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Al Weber
Aerial Photographs
June 4, 2011 through July 30, 2011
Listen to Audio of the Lecture
Listen to Audio of the Panel Discussion
Opening events for our Al Weber exhibit
Photos: Jack Wasserbach
Lecture and Panel Discussion Saturday, June 4, 2pm-3:30pm
On June 4 Al Weber gave an entertaining and interesting lecture on experiences taking aerial photographs. There was a standing-room-only audience in Carpenter Hall. Following his lecture our four panel members spoke about their careers and their experiences learning from- and working alongside- Al Weber.
Print Commentary Sunday, June 5, 9am-3pm
Al Weber and Victor Landweber led a spirited print commentary on June 5th at the Sunset Center. The day began with Victor Landweber sharing his photographic experiences and three diverse bodies of work. Al declared that each of the 9 participants would gain more from the comments surrounding others' work more so than specific comments about their own work. Nine photographers presented up to 12 images each in a supportive and encouraging environment. Al's commentary was punctuated with humor and insight on a range of subjects from the creative process to exhibiting work. Thanks to Barbara and Fernando Batista for providing gallery lighting. Thanks to Jack Wasserbach for the photos.
Aerial Photographs
This 60-page soft-cover catalog features all 52 images in the Al Weber Aerial Photographs exhibition, along with his artist's statement and biography. Al explains his approach to aerial photography and the fact that his aerial point of view has since affected many of his land-based photographs. You may purchase this book at the CPA Gallery. Or, you may order on-line from our publisher MagCloud, where you may preview the entire book.
Book: $25.00*
*Plus shipping
Digital book: $5.00
Order from MagCloud
 © Al Weber. All rights reserved
© Al Weber. All rights reserved
Al Weber can best be characterized by a series of seeming dualities: Icon and iconoclast. Abrasive and refined. Informal and serious.
Artist and technician. Educator and perennial student. Tough critic, generous confidence builder and champion of other photographers' images.
Photographer's Statement
I try to make a successful photograph of a common or oft seen subject- to bring forward the common, and make it uncommon with grace and simplicity and good craft.
I've been photographing from the air since the 1950's. I enjoy flying in a small airplane. I'm comfortable photo-graphing through an open window or even with the door removed 1000
feet above the ground, at 125 mph. I prefer older planes as they fly slower. Many of these photographs were made from a 1946 Aeronca cruising at 65 mph.
As a small boy, I remember lying on the grass in the summertime, watching the clouds. Once in a while an airplane slowly moved through my view. They seemed so far away, yet I could faintly hear their engines. That was in the 1930's. Today the clouds can be obscured by aerial contamination and any airplanes passing through probably are fast moving jets. It's not the same. And why should it be? This is the 21st Century. Adjust, old boy, or get lost in the dust.
There are a few photographs in this exhibit that are not made from an airplane. I feel flying has influenced all of my other work. There are no near-far relationships. Everything is from a distance. Even close-ups appear flat plane with no depth, just like aerials. When doing a landscape, on the ground, even with a tripod, my work frequently looks like it was done from a plane. Look at the photographs Sea Palms, Point Lobos, Surf Big Sur or Yosemite Valley from Glacier Point as examples.
Biography
© RR Jones. All rights reserved
Al was raised in Colorado, son of an avid hunter/ fisherman. Al did not enjoy these sports so on outings with his father he captured what did hold meaning to him with a camera. Attending the
University of Denver, he majored in Photography, emphasizing studio portraiture. He stayed on to get a second degree in Education. After 4 years in the Marine Corps, he settled in California where
he now lives in Carmel Highlands with his wife, Suzie. They have three sons, Chris, Ben and Robert.
Weber has taught throughout the West. Starting at Monterey Peninsula College, the Friends of Photography, where he chaired the Education Committee and was a Trustee, University of California at
Santa Cruz, 18 years at the Ansel Adams Workshops in Yosemite, The School of the Art Institute, Cal Arts, Photographers Formulary, Penland School and the Snake River Institute, He's been
Artist-In-Residence at a dozen universities including Baylor, Colorado Art Institute, Columbia College, University of Oregon and Cal State Los Angeles.
