J. Jason Lazarus Blog

See the entire series of eight lightboxes here: LINK

Although I’ve shared some of the work from this series through Twitter, I haven’t found a time to talk about it in any length.  For my final project for my Alternative Photo Processes grad class this fall, I produced a series of light boxes with images that had been transferred via gel medium from a xeroxed color image – the gel medium, having transparent qualities, was then applied to the front of a 5” box and glued in place.  A small light source was placed in the back of the box, allowing for soft light to backlight the image.

If you know anything about me as a photographer, this is a huge departure from my normal style of work.  Even when considering what type of work inspired me to enroll in the Alt-Process class at AAU, this is still a huge departure.  I was hoping that the class would refine my technique using the Van Dyke Brown process – and that, along the way, I’d learn a couple new processes.  What ended up happening is that each week I found myself pinging in dozens of different directions, passionately inspired by every new process we learned.  Each week I also aspired to challenge myself – choosing the more difficult options on each week’s assignment and, as this project shows, stretching my own photographic interests well past my comfortable limits.

I never have enjoyed nature photography – whether landscape, fauna or flora, I’ve left those inspirations to those that are good at it.  In my opinion, much of it has to do with the over-saturation of the field – there’s very little you can do to make your work uniquely yours when it comes to nature photography.  What does interest me is capturing the frailty of things – whether it’s a decaying, crumbling old husk of a once great copper mine or a frail personal letter from a miner’s family in the Lower-48, its delicate existence draws me in.  This probably explains why it took us until November to cut down our massive 10+ foot tall sunflowers in our front yard – fragile and paled, their dried form was as beautiful as the plant was in full bloom – but in a completely different way.  I found myself looking at the frozen world around me this fall and noticing the remnants of summer – their paled colors oddly vibrant against the dull blue hue of the surrounding snow.  Chokecherries, Rose buds, Irises – all standing out in one vibrant finale against the dark winter.

My initial plan with this project was to use Polaroid Transfers from some recently purchased Impossible Project film – I had some limited experience with emulsion lifts previously and refined my technique this semester in my Alternative Processes class.  Although the plan looked good on paper and I managed to drum up a photographer that had practiced with backlighting transferred polaroids, I didn’t have any luck myself.  I had initially come up with the concept for the lightboxes with no prior knowledge of Jessica Beagan’s work (LINK) but after a tedious online search for any artists that had played with backlit transfers (as a proof of concept), she was the only artist I found.  In retrospect, my attempts weren’t anywhere near as successful as Beagan’s prior work because where her work was Polaroid Transfers, mine was Polaroid Lifts – two slightly different processes that produce very similar results externally.

Any good photographer has a backup plan – and mine was Gel Mediums – something that, when applied to the boxes, could easily mimic the same fragile form I was hoping for from the Polaroid Lifts.  Taking a Color Xerox copy of an Inkjet Print of the image, several layers of Gel Medium was applied to each Xerox copy – the gel application process lifts the image off of the paper and, eventually with enough layers, the paper backing can be rubbed off while the image remains inside the gel.  With the image pliable, the medium was stretched across the opening of each 5” box and tacked, with pins, to the edges.  A final coating of gel medium was applied to the edges to seal it in place, pins removed (which left an interesting pattern – one that suggests a worn quality to the image) and light installed.

Each box was also aged using a simple technique I learned from several online hobbyist websites:  a mixture of India Ink and Rubbing Alcohol.   I definitely wanted each box to look weathered – to look as fragile as each image did – and coating each box in this simple concoction did a good job of doing exactly that.

This entire process was extremely exciting – crafting an entire project like this really brought that latent element of the “hand” into it – something that I’m always struggling with.  As a traditional film photographer, I’ve always had issues with the [potential] sterile nature of digital photography.  I’ve always strived to, with my own work, have it contain a piece of me – have my influence and a fairly literal “hand” in my work.  Both Lightpainting and Alternative Processes have shown me how to do this – and I think this project continues that trend.  I’m considering expanding and refining this series over the next couple of winters – potentially working with a couple local gardeners to add extra variety to the series.

