About Page

Artist Statement

Table of Contents

Page 1 Chemograms

Page 2 Chromogenic Photograms titled after Nevada

Page 3 Digigrams and Early Work

Page 4 New Work: Simple Systems

Page 5 & 6 Nolangrams

Page 7 Nevada Bullethole Series

Page 8 Nevada Walls

Page 9 - 11 Intaglio Printmaking

Note: Each page of images represents an approximate body of work 20 - 30 pieces.

CHEMICAL DIMENSIONS - CHEMOGRAMS (page 1)

Experimentation with chemistry and photographic paper to produce various visual effects and themes describes the direction of this work. These photographs are a combination of cameraless photography and the manipulation of photographic materials by using them as painting media. The images are, literally, chemical paintings that I call chemograms. With some of these photographs, the juxtaposition of a printed image with chemical painting creates a form of spatial interaction in which the illusion of depth is provided by the printed image. When chemical painting alone is used, black advances and chemical coloration recedes, creating another form of spatial interaction. Both of these effects tend to produce a cool/warm contrast.

It is also important to state that this method of working often produces several levels of meanings brought together to create a sense of connection which is intuitive, unconscious and abstract. The images are more accurately felt than observed.

These prints are made with methods not usually thought of in photographic processing. The chemogram process involves a strong reducing agent such as thiourea and a base such as sodium carbonate. The mixture of the two produces a silver sulfide stain on black and white photographic paper. The resulting stain is then toned in a gold solution to acquire brown, yellow and red; a printed image developed in a conventional developer will tone to a bluish-black cast in conjunction with the sulfide stain. These images are all one-of-a-kind.

CHROMOGENIC PHOTOGRAMS (page 2)

Titled after cities and places in Nevada, this technique provides an intuitive and conceptual visual vocabulary using color, shape and form to symbolically inform the image.

SIMPLE SYSTEMS (page 4)

Chromogenic photograms using circle, rectangle, line and square. The simplest of objects are used such as paper and glass to maintain a minimal gesture.

NOLANGRAMS (pages 5 and 6)

* This unique process takes on a life of it's own. The strange and odd beauty of the Nolangram produces images which can slightly startle the viewer. Extreme detail and sharpness are the exquisite attributes of the image.

* These images are a continuation of a process I discovered and learned to control in 1979. I have done research over the past two decades trying to find a body of work that might have previously been done along these lines, I have been unsuccessful.

* These prints were made on Ilford Multigrade Warmtone Fiber Base photo paper. They were produced using Ilford's recommendations for archival processing. The prints were then split-toned in selenium toner to produce a duo-tone effect. The prints all have a 1" safe edge.

* These prints are matted with acid free museum board. The prints are attached to a 2 ply board with Kozo paper corners and linen tape. The 2 ply board is then hinged to a 4 ply over mat with linen tape. A FoamCore backing is included.

* The prints are signed and dated in pencil on the back of the print and with marker pen in the bottom margin of the print on the front.

* As with all my photographs, the intended edition is 10.

* These prints were made in Virginia City, and Reno NV 2000-2009

NEVADA BULLETHOLES (page 7)

Abstractions of bulletholes suggest a connection between the act of shooting objects with a gun and the act of photographing them. The first being highly aggressive although providing subject matter for a passive documentation with artistic elements using the camera. Text is used to intervene at the connection between the two.

NEVADA WALLS (page 8)

Walls are a metaphor for obstacles in life. Walls can look impenetrable or fragile, delicately laced with texture or laden with objects. These walls are barriers faced head on, their aesthetic qualities suggesting the different challenges in life, avoided or overcome.

MUTATIONS (intaglio monoprints with chine colle)

(pages 10 and 11)

Copyright free material is scanned and symmetrically reassembled to produce fictitious animal species called "mutations." The idea of pure symmetry as a mutation becomes the concept.

BIO 2010

A photographer for over forty years, Nolan Preece has devoted his work to understanding and mastering the challenging techniques of early photography and conceiving of new processes such as the Nolangram, an experimental method he originated in the late nineteen-seventies. His landscape portfolios of the United States and the West, as well as his Great Basin wall series, are now documents of a changing environment that is rapidly disappearing. His portfolios include platinum, silver gelatin, cibachrome and digital prints. His distinctive work is in many collections including the Nevada Museum of Art and the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City.

For full CV & Bio: http://web.mac.com/nolanpreece

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

* Alternate Photo Processes - Salted paper print, gum print, cyanotype, Van Dyke brown print, platinum & palladium, bromoil, carbon print, photogravure

* Silver Gelatin Processes - Sabattier Effect (MFA thesis), photogram, chemogram, tone line breakdown, reticulation, toning, hand tinting, infrared, cliche verre (Nolangram process, acrylgram), zone system

* Color Photo Processes - E-6, C-41, RA, R-4 reversal process, Vericolor, Cibachrome

* Digital Photography

Digital Media - Adobe Photoshop CS4 - includes: layers, masks, color balancing, retouching; Canon 5D Mark II digital camera; Epson 4990 scanner; Konica-Minolta 5400, 35 mm scanner; Apple Macintosh G5 computer, 2200, 3800, 4800 printers, enlarged digital negatives for contact printing, color digital printing, experimental digital photography, digital media for intaglio chine colle

* Printmaking

Intaglio - line engraving, etching, chine colle

Sample of Nolan's Work

Browse the full collection at the gallery.

Exhibitions

7/1/2010	Truckee Meadows Community College Great Basin Exteriors: A Photographic Survey
12/10/2007	OXS Gallery, Nevada Arts Council, Carson City, NV Nolan Preece - Simple Systems
09/01/2007	Western Nevada Community College, Carson City, NV Nolan Preece - Simple Systems
02/02/2007	Northeastern Nevada Museum, Elko, NV Nevada: Walls and Landscapes
02/9/2008	Oats Park Art Center, Wiegand Gallery, Fallon, NV Nevada Sky/Nevada Walls
03/22/2007	CSU Stanislaus, University Gallery - Turlock,CA Simple Systems - Nolan Preece
12/1/2004	Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV Nevada Sky

Gallery Representation

No gallery representation at this time

Reviews and Press

02/08/2008	Reno Gazette-Journal Photo Exhibits Document Rural Nevada, San Francisco
02/10/2005	Reno News and Review Art of the State: Photographic Memory - Nolan Preece
March 2007	a-n Reviews Unedited Simple Systems - Nolan Preece
02/2007	Nevada Magazine Rural Spotlight - Art Among the Ruins
Jan 2010	Photo Technique Magazine Grams, Grams, Chemograms and Nolangrams
June 2010	Silvershortz: The International Journal of Fine Art Photography, Volume 6, Edition 5 Nolangrams
July 2008	Self Published Book Nolan Preece: Selections of Photographic Work