Road Trips
Occasionally, and with much excitement, the Salon packs it up and hits the road. Although the destinations are much researched and vociferously debated, nothing can quell the palpable excitement surrounding these trips. And pack, we do. An embarrassment of riches, really. Camera formats of all distinction, from large format view cameras and rangefinders to Holgas, Hasselblads and crazy-megapixel digital rigs. Plus lights and light modifiers of diverse brilliance and subtle shades. More gadgets than fingers and toes. Film stocks both current and extinct. Also in tow is a small library of photo books that serve as both inspiration and reference — the Rosetta Stones of the Salon’s coded language. Destinations range from Big City (NYC) to Small Town (Beaufort, SC) to Areas of Distinction (Mississippi Blues Trail, Southeast Low Country).
Adventure, exploration and discovery of both the external and internal landscape is the fuel of art. These trips help fill the creative tank.
Josef Karsh Exhibit
Speed Museum - Louisville, KY
The first Road Trip was a one-day affair. We ingested all we could of this portrait master’s work, then returned to one of our studios to replicate the work. Results suspicious.
Henri Cartier-Bresson Exhibit
High Museum of Art/Atlanta, GA
An overnight Road Trip to nearby Atlanta, where we were overwhelmed by over three hundred photographs of the master’s work.
Mississippi Blues Trail
Clarksdale, MS/Memphis,TN
This was the first of our multi-stop, car caravan Road Trips. Four white guys with big black equipment invading the small nooks and crannies of black delta blues communities. Great music. Outrageous fun. I doubt if four black dudes with big black equipment would have as much fun or success invading small, white bluegrass hollers. Maybe.
Low Country I
Beaufort, SC
This Road Trip was the first of our multi-day adventures. As it was a drivable distance, we quickly learned of the need for an equipment truck. Brother Rick’s Mini-Van was quickly conscripted into service. Arriving in the late afternoon, our initial scouting foray left us nervous about whether there was enough to shoot for three days. Boy, were we wrong.
Low Country II
Folly Beach, SC
This Road Trip was the first of our “Fly-To” locations. Equipment and accouterments had to be well-planned. However, we were well rewarded. We discovered “The Soul of Folly Beach.”
Abelardo Morell Exhibit
High Museum/Atlanta, GA
Another overnight trip to the High Museum. Abelardo Morell has been a favorite of the Salon’s, inspiring a couple of us to create our own camera obscura set-ups. This road trip is the first to lead to a monthly assignment requiring members to create an image inspired by Morell.
Slow Exposures 2014
During the Slow Exposures photo festival in 2014, Southlight unveiled a pop-up exhibition of the Off The Page group project. Housed in a U-Haul truck, the show featured 42 photos hung on the walls and a small generator powering strings of lights inside the truck.
New York City
Manhattan/Brooklyn/Queens
This Road Trip was the first with an underlying itinerary and local guides (aka: dear friends) who took us places few tourists get to experience.
Accommodations at The National Arts Club in Gramercy Park
Behind the scenes at some of the city’s best photo galleries
The run of Manhattan’s oldest fire house (fire pole included)
Hand-held tour of the juiciest neighborhoods in the boroughs, from Williamsburg, Brooklyn to Broad Channel and Rockaway, Queens.
Eateries like Katz’s Deli and Tony DiNapoli’s in Manhattan (where we got to sing with Tony Bennett).
Invading The Strand book store
Trolling in Chinatown and Greenwich Village
Low Country III
Carolina Beach/Wilmington, NC
Our third and final Road Trip to this picturesque part of the South. This time we stayed in Carolina Beach, NC; hung out in Wilmington, Wrightsville Beach and Lake Waccamaw, and enjoyed the local surf scene.
