By Joe Pinchot
Herald Staff Writer
SHARON
July 04, 2009 08:22 pm
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Today’s digital cameras are, simply put, amazing. Those tiny little boxes can take photos in black and white, color or sepia tone, snap one image at a time or several in succession, focus themselves and compensate for the unsteady hand of the photographer.
“Digital is amazing technology and has changed the way we make and see photographs,” said photographer Van Marcu. “Having said that, I don’t have much use for it.”
“The current state of photography seems stale to me,” Marcu said via e-mail. “No character to the image. Just sharpness. Overly sharp, actually. Not real to the eye, if you have any training in the analog.”
Marcu, a Sharon native living in Flagstaff, Ariz., likens the digital-film debate to the sonic showdown of compact discs and vinyl records.
“Some can hear it, some can see it,” said Marcu, who was featured in a recent edition of B&W magazine.
As digital photography has expanded the possibilities for the average camera owner, Marcu has regressed into the past. He takes photos mostly in black and white these days – most of his portfolio has been in color – and uses old-fashioned developing processes, such as wet plate, cynotype, platinum and collodion. He’s even delving deeper into late 19th century lenses.
For Marcu, the old equipment and processes produce images that have more character than digital technology can offer. There are imperfections and flaws that sometimes make a more interesting image than what he is trying to capture, and show more depth and texture.
“I have a few images, the pine cones, for example, that people always want to touch when they see them,” he said.
For outdoor photos, he especially enjoys showing winter scenes.
“I love the woods in winter, particularly the trees devoid of leaves with their intricate shapes and amazing detail,” he said.
He uses black and white photography primarily to capture shape and form. A prime example is a photo called “Calla.” The title actually spoils the fun of the shot. It tells you what you are seeing, which lessens some of the work the viewer has to do to interpret it.
Forgetting the title, “Calla” could be a shadow between two large forms – boulders, maybe? – or a dark form on top of a light one. Marcu likes to blur parts of his images, and “Calla” could function as an abstract with his treatment.
Marcu said he likes to start with common, everyday objects, and then “takes things out of context.”
“To focus on the essence of that object,” he said, “picture it in a way we might not normally see it.”
A shot called “Hanger” features the glowing metal of a clothes hanger, giving a sense of movement.
“Platinum Branch” and “Thicket” are shot against such dark backgrounds that the lines of the title subjects stretch like windshield cracks or filaments of spider’s web.
B&W magazine writer Dean Brierly noted Marcu’s subject matter “assumes implications quite apart from its physical manifestation.”
An example is “Chair with Flag. The edges are blurred, focusing the eye on the American flag, which has been draped over the chair with the top stripes partly folded over the lower stripes, evocative of a person with legs crossed.
Marcu, who also lived in Hermitage, became interested in photography as a boy.
“Some of my first photographs were of star trails (time exposures), made with a camera my father brought back from WWII,” he said.
“As a kid, I was sort of visually and mechanically inclined and found images and cameras exciting,” said Marcu, 62.
He learned to develop film in his basement, and Bruce Kaiser, who became the graphic arts and photography teacher for Sharon schools, helped him learn to make prints.
Although he was never able to make a living as a photographer – he won’t say how he pays his bills – he has done editorial and commercial work along with his fine art portfolio, and his pictures have been seen in Ohio magazine, the Plain Dealer of Cleveland and The Herald. He also has pieces in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Canton, Ohio.
He’s been taking photographs for more than 50 years, but there are plenty more that he wants to snap.
“I have a lot of ideas in mind,” he said.
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