Joseph Podlesnik Poster | Kate O'Dell 2016

Joseph Podlesnik Poster © Kate O'Dell (2016) •

Above Poster by Kate O'Dell, graphic design student, Department of Art, University of Northern Iowa, in celebration of the photographs of Joseph Podlesnik. An artist, photographer, and filmmaker (BFA University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, MFA Cornell University), he is associate professor and lead faculty for foundations at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. In 2016, he received the Inez Hall Outstanding Faculty Award. He lives in Phoenix AZ.

Podlesnik's photographs (reproduced with his permission from Almost Seeing) are of particular interest because (despite appearances) they were not constructed in Adobe Photoshop, by sandwiching multiple layers. Nor are they double exposures. They are simply single frame, through the lens camera shots, by which he makes astonishing use of light, shadow and reflections.

•••

Helen Barbour, quoted in Remar Sutton and Mary Abbott Waite, eds., The Common Ground Book: A Circle of Friends. Latham NY: British American Publishing, 1992, p. 237-238—

A group of us were driving up to a place in northwest Scotland. There were three of us in the backseat, Alastair, me, someone else. And we went past a house on the left side of the road which had turf on the roof with crocuses growing. It was March or April. And I turned to Alastair and said, "One day, when we have a house like that, we'll have crocuses and daffodils on the roof." Then I was immediately quiet because I realized what I'd said.

Alastair was very quiet for the next day or two…then he proposed.

• Photograph used in poster copyright © Joseph Podlesnik. All rights reserved.