Resume – Bob Herbst, Photographer

 

Bob Herbst has been photographing and printing in platinum and silver gelatin for more than 38 years. He has gained international recognition as a master platinum printer, and his work is represented in collections in the U.S. and Europe. Bob teaches the platinum printing process at the Cleveland Institute of Art through their National Workshops and Masters Series and as a guest instructor.  He is an adjunct faculty member at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland and has also taught at the University of Akron as a Mary Schiller Myers visiting artist, and at Hiram College in Ohio.  He is a contributing writer for View Camera magazine and teaches the platinum/palladium printing process in private workshops at his studio.  His modern architecture portfolio was included in the Midwest Photographer’s Project at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago from 2003-2005 and he has twice been a featured speaker at the Alternative Photography International Symposium in Santa Fe in 2001 and 2005.   Bob is a past president and board member of the Friends of Photography at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

 

“While I have been involved in many art forms over the years including stained glass and woodworking, photography has been the common thread throughout my life.  My family has a photography gene in our DNA makeup, particularly on my father’s side.  My grandfather was taking family pictures with box cameras as early as 1902 and I am so very fortunate to have many of the nitrocellulose negatives of those pictures that are in our family albums.  In recent years, I have been re-printing many of the images with my father in my darkroom.  I always remember my father having a camera in his hand wherever we went or watching with fascination as he dipped film through trays in the bathtub of our house in Ashland. My uncle on my father’s side worked at the Kodak processing facility in Findlay, Ohio for 40 years as did my cousin for over 20 years.  My older brother continued the family photography tradition as a high school and college yearbook photographer and I followed doing the same thing at my respective schools before concentrating on fine art photography.  ”

 

“I have no formal education in photography but learned everything through shooting tens of thousands of negatives, first hand experience in darkrooms both as an assistant and printing my own work, and through reading.  My art took a drastic change in direction when in 1991 a friend suggested I take a course at Kent State University in platinum/palladium printing.  I had no idea what a platinum print was but it sounded interesting so I signed up.  Since that class, I have worked almost exclusively in the platinum process.  I occasionally stray back into the realm of silver gelatin.”

 

“Because platinum is a contact printing process, I work entirely with large format cameras.  I began working with a 4x5 camera in 1988 before I learned the platinum process.  I spent about 5 years with the 4x5 before moving up to the 8x10 format and switched back and forth between the two formats for several years.  I put the 4x5 on the shelf in 1998 and used the 8x10 exclusively for the next 4 years.  From 2002 until 2007, I began working with a 12x20 camera.  Working with such a large camera completely transformed my photography.  The different aspect ratio of the format and a more studious approach to subject matter have taken me into entirely new territory.  I now alternate between 8x10 and 12x20 for shooting film.”

 

“Working with a 12x20 camera and in platinum is indeed a true act of faith.  In this age where digital photography is obliterating entire occupations in the world of photography, I have no idea if, or how long the materials will continue to be available for large format cameras, especially one as large as 12x20.  But, digital output devices are starting to achieve the quality necessary to create large format negatives with sufficient quality for platinum printing.  I have been working with and teaching methods of making digital negatives for platinum printing since 2002 in various venues and this has led me to begin using digital negatives for my own work.  It has opened entirely new horizons in my work.”

 

 

 Museum and Permanent Collections

·         Progressive Corporation, Permanent Collection - 2003

·         Museum of Contemporary Photography, Midwest Photographers Project, Modern Architecture Portfolio, 2003 - http://www.mocp.org/mpp/ 

·         Washington National Cathedral Permanent Collection - 2003

 

Awards

·         Juror’s Award , FAVA Six State Photography Show, 2007

·          “Best in Show”, Cleveland Jewish Community Center Annual Photography Show, 2002

·         View Camera Magazine Fine Print Program, July/August 2001

·         Viscom ’95, New York City, View Camera Excellence Awards, November, 1995

 

Solo Exhibitions

·         Rockwell Automation Corporate Art Gallery, November-December, 1998

·         Lightkeepers Gallery, Lakewood, Ohio April-June, 1998, “Retrospective”

·         Lakewood Chamber of Commerce, July, 1998, “Algonquin Provincial Park”

·         Avon Lake Library, August-September, 1998, “Algonquin Provincial Park”

·         Hiram College, Frohring Art Center, September, 1997, “Utah Canyons”

·         The Ascherman Gallery of the Cleveland Photographic Workshops, October-December, 1996,  “Cathedrals II”

·         Washington National Cathedral, Washington D.C. Pilgrim Observation Gallery, September-November, 1995, “Two Cathedrals”

·         The Ascherman Gallery of the Cleveland Photographic Workshops, July-September, 1993,  “Land and Cityscapes in Platinum and Silver”

 

Group Exhibitions

·         “The Looking Glass” exhibition, Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA 2007

·         FAVA Six State Photography Show, 2007, Juror’s Award

·         “Modern Vision, Classical Methods”, HeightsArts Gallery, June 2006

·         “Seeing the Light”, Washington National Cathedral, February 2003

·         Jewish Community Center Photo Show, 2002, Best in Show Award

·         Photo Santa Fe, July, 1999

 

Published Articles

·         "Pyro and Platinum Printing", Appendix D, Platinum & Palladium Printing, Dick Arentz, 2nd Edition, 2005, ISBN 0-240-80606-9, publisher Focal Press,

·         “A Densitometer for Pyro Negatives”, View Camera Magazine, March/April 2003

·         “Azo and Amidol, A Sensitometric Comparison to the Platinum/Palladium Process”, January 2003 published on www.unblinkingeye.com, www.bobherbst.com, and http://www.michaelandpaula.com/

·         “Enlarged Negatives using APHS Film and Pyro”, View Camera Magazine, May/June 2002

·         “The Effects of Pyro for Platinum Printing”, View Camera Magazine, July/August 1999 (including the cover photo of the issue)

·         “The Advantages of Pyro for Platinum Printing”, View Camera Magazine, September/October 1997