"Night News" - an occasional missive from the darkness
Vol.1 No.3
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"A god in darkness
often walks obscured.
As eyelids of a new-born
infant open
A spirit wakes and gazes
in the stone."

-Gerard de Nerval, Poet (FR)
"Lines in Gold"
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Brrr . . .

"The coldest winter I ever endured was a summer in San Francisco." That quote or something close to it, often attributed (tho' unconfirmed) to Mark Twain describes perfectly the recent spring that was not. I prefer crediting the above quotation to Disraeli - for any pithy 'quotable' (and perhaps therefore, disputable), I've found it's always safe to mention, authoritatively, "Disraeli said that." Seems he, unlike myself at the moment, had a lot to say.

Brrr-iefly . . .

A bit behind schedule here - preliminary work on the new GALLERY section of the site continues at less than a Web developer's pace. As you may know, we are going to a single online gallery page (with thumbnail images representing artists' work) that will direct visitors to various "rooms" in the gallery, each with work by an individual artist. We will soon have more interesting NEW work by NEW exhibiting members of The Nocturnes. Look for this sometime in July. In the meantime, don't look for any cute animated GIFs of construction workers or symbols - it's the Web - and, as I'm sure you know, always 'under construction.'

Also, around July, start checking the ENTRIES part of the site - http://www.thenocturnes.com/entries.htm - for more information about the online exhibition, "Studio Nocturne" as it is posted.

The last Workshop for a while occurs at RayKo South Photo Center in San Francisco starting on June 25. The next scheduled Workshops are in the fall - one in Boston and one here in San Francisco. Check the Web site - http://www.thenocturnes.com/workshop.htm for more details.

BTW, have you checked out RayKo's Web site at http://www.raykosouth.com - support your local 20th century photographic resource!

Brrr-illiant! . . .

Speaking of new (to me, at least) sites - check out the beautiful site by Rolfe Horn - http://www.f45.com - solitary, haunting, b/w landscapes; many done at night; some valuable in-depth info; a well designed site. Support your local night photographer! I have linked Rolfe's site to The Nocturnes - http://www.thenocturnes.com/owlinks.htm - and will list in Netscape's Mozilla.org Open Directory, as well - http://directory.mozilla.org - support your local Mozilla!

Also noteworthy: Bob Follett (a recent Workshop participant) has a very interesting site - http://www.apersonalsite.com - a daily journal featuring his writings and photography. Check out the journal entries between April 30 and May 10 or so, for NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY done by Bob in our Workshop during that period. His dedication has inspired me to make some much needed changes to "the site." Just as "there's no rule about learning something more than just photographic techniques in a photography class" [Sole Prop, May 2nd journal entry], so too, a 'photo instructor' can, and should, learn from his students. In keeping with that spirit, Bob's work will be the first to appear in the new WORKSITE section of The Nocturnes Web site, under development.

Gotta love those last two URLs . . .

And in East Coast News . . . Lance and I both have work in the upcoming juried exhibition at the South Shore Art Center in Cohasset, MA (the Festival on the Common, June 18-20). And Lance recently received a scholarship to attend the Norman McGrath Architectural Photography Workshop with Calumet Institute at Salisbury State University in Maryland in June!

Brrr-eaking for a 'commercial' here . . .
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If you haven't visited the BACKLIST section already - please do so. It is the start of an extensive list of texts, monographs, etc. dealing with night photography. Another BACKLIST page that lists various general works, novels, poetry, related scientific works, etc is under development now. And a list of helpful magazine and newspaper articles, as well as essays from other sources will soon be linked to the Night Photography BACKLIST. If any of you have any ideas re: this or can cite publication/issue/date/etc of related Night Photography - email that info (from any of the email-forms of the web site or to basket@thenocturnes.com) OR snail mail a photo copy to: Pacific Media Arts, Inc., PO Box 590161, San Francisco, CA 94159. I am investigating the copyright issues involved, IF we can even post this information to The Nocturnes "Resource Center." In the meantime, snail mail your favorite nocturnal tidbits, words of wisdom, articles, etc. to the addresses above.
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As always, this and past issues of "Night News" are accessible at http://www.thenocturnes.com/nitenews.htm

A cold wintry clime continues its reign here; spring might as well have been a distant hope. Perhaps summer will give us the nights we long for . . .

In the meantime, just get out there.

Tim Baskerville
basket@thenocturnes.com

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"So, you really should VISIT more often . . . "
http://www.thenocturnes.com