23 Sep “Contact” features work by Duane L. Paulson

“Contact” features work by photographer Duane L. Paulson. For as long as he can remember, Duane L. Paulson’s eye has been searching for compositions. Since 1965 he has documented those compositions using black and white film in large format cameras. “Contact,” the new exhibit at Ripple River Gallery near Bay Lake, continues through Oct. 22.

A reception for Paulson will be held Saturday, Sept. 23 to coincide with the Ripple River Gallery’s annual Fall Open House.

While Paulson began his career in photography in 1965, printing in the darkroom still holds the magical appeal he discovered when he and his older brother ordered a developing kit from the Sears and Roebuck catalog. “We developed 620 and 127 film and contact printed the negatives,” he recalls. “I couldn’t believe it, it had to be magic!”

To capture images from nature or architectural interest, Paulson uses large format cameras—8 x 10, 5 x 7 and 4 x 5—some cameras and lenses dating back to the 1920s. He does his own processing, printing and framing to archival standards. For “Contact” Paulson selected his favorite contact prints from the last 30 years.

“The depth, luminosity and tonal quality of a contact print from a large format camera still cannot be matched by any other means,” Paulson says. “My work is more about design, the lines, shapes and forms of a subject rather than the subject itself. Black and white allows me to emphasize the more abstract nature of a subject and allows me to simplify the composition.”

“Contact” features work by photographer Duane L. Paulson

For as long as he can remember, Duane L. Paulson’s eye has been searching for compositions.

Since Paulson’s first solo show of black and white work in the early 1970s, his work has been featured in solo and group shows nationwide.

“No matter how I say it,” Paulson said, “Ansel Adams said it best: ‘Photography is the recording of the physical and emotional aspects of the subject as it appears in the camera guided by the discerning and selective imagination of the artist. The artist must have a clear and complete conception of the final effects of the print before he operates the shutter of his camera.’”

Image: Split Rock Lighthouse Stairs – Large-format photograph, Duane L. Paulson