#cbadams

Two CB Adams Color Photographs Juried Into Framation's Beyond the Lens XVIII

CB Adams answered the call for entry for Framations Gallery’s XVIII “Beyond the Lens” all-subject, juried exhibit of photographic works in all disciplines. The juror for this year’s exhibition is Michael C. Daft, who believes “Good images should speak for themselves in their own language.” This is the fourth time Adams has works juried into the annual “Beyond the Lens” exhibition.

Adams works primarily in film-based black and white photography, but his art practice includes a consistent amount of color photography, in both film and digital formats.

Such is the case with the two photographs that Daft chose for this exhibition — “Cottontail,” a 20x020 print made with a 1972 Nikon F2 Photomic, 21mm Nikkkor lens and Cinestill 400D film, and “Barn In Landscape,” a 16x20 print made with a Leica M8 and Summicron 50mm lens.

“Cottontail” by CB Adams. Archival photograph from film negative.

Adams often works with the F2, a camera he acquired used from Creve Coeur Camera while he was in high school. It took him close to a year working in the lumber department of Central Hardware to purchase the used body and a new 85mm Nikkor portrait lens, which he still has as well. “Cottontail” was taken during the 2023 Gay Easter Parade in New Orleans, one of Adams’s top-three favorite cities.

“Barn In Landscape” by CB Adams.

The M8 was Leica’s first digital camera, released in 2006. Adams works with the M8 because its sensor and software were designed to yield a Kodachrome-like image. “Barn In Landscape” is a dreamy, Todd Hido-like image of a Missouri barn on a story day.

CB Adams Receives Honorable Mention at 2021 Art Through the Lens Exhibition at Yeiser Art Center

UPDATE to October 15, 2021 News:

At the closing reception for the 2021 Art Through the Lens exhibition at the @yeiserartcenter in Paducah, KY. juror Shannon Randol awarded “Checkerboards” by St. Louis area writer/photographer CB with an Honorable Mention. This year's show received 758 entries from 37 U.S. states along with three other countries. Forty-four pieces were juried into the International Exhibition.

Art Through the Lens Show Includes Two Prints by CB Adams

“Checkerboards” 16x20 silver gelatin print from large-format negative by CB Adams. This photograph received Honorable Mention and is for sale. Contact cbadams@qwerkyphotography.

Paducah, KY — Two 16x20 silver gelatin photographs by St. Louis-area writer/photographer CB Adams are featured in the 2021 Art Through the Lens international juried exhibition at the Yeiser Art Center. During the past 45 years, this exhibition has become one of the Mid-South’s most prestigious annual photographic events. This year’s call for entries received a record number of submissions — almost 800 submissions from 37 states and four countries.

Adams’s “Checkerboards” was selected by juror Shannon Randol, an Assistant Professor of Photography at Middle Tennessee State University and Curator for The Baldwin Photographic Gallery. Randol chose “Checkerboards” as one of 44 works from 758 submissions. The Yeiser Art Center staff juried 52 pieces into the Regional Salon and chose Adams’s “Pedal Another Cause.” Both framed (20x24) photographs are for sale through the gallery. This year’s exhibition marks the second time Adams has had work selected in this annual show. One of his toy camera-rendered photographs as selected in the 2019 Art Through the Lens.

Art Through the Lens is open Oct. 2 through Nov. 13 with a closing reception on Nov. 14 from 1-3 p.m. Yeiser Art Center is located at 200 Broadway St., Paducah, KY, 42001.

CB Adams, MFA, is an award-winning fiction writer and fine art photographer based in the Greater St. Louis area. Adams works with a collection of more than 60 film-based and digital cameras in a wide range of formats from 4x5 to 35mm and toy cameras to create images. Through his Qwerky Studio, Adams has had works accepted to more than 30 nationwide exhibitions, including “summertime” at A Smith Gallery, Johnson City, TX, “Krappy Kamera” at Soho Photo Gallery in New York City, “American Conversations at Art Saint Louis, “Architectonic” at The Foundry Art Centre, St. Charles, MO, RAW: St. Louis Presents Grandeur, ”Visions” at Sacramento Fine Arts Center, Sacramento, CA, “Somerville Toy Camera Show (2016, 2018 & 2019) in Boston, MA, and “Comestibles” at Columbia (MO) Art League. Recently, his photographs have been published in december, Midwest Review, Genre Urban Arts 7, Heirlock Literary Magazine and Tiny Seed.

