Summary
Unknown Tuscany, the first book of Patrick Alt’s photographic work, takes the viewer on a journey to out of the way places and overlooked details of this most famous part of Italy. Shot with his 8 X 10 inch large format camera and rendered in the exquisite platinum printing process, these images trace Alt’s travels through the back roads of the Tuscan countryside. “For Alt is not interested in bringing back images of something already there and waiting for us, but rather in capturing images of a Tuscany that does not yet exist, that comes into being as he develops his pictures,” says Lyle Rexer in his insightful introduction to the book. “This Tuscany is the unknown Tuscany, not of untraveled byways, not of unexpected light and shadow, but of the artist’s imagination.” This dark green silk covered book has a tipped front image and copper foil typeset. It was printed in quadtone on heavy uncoated paper to closely match the tonality of the original hand made platinum prints.
Author Bio
Born in 1950, in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Patrick lived in various parts of the country until 1970 when he moved to Southern California to attend California Institute of the Arts. He received a BFA in 1972. Graduate school was completed in 1974 at UC Irvine with a MFA in painting and photography. His first job was exhibition design curator at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. In 1976 he relocated to his loft in downtown Los Angeles where he lived continuously for over 25 years. In 2000, he and his wife Melissa moved to their new house in Culver City which he designed and built.
He has been photographing for over 32 years. His photography is represented by several galleries around the country and he has exhibited his work extensively in both group and one man shows. His photographic work continues the tradition of large format black and white photography, concentrating mostly on the platinum/palladium printing process. One of the founding members of the Los Angeles League of Platinum Printers, he exhibited with the group around the country until its demise in 1997.
He uses numerous large format cameras to create his images. These range from 8” X 10”, the 12” X 20” banquet camera and the 18” X 22” mammoth plate camera, some of which are up to 100 years old. Many of his images are created using old antique lenses as well, giving a distinctive look to the final print. The main body of his work deals with the nude in the landscape and more recently with rural and urban documentation. His work reflects the Pictorialist's sensibility and their belief in Beauty as the prime source of image making. He had a service to restore and refinish old wooden large format cameras, as well as the manufacturing of wooden large format cameras of his own design. He has currently embarked in a new direction in his work incorporating photographic imagery into large scale constructions, paintings, and sculpture.
Unknown Tuscany
