Silent_Soliloquy ( Scott McClarin) is a lover of shadow and lucid light, who strives to make darkroom produced artifacts for the purpose of connecting with the places and spaces and sometimes people that I come by (since 2009) Limited editions of my original prints can be purchased on request, digital copies of the same Imagery can be negotiated within reason, just ask...I am open to commissioned work including pro-bono, or for fundraising and awareness for amenable causes. I Am also open to creating unique bespoke Album images or doing project specific photographic outings. If you have a photographic idea or seek a low stress casual workshop environment to learn to develop film and paper and find your visual voice and need someone to help execute it in the Salt Lake City area...I am at your service.

 

About Scott: He was born in 1971 in Florida and considers himself a modern Mestizo-American consisting of Native American

(1/4 CDIB registered Native American blood, registered with the Bureau of Indian Affairs under the Muskogee Creek nation), Hispanic (1/4) and remainder Scottish/Germanic decent.

 

I understand deeply that this nation is made up of, and made greater than the sum of its parts, by Immigrants of all origins and denominations.

 

Ethnically this makes Scott a bit of a potato , (essentially a Caucasian assimilated American citizen via public schooling on the inside, but otherwise brown and ethnic appearing on the outside) but spiritually he feels it connects him to many ethnicity's. Scott gets mistaken for various ethnic origins, and it has long since ceased to be an insult when people ask, its more of a nuanced curiosity where people think he is from; perhaps it is better to know from what reference he is being observed via casual conversation than be left wondering.

 

A physical archival darkroom processed image, to Scott, represents an emotional and physical journey to discover the intangible enigma made tangible, that can be shared and hung on a wall which says subtly, that someone you have connected with, through the silent language of imagery and our separate experiences, took time to create each tangible representation of some small segment in a tapestry of passing infinity, It is physical proof that someone spent a great deal of their limited time on this planet and through great effort searching the world and struggling and learning, sometimes suffering in quiet agony, finding the most expressive tones and compositions to create from the basic elements of silver, light and shadow; something specifically for your viewing pleasure to enjoy at your leisure. To be wholly invested in analog photography is a celebration of the journey as much as the product.

 

The Image itself on the film frame may say something entirely different from the processed, arranged and uniquely altered artifact hanging on the wall. The impact of the print itself opens up a dialogue with the sensitive viewer that creates something special before the tones and juxtapositions evoke their own impressions. The Negative Image informs the artist about the composition and the sharpness and provides glimpses into the yet to be decided upon Tonal range, but the print is often a long labored journey to find the destination that becomes the more emotive expression of that negative. All the preparation of pre-visualizing the composition and the subject in an image means little without the mood that thoughtful tonal selection through self discovery in a darkroom yields.

 

When we collaboratively celebrate a print by purchasing and hanging it; it is a pure engagement with what it means to create and enjoy an object created by hand for the simple and pure enjoyment of that object. You can be sure that if you request a Print from me, it will be met with humble gratitude and earnest effort, with the hope that you find something that speaks to you in a way that is going to be treasured beyond the impression of the thumbnail...

 

Scott's eye seeks to explore poetic isolation through anonymity in the lucid light that often spurns epiphanies in his mind and, hopefully, the engaged observer of these works. He seeks out Lyric light on his life's journey and hopes some of that feeling comes through in the digital renditions of film scans and images of his hand made prints shared here on Flickr...

 

"I don't subscribe to any one technology or specific camera system for image creation, after all it's about the image and the emotion shared or discovered, but I do gravitate toward hand made prints from a darkroom for the enjoyment of the artifact of expression as much as the Image expressed."

 

cameras used:

4x5:

1945 Peacemaker Speed Graphic

Lens: 88mm Coated Double Gauss Baush and Lomb lens with Graphex Shutter

Tele: 135mm Optar APO lens quite badly scratched on the outside lens, but doesnt seem noticible in the images I have taken so far...I might get it polished out some day.

 

instan Film:

Mamiya: RB67 Pro s Instant Polaroid back with

Fuji FP-100B (discontinued) and FP-100c, and FP 3000-B

Polaroid: Sun 600

Fuji Neopan Acros 100, and Ilford Delta 100;

 

35mm:

Nikon F5 w/ 50mm 1.8D

Mamiya: DTM 1000, DTM 500, 1.5f 40mm, Super Deluxe Rangefinder

Minolta: XG1, XGM

ZENIT: 122

Rollei: Rollei35 (Circa 1960)

 

medium format:

Mamiya RB67 Pro S

Lens:

50mm MS C

127mm MS C

180mm MS C

2x Soligor Tele doubler adapter (X2)

 

digital:

Nikon P 5100 (passed away)

Nikon N J1 N1 10x30mm stock lens (Broke in a Drop from 1ft) Resurrected by Searching online, and found a repair video on replacing the Main Battery Power board...opened it up and in one hour I repaired my Nikon J1 to perfect working order! Except it looks like a monkey did the repair, the face of the camera is a little marred, but I dont keep cameras for resale value, they are all users unto death; of the camera or its user...

 

I use a Nikon Underwater Dive housing with this camera for all underwater shots after 2016.

 

Polaroid Z340 (broken due to swollen Lipo battery that can no longer be removed without a drill and a screw, it was an idiot move to put a Lipo in a consumer camera by the manufacturer!) * Just pulled out the battery with Needle Nose Pliers and Plugged in a power cord...IT WORKS!!! there is hope in buying a replacement battery on E-bay and seeing if it will still function as a digital camera and printer...but I can still scan and review negatives using the negative view function of the camera and that means everything to me...

 

Film used:

Ilford: Delta 100 , Delta 400

Fujifilm:

Neopan Acros 100 (easily my favorite) and its a damn shame FujiFilm has discontinued this great film!

Velvia 50, Velvia 100, and Provia 100F

Kodak: New Portra 400 and 160.

 

thanks for Joining me on this journey of Silent Soliloquy, sometimes its silently deafening and sometimes its loudly styfling (defeating).

 

If anyone is interested my literary influences they are Pablo Neruda, Sylvina Ocampo, George luis Borges, Voltair, Arthur Rhembeau, Ethan Fischer, Alfred Bester, Kurt Vonnegut, George Orwell, Franz Kafka, Leonard Choen, Eugen Herrigel, Lao Tsu, William Blake, and anyone with a story from their heart without an advertisement to purchase anything more than the belief that what they are doing and feeling is real.

 

For Art and photo reading its: Theodore Adorno "Aesthetic Theory"

 

Photography and darkroom literature I recommend:

Ansell Adams "The Print"

Tim Rhudman; Master Photographers Lith Printing Course

Steve Macleod; The Master Printers Workbook: A Professional Guide to Black & White Darkroom Technique

Gene Nocon; Photographic Printing

 

If you have any questions about my process or methods I am always happy to explain to the best of my knowledge and time...If you have suggestions or criticisms I welcome that interaction as well...

 

If you are interested in using any of my work via Licencing agreements or for rights to reproduce please don't hesitate to contact me, I have successfully negotiated with Musical artists and Curators for Textbook prints.

 

If you made it this far...Sincere thanks for visiting and reading my Bio. If you feel compelled to write your impressions about what I am doing or what I think I am doing, it would honor me greatly what ever opinion you have or thoughts you decide to share...sincere thanks.

 

and Kind Regards,

 

Scott C. McClarin (Silent_Soliloquy)