I saw a piece on PBS about the painter/photographer, Barkley L. Hendricks. The program featured a current exhibit of his work, but I see there is also a recent book about his photography. It looks like both provide some insights into the relationship between his photos and his paintings. Hendricks was not on my radar before he was gone, so I'm looking forward now to familiarizing myself with his dual accomplishments.
The attention to the Hendricks show and book immediately brought to mind the work of another painter/photographer, Harold Joe Waldrum, who had his studio in Truth or Consequences and who is best known for his paintings and prints of old adobe churches all around New Mexico. Waldrum, like Hendricks, apparently initially made his photographs as sketches for his painting and printmaking, but the photography seemed to take on a life of its own.
Waldrum's polaroids, made with an SX-70, are very carefully composed, showing the same attention to light, shadow, form and color as his painted work. Thousands of those polaroids ended up in the Museum of New Mexico and are now in the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives. Over 900 of the little photo prints appeared in an exhibit at the Albuquerque Art Museum which I had the pleasure to attend in 2011. One of Waldrum's prints of a red walled church was included recently in an exhibit about print making at the Albuquerque Museum; I'm pretty sure there is a polaroid twin.
Exhibits at the Albuquerque Museum are often accompanied by postcard reproductions of the the art works which are made available at no charge to visitors. In the case of the 2011 Waldrum exhibit, six prints were included in a fanfold booklet, with each being the same size as the originals. I'm pleased to say I held on to my copy.
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