About

Photograph by Nick Doll, Key West, FL, Jan, 2013

Curt Richter is a renowned art and commercial New York born photographer who now calls Helsinki home. Curt’s work is in many collections, MoMA, the National Portrait Gallery, Victoria & Albert Museum and Bibliothèque Nationale. He has received many awards including a Fulbright Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts Grant and NY State CAPS Grant. His commissions range from portraits of the founding members of the Fellowship of Southern Writers to Swedish Hydro-Electric Power Plants for Citibank. His images have been included in numerous books and he has two monographs, A Portrait of Southern Writers and A Thousand Words, Portraits from the Key West Literary Seminar.

“Cameras are my instruments. To forage from what I see and harvest what I choose to fix in time.”

Bio

From an early age photography’s ability to record a moment of time was intriguing. Growing up in NYC offered so many museums, galleries and bookstores, they were my first instructors and classrooms. S.U.N.Y. at Purchase had great art programs and teachers. John Cohen, and Jed Devine, Jan Groover and Willard Van Dyke were some among many. When I completed my undergraduate degree I was skilled with view cameras and platinum printing.

After finishing my studies at Florida State University I returned to NYC and began my professional career. Magazines hired young photographer and I made my name on assignment for The Sunday New York Times Magazine, Metropolitan Home, Rolling Stone, Newsweek and was eventually under contract with Conde Nast Traveler. I continued my art work and began showing in galleries and receiving grants and awards.

The Fellowship of Southern Writers commissioned me to photograph their members for their archive in Chattanooga. That project lead to my first monograph book, “A Portrait Of Southern Writers” and a Guggenheim Fellowship. My prints are in many photography collections including MoMA, NYC, National Portrait Gallery, Wash D.C., the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.

A Fulbright Fellowship brought me to Finland and I continue to split my time between NYC and Helsinki. An Artist In Residence in Florida began a ten year project portraying the writers participating at the Key West Literary Seminar and my second book, “Thousand Words”. I continue to work as both an artist and a commercial photographer. My current project centers on three metropolis’ and the effects of climate change.

CV

Collections

Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
Birmingham Museum of Art, AL
Centro Studi Americani, Rome
City Hall, The City of New York, NYC
Fortum, Helsinki
Lupton Library, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga
Minneapolis Institute of Art, MI
MoMA, NYC
Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson
Nasher Museum, Duke University, N.C.
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Museum, Washington D.C
42st Public Library Photography Collection, NYC
Royal Photographic Society, Bath
United States Embassy, Helsinki
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Woodruff Library, Emory University, GA
Yale University Art Gallery, CT

Exhibitions

2018 “Passage”, Solo Exhibition, Writers Portraits, Galleria Kajaste, Helsinki
2018 “Picture: Books”, Greensboro Project Space, Greensboro Book Fair, N.C.
2017 “Authors & Storylines”, Solo Exhibition, Tampere Photography Fair, Tampere, Finland
2017 “Thousand Words”, Solo Exhibition, TSKW, Key West, FL
2013 “Portraits”, Lucky Street Gallery, Key West, FL
2009 “Gravitation”, Solo Exhibition, Gallery G18, Helsinki, Finland
2009 “Still And All”, Solo Exhibition, TSKW, Key West, FL
2004 – 2010 “A Portrait of Southern Writers”, Solo Exhibition, Funded by the N.E.A.
Touring: U.S.A. and International
1998-2003 “Faces And Stories”, Solo Exhibition, Zone Gallery, Helsinki, Finland.
Touring:
Finland - Pori, Joensuu, Turku
Germany - Berlin, Frankfurt
Italy - Rome
Mississippi - Museum of Art
Atlanta - Shatten Gallery, Emory University / Margaret Mitchell House / Bank of America / Fielding Library Gallery, Duke University
2007 Alumni Artists, Simon’s Rock Gallery, Bard College, Great Barrington, MA
2000 “Stora”, Commissioned Portfolio and Exhibition, Fortum Tower, Espoo, Finland
Touring: Finland and Sweden
1997 “New Portraiture”, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
Touring:
Royal Photographic Society, Bath, British Museum of Photography
Bristol, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh
1997 “Working / Still”, Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY
1996 “The South by Its Photographers”, Birmingham Museum of Art and Columbia Museum of Art
1995 “Portraiture Now”, James Danziger Gallery, NYC
1995 “Animal Attractions”, Howard Greenberg Gallery, NYC
1995 “Palladium Prints”, The Palladium, Peekskill, NY
1994 “Portraits and Landscapes”, Solo Exhibition, Zone Gallery, Helsinki
1994 “New Landscapes”, Solo Exhibition, Akehurst Gallery, London
1993 “The Portrait”, Group Show, Zelda Cheatle Gallery, London
1992 “New Landscapes”, Solo Exhibition, John Froats Gallery, Cold Spring, NY
1991 Fellowship of Southern Writer, Commissioned portaits & platinum prints (permanent exhibition), Univ. of Tennessee. Read more 1989 “Palladium Photography”, Schreiber/Cutler Gallery, NYC
1989 “Swimmers”, Burden Gallery, NYC -Touring
1989 "Curt Richter", Solo Exhibition, 14th Street Y Gallery, NYC
1988 “Mothers and Daughters”, Group Show, Burden Gallery, NYC -Touring
1987 “The Water Show”, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR
1986 “Palladium Photographs”, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson
1985 "Summer", Daniel Wolf Gallery, NYC

