So I opened an art gallery, which is sort of an insane thing for someone as perpetually broke as me to do but, the walls at the big studio I found in the old Granary building in Brandon were too nice not to turn them into something. This Sunday our spring show ANALOG 4 EVA opens, the first real show here I’m curating, and it’s hard to articulate how beautiful all the art that’s come in is—yesterday @kathallphoto brought some 20x24” Polaroids that took my breath away and to be honest, I wasn’t even aware polaroids were possible at that scale. I believe so strongly in analog photography not just out of devotion to beauty (and to creating things with one’s own hands, as opposed to forever pecking at screens assembled in nightmarish factories)—but because of how absurd image-making is becoming/has become already now with the AI revolution, where one can look at a picture of a child running giddily through a field of innumerable dandelions and say, That’s not real. Well, it IS real, because I am that child, and I can prove it to you by opening a shoebox beneath my bed and handing you a photograph that a robot couldn’t dream of, not even if that robot drank all the fresh water in the entire world, and stole every copyrighted image from the internet and extrapolated them into an amalgamation of the prompt of, what? “Childhood innocence”? Anywho—despite my ranting here, this show has nothing to do with a battle between this or that, it’s just really good art. You should come.
#photography #analogfilm #filmisnotdead #vermont #vermontartist
Ermagerd I love u all so much. If u missed the reception no worries, BLUE PERIOD will be up thru April 27th at @foambrewers & @deepcityvt , go getchu some brunch & bevvies 💙💙💙
Benjamin Aleshire opens his new exhibition Blue Period at Foam on Saturday, March 14.
From 5–8pm, join us for a reception featuring large-scale cyanotype portraits printed in sunlight using a photographic process first developed in 1842. Deep Prussian blues. Analog color work shot on 40-year-old film cameras. Portraits of artists, writers, and local heroes.
Light snacks in Deep City. Beer, wine, and other beverages available for purchase.
At 8pm, stick around for a free concert by @jeff_wilson_music .
Free and open to all.
@benjamin_aleshire
#FoamBrewers #BurlingtonVT #VermontArt
If you stop by the gallery wearing a fit as sick as this you just might get a free portrait! Lovely to meet you @kathleen.hurley.50 . Really dig the colors in Cinestill 800t, which I shot on the Rollei & developed at the @aleshiregallery darkroom in @cinestillfilm ’s C41 chemistry.
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#cinestill800t #analogfilm #portrait #vermontartist #rolleiflex
The rumors are true, I’m coming out of retirement for the @blackspringbooks party this Saturday, where I will be fulfilling all your poetic desires on my old Royal portable typewriter, no matter how degenerate or mundane. You should come support the coolest bookshop in the city and @simonablat throws one helluva party. Also I’ll be haunting Brooklyn all weekend with my camera(s) too so hit me up if you need anything photographic. Might have to pop by the Dead Pete’s reading Friday too if my train gets in on time, hmm…
Shot a bunch of panoramic 35mm thru my RB67 last summer before one of the loveliest poetry readings up at @ruthstone_house with Ian Fishman of @brake.press and the @blush_lit crew Jon Ruseski & Juliana Ward. So difficult to scan with the sprocket holes, but I finally got my wet mount setup humming in the digital lab at @aleshiregallery , & now I wanna shoot these panoramic portraits all the time—
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#35mmfilm #vermontphotography #kodak #portraitphotography #analogfilm
Route 103, Vermont. Shot on Kodak Gold with my lil Olympus XA, but really wish I had the RB67 with me, god this guy was fascinating to talk to. First roll of C41 that I ever processed myself and made a mess of it, but was able to mostly save this frame.
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#35mm #vermontartist #analogfilm #streetphotography #c41
Ahhhhhh finally found the negatives I thought I had foolishly thrown away when I fled Brooklyn back in 2023–these are some of the first real photographs I made with an old Nikon F when I was what, 18? At the infamous iron pours in back of @macsteelvt back in the day, organized by Glenn Campbell I believe. Very difficult to shoot but somehow I bracketed and it paid off…might have to make some large cyanotypes of these, or finally print on those sheets of steel @farberfab gifted me after his residency there a couple years ago, hmm…
#35mm #nikonf #blackandwhitephotography #analogfilm #vermont
Obsessed with my 6x12 Holgapan—shot this yesterday with @cwn_annwn_ after receiving the excellent omen of a sleek red fox crossing our path down the road. By the way, Clare will be modeling for the figure drawing session at @aleshiregallery this Thursday 7-9pm and there’s still a few spots open, hmu if you want a seat—rumor has it the diaphanous gown and sword will be involved. There are so many things happening! Feels good to sneak in some creative time amongst all the events: tonite I’ll be reading with my darling @cattail_caitlin at the @lightclublampshop for @epentaleri ’s book release party for DREAMSCAPE WITH ABSINTHE, 6pm.
#holga #holgapan #vermont #kodak analogfilm
Excited to be a feature reader at this poetry shindig organized by @cattail_caitlin and @thebookstorevt , coming up soon at @redcloveralecompany in Brandon, along with the woman the myth the legend @cwn_annwn_ (you can also catch her this Sunday at @aleshiregallery as a featured artist in ANALOG 4 EVA). So many things happening!! Maybe spring is really here… it’s also an open mic btw so bring some poems! 😘
I’ve been remiss in not posting some of the images from my show BLUE PERIOD on view now at @foambrewers and @deepcityvt —this one (11x14” framed 16x20”, $350) was shot on an infrared aerial surveillance film called Aerochrome, which was used by the military to spot camouflage by rendering the unseen spectrum of infrared light reflected from foliage. Besides the obvious Swords into Plowshares aspect of appropriating this material for the purposes of beauty, I’m also interested in quarreling with the cliché, utopian images of Vermont that I was inundated with growing up, and which still dominate the cultural ecosystem here. I have so much more to say on that but I’m still working it out in my mind. And I like when art that is wrestling with various layers of ideas can also just be enjoyed without grand speeches, so, here—here is something I made as our nation descended from madness into madness.
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#aerochrome #photography #analogfilm #vermont #vermontartist
