“In fleeting moments, Nature reveals its grandest displays to the determined observer”
An award winning photographer, Glenn Hohnstreiter has exhibited black and white and color photographic images in juried shows and international competitive events for many years. His images have been selected for exhibit at EPCOT Center in Orlando, at PHOTOKINA in Cologne, Germany, in Korea, and several of his images are included in the permanent collection of the International Photography Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. His work has been shown in New Mexico for years in many single and multiple artist.exhibits, and one of his images is on permanent display at the New Mexico Natural History Museum.
He is a former president of the Professional Photographers' Association of New Mexico, has attained the Master of Photography and the Photographic Craftsman degrees fromthe Professional Photographers of America, and is a member of the invitation-only American Society of Photographers.
His images have appeared in numerous fine photography publications, recently the cover and his article "Beyond the Basics: Strategies for Creating Award Winning Photographs," in the Nov/Dec 2002 issue of View Camera Magazine. Click the thumbnail below for more information.
My personal interest in photography goes back to scientific work where I used photographic images and spectroscopic plates as an integral part of my doctoral thesis work at Stanford University. Later, I used optics and imaging science in space and reentry experiments in several programs at Bell Laboratories and Sandia National Laboratories. I was very involved with hands-on operations and experiment planning at the AMOS observatory on Maui, where I was the principal investigator for a number of space programs involving advanced optics.
My interest in using this scientific optical and photographic basis for creating fine art images began in earnest in 1985 with extensive self-taught studies in fine art followed by workshops with John Sexton on black and white printing. Excellence in photography has been a lifelong passion with me, and I retired in 2000 in order to pursue fine-art photography on a full time basis.
I carry out my photographic work personally. I strive for the finest possible "no compromise" approach in obtaining the best images that I can for my clients. For that reason, I print and mat all images using archival traditional darkroom methods and techniques or the finest archival pigment Giclée processes.. I use standard and proprietary processes that add considerably to enhancing the beauty of the images as well as protecting them archivally for years to come. My goal is to provide the finest images to collectors, and to assure that they will be delighted with the purchase of my work. Although I have use computers and digital processes extensively in my scientific work and for my Giclée prins, I also use traditional darkroom methods for much of my fine-art work.
Each of my images is processed with compassion. I do this to achieve the visualization that I desire for the image, and to assure that each work represents a true art form. It is my belief that if you purchase the works of a photographer, you should receive works produced by that photographer, not from some laboratory that simply prints their images without the personal involvement or compassion of the photographic artist.
For color images, I formerly used only Ilfochrome©, formerly known as Cibachrome. It is a remarkable material, and in order to appreciate images that have been printed on it you simply have to see them. It is an archival material, and I mat the images using a floating method on special matting.
For silver gelatin images, I use the finest fiber-based traditional fine art papers, processed in archival methods. All images are selenium toned for both brilliance and for archival longevity. All silver gelatin images are dry mounted for permanence.
For my pigment Giclée images, I use only the finest pigmented inks on archival matte or canvas media from large-format graphic arts printers.
For image capture I use primarily large format film cameras (Linhoff, Arca Swiss) for my images, although medium format cameras (Hasselblads) are used when mobility is desirable. The lenses that I use are the finest and most modern available to provide the utmost in clarity and resolution. The images are scanned using ultra-high resolution methods.
Please refer to my article in the November/December 2002 issue of View Camera Magazine for my philosophy in creating award-winning images. (For a reprint of the article, see the web page listed on this site.) I am a strong believer in visualization of the final image as I take it, and then working long hours in the darkroom or computer to accomplish this vision on the print. I translate the scene according to my vision, and then use all my skills to transform this vision to my photographic image. I stress image intent, balance, emotional appeal, originality, and impact in all of my images.
I often wonder why people buy mechanical reproductions of art works when they could buy original art either directly from the artist or from galleries that represent them. By buying original art from an artist you are gaining much more than a reproduction to exhibit. Original art is an investment of lasting value.