Fine Art Photography

Born Charles Quinton Kimball on the 14th of February, 1939 in San
many forgotten reasons, never worked in the field.
He made his first photograph at age 5, and continued the work as a
hobby through his early years and into the 60's which included some
work in photo-journalism during the period civil unrest. He began
full time photography in 1967, opening his first studio in 1969 with
an emphasis on photographs of women and early photographic
processes. The 1980's were particularly fruitful with many
exhibitions and a partnership with Nanessence which spawned a
number of collaborative photographic projects. During this period,
the pair worked in the "crossover", dividing time between the
purely artistic forms and the application of that art to more lucrative
commercial work.

In 1989, Chuck and Nanessence moved from the city to a small
mountain village in southern California. The release gave reason and
time to return to photography as an art form and continue serious
study of the bromoil process. Autodidactic by nature, he applied
his experience in the commercial art field and chemistry to the
bromoil process with the intent of making full color bromoil
transfers. The first successful four-color transfer came in the winter
of 1991 with a photograph of a bird and bamboo in the snow. Over
the next several years, Kimball made more than 80 four-color
transfers in addition to many more single color bromoils and
transfers. His work was exhibited widely in California through the
1990's and is in the collections of a large number of pri-vate
collectors. With the death of a favorite gallery owner in 2000,
Kimball pulled most of his work back to the studio for a "re-grouping"
and consideration of direction. It was not the best idea as it turns
out.

The great fires of southern California in 2003 took most of Kimball's
archives and portfo-lio as well as the new studio/living space,
putting a hold on the print making and photog-raphy. Now, three
years later, he and Nanessence are once again back at work, the
new studio rebuilt, a new appreciation for "Great Nature", and
perhaps most importantly, a clean, blank canvas in front of him....
both daunting and inspiring, we can be sure that whatever comes
from the artist will include the bromoil process and wider
explorations of the 4 color process, perhaps integrating the “new
world” of digital images as well.

Artists Statement:
Sometimes, I wonder why I take photographs at all, why I need to
trap moments in time, steal souls, see the unseen....... some inner
drive I guess ... but not the same drive I have known in the great
photographers, not the unrelenting obsession... just a drive... and
a desire to cross traditional boundaries sometimes, and the curiosity
to look at al-ternative methods... maybe I am more interested in the
printmaking processes than in the imagemaking instant..
Perhaps it was the great fire, my meeting with Great Nature, that
suddenly opened my mind to what I had been doing, where I am
now going, and what it is that drives my hand: a strong love of the
classics, Flemish painting, uncertainty, faces, figures, shad-ows and
life.

.... losing almost all material things is a great awakening, the Zen
enlightenment.... In fact, I spent a lot of time recalling the
teachings of mentors: Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, Duane Michals, Sojun
Mel Weitzmann, and others .. and savoring the support of my part,
Nanessence, and my friends, helping me through the times,
reminding me that "everything changes" and of a very favorite
phrase "you must be the light you wish to see" (attributed to one of
the Buddhas, perhaps Da Mo) ..

Now, five plus years later, I have a freedom to stare at that blank
canvas, visualizing soft, muted colors, blurry images of figures and
faces, crisp reality images of the living and not so living parts of life,
overlapping like in a dream, but with intensity of motion and
emotion... I am very pleased by the number of images still hiding in
there, and how they meld my previous work, and are ready to spring
from the paper, or stone, or zinc plate... whatever might happen,
will... and, I am certain that photographic processes, especially oil
and bromoil, will be a key player in this drama ... life...

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