I wanted to offer my congratulations as well as my impressions and observations regarding Paul Roark's one-man photography show which is being exhibited at the Elverhoj Museum of History & Art in Solvang, CA from June 11 to August 14, 2003.

If you live in the southern or central California areas and have the time, it would be well worth your time and effort to see this remarkable collection of fine-art images. The show features approximately 40 of Paul's black and white landscape photos and includes both silver/gelatin and carbon pigment inkjet prints.

Both the warm tone and neutral ink sets were used. Having both silver prints and inkjet prints, side-by-side to compare was very enlightening for me. Having made silver prints myself for the last 30 years, I know what a good silver print looks like and Paul's silver prints in this show are very good.

But what really grabbed my attention were his carbon prints. They are absolutely incredible images, some of the best I've ever seen - anywhere. They possess a range of subtle and delicate tonalities not often seen in even the best silver/fiber prints. They have rich, deep, powerful blacks and a level of detail in the shadows that are seldom seen in any print, be it silver of carbon. They all have very fine and sharp detail in both highlight and shadow that does not diminish when one takes a close, "in my face" look. There were no "dots in the highlights," no noise in the shadows, no artifacts, no imperfections of any kind. They were quit simply, perfect in my humble opinion. Aesthetically, I felt they were well composed and conceived. In general they evoked some pretty strong emotional responses in me, and made me homesick for the high mountain wilderness of my home state of Colorado. These images certainly represent the "state of the art" in B&W inkjet printing and are examples of what is possible when talented artistic vision is combined with a new and exciting technology.

On a personal note, I enjoyed meeting and talking with Paul in person. He was very approachable and spoke with great excitement and enthusiasm about his work and the future of this venture we are all traveling together. In summary, we in this community are fortunate to have a pioneer such as Paul out there blazing the trail for others to follow.

Thanks for all your good works Paul and congratulations.

Sincerely,

David R. Spielman
Brooks Institute Instructor
Santa Barbara, CA