the circle that controls the size of the
area affected, then proceed to adjust
the other sliders. These changes were
almost always more than just to bright-
ness. When a dark area was lightened,
for example, it usually began to look a
little flat, so I’d also increase the con-
trast within that area. Try doing that in
the traditional darkroom when dodged
shadows start to look weak! It’s chal-
lenging to do in Photoshop.
After applying a lot of control points,
I saved everything, then reassessed the
overall image back in Photoshop. Some-
times I made further global adjustments,
either with Photoshop commands (typi-
cally Highlights/Shadows) or again in
Viveza (using Contrast and Shadow
Detail). Then, I applied another round
of control points. I often took an image
in and out of Viveza many times before
I was satisfied. Given that the plug-in
essentially masks on the fly, it saved me
days of layering work.
As a final step, along with sharp-
ening to size, I went back into
Photoshop’s black-and-white con-
verter and added a slight bit of
warmth to the images. The payoff of
that warmth, those big files and the
careful technique and labor-inten-
sive local work, was large prints that
some viewers have likened to plati-
num/palladium contact prints in
their sharpness and tonal scale. The
prints’ image area is 16x24 inches,
on a heavy 17x25-inch sheet of Moab
Entrada matte-finish paper; they’re
made on an Epson Stylus Pro 3880
printer (which is still going after all
these years).This body of work, which you can see in
two full portfolios at russellhartphoto.
com in the Archive section, has elicited
a more positive response from viewers
than any of my other recent work.
I’m a bit mystified by this. Aside from
editorial and advertising work, these
images are the most documentary I’ve
ever made in years of fine-art work that
has always tilted toward the pictorial.At the same time, they’re the most
personal work I’ve ever done, which is
ironic given their documentary nature.
It seems that what started out as an
exercise in coping with loss produced
photographs that transcend their par-
ticular personal and family mean-
ings; the photographs apparently
connect both to notions of memory
and to the experience of anyone who
has dealt with the decline of parents
in present-day America and perhaps
knows how dementia destroys iden-
tity and history.
The work is also a study, by implica-
tion, of an obsessive-compulsive mind,
yet more generally of the hoarding
behavior that seems epidemic in our
society. All that said, I don’t want view-
ers to come to these photographs with
too much information or too many
preconceptions. I made them so that
viewers would be able to “read” their
contents in detail, for what might be
gleaned about my late mother’s life
and personality. DPPState Quarters for the Grandchildren Project
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