Adams’s fiction has been published in River Styx (twice), Zoetrope All-Story Extra, Elder Mountain: A Journal of Ozarks Studies, Ponder Review, Conclave 2021, Vision Quest, Thoughtful Dog, The Distillery, and elsewhere. Adams is the recipient of the Missouri Arts Council’s highest writing awards, the Writers’ Biennial and Missouri Writing!. The independent weekly Riverfront Times named Adams, “St. Louis’ Most Under-Appreciated Writer.” Follow him at his website www.qwerkyphotography.com or on Instagram @qwerkystudio, Flickr @cbadams2, or Facebook @qwerkyphotography.

“Pedal Another Cause” 16x20 silver gelatin print from large-format negative by CB Adams. Available for purchase through the Yeiser Art Center.

In his artist statement, Adams said, “‘Pedal Another Cause’ and ‘Checkerboards’ were created from scenes rendered with a large-format 4x5 camera in New Orleans and St. Louis, respectively. In 2019, I was in New Orleans for the first time and noticed the mural on my way to the Lower Ninth Ward, and it was too interesting to pass up. I had exposed one sheet when I noticed a bicyclist heading toward me. I wanted to try and add an additional element to this scene. I strive to create images that require more than a passing glance or a swipe on a screen and offer a compelling ambiguity that invites the viewer to add their own experience or story to it. ‘Checkerboards’ is another example of this approach. I constantly seek access to places that are out of the ordinary and have a ‘what is that?’ quality that sets the photographs apart from the flood of images that bombard me -- us -- daily. As I work with each image in a wet darkroom, I discover elements that add complexity to the overall scene -- elements that were in my peripheral, but not conscious, vision.”

Picture credit: Katherine Dean- "plate no.1"

In 2013, Paducah was designated a member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Creative Cities Network in the area of Crafts & Folk Art. To embrace this international honor and reflect the international growth of the exhibition, the original Paducah Photo has taken on a new name, Art Through the Lens.

Juror Shannon Randol (1979) has served in various capacities in the Society for Photographic Education, most recently as Portfolio Coordinator for the annual conferences between 2009-2015. His work has been featured in national and international exhibitions and he is currently completing a body of work addressing boundaries in public spaces.

Honor Bound

After months of preparation and depleting my Qwerky Photography bank account to pay for silver gelatin paper, chemicals and framing services, I delivered my seven 16x20 photographs to Art Saint Louis in preparation for the delayed Honor Awards 2020 exhibition. What a long, strange trip it’s been to get my work to this moment.

The seven 16x20 silver gelatin prints (20x24 framed) made by artist CB Adams, delivered to Art Saint Louis for the upcoming Honor Awards exhibition. The prints, made from 4x5 large-format negatives, were developed and printed by Adams. Adams was one of 10 award-winning artists selected for this juried show.

The seven 16x20 silver gelatin prints (20x24 framed) made by artist CB Adams, delivered to Art Saint Louis for the upcoming Honor Awards exhibition. The prints, made from 4x5 large-format negatives, were developed and printed by Adams. Adams was one of 10 award-winning artists selected for this juried show.

To qualify for the annual Honor Awards, you have to been awarded an Award of Excellence from have the previous year's juried exhibitions. I’ve made it to that point twice before and this is the first time my work made it into the highly competitive Honor Awards exhibition. I just rewrote the previous sentence. The first iteration stated “…the first time I made it into the Honor Awards…” Not a profound change to you, but it marks a distinct maturation point for me as an artist. I have learned that there is a different and healthier approach between the art and its maker. In the past, when my work wasn’t accepted into an exhibition, I stomped around for far too long, considering the exclusion to be a personal affront. The juror or curator was clearly rejecting me.  

But no. They were passing on my work, not me. It’s cliché but nonetheless true: art is subjective. Now, I’m still disappointed when my work won’t be shown in a particular exhibit, but my focus is already on making new work and submitting it elsewhere. I’m confident my “audience” is looking for me somewhere and it’s up to me to seek you out.

This Honor Awards was delayed a year because of the global health crisis. This turned out to be a blessing because I had more time to reprint some of the work with some adjustments that perhaps only I could see. I also had a year’s worth of pay from adjunct teaching – my side hustle teaching pays for most of my photography.