I hope you all enjoy looking at these as much as I enjoyed making them.  I’ve already had a couple people enthusiastically ask to purchase a box or show them somewhere – so I may have to do something like that.  Let me know what you think – comments and critique are always welcome!  Please visit the following link to view all the different boxes:  LINK

Aidan and Santa, Christmas 2011

Christmas this year was at our house – a welcome change to the normal schedule that would’ve had us heading south to Kenai.  Because Deanna’s brother and his family was elsewhere for the holiday, her parents made the trip up to Fairbanks – letting Aidan have all of his four Grandparents to himself.  Between cooking making, decorating (both cookies and the house) along with feasting and present-opening, it’s been a hectic last couple of days.  We all made it through it – Aidan easily being spoiled in the process.

This year’s best Santa photo goes to Deanna – I wasn’t able to capture a decent one with my camera (and have currently lost my memory card with it on it).  A holiday tradition, Aidan’s become much more familiar and cognizant of who and what Santa is – joyfully running up to him to sit on his lap and tell him his Christmas wishes.  This year was the first year he has distinctively come up with what to ask Santa for – and this year it was “one yellow and one blue Transformer.”

Holiday Cookiemaking

On its surface, that sounds like a fairly humble request – except when I decide to get the Transformers that are a bit out of his age range, worried that the simpler ones would break easily.  Unbeknownst to me, the ones from Ages 5+ are so utterly complicated that it took me a good 5-10 minutes to transform one while his Grandfather took a full 15 minutes to do the same.  Either way, he got spoiled from Santa, his grandparents and his own parents.

Both families and our separate traditions meshed well.  Deanna and her mother prepared separate Christmas Eve soups (Deanna’s family tradition) to meet the dietary restrictions of my family’s SDA diet (sans pig and clams).  Both families always opened most (mine did all) presents on Christmas Eve after dinner – so that wasn’t a problem – but we integrated my dad’s tradition of reading the story of Christ’s birth – this year opting for a Children’s book that omitted a good majority of the boring “begats”.

Reading the Christmas Story

We’ve also fused in her family’s belief in Santa, something my parents opted out completely which, with all of their good intentions, created more harm when I started public school than good.  Christmas Day dinner had Deanna, Aidan and I dressing up for the occasion while both families feasted on a stunning meal created by my wife and her mother.

Overall, the Holidays has been great so far – both Deanna and I are getting a much-needed break from work, I’m getting a break from the hectic schedule that mixing my Grad classes and work creates and Aidan gets to see even more of his parents with his preschool being closed until after the New Year’s Holiday.

Posing for the Camera

As for school, my fourth semester in Grad School has finished up.  21 credits in, a full 1/3rd of the way to the 63 needed, I’m still sporting a 4.0 for a GPA.  It amazes me how much more serious I’ve taken school as a grad student than I did as an Undergrad – where a 4.0 was well out of reach (although I did keep a 3.0 or more usually).  I’m glad that I took what time I did between the two degrees – Lord knows if I had attempted a MFA in 2003, I would have failed.

I’ll be using my freetime in the next coming weeks to print off a new portfolio – hopefully in preparation for an upcoming trip to Anchorage where I hope to show my work off and, perhaps, even net a show in the upcoming months.

Enjoy the rest of your holidays, friends!

As always, here’s some new Family Pictures:  GALLERY LINK [1] and GALLERY LINK [2]

Chatanika Dredge, Split-toned, November 2011

I haven’t shared much of what I’ve been doing in my other class at the Academy this semester – mainly because I haven’t been really excited about anything that I’ve done for it – until now. I’ll have to say that I’ve been very pleased by this graduate course in Photoshop as it’s taught me quite a few new tricks and refined my knowledge of Photoshop quite a bit.

In recent weeks, we discussed using Photoshop for toning – from split-toning to sepia and cyanotype, we talked a lot about the digital equivalents of what I’ve been doing all semester long in my other class with historical, analog methods.  I chose a shot from a recent trip out to the dredge with my friend, Phil, for my stab at split-toning.  I’ve never tried to refine my understanding of the analog method of split-toning – but after getting an image like this, I might have to try again.  As well – learning a non-destructive method to toning digital images was definitely eye-opening – quite a bit more control than the crude, brute-force method I’ve used before.

