Don Freeman

My recent series of black and white photographs from my trip to a childhood place I spent endless hours and recently returned with my Nikon film camera. The Beautiful Fay Bainbridge State Park in Puget Sound. Washington State.

A Driftwood Theology

there in the imperfect silence of night searching for embers of hope among the burned bridges of your life

the driftwood theology of a wandering soul wherever the tides take you

trying to find some token of salvation in the star filled heavens

trying to find meanings in a grain of sand as with any driftwood soul spend your days searching for a shore to call your own trying to find embers of hope in the burning bridges of your life.... there in the imperfect silence of night

while you await sleep to overcome your busy busy mind while you wait for the solace of letting go drifting and dreaming

lost in the beautiful places that dreams take you you find that the driftwood theology is a wonderful thing carve your own inner beauty into the wood of the world take the love i know you have in your heart and give it as a gift to the world around you and you will find that you are no longer driftwood cast on the worlds stormy sea's

you will find you have always been home right here in my heart. -Mark John Junor

unfinished series

A series in progress

A series in progress

The title of this series (a work in progress) comes from a book by Andre Breton. It suggests the alchemist’s vessel, our inner self -a site of transformation—a place where the raw materials of our emotions can be distilled and purified into a deeper understanding and acceptance of ourselves. In this sense, the vessel represents a compassionate awakening to our emotional world and the transformative power it holds.

A new series (2021) in mixed media. 35mm film photography, unique watercolor backgrounds and unique digital manipulation. Digital prints available up to 40” on Hahnemuhle PhotoRag 308 Matt fine art paper. In Limited editions of 7 for each color variation.

My first solo show in Hudson, NY since Gilded Owl in 2018. Over 25 works, spanning 25 years. New Work and digital updates rof older work. Up through the summer.

A working series

A series in progress

New Series, Photographs in 35 mm black and white film, layered on top of watercolor and plant pressing images.

(after Pierre Johan and Jean Cocteau) Image #2 in a limited edition series of 21 , digital prints 41 x 30".

In 2003 I visited an industrial building outside Paris (the address of which is kept secret) for @parismusees where more then 1000 sculptures from the streets of the capital are stored...#cityofparis #statues #sculpture #cityofparis #blackandwhitephotography #filmphotography

I documented several trips to Italy from 1987-1993 with my small Nikon black and white camera. I loved the 35mm format and the quality of the film. One trip to Siena with Paul Mathieu and Michael Ray on a foggy Christmas day is particularly haunting for me, as Michael passed away shortly afterwards from complications of Aids.

a series in progress

Color film photography, watercolor and plant pressings texture applied in photoshop.

Contemporary portraits, fashion photographs and Objet d'art make up a large part of my work today-still bringing inspiration from the past and still looking at beauty and form as an expression of poetry and art. 

All images are silver-gelatin prints that have been printed in the darkroom from 6X7mm and 35mm black and white negatives. The prints are then toned using chemical toners. From 1998-2008, editions are under 5 and colors are unique. Sizes vary from 7x5” to 20X16”

1991-2003

series in progress

OBST ANTIK “Wax fruit of the pomological cabinet”, Schlob Worlitz.

A Series of 8 digital color photographs in limited editions on Hahnemuhle photo rag paper available in sizes up to 39 X 30”.

You can’t eat them, you can only look at them; they don’t give off any scent, but

There is an air of mystery about them; hardly anything is known about the wax fruit of Worlitz.

In the 18th century they were collected by pomologists, the followers of the doctrine of fruit.

A few of the wax artifacts have survived in a drawer of the gothic house of Worlitz.

Prince Franz, the gentle ruler of the hollow of Worlitz, longed for Avalon, this mythical island

Of apples. He planted meadows of fruit trees in his park, but also ordered all the roads in his kingdom to  be planted with apple of pear trees.

First published in @aw_magazin. Text by @elkevonradziewsky . Art Dirtector: @niederstewerbeck

List Prices: 11 X 16” and 11 X 14” Digital prints on Hahnemuhle photo rag paper, signed, edition of 10.

$650 unframed, shipping not included.

Custom sizes available.

To Order: email me for information.

don@donfreemanart@gmail.com

I've always loved shooting Flowers and have photographed many kinds and in many ways over the years (from "Styling Nature" (Rizzoli 2016) to French Vogue and Geoffrey Beene). My favorite photographs of Flowers are the early ones. Shot on Black and White negative film , printed in the dark room as silver gelatin prints, treated to a bath of photographic dyes and now scanned and printed digitally.  

1989-2005

A work in progress

Inspired by Philip K. Dick's Valis and stories of pottery containing spirits and special powers-this series represents my process of "somnambulating"-allowing my camera to be a third eye detecting details that are not perceived at the moment of shooting...the vibrations of an object-capturing it's aura perhaps-giving it a life it once had or perhaps awakening a past spirit within. In my first book "My Familiar Dream" some of these images make up the chapter "I am all you have to contain your fears".  