So, I delivered the seven, carefully wrapped works. Originally, the Juror Amy MacLennan, chose eight of my photographs. Unfortunately, three days before delivery, a flooring contractor working on my home dislodged one framed piece from its closet shelf. It shattered the glass, bent the frame and damage the print itself. As fate would have it, this was the only print for which I had neither an artist’s proof nor extra copy. So only seven go on the wall.

True confessions: as gratified as I am to have finally made it into the Honors exhibit, seeing the seven pieces leaning against the wall seemed so…well, paltry. My first thought was, “Is that it?” I can’t speak about the relationship between other artists and their work, but mine recently continues to be, “It’s not enough. Work more.”

Is that healthy? Dunno. But it keeps driving me for now. One image at a time. Hoping to find a wall for each. Still trying not to think that it’s me hanging there.

Heirlock Literary Magazine Publishes Fine Art Photograph 'Stille Tag' by CB Adams

“Stille Tag” by CB Adams. Silver gelatin print from 4x5 negative.

“Stille Tag” by CB Adams. Silver gelatin print from 4x5 negative.

The latest issue of Heirlock, a literary journal dedicated to “Publishing the Future of Poetry,” includes a fine art black-and-white photograph made by St. Louis-area writer and photographer CB Adams. For the first issue of its second volume, the editors of Heirlock issued a call for entry for poetry, visual art and short story fiction that broadly interprets the theme of “Home.”

Adams responded to the theme by choosing several images that met his interpretation of the theme. Although Adams’s archive contains tens of thousands of images that he has captured during the past more than 20 years, the editors selected one taken recently, during March of 2020. The image was captured on a 4x5 view camera on film.

“I don’t usually consider my photography — my art making — as therapy, but there was a weekend early in the COVID-19, sheltering-in-place experience when I just had to get out of my house and make some photographs. I didn’t really care what I was going to shoot, I just needed to be active and feel like I was doing something more constructive than sitting around the house and binge watching television,” Adams says.

Adams often shoots in industrial locations throughout St. Louis City. To comply with COVID-19 recommendations, he decided to head west along Highway 70, where he believed he could safely shoot without being around others. He loaded his car with gear and left early on a Sunday morning because he heard a cold front was moving toward St. Louis later in the day.

“The front arrived much earlier than expected. It was a freaky front that started dropping snow within five minutes after I began shooting the first of several scenes that had caught my eye along Highway 70,” he says. “I’m not afraid of weather, but a majority of my cameras are vintage analogue cameras and become fussy, especially in the cold. They are also hard to replace, not to mention expensive if I damage them, so I wasn’t sure how long I could shoot.”

After an hour, the weather intensified and Adams cut short his “photo expedition” and headed home. A few miles later, he spotted a scene that was being transformed by the snowfall. Although he drives a small sedan that doesn’t handle well in snow, he exited and returned on the outer road. Large format photography requires a lengthier set up and composition process than other formats, which was complicated by the still-heavy snowfall he encountered.

“It was dangerous to be on the side of the road with a narrow shoulder, setting up my tripod across from the car as trucks and other vehicles passed by. One gentleman saw my emergency flashers and stopped to help. By the time I clamped the camera onto the tripod, the bellows was covered with snow and I wiped the lens off with my coat sleeve. I couldn’t see through the ground glass in the back of the camera because my breath kept fogging it up. I didn’t want to use my light meter because it dates back to the 1960s. Not only was it the only meter I had brought along, it was also my favorite. I made my best guess for composition and exposure and shot the last two sheets of film,” according to Adams.

The snow-covered Toyo 45CF large format camera Adams used to capture ‘Stille Tag.’

The snow-covered Toyo 45CF large format camera Adams used to capture ‘Stille Tag.’

Adams returned home and let his gear — especially his film holders — warm up and dry out. A few weeks later, the best photo he took that day was the one that Heirlock accepted for publication. After scanning the negative, he named the image “Stille Tag,” which means “silent day” in German.

“It reminds me of the almost apocryphal story that Ansel Adams used to tell about the making of one of his most famous photographs, ‘Moonrise Hernandez.’ He was challenged by a lack of time and a light meter and so he did some calculations in his head and make the image. He wanted to take a second, a back up, but the light changed and he was left with the great photo we know today.,” Adams says. “I’m not saying ‘Stille Tag’ is on par with that iconic photo, but at least it shares a similar back story, though I think such moments aren’t uncommon for photographers.”

