FINE ART Photographer's work showcased at Thiel

Form and visual relationships are what interest this photographer.
By L. CROW
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
GREENVILLE, Pa. -- Thiel College will present an exhibition titled "30 Photographs," which are the works of fine art photographer Scott Killian of Hermitage.
Killian uses a 60-year-old 8x10 view camera, but he makes it clear that his work is art, and the art is more important than the tool. And he has a strong philosophy concerning the artistic value of fine art photography.
"There is something about photography that draws people to start talking about the process -- what kind of camera, film, lenses, developing chemicals were used," said Killian. "Painters are never asked what kind of brush they used. This is frustrating. The process doesn't make a great work."
Great art
Killian, however, is eager to talk about what makes great photography great art. "Taking pictures is different than making pictures," he said. "Everyone that uses a camera doesn't have the same objectives. Jackson Pollock used a mop to create paintings, but he had nothing in common with a janitor." He points to a color photo he took of his family, and says that everyone owns a camera these days to take pictures, and that is not the same as creating art.
He said his interest is in form and visual relationships, making photos that become new things in themselves. He doesn't title his works, other than giving them a name to identify them and says it is not even important that viewers know what the objects are.
Influential
Brett Weston, son of the famous photographer Edward Weston, has been a big influence in Killian's art.
"Brett photographed everything from paint scratches to garbage," said Killian. "He photographed grease in a frying pan and rusted bed springs laying in a desert. His goal was not to make beautiful forms out of ugly things, but he did. It is a process of distillation: There is visual chaos all over, lines everywhere. The fun part is finding beautiful and exciting forms, finding visual relationships in the chaos. Brett said that nothing was photographed over 100 yards from his car. The camera is heavy, so why drag it around. But he also meant that he could find photos anywhere."
Compelling
And that is often the way Killian operates.
"I will be driving along, and something will compel me to stop," he said. "Some photographers will just see something and take a picture of it, but I go under the dark cloth and begin to look around through the lens until I see something that interests me. It is about excluding, adding, panning, zooming. There is a sense of discovery. We don't see things as a camera does. When I come out from under the cloth, sometimes I can't believe where my camera is aimed. Often it is on something I never would have seen otherwise."
One such example is a work he calls "Dead Tree Reflections," which will be part of the upcoming exhibit. "I saw something I liked and walked over to it, but it didn't work. I walked past that particular spot at least eight times. Then I finally put my camera down and said, 'I'm just going to look, not look for pictures.' Once you stop looking for photos, amazing things can happen. 'Dead Tree Reflections' was a picture made, not taken, truly discovered. It was a milestone for me, and growth in art comes through milestones."
His camera
Killian's camera is called a "view camera" because it can focus on things close up and in the distance at the same time, unlike a 35 mm. It also tilts, swings and can change perspective. When he looks into it, images are upside down and backward. When he opens the shutter, light comes in contact with the photo-sensitive silver on the clear plastic film. He uses a meter to determine how long the shutter will stay open, which could be over 20 minutes. The prints are the same size as the negative: 8x10.
Killian said he works only in black and white, because color is too rooted in reality. And there is also the stability issue. Black and white photos will last much longer. But between black and white are a huge range of colors and tones.
Killian develops all of his photos and points out the difference between silver chloride and silver gelatin. "The silver chloride prints are much richer -- there is more presence," he said. "Silver gelatin has a different hue."
Kodak paper
And he also mentions that, after 100 years, Kodak has announced it will discontinue the manufacture of black and white paper this year. Killian creates in a style called "straight photography," which he said "embraces the very thing that makes photography unique in art, in that its quality is razor sharp."
Killian is compiling a book of photos taken on the Great River Road, which runs along the Mississippi from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, more than 3,000 miles long. His works have been featured in Focus magazine, and he exhibits nationally.