1989-2001

Shooting statues in museums in New York and in Europe has always been a passion of mine-and I've taken several hundreds. When I started shooting for Geoffrey Beene in New York and French Vogue in Paris my portfolio was filled with only statues-until I got real people to shoot.  Shooting statues taught me about how the camera and I see the human figure. "Stone Faces" which is a series of new images and a work in progress that will capture the expressions and personalities close up. 

I started growing Chrysanthemums when I moved upstate, first in a small cabin, that doubled as my green house, and later, when I bought a house and created a space for them. I wanted the flowers to be larger than normal and wilder, less groomed (and I didn’t de- bud them).

"One cup of morning tea Calms a monkChrysanthemums are blooming"- Matsuo Basho

Matsuo Bashō (松尾 金作), Japan’s most famous poet of the Edo period, made the chrysanthemum the subject of several haiku. In Japanese the flower is called Kiku-no-hana, literally blossom of the chrysanthemum, or Kiku for short.

As early as the 5th century, it was imported from China into Japan by Buddhist monks, originally as medicine then becoming an object of beauty and admiration. Japanese royalty came to love the flower because they believed it had the power to prolong life. In 1183, the sixteen petal chrysanthemum became the imperial symbol. In November Chrysanthemum Festivals across Japan celebrate the many varieties of the late blooming flower.As medicine, chrysanthemums are used to treat chest pains and high blood pressure, as well as fevers, colds, headaches, and dizziness.

The delicate petals are brewed into tea, which in our case calms the nervous monk in the morning. #chrysanthemum #flower #donfreemanart #fall #upstateny #nature #fineartphotography

This collection is inspired by "The Poetics of Space" by Gaston Bachelard which posit a psychological, even psychogeographical take on interiors, as well as the spiritual life of an object,  capturing the vibrations of an object – it’s aura perhaps – the essential kernel that makes it transcend banality and become art.

All images are silver-gelatin prints that have been printed in the darkroom from 6X7mm and 35mm black and white negatives. The prints are then toned using chemical toners. From 1998-2008, editions are under 5 and colors are unique. Sizes vary from 7x5” to 20X16”

A series in progress

Digitally manipulated images from black and white negatives taken in museums in Europe and the US.

2016-1018

Color film photography, watercolor and plant pressings texture applied in photoshop.

A series in progress

A series in progress

Camera-less series with Organic material, watercolor and Sekishu paper to create panels of colors and texture that are abstract and inspired by Rotho’s Color Field paintings.

Digital prints on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 308gsm up to 40 X 56”

Original image, Black and White 35mm film negative (2000) was later printed as a diazo print (blueprint) 45 x 34”, which sold out-then as a hand toned color print, and now using a layering technique of pencil and wash and a photograph from my archives. Digital prints in limited editions on Hahnemulhe photo rag paper up to 45 X 34” are available.

A work in Progress. When I began painting in the mid 80’s I started shooting images that I would silkscreen onto canvas that had a painted background, so photography first was used like this-then ultimately I worked exclusively with the camera, and dark room techniques such as toning. Now I am using the computer to enhance my black and white photos. These can be printed 45 X 32” on fine art Hahnemuhle paper.

In this series-branches collected on a nature walk in the south of France have more to do with their negative space placed on backgrounds of white or black then the actual object. The first group of 8 were available as digital prints on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag (20 X 16") and placed in a linen portfolio ( 16 X 20")  in a limited edition of 10. Now they are available as silver gelatin prints and hand-toned sepia photographs or as digital prints in sizes up to 40 X 30" in editions of 7. 

2000

Several trips to Pompeii and Herculaneum yielded this series. I think they reveal a stamp of what was, cities that still linger in its long empty recesses- something that is oneiric - of or relating to dreams – which pertains to both the conceptual landscape of these images as well as the chemical experimentation they undergo in the darkroom.  These processes are experimental because they employ entropy, and indicate abandoning the philosophy of science and embracing one of art and aesthetics. Like paintings by J.M.W. Turner I feel the camera can let the eye dream and discover elements (on film) which don't seem to be there in person. 

All images are silver-gelatin prints that have been printed in the darkroom from 6X7mm and 35mm black and white negatives. The prints are then toned using chemical toners. From 1998-2008, editions are under 5 and colors are unique. Sizes vary from 7x5” to 20X16”

This series was printed as Diazo prints-in two sizes (42 X 28" and 26 X 17") from 1996-2005. I researched the best ways to keep them safe from fading-using Slow Blue paper and a wash after the prints came out of the machine) and most have survived-given a bit of fading and paper color change but there are very few remaining original prints. I have been printing them digital and am still keeping those that remain-in a dark place. Since the Blue-printing process (or Diazo process) is finished-these will never be reprinted. 

Inspired by (imaginary) letters written with a poison pen by (imaginary and real) heroines throughout history- a work in progress.  Using dark room techniques of solarization and double-exposing photographs of letters, flower and dress shapes in the enlarger.

2008