The second image is another shot from the same trip out to the dredge.  It was a shot that I was initially unhappy with because of the poor dynamic range and colorcast in the original image – a shot that I’d normally just throw away.  I used it as my Final Project image to show how you can take a throw-away image and make it into something impressive and closer to your original intent.  Using all non-destructive editing tools, the final image looks worlds better than the original – it actually captures the scene as I saw it (rather than the way the camera captured it).  A shot like this makes me realize how much I need to start setting custom white balances with a graycard every time I go out shooting – the 5D’s AWB or any preset WB is atrocious in comparison to the actual scene and even though I know I can fix it in ACR afterwards, it leads to frustration even when I’m shooting to see such poor previews.

Chatanika Dredge Gears, Before Edit, November 2011

Chatanika Dredge Gears, After Edit, November 2011

Anyways, enjoy – this is just a quick update.  Comments are welcome!

Now that the semester is over (Saturday was our last day), I’m 21 credits into a 63-credit degree – which means I’m officially 1/3rd of the way through my MFA!  Next semester I’ll be taking a 19th/20th Century Art History class and a preparatory class for my Midpoint Review that’ll be happening over the summer.  After that point, much of my focus will be on working towards my thesis – an exciting time, indeed!

Thought I’d share some more of what I’ve been working on with my Grad Classes – these Cyanotypes are from a series of work I created for my second major project in my Alternative Processes class this fall.  I’ve used classic postcard stylings paired with imagery of some of Fairbanks’ most deteriorated and depressing locales to take a slight jab at the lack of community pride we have in Fairbanks.  Our town is the epitome of a Boom n’ Bust town – with each bust, all those who cared for the town left – and with each boom, newcomers remade Fairbanks in their own image, forgetting its roots.  Now crumbling buildings define our downtown skyline and pepper our outer fringes – throughout Fairbanks, we’re reminded of yesteryear’s greatest accomplishments, morphed into today’s continuing embarrassments.

I haven’t figured out if I want to develop this series further and actually show it – I don’t know if it’s effective enough.  My hope is that a display of such imagery, possibly paired with my work in the Polaris Building, could spur our community to renovate, rebuild and reuse the infrastructure we have rather than building new outside of the town’s core.  As usual, let me know what you think!

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Click on each image to ENLARGE.  Again, comments are welcome – Enjoy!

Aidan riding a playground rocket at Jorgensen's

Haven’t done one of these family updates in a very, very long time.  I apologize but at least my focus has been on worthwhile matters:  both having time with my family and working toward my MFA.

Aidan

Early last fall (2010), we decided because of several reasons to take Aidan out of the home-based daycare option that we had him in for about 15 months. We moved Aidan to a larger pre-school style setting for daycare 3 days out of the week.  The additional exposure to a wide variety of children really caused Aidan, in our minds, to blossom.  He started talking more, was exceptionally proud of the art he was bringing home and got to expend copious amounts of energy outside several times during those three days.  Daily progress reports really alerted us to what we needed to focus on as a team, both parents and care provider working together to correct issues.  Aidan helped throughout the summer of 2010 in his own little way with the gardening and has, in the last year, started working towards having routine chores.  He’s developed a love for nature walks and

Aidan helping out with our Square Foot gardening

hikes – taking around a dozen in Creamer’s Field over the last year as well as ones to Wickersham Dome and Angel Rocks.  Always excited to go to a playground, we’ve figured out that’s the way to make long trips down to SouthCentral Alaska a little more bearable during the warmer months.  During summer months, our weekend routine involves a trip to the local Farmer’s Market for a treat of popcorn and, of all things, Pad Thai – the kid is obsessed with noodles during the summer.   Education-wise, Aidan knows his alphabet, can recognize about half the letters written and knows up to about 13 in his numbers.  We’re currently working on his writing and coloring skills on a semi-daily basis.  He loves having stories read to him, loves to tell his own stories and has an extremely active imagination – what surprises me the most is that when he wants a new toy, lately, he’s been making it out of Legos rather than asking us for the real thing.  That said, it’s no stretch of  the truth to say this little boy is spoiled.