Heirlock is a thrice-yearly digital magazine that publishes primarily poetry, as well as visual art and short fiction. The magazine was conceived by a small, close-knit team of Northwestern University graduates that are currently based in Chicago. They are all equally passionate about supporting rising creatives and sharing their work with the world. According to the masthead, “The name Heirlock comes from this focus – we hope to publish the future of poetry and to be a buffer zone between the individual starting poet and the ever-expanding universe that is the writing community at large.”

Although Adams is also an active literary fiction writer, he was not familiar with Heirlock before their call for entry. “Of course, I’m pleased to have my photograph published, but that feeling is enhanced because of the quality of Heirlock, especially its design. It’s also interesting to me to see which poem the editors chose to be next to my work — that always makes me see my work from a different perspective.”

Adams is preparing to print in his wet darkroom a limited number of matted gelatin silver prints, 8x10 inches and 16x20 inches of “Stille Tag.” Contact him through his website for pricing information, www. qwerkyphotography.com/about.

homefrontcover-100-1.jpg

Midwest Review Publishes 'Négatif Endommagé' by CB Adams

Midwest Review 8, a publication of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has published ‘'Négatif Endommagé” by St. Louis-based writer-photographer CB Adams. The French title translates to “damaged negative” because the camera Adams used was experiencing a shutter malfunction.

Negative Endommage, image by CB Adams created with a Diana+ toy camera on medium format film.

Negative Endommage, image by CB Adams created with a Diana+ toy camera on medium format film.

“I was surprised when I developed that roll of film,” Adams says. “I was using a Diana+ toy camera, which by itself can product erratic, unpredictable images, and I could tell by the sound of the shutter that something wasn’t right. I’m still not completely sure what happened, but the negatives were significantly overexposed and have a double exposure quality about them. Out of the 12 exposures on that roll, I am pleased with three or four of them, which is a pretty high success rate.”

Midwest Review is an annual literary magazine that features work by writers, photographers, and artists who live in, have lived in, or have spent time in the Midwest—that diverse region of the north-central United States that includes the Great Lakes area and the upper Mississippi River valley, and the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas and Missouri. The annual publication seeks to publish well-crafted, thoughtful and thought-provoking writing and visual art that examines, interprets and redefines the full spectrum of life, past and present, in the Midwest.

“I am a Missouri artist who spends a great deal of time documenting the City of St. Louis. I am proud to be a St. Louisan, but my work often captures the grittier parts of the greater metropolitan area. I consider much of my work to be a sort of reverse-boosterism because the work depicts aspects of the city that could be — should be — better,” Adams says.

Adams shoots with a variety of cameras, from 35mm to medium- and large format, to capture these scenes. I regularly also use the lo-fi toy cameras like the Diana+, the original 60s-era Diana, and the Holga, as well as a hand-built camera made from components of multiple toy cameras.

“My approach is to match the fidelity of a particular camera with the way it will best render a subject, Sometimes, the aesthetic result that I want can only be — best be — made with a toy camera,” Adams says. "I was pleased to see 'Négatif Endommagé' on the same spread as the poem ‘Winter, Thirty-Seven Years Before His Death’ by Anemone Beaulier because tone — stark and cold — matches the tone of my photograph, even though it is a summer scene.”

Adams is preparing to create a limited number of matted gelatin silver prints, ~8x8 inches, of “Négatif Endommagé.” Contact him through his website for pricing information, www. qwerkyphotography.com/about.

Spread from Midwest Review 8 featuring the work of CB Adams, photographer, and Aneomone Beaulier, poet. Beaulier lives in Fargo, ND, and her poetry has appeared in The Briar Cliff Review, Cimarron Review, Jabberwock Review, The Pinch, Poetry Daily, …

Spread from Midwest Review 8 featuring the work of CB Adams, photographer, and Aneomone Beaulier, poet. Beaulier lives in Fargo, ND, and her poetry has appeared in The Briar Cliff Review, Cimarron Review, Jabberwock Review, The Pinch, Poetry Daily, Prairie Schooner, The Southern Review and elsewhere.