Photographer of the Month – Tom Mallonee
Tom Mallonee has often been drawn to photographic subjects
which stray from the conventional notions of western landscape
photography, yet still embrace decisive composition and fine
printing technique. Tom has completed a 12-year portrait of
the bypassed sections of Route 66 and is working toward the
publication of a book entitled Evidence of Passing. He has
been collaborating with Dave Gardner to most faithfully reproduce
the visual and tactile qualities of the Piezography process.
"Dave, who printed all of Ansel Adams' books since 1971,
has probably overseen more masterfully applied ink than anyone,
and was enormously impressed with the quality of the Piezography
prints that I recently sent him. He commented that they were
continuous tone for all practical purposes."
"Like others, I have always enjoyed the black and white photograph as an object unto itself, but I have found this process to be the most satisfying yet. As I became more excited with the qualities of ink, I began to further refine the desirable qualities while reducing some of the inherent liabilities. By now we well know the benefits and limitations of gelatin silver prints, but I was anxious to better define the boundaries of ink on rag paper. All of these factors aren't yet known, but the current results and potential continue to motivate me.
"I was very anxious to experiment with a true hextone process in order to smooth certain tonal transitions and to control cool/warm color modulations more precisely across the tonal scale. In order to accomplish this, it was necessary to ask ErgoSoft to modify their StudioPrint RIP to separately control and linearize six discreet ink densities. I was very impressed that ErgoSoft responded so quickly to this idea in Version 11 – something that to me clearly demonstrated their commitment to fine art photography. "
Tom's images have been exhibited at the Eye Gallery in San Francisco; The Center for Photographic Art in Carmel; the San Diego Art Institute; The Pope Gallery in Santa Cruz, California; the Battelle Harding Gallery in Greenfield, Massachusetts, and in several recent shows arranged by the Ansel Adams Gallery.
The above image "Fall Afternoon, Round Valley, California" is courtesy of Tom Mallonee. copyright©2005 Tom Mallonee. All Rights Reserved.
November - 2004