By Matthew Schmidt

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, then starting on the first one.” — often attributed to Mark Twain in error Working my book like all my life.  I tend to grab something that …read more

From:: SoFoBoMo 2016 – The Artist Statement

By Matthew Schmidt

“What was that you were saying, asked Fred?  I’ve got so much on my mind I can’t seem to get anything finished.” “If you’re feeling overwhelmed, why don’t you go take some pictures?  You know it relaxes you replied his girlfriend Kathy.” Today I am starting my SoFoBoMo 2016 project, …read more

From:: My SoFoBoMo 2016 Project Begins

By Matthew Schmidt

“I can’t do that, exclaimed Valerie!  I don’t know enough about publishing to write a book.” That is the initial reaction of so many of the people I’ve spoken with about SoFoBoMo. The Solo Photo Book Month is a project that pits you against yourself.  Pick any contiguous thirty-one days …read more

From:: SoFoBoMo 2016 Starting Soon

By Matthew Schmidt

“I missed Julie’s soccer game?  I thought they were playing here next weekend!” How many times has that happened to you?  You had plenty of time to schedule the meeting, but you just plain forgot.  A couple of months ago I missed the Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty exhibit at the …read more

From:: 6th Annual Abstract Photography Exhibit Open

By Matthew Schmidt

I’ve run into a number of photographers entering the Joseph Miller 5th Annual Abstract Photography Exhibit who are taking advantage of what I keep referring to as a Rounding filter. Although I am not especially fond of the effect, with the right source image it can produce a very appealing …read more

From:: Rounding Action

By Matthew Schmidt

I was reading some blogs about photography this past week and ran across this article with a unique and effective tool for identifying editing flaws, particularly in smooth texture areas. The technique was not complicated, so I wrote an action to create the layers.  I included this technique in a …read more

From:: New Actions as Editing Tools

By Matthew Schmidt

For all of you who never knew the wonders of a B&W darkroom, here is a video about the darkroom equivalents of some common Photoshop tools. This week is Photoshop’s 25th anniversary and Lynda.com has produced a free video demonstrating some wet darkroom techniques that are commonly used in Photoshop’s …read more

From:: Darkroom Equivalents

As photographers we leave behind a legacy of photographs which many times simply end up in an attic somewhere and are eventually thrown in the trash.  Some of those photographs are cherished by our children, but often those are snapshots of family members that don’t really stand up to the critical eye of a museum curator.  As I contemplate my own collection of prints and digital images, I hope that some day one of my kids will honor me like Grayce Wheeler’s son has done.

In the 1950s and 1960s Grayce Wheeler was a member of two of our local camera clubs, the Northern Virginia Camera Club and the Old Dominion Camera Club.  Sadly the Old Dominion Camera Club is now defunct, but the Northern Virginia Camera Club lives on as the Northern Virginia Photographic Society (NVPS), having changed its name in 1975.

Grayce’s son, Dan Wheeler, was inspired by the October 2009 publishing of Vivian Maier’s work  and decided he should publish Grayce’s photographs from Germany in the 1950s through the Washington, DC metro area in the 1970s.  Grayce’s work paralleled Vivian’s in a number of ways: they were both street photographers; both used a Rolleiflex; and, photography was an avocation and creative outlet for both, who supported themselves and their families through unrelated jobs.

Grayce was a black and white photographer, shooting primarily Tri-X and Plus-X, who enjoyed the control that black and white printing offered.  Dan started being Grayce’s photographic assistant at an early age, learning the craft of photography as a byproduct.  His first job with Grayce was to hold a blanket over a closet door so that she could load film into the tank.  Later, when Dan had moved out of the house, Grayce would take her daughter Emily to meetings of the Old Dominion Camera Club.  Emily, as a senior in high school went on to win the Eastman Kodak — Scholastic Magazine photography contest.

Later Grayce would print their work in a wet darkroom and experimented with different techniques, such as printing on Kodalith film.  This experimentation has rubbed off on Dan, who now experiments with techniques in the digital darkroom.

Although Grayce once owned a 35mm camera, her true love was the medium format film, having a Mamiya TLR and Pentax 6×7 SLR.  Most all of the images that Dan presented in his exhibit of Grayce’s work are medium format prints.  Dan reshot the prints in digital to show them on his website.

Bringing us back around to the question, what will happen with your library of prints, negatives and digital images when you are gone?

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If you, or someone you know, remembers Grayce, her family would like to hear from you.  Please feel free to send Dan an email at Dan.Wheeler AT uc DOT edu.