Portrait of an Artist #3

Self-Portrait, Acrylic on Canvas, 16x20", 2009 by Lindsay Coda

Actually this is my daughter's recent self-portrait. Not bad for a high school freshman. She recently took a portrait class in the continuing education department at her school. Her teacher, Mr. Pesselato, was one of my photography portrait subjects.

I am very impressed with my daughter's talent – I wish that I possessed her talent. I am sure she will have a long and fruitful career in the arts.

Portrait of an Artist #2

Jim Cook is the head of the Art Department at my daughter's school. He is a gentleman above all, but also a gifted artist, a passionate educator, and a good friend.

After finding out we had to do a few portraits for my LF class this semester, I asked Mr. Cook if I could photograph him. He has one of his paintings displayed in the Art Center at the school and I thought it would be great as part of an environmental portrait.

I finally got to take his photograph yesterday. This was the first time I used 4x5" color negative film. I felt it would work better than my usual Velvia transparency film. I have to say I am impressed with this film and will try it outdoors as well. I also took an 8x10" black & white of the seated image. As soon as I develop it I will post it here.

Portrait: The Organ Grinder

Not really. Actually this is my daughter's Jazz Band teacher, Mr. Rowe. He is also the musical director and organist at a local church. He was kind enough to sit for a portrait for my LF class.

This was the first portrait I had taken with a large format camera in over 25 years. I used the 8x10" for this one, with a 450mm lens. Space was kind of tight (pipe organs are hard to move) so I had my back up against the wall and was standing on a pew to get the angle I wanted so you could see the keyboard/console in the back. The lens was wide open so depth of field is really tiny.

I think I like portraiture. I'll keep trying!

Portrait of an Artist...

Well, I finally got (I think) a good portrait for my LF class. My daughter is taking a continuing ed portrait painting class at her school on Saturdays, taught by her teacher, Michael Pesselato. I asked him if I could take his portrait for my class and he graciously agreed. Mr. Pesselato is an accomplished artist and art scholar. He is also a wonderful and dedicated teacher and has helped my daughter grow as an artist.

During his class I set up my 8x10" camera in the studio, found a composition and a place in that composition for Mr. Pesselato. The room was lit fairly well but not enough for large format portraiture. I don't like strobes and don't understand them so I prefer hot lights. They had a couple of old Smith Victor reflectors so I used them to add a little light to Mr. Pesselato. Even with that I had to shoot wide open (f/9 on my Fuji 300 Apo) at 1/8 of a second on TMax 400. Thankfully, Mr. Pesselato is not a "swayer" and stood perfectly still for two exposures.

My daughter just does not want me to photograph her... must be a "Dad" thing. So I asked one of the other students, a classmate of hers, if she would mind. At first she was hesitant but when I explained to her that I would be taking multiple portraits of her in the same frame she thought it would be cool. I composed an abstract kind of shot, having her face reflected in a mirror she was using as part of her self-portrait project. A photo of her is also in the image as well as part of her painting which is obscured by the back of her head. I think it's kind of cool. This one is on 4x5" Tri-X.

So, I have broken the ice on portraiture and think I would like to do it again.

Inspirations #6: Paintings

Although most of my photographic inspiration has come from other photographers and photographs, sometimes it comes from other disciplines.

After graduating from college I took several courses just to keep busy. One was a Gallery Management class at William Paterson College (now University). I enjoyed this class a lot. It involved everything that goes along with operating a gallery, from selecting artists and shows to marketing to shipping. My professor even approached me about a Masters degree where I would work the gallery and take other art classes in return for a Master's degree. I received opposition (I won't go there) about this offer and began my working career instead. Making $11,700 a year in 1983 was a lot more enticing than a free Master's degree. And, looking back on it now, I made the right decision.

One good thing that came from this experience was a painting. We were hanging the student art show and this one painting was hung at the end of the gallery. Up close it was purely abstract, but standing at the other end of the gallery I saw "the face". I asked the curator about the artist. He was a student at WPC, Sal DiBenedetto. I got his phone number and talked with him about the painting. He said he got the idea from a story that after Hiroshima was bombed in WWII there were reports of the face of Jesus being seen in the mushroom cloud. This was his interpretation of that story. As most people who believe in a Creator think that He created the Heavens and the Earth, Mr. DiBenedetto has titled his work "The Mapmaker". I now own this painting, which I bought for $250 in 1984 when Sal needed rent money. I can't tell you how many people who have seen this painting don't see the face.

The Mapmaker, oil on canvas, by Sal DiBenedetto, 1983

Anyway, fast forward a few months to summer 1984. I was working on the Ellis Island Documentation/Interpretation project with Montclair State College and the National Park Service. As I had mentioned in a previous post, I became fascinated with the peeling paint on the walls at Ellis Island. When I walked into this one room my jaw nearly hit the ground. From across the room... there was "the face" again. I could not believe it. And with the history of this place I can only imagine how many new citizens saw Jesus here. I set up my 4x5 and made the exposure. During this project I made a number of other images which I am trying to work into a small portfolio of 4x5" contact prints this year.

The Mapmaker II, Ellis Island, NY, 1983, Richard M. Coda

Below is a cover article I designed to go along with my images as part of my presentation for a grade.

School Portraits... well, sort of.

Well, it's back to school tonight... Rod Klukas' Large Format Photography class at Scottsdale Community College. This is my social life, this class. There are a great bunch of photographers who take the class semester after semester. Some have taken it almost twenty times. It's my fifth semester and every time I learn something new. Last semester it was the Color Zone System, which has allowed me to seriously investigate color as an artistic outlet. This is especially important to me since I am (red-green) color blind.

Rod has told us he would like to do some portraiture this semester. Initially I was not thrilled as this is not my forte. But after thinking about it I thought it would be different, and something NEW, just like color was last semester. Then I started thinking about the beautiful 11x14" contact portraits that my friend Roger Palmenberg showed. They are absolutely stunning. I would love to be able to make portraits of my wife and daughter of that quality. My portraiture experience has been limited to snapshots for the most part. Once in a while I would get lucky.


My friend, Joe Pollaro, Paterson, NJ, 1984

Back in the early 1980s, when I was starting out with the 4x5" camera, I experimented a little. On my first trip to Carmel, CA in 1984, I stopped in Berkeley to visit my dear friend Fr. John, who had been moved out west from our parish of St. Mary's in Pompton Lakes, NJ. I had gone out west to visit Pt. Lobos and the home of Edward Weston, whose photography I had been studying. I spent a few wonderful days with John, and on the last day I asked him if I could take his portrait with the 4x5. We went up on the roof of his apartment building. I kept thinking of Weston's portrait "The Head of Galvan, shooting".


The Head of Galvan, Shooting, Edward Weston, 1924

The portrait I came away with blew me away. I felt that I had taken a photograph of this wonderful man's soul. The scan here does not do it justice. I have enlarged it to 11x14" but now prefer it as a 4x5" contact print.

Fr. John, Berkeley, CA, 1984

A few more portraits here and there over the next half dozen years, some successful, some not, and I quietly abandoned portraiture for the work I have done since.

With the advent of digital cameras I began dabbling with portraiture, again mostly snapshots. And again, once in a while I would come away with something that I thought was pretty good. And each time that I am successful, it again comes down to the soul of the person.


Clownfest #33, Seaside Heights, NJ, 1999


Dennis Rowland, Scottsdale, AZ, 2008

I am looking forward to this semester's new photographic challenge for me. I hope to post some more successful portraits here soon.