Two-Hearted Oak: The Photography of Roman Loranc

Rating:
Summary: Two Hearts: One Vision
Review: In 1926, a 24 year old Ansel Adams was introduced to poet the Robinson Jeffers.
"Return"
A little to abstract, a little to wise
It is time to kiss the earth again,
It is time to let the leaves rain from the skies,
Let the rich life run to the roots again...
Jeffers's word songs impressed Adams and gave him moral direction and navigation to find a subject to photograph. Conveniently, Roman Loranc's muse is his spouse Lillian Vallee. Her poetry is readable, but abstract enough to create a contrasting dialogue with 70 or so pages of well made black & white landscape photographs.
Roman Loranc's subject is the California's northern central valley - a space mostly occupied by row crops, orchards, cattle, and grape vines. What is interesting about Loranc's photographs is the atmospheric quality of the images. His compositions are concerned with as much above the oak as the oak itself.
Landscape photography which captures a moment, rather than description and texture is the brass ring of this art. It is a difficult maneuver to arrest gesture from the land. It's like finding life in a fossil, water on Mars.
The portfolio of images are of an idyllic vision of the space and subject. On page 57, "Bare Trees by the River, Cosumnes River, 2000, reminds me of Michael Kenna's photographs of French classic water sculpture, "Chariot of Apollo, Study I, Versailles, France, 1988. I can almost make out the inverted water reflection of horse shapes in the Cosumnes image. The landscape photographer's lot in the field is made by the decision of how an image will form in the camera.
The choice of lens, film and developer is a calculated workflow which ultimately doles out success or failure.
Loranc's use of a slightly longer than normal focal length compresses far space to the near. His choice of Nikon glass generates more contrast which makes his use of Pyro for developing negatives a good choice. Especially for hardened cloudscapes as on page 1, "Private Road with Clouds, Stanislaus County, 1993. It is bizarre that Loranc's Oaks also produce the gall nut which is the prime ingredient of Pyro(gallol) he uses to process his negatives of Oak trees.
The production values of the book are excellent. The paper choice emulates the glossy photographic paper dried matt of the contemporary west coast print maker. The colophon does not indicate how many plates where used per image for reproducing Loranc's split toned prints, but I suspect a minimum of three. This would allow a close reproduction of sepia and selenium toned prints plus room for one additional plate for spot varnish which is used to deposit extra density to the 3/4 quarter tone portions of the screens. This book would be a fine addition to the library of any serious student of photography. It is a welcomed book on black & white landscape photography which are few like the great Oaks of the California landscape. ©Copyright Craig Carlson 2004. [e-mail]