Grants / Commissions

2019 Artist In Residence, Whakatāne Museum and Arts, New Zealand
2017 Artist In Residence, Sedona Arts Center, Sedona, AZ
2010 – 2017 Guest Artist, Key West Literary Seminar, Key West, FL
2013 Artist In Residence and Guest Lecturer, T.S.K.W., Key West, FL
2008 & 2009 Artist In Residence and Guest Lecturer, T.S.K.W., Key West, FL
2000 Citibank, Commissioned to photograph Stora Enso’s Hydroelectric Power Plants
2000 U.S. Information Service Grant - Italy and Germany
1999 U.S. Information Service Grant - Germany
1998 U.S. Information Service Grants - Finland
1997-1998 Fulbright Senior Scholar - Finland
1993 John Kobal Portrait Award – Award for Photographic Portraiture
1992 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation – Fellowship in Photography
1989–1995 Fellowship of Southern Writers – Commissioned to photograph the Founding Members. More... 1985 N. Y. State Council of the Arts – Grant to photograph the Bronx River Restoration Project

Academic / Lecturing

2017 “A Brief History of Platinum Printing”, Tampere Photography Fair, Tampere, Finland
2016 “Voids and Resolution”, Friends of the Library lecture series, Key West. FL
2000-2008 Member of the Board of Directors, The Fulbright Commission, Finland
1989 Present International Center of Photography, New York
1998–2004 Helsinki University of Art and Design, Finland
1998–2000 Turku Art Academy, Finland
1993 Royal Photographic Society, UK
1988 Florida State University, Tallahassee
1988–1989 Pratt Institute, New York
1981–1982 M.F.A. studies Florida State University
1977–1981 B.F.A Photography, State University of New York, Purchase, NY

Books

2016 Thousand Words, Portraits from the Key West Literary Seminar, Monograph Damiani editore, Bologna, Italy. Available here 2000 A Portrait of Southern Writers, Monograph, Hill Street Press, Athens, GA. Available here 1995 Animal Attractions, Abrams, NYC
1990 Summer, Simon and Schuster, NYC
1989 Swimmers, Aperture, NYC
1988 Mothers and Daughters, Aperture, NYC
1986 Light, Quarto Press, NYC
1985 New Jersey, Doubleday, NYC

Volunteer Work

2015 - present SPK, Finnish Red Cross, Asylum seekers residency, Helsinki
2017 - present SPK, Finnish Red Cross, Detention Center

Assisted / Apprenticed

Ezra Stoller, Architectural Photographer
Marina Schinz, Photographer (Inventoried Erwin Blumenfeld’s Photographs)
Davis, Brody + Assoc., Architects
O. Rundle Gilbert, Auctioneer (Cataloged U.S. Patent Models, Founded by Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton)

Professors

Laurence Bach
Jerome Badanes
John Cohen
Jed Devine
Robert Fichter
Jan Groover
Tom Gunning
Aaron Kurzen
Jimmy Roche
Tal Steeter
Willard Van Dyke

Darkroom Lab Notes

> The Platinum Print

> Ferric Oxalate

> Clearing formula (H.C.A.) for platinum printing

> Tips on clearing a platinum print

> The Importance of PH

> Alternative Sensitizer #2 - Just Mix Potassium Chlorate with Distilled Water

> The Print Scroll / How To Make One

Foster’s Ferric Oxalate 20% and 28% solutions

Listening to the BBC on my way home.

