Oh, my goodness. A real redesign from the bottom up. Conceptually, a real departure from the original web site. I have reorganized my website so you can see what type of photographs I make and show. No more wading through pages and pages of portfolios. Now, you can see directly and quickly what type of photographs I make. A cleaner, crisper look. Hope you like it. Oh, yeah, and lost in the rush are two new portfolios from Wyoming. Now the next task is to renew the "old" portfolios to make them match the rest of the site.
Finally, a new project! The Alkabo school portfolio is kicking off a series of portfolios that were made in Divide County North Dakota in 2003 and 2004. A few more bon mots added to the random thought page excerpted from "The Photographer's Eye" lecture sponsored by the Town of Cary's Page Walker Arts and History Center in October, 2007. And a new link for photographer Rachael Dunville, a fine portrait photographer I met at Photolucida this spring.
I have removed the links to my now defunct ebay store. Now, I'll try selling direct to the public... But not like some discount furniture showroom with blow out sales. With the publication of the Labyrinth Triptychs in LensWork #71, I have put some more effort in showing off this work and offering it for sale. I have also improved the random thoughts creating two new collections of random thoughts plus adding a few new thoughts that can be read online. The random thoughts appear in both online and printable versions. How clever.
A new index photo from the Labyrinth Triptych Project. That's because I reworked the Labyrinth pages in honor of the Triptych photographs. The full story of the Labyrinth Triptychs will be in issue #71 of LensWork Magazine with interviews and other wonderful stuff. I have also reworked some text on the home page and biographical notes.
A new index page photograph. It's in color! And it's digital! I have not completely forsaken analog processes, but sometimes photographs are more impressive in color. Pixels were neither created or destoyed in the realization of this image. Sometimes you make it to the right place as the storm is clearing. The image was made in September, 2006 on the Brooks and Joe annual photo safari.
I finally finished a four year old project started at the Sun Yat Sen Cultural Garden in Vancouver, BC. Three images were selected as best in show at a local photographic competition. My artistic skills were awarded financially. (Even with this modest monetary success, I am not quitting my day job.) You will find this project on the Project Part IV page.
The Random Thoughts page was getting a bit cumbersome, so I pruned the various random thought from that page. Some of these thoughts have found salvation on a new feature, the Articles on Photography page, while the majority of these wonderful thoughts are caught in cyber-limbo waiting for me to process them into clever Adobe Acrobat downloadable documents for your enjoyment.
Well, it's about time I added some new photographs isn't it? Every year we visit my Father in law in Roundup, Montana. I had some fun making photographs of downtown Roundup. They made it onto the Project IV page. The new photo on the home page was made on the way from Roundup to Billings, Montana in July. Funny isn't it? Because all these images are digital I can get to a finished project in just a few short weeks instead of a few long years. The next projects up, from my photo trips to North Dakota (two and three years ago) contain a lot of film images. Sounds like the beginning of a random thought, doesn't it.
A whole new section on the craft of platinum printing. I tried to educate, with a touch of humor, on how I make my platinum prints. Photo geeks will be amused. Added a few random thoughts on view camera users. The very keen eyed will note the updates were made before the official August 1, 2006 date. What the heck, if you're ready, go for it.
Changed some of the links on the links page. Added two, Brooks Jensen, editor of LensWork has his personal web site. Also added Charles E. Newland, an award winning painter who now combines paintings and photoshop. What is really interesting is that he wound up using Photoshop and didn't come from photography. A whole different aesthetic and view. Also wound up changing the eBay links. They just showed search results for me, not a direct link to my store. Better, now.
Added the Labyrinth Project to the website. The Labyrinth was included as an "extra" in LensWork (extended version) #64. Brooks and his crew did a great job on presenting my photographs. On the website iteself, I made a neat new front page photo and a rewrite of the welcome page and a much nicer looking logo. More random thoughts and finally the Sales Gallery, plus links to my new ebay store. Now, you have the opportunity to support my art by purchasing a print with the convenience and security of the ebay organization behind it.
Such a long time between updates. I've been busy getting new work ready for a number of projects and struggling with the method of distribution of the art on my site. Really it's a method of how to present my work so that it looks good and is easy to view. Two new portfolios and some more random thoughts for you to see.
Added more random thoughts, a new image on the index page and two (yes, two!) portfolios to the project part three page and re-ordered the project directory.
Added a few more random thoughts, fixed the typographical error on the Projects II Page and added a title and location to the Me, Me, Me page. So now you know where I made that "disappearing Joe" self portrait.
Don't forget to check out the "Pavement Ends" Portfolio on the Projects II page. If you read LensWork Magazine (and shame on you if you don't), Brooks Jensen devoted the Editor's comments in issue #59 to our annual Photo Safaris. Read about it in LensWork, and then come here and see our "blooper reel." So I guess there's an update on the Project II page, too.
The Big News is the opening of an exhibition of my platinum/palladium photographs at the Page Walker Arts and History Center in Cary, NC on August 5, 2005 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. It's sponsored by the Town of Cary Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources. ( I have to include that last sentence, it's part of our Memorandum of Understanding for Fine Arts Exhibition.)
The Carpenter Portfolio images were published by Black and White Photography Magazine (Dedicated to the Monochrome Photographer) in issue #47, June 2005. If you can't make it to the opening, all the images are on the Projects III page.
We call it "post production support" in the IT world. It's when you fix up the goof ups that you didn't catch in all the reviews and testing. Stuff you wouldn't see unless you had a real sharp eye and looked "under the covers" to see what was not exactly perfect. And, no, I didn't fix the typo...
Well, the whole site, for one thing...
And it's a pretty radical design change for a photo web site. I have seen a lot of photographer's web sites. Most do not have many images. The images are usually pretty small. I have decided to go in the opposite direction. In order to do that, I have organized most of the work into project portfolios made in Adobe Acrobat. You may view them on line, or download to your own hard drive to view at your convenience. I hope you enjoy my photographs.
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All photographs © Joe Lipka
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Permission for any use including prepress and electronic must be granted by Joe Lipka, joelipka@joelipkaphoto.com
Last updated: March 31, 2008