santa Maria Gate (Single Image)
I am so happy to have received a month-long fellowship from the Civita Institute to go to Italy for a month to make pinhole photographs. The Civita Institute is based in Seattle and gives three fellowships a year to all types of people. Here is a quote from their website:
Fellowships are open to architects, planners, designers, artists, writers and other arts professionals practicing in all states west of the Rocky Mountains, including Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. They provide an unparalleled opportunity for the recipients to undertake a project of their own choosing related to current or anticipated professional work, in a highly unique setting, far from routine obligations.
I will go to Civita in November and do long exposure pinhole photography with color negative film in a big camera and on paper in recycled tins. These tins/cameras will expose for the entire month I am there. The landscapes on film will be 30 to 45 minute exposures. Civita is an ancient Etruscan town teetering on a hilltop with no cars and a small year round population. I love the last line of the Institute’s statement where is says I will be in a highly unique setting far from routine obligations. I am so interested to see if I can capture a both the history and the present in one long exposure. Below are three views of the town. In the meantime, I have a lot to think about and many questions to be answered…..The featured image is from when I was in Italy for seven weeks in 1998. A photograph on film of a Via Cava: an old Etruscan road dug deep into the tuffa rock. This one near Sovana. It was taken as a vertical, cropped for this blog. I hope to explore more of these roads in the countryside when I am there. You an see more of my Italy work from the earlier trip here: https://www.janetneuhauser.com/italy/
With the exception of the featured image which is mine, the Civita images in this blog are from the internet.
I went to Italy in 1998 for seven weeks. I photographed daily and made about 4000 images on film with 35mm and medium format cameras. We lived in a small village in northern Tuscany up in the hills with beautiful light, great food and long days of exploring, napping and shooting. I realized early on that I was looking for an Italy that I had visited in the early seventies, not one full of tourists, but one with timeless architecture and beautiful landscapes. I found this in the Tuscan hills and when I came home, I spent a year printing and editing the images. I ended up with 40 photographs that were important to me. These images have been exhibited widely and were printed in an edition of 10. All were printed on semi-matte silver gelatin paper and toned in homemade sepia toner and gold chloride for maximum longevity. An article about the printing and toning process appeared in the World Journal of Post-Factory Photography, #7, titled the Power of Gold. Most of the images are sold out in the silver editions, a few are left. All are available now as digital prints. Some are still available in the edition size of 16 x 20. Please inquire.
