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.

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

“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.’

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.