He's proud of the Victor School program that he and his wife Suzie established in 1977 in Colorado. During the school's twenty-seven years, they offered courses with Morley Baer, Jerry Uelsmann,
Edna Bullock, Hal Halberstadt, Dave Bohn, Edmund Teske, Todd Walker, Marie Cosindas, Barbara Crane, Dorr Bothwell, Huntington Witherill, Doug Busch, Cole Weston, Ralph Putzker and Lou Stoumen and Kazumitsu Okutomi.
Weber is committed to preserving the work of other photographers. He started the Foundation for Photographic Preservation (FfPP). They rescued Carmel photographer Steve Crouch's work from a truck
headed for the dump, and also saved much of Oliver Gagliani's prints from being burned. FfPP continues as a small group of volunteers.
Selected Data
- California Art Counsel grant for Indian Rock Art, 1977
- Permanent Collections: The Art Institute of Chicago; Utah Museum of Fine Art, Western Nebraska Art Center, National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Monterey Museum of Art
- Publications: Architectural Digest, Doubleday, McGraw Hill, Sunset Magazine, Fortune Magazine, Holiday Magazine
- Commercial Work: Dupont, International Harvester, Kaiser Coal, Kaiser Aluminum, Litton Industries, Union Carbide.
- Consulting: Eastman Kodak, Polaroid, Hasselblad, Ilford, Ciba Geigy, McHenry Library at UC Santa Cruz
Lecture and Panel
Al Weber gave a lecture on Aerial Photographs on June 4 in Carpenter Hall, Sunset Center, in Carmel. Al discussed interesting experiences making aerial photographs over a 55 year time span and presented examples of his work. His talk included "behind the scenes" anecdotes about what it takes to actually produce the exhibited images. He also discussed his commercial assignments and their contribution to this body of work.
Following the lecture a panel discussion was held including Barbara Moon Batista, Rita Bottoms, Doug Busch, and Stephen Johnson. Their topic was Al Weber's work and contributions to photography over six decades.
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Barbara Moon-Batista has decades of experience in commercial photography and teaching. She is part of a husband-wife team that runs Batista Moon Studio. Georgia O'Keefe and Imogene Cunningham had profound influence on her when women in photography were rare. Barbara has a passion for education and continues to teach photography, lighting and the creative process. www.batistamoon.com |
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Rita Bottoms was head of Special Collections at UC Santa Cruz from 1965 to 2003. She worked with Al Weber for a decade enriching the library's Photography collection by bringing to it the archives and prints of many prominent photographers. Rita's new book, Riffs & Ecstasies was published in April and contains a chapter entitled "Al Weber paints from the sky with his camera." |
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Doug Busch is a fine art photographer with emphasis on large format black and white work. By those who are familiar with his work, he is considered one of the most talented and accomplished large format black and white photographers anywhere. www.superlarge.com |
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Stephen Johnson is a landscape photographer, designer and teacher. He directed and co-curated the At Mono Lake exhibition with Al Weber and Don Worth. He has published a number of books including With A New Eye, a digital photographic look at American national parks. He is a member of the Photoshop Hall of Fame and a Canon Explorer of Light.
www.sjphoto.com |
Print Commentary
Al Weber held a Print Commentary on Sunday June 5 in the Babcock Room, Sunset
Center, in Carmel. Victor Landweber from Berkeley joined Al for the event.
The event was designed to allow each person to show a selection of their
photographs in a positive and supportive environment of feedback and
discussion. Al and Victor will led the discussion and all participants were
asked to share in reviewing each other's work.
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Victor Landweber is an independent photographic artist and publisher whose
works have been seen in numerous exhibitions in the United States and
abroad, most recently in the 75th Anniversary Exhibition at the San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art and in the exhibition and book, "Reality
Revisited", at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm. He will be exhibiting this May
at Steven Wolf Fine Arts, San Francisco. Victor's company, LandweberArtists,
has published four portfolios of artists' photographs which have been
acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary
Art, L.A., the U.C. Santa Cruz Library, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Berkeley Art Museum and the Oakland
Museum of California. landweber.com |
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