Master wet-plate photographer Luther Gerlach made the trek from Southern California to Santa Fe on July 8 in his travelling darkroom bus. Just like the 19th century photographer Matthew Brady, the bus was a complete photography studio on wheels. Only Luther’s was horse-powered, not horse-drawn. Luther was in town as part of the exhibition Past is Present: Alternative Processes in Contemporary Photography at the David Richard Gallery on Pacheco Street. The bus was a specia

When Luther Gerlach talks about his favorite realm in ·photography -the wet-plate process that dates back more than a century and a half - he contrasts it with today's dominant paradigm: digital imagemaking. And it makes him think of good brews. Referring to the rise of microbrewed ale as an alternative to big-industry beers, he said, "Now that we can pretty much have anything, the handcrafted is so much more relevant." This photographer's chosen tools are huge cameras and

Click here to view catalog Past Is Present: Alternative Processes in Contemporary Photography The introduction of the Kodak Brownie in the early 20th century was the beginning of putting the photographic process in the hands of Everyman. The complex, time-consuming and sometimes dangerous methods invented in the previous century gave way to simpler means of capturing images. Easy to carry and easy to use, the Brownie and later ‘point and shoot’ cameras like the Polaroid be

Michael Falco, Antietam Gun Smoke In The Cornfield, 2012, Giclée print, 20" x 24" Photo: the artist and David Richard Gallery Since the origins of the art form in the 1800s, New Mexico has held an important place in the brief history of photography. The short list of major figures who created many of the most iconic or significant images of their careers in New Mexico is impressive. Timothy O'Sullivan, Paul Strand, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Alfred Stieglitz, Eliot Porter,