Lawrence Huff	About Lawrence
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What it is: Introduction to Lawrence Huff. Last modified: Sun, Jun 3, 2001

Name: Lawrence Huff
Nationality: American
Hometown: Athens, Georgia, USA
Current location: Kamogawa, Chiba, Japan
Specialty: Platinum prints (Still lifes, portraits, nudes, landscapes)
Languages spoken: English, a little Japanese
Age: 50s
Web site: http://www.platinum-prints.com/
E-mail: platinum@olive.ocn.ne.jp

I'm happy to show a small sample of Lawrence's fine-art work. The work you see here was hand-picked by me, and it does not reflect Lawrence's preferences at all. You can see more images (also for sale) at his own Web site. His friendly and good-natured ambience has made him a local celebrity in the art-oriented town of Kamogawa in Chiba where he lives. -Philbert Ono

He has also answered our standard interview questions below:

How did you get interested in photography as a hobby or profession? And when was that?

When I was 16 or 17, I saw some photographs by Edward Weston and was inspired and fascinated by photography as art. After reading his diary. I knew the direction that I wanted to take.

How or where did you learn photography?

Basically I am self taught. A local photographer sold and gave me enough equipment to set up a darkroom in the basement of our house. I would check out books on photography from the city library and get tips from the local camera shop. This was in Athens, Georgia where I grew up. I took a couple of photo journalism classes when I was in college and participated in a few fine art photography workshops.

What was the first camera that you owned and how old were you?

My first was a plastic camera that I received for Christmas when I was about 9 or 10. After going to my first one-man exhibition in Athens (Georgia) in 1985, my mother called me over to her house and pulled out an old suitcase from under her bed. She showed me photos that I had taken on our various trips to visit relatives in Virginia and Pennsylvania. She told me stories of how I would make her stop the car so that I could take photographs.

What kind of cameras do you use now?

The cameras that I use are large-format, 4x5, 5x7 and an 8x10. I have two Linhof and a Deardolf. We recently purchased a digital camera.

What do you like about taking pictures?

Photography has allowed me to see the world, experience different cultures, and develop friendships that would have eluded me otherwise. Photography is my mistress.

What are your favorite subjects to photograph?

I don't have a favorite subject. The subject itself with the interplay of light or other factors is what's important. A subject or person that I know well and have seen hundreds of times can still make my heart skip a beat under the right light or circumstance.

What do you hope to achieve with photography?

Personally, there's nothing I'm trying to achieve. If I can make the image that I saw in my mind's eye, then I've done it. I want the viewer to see what he or she sees and feel what they feel and not to think about what I was seeing or feeling.

How about giving a brief explanation about making platinum prints?

Invented in 1873, the platinum print is made with paper coated with light-sensitive platinum salts instead of the silver halide found on most photo papers today. It's a "hands-on process" where I select high quality papers (including Japanese washi paper), mix the chemicals, hand coat the paper, place a large-format, black-and-white negative on the coated paper, and expose it with UV light. Palladium salts can also be used instead of platinum salts. The advantages of platinum-palladium prints include archival permanence and a greater tonal range than a silver-halide print. The color of the platinum-palladium image can range from blue-black to neutral greys and sepia browns, depending on the developers and papers used.

What are your future hopes and dreams?

I hope that I can be productive for another 10 or more years and I would like to be of help to others who are interested in photography.

*Also see a detailed biography of his past exhibitions and publications at:

http://www.platinum-prints.com/profile/profile.html

Post comments and questions on his Guestbook.