The Platinum Print and How to Make One

Platinum printing is one of the oldest photographic processes and it remains unsurpassed in its delicate tonal range and subtle surface texture.
Platinum prints are as elegant as they are permanent. The process has an extended tonal range and deeper blacks compared to other photographic prints. One of the most distinctive qualities of a platinum print is that the image is in the paper, not on its surface, much like the ink in a lithograph or an etching. This is due to the emulsion being absorbed and becoming involved with the paper’s fibers. Throughout the 19th Century platinum was pursued and refined for use in photography. The most persistent impediment was removing the unexposed platinum salts after the image was developed. In 1873 chemical improvements made it possible to commercially manufacture platinum paper. It gained considerable market share and was favored by artists for its delicate qualities. Its commercial success peaked in the beginning of the 20th century but the onset of W.W.I. saw the beginning of its eventual demise. At that time, Russia mined 90% of the world supply and availability was scarce. When production resumed after the war it was discovered that palladium (one of six metals in the platinum family) could be added or substituted completely for platinum. But the metal’s expense and shifting aesthetic trends brought commercial production to an end in 1930. In his “Day Books”, Edward Weston noted printing on his last sheets of platino paper. Today his platinum prints are among his most valued images. But some photographers would not give up the paper’s insurmountable attributes. A small number continued to make prints as the technique is relatively simple, requiring only three compounds to coat the paper and two to process a print once exposed. Like the 17 year locust, platinum prints seemed to disappear until photography’s Neoclassic movement in the 1970s. Artists such as Jan Groover, who contributed to the transformation of color photography as an accepted and collectible medium, also made platinum/palladium prints.
The advent of digital photography in the late 1990s rendered chemical photography obsolete. As of this writing, commercial film is all but gone from common usage. The number of platinum printers has also dwindled dramatically. The tonal range of a high-quality digital print can resemble a platinum/palladium print. None of the digital prints compares to the surface quality and subtlety of a platinum print or the archival durability.

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The Platinum Print / How To Make One, Pt, 2 - THE PRINT SCROLL

THE PRINT SCROLL

A platinum print becomes vulnerable to tearing or damage when it's wet during processing or washing. The Print Scroll makes handling the paper easy by supporting it from the developer to the drying rack.

Look for more videos by - Curt RichterPhotography/YouTube

Light Is A Thing / The Radiometer by Curt Richter

This video is a brief explanation of how a radiometer functions. Although light doesn't have mass there is substance in the protons it carries. Light's energy can have an impact on tangible objects. See for yourself.

YouTube

The Queen’s Piper

Where were you when the Queen was laid to rest?
Sept.19, 2022 at 5:00PM GMT

Listening to / the radio / driving home from work / when the piper / sounded his final lament

"A Fendersmith is a person employed to clean and repair the metal fenders before fireplaces in mansions, fine estates, or castles. In this archaic profession, the same person is usually also responsible for lighting and keeping the fire contained within the fireplace. Few fendersmiths exist today, but can be found in places like Windsor Castle."

#TheQueen #Queen #QueenElizabeth #QueenElizabethII #royalfamily #TheQueensPiper #TheQueensFuneral #WestminsterAbbey #london #uk #bbcradio #Sept192022 #TheSaluteoftheRoyalFendersmith
#listeningto #theradio #drivinghomefromwork #whenthepiper #soundedhislament
#videoart #platinumprint #platinumprinting #platinum #palladium #platinupalladiumprinting #blackandwhitephotography #ferricoxalate #platinumsensitizer #19thcenturyphotogrphotography #alternativeprintingprocess #altprocess #darkroom #filmphotography #art #photography #artphotography

Arthur Mole's Formation Photographs

Towards the end of the First World War Arthur Mole began constructing, what he called “living photographs”. These were optical illusions, a magic trick with a camera.

Now Available: Ferric Oxalate 20%, Fred Foster's Formula

Fred’s Ferric Oxalate, a sensitizer for platinum & palladium printing, is now available for sale to platinum and kallitype printers. 100ml bottle costs €30 or US $37 plus shipping, tax where applicable. To order, contact me at cpr@curtrichter.com.

Print Agitator

Platinum prints should be constantly agitated to ensure all the iron and salts have been removed. This wipe shield wiper motor does the job.

Faces And Stories

Interview in Key West, 2008

Gravitation Exhibition

Interview in Helsinki, May 2009.

Helsinki diplomatic session webinar

Helsinki diplomatic session webinars

Helsinki diplomatic session webinar

Helsinki Photo Talks

Helsinki diplomatic session webinar

Breaking into the NY photography market

Good Morning Florida Keys with Jenna Stauffer

Interview in November 2013

The art & craft of photography

Interview in SixDegrees 5/2009

Photographer Curt Richter is a seasoned veteran behind the lens. The Helsinki-based American has an abundant body of work from his long and checkered career as a freelance photographer. But how does he fit into the Finnish visual arts community?