Student Juried Exhibition at Concordia Gallery

I posted last month about my Photo II / Advanced Photo students printing larger images for the upcoming student juried exhibition. The opening for that show was 2 weeks ago, and here are some photos of the exhibition:

[click each image to enlarge]

Some printmaking, collage, and photography work.


Design and photography work.






Design and clay work on those pedestals.




A panoramic image from the back corner of the gallery.

The majority of the photography work that got accepted into the exhibition were my current students! And I believe 100% of the rest of the photography work was from former students of mine! Congrats Concordia art students!

Again, see my previous post about making some larger prints for the exhibition last month.

Making Big Prints in Class

Earlier this week, we fired up the 44" HP printer in the design department at Concordia so my Photo II / Advanced Photo class could make some prints for the upcoming Student Juried Exhibition. (Here are related posts where I shared a quick pic in 2023, and more details during the Student Juried Exhibition along with more prints being printed in 2024.)

Four photos just after printing.


Two big images coming through!

The HP software is great for "nesting" images on this bigger paper. As an exmaple, when I uploaded the first 4 images, it looks like this in the software:

Four images on the left, and an example of what the
selected print will look like on the 44" paper at the bottom.

Then when you click on the printer at the top, it opens up more options:

More options, with an arrow pointing to "nesting."

If you click on "nesting," it will nest all of the images that you loaded. So in this example, the printer will use the same amount of paper, but it nested in the other 3 images to the side of the bigger print:

Good luck students! The work will be juried shortly, so we'll see who's pieces get accepted! The opening is Thursday, April 10th 2025 from 5-7 pm at the Concordia Gallery (1301 Marshall Ave, Saint Paul, MN).

The Isolation of Edward Hopper

When I was 19, I drove to Chicago and slept in my car for 2 nights so I could see "Nighthawks."

Direct link: youtube.com/shorts/tMOYpA__hf0?si=xFxv61EUQsTxosa1

PhotoFlow and Busted Film

Last week, half of my Photo II / Advanced Photo class processed film. One of my students was doing it for the first time. And everyone's film turned out!

I mixed a fresh batch of PhotoFlo, and I love/hate how it's so "soapy" that the printing has been rubbing off the bottle:

Sorry for the quick and out-of-focus pic... trying to get it before my students came back in.


Text smearing off the bottle.


Rinsed tanks and reels after successful processing!

Oh, and I had a "first" in the Concordia darkroom - this has happened before, but the last I recall it happening was back in my CVA days over a decade ago.

A student used a fully manual 35mm camera for the first time (Canon AE-1), whereas in the past, she had a newer / more automatic 35mm camera (like a Canon Rebel 2000). She was unsure how to start rewinding it, so we did it together. Only I IMMEDIATELY felt no resistance while rewinding - there was no film being rewound. Usually, that means the film was never fully loaded and it just "sat there" not being fed through the camera. But I didn't believe that happened in this situation, because we loaded the film together the week before, and we noted that the rewind knob was turning as we advanced the film, so the film appeared to be loaded properly and moving through the camera.

I asked if she really tried to force the advance lever when she was near the end of the film, and she wasn't sure. I HOPED that she just tore the film off the spool as she finished shooting the roll. So we waited to open the camera until the lights were off and everyone else was loading their film onto reels. SURE ENOUGH, she had just muscled her film right off her film spool! I cut it clean and handed her the film in the dark and had her load it up for processing. When we turned the lights back on, we saw how it tore off a few inches from the spool:

Quite the way it tore! (Scissors just holding the film flat.)

I figured it would have pulled off from where it was mechanically attached to the spool, and not just randomly near the end. But irregardless, her film ended up turning out, and she was super happy that I predicted what had happened before she just opened the back of her camera in the light and ruined her film. It was a good day in the darkroom!

Professional Camera Settings

"Wet Paint" Signs at Wet Paint

I love the colletion of "Wet Paint" signs at my favorite art store (Wet Paint) in St. Paul:

Click image to enlarge.

End-of-Semester Views in the Art Building at the University of Minnesota

My "fill in" position in the Art Department at the University of Minnesota is over. It was great being back there where I taught 1-2 classes every semester from 2005 through 2011. Here were some views as I was there to return student work in late December:

[click each image to enlarge]

The classroom where we spent the last half of the semester.


The darkroom sink at the U of M.








Outside the darkroom, with the film processing area in the background.


Aperture examples above the entrance to the darkroom.


Drying racks.








Down the hall in the DSB (Digital Service Bureau).


I honestly love working in here.






Large roll printers in the back corner.


View from the back corner.


I've never asked for the backstory regarding these palm trees. But they've been there for years.

Oh, and I had a student turn in some final prints in a manilla envelope, and it's pretty clear that they forgot my last name:

Ha! Here's to a good spring semester!

Re-Framing a '4 a.m.' Print for a Friend

One of my 4 a.m. photos started slipping in it's frame. So I made a house call to correct the issue.

Once I got it unframed. (Or "deframed?")


If either of these sharpie labels mean anything to you,
you know how I first met this person and who this person is! :)


Secured, cleaned, and re-framed!


Getting the wire to grab the hook on the wall...


... and then getting it level.

It should be good as new - maybe better. Loved seeing that bigger piece again!

From 3 years ago, here's a post with every photograph shown in my solo "4 a.m." exhibition, and here are exhibition photos from that solo show where you can see this framed print in some of the first and last images.