Figure Studies Edition

This work was photographed in 1995 and now in 2013 has finally come to fruition. After being set aside on and off for years, several attempts to print the work in platinum, silver, and various ink methods never quite reached the potential the imagery and negatives suggested. Finally in 2008 the prints were completed after materials, tools, and knowledge had evolved opening new possibilities. Now the entire project is completed and available, made possible by Vela Noche.

The set includes the 8 photographs, and a letterpress-printed essay by Marsha Burns, title sheet and signed and numbered colophon. The clamshell box is made of Asahi Japanese cloth over boards on the exterior and handmade Twinrocker mulberry paper on the interior. Gampi silk tissue is utilized for folded interleaving. The box and letterpress printing were completed by artist Rory Sparks in Portland, Oregon.

From Marsha’s statement- “…The “Nude Study” has often become the study of sex and indifference.

Tyler Boley’s series of eight photographs is closer to another tradition in photography. Harry Callahan, Edward Weston, Alfred Steiglitz and many others have sought to explore the subject and the photographic medium simultaneously in the service of beauty.

In /Figure Studies/, the subject is visible by the merest amount of light. The darkness has its own beauty…

…In solitude, we see the model moving slowly and gracefully in a dreamlike state…

… Here is a language in rich dusky tones reviving the mystery of being, every time we visit these prints.”

Comments from master printer and photographer John Dean–

“Anyone who thinks that contemporary pigment “digital inkjet” printmaking necessarily has to take a back seat to the highest standards of gelatin silver, platinum/palladium, or intagllio craftsmanship has not seen this body of work. What this represents is the highest standard of what printmaking today can accomplish. Tyler not only does this on a regular basis, but in this portfolio has raised the bar once again. The entire process was painstakingly created for the specifics of the imagery at hand. In today’s world, that alone is rare event.”

The prints were made using seven shades of monochromatic pigment inks on Museo Portfolio Rag, a 100% cotton paper with no optical brighteners, in 2008. The exact mix was generated intuitively. The actual ink blends weren’t documented, simply altered at will, then left in place for the final prints. The final mix has very subtle shifts between a slight purple to reddish black throughout the tonal scale. An extremely high resolution setup, all but unusable for normal printing, was perfected for use for this project, with these inks, on this paper. The prints cannot be duplicated, the difficulty of the unusual process itself with specific equipment and software, the high rejection rate, the undocumented ink mix, all contribute not only to prints that present fully realized imagery, but also unique photographic objects.

All 8 images can be seen here.
The collection is offered in an edition of 4 by Vela Noche Press.

A lengthy description of the evolution of this project, and discussion of the advanced techniques involved in creating the prints, is here.