Last year we bought him a large play kitchen set from a local classic toy store – and he regularly plays with it whenever we won’t let him in the kitchen to help.  He loves to draw and loves to fingerpaint – his mom has done a great job on instilling a sense of art appreciation in him.  Even starting this summer, he wanted his own camera to take pictures “like Daddy” – so we’re working on getting him something small that he can use.  The photographer in me wants to give him a small half-frame film camera but the dad in me realizes that a kid-safe digital camera is

Aidan, Halloween 2010, as Bob the Builder.

probably much more practical.   We’ve introduced him to a few cartoons from our own era and he’s got a healthy interest in Voltron, Thundercats, He-man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Scooby-Doo and Transformers.  Deanna is swearing that if we get around to having another child and it’s a girl, she’ll do her darnedest to get her hooked on Rainbow Brite and the like to get back at me.

Last Halloween, Aidan was Bob the Builder – an impromptu effort on our part because he couldn’t really choose between several options.  This year, it had to be Spiderman.  His interest in the superheroes have been spurred by Superhero Squad, a Marvel character cartoon show that’s very kid-friendly and features chibi versions of all our favorite Marvel characters.  I’ll have to admit, there was a slight bit

Aidan & Ollie at the 2011 Ice Park

of dismay when Aidan started liking a couple of the DC Superheroes as we strictly define our home as a Marvel stronghold.

Aidan’s been developing friendships at school and around town – especially with the son of some of our local Twitter friends.  Ollie and Aidan are practically inseparable whenever they’re together and have had several playdates over the last year.  Just recently, Aidan got invited to his first birthday party from a girl at school.  We’ve taken Aidan to a lot of kid-friendly local events throughout the last year – from a Butterfly Exhibit at the UA Museum to a local Owl presentation done by one of our mutual friends, we’ve been trying to provide every and any opportunity to expand his mind.  Hockey games, Rollerderby bouts, a trip to the Bird Observatory and Halloween Fun Fests, we’ve done what we can within an extremely busy schedule between the two of us.

The most recent major accomplishment is potty training.  After about a year of very little success, we regimented the process – made it an hourly trip to the toilet and by September of this year, we had him completely trained for peeing.  The rest took a little longer and just in the last two weeks, I *knocking on wood* think we’ve conquered that hill.  Thank God.  You have no idea how much of a relief that is!

Deanna and Aidan waiting for the Spookytrain, Oct 2011

Deanna

Deanna, over the last year, has taken a break from the local SCA group.  She’s been using this time to refocus and reevaluate and I’ve been pressuring her quite a bit to get her reinvolved in her art.  She’s currently blowing the dust off of her 3+ year old printing press to make some multi-block Christmas Party invites she’s designed herself.  She’s become quite a bit of a foodie lately, transforming our home-based menu dramatically.  I’ll tell you what, having her do this has really made it bearable to stay in Fairbanks and not plan a ton of trips to Anchorage and points south.  We’ve been going out to restaurants less, enjoying what masterpieces she’s been cooking lately much more than the local cuisine.   I’m, personally, very proud in her progress in WeightWatchers and have been amazed at the food that she’s been able to cook that’s both amazingly tasty and healthy.

The Family, posing right before Aidan goes Trick-or-Treating, 2011

Me

Grad School has practically defined me for the last year and a half.  After being accepted at AAU-SF in August of 2010, I’ve maintained a 4.0 GPA, taken 7 Grad-Level courses on top of my busy load at work and, at the end of this semester, will be 1/3rd of the way through my MFA.  It’s slow-going due to time restraints and financial realities that keep me at below full time, so a normal ~3 year program has become 4 years.  That said, by December 2014, if all goes well, I should be graduating.  Honestly, I doubt I’d want to go any faster because I’ve managed to strike a delicate balance between work, school, teaching and family – the latter being the most important to me.  I’m currently working toward showing some of my most recent work later this Winter – between refining my lightpainting and working on my Van Dyke prints, I’ve got a lot of work that I want to share.

Well, that’s about it.  Enjoy all of the new pictures of Aidan from 2011:  Gallery LINK