By ELIZABETH MARCELLINO Palisadian-Post Contributor The theme of the ‘H2O’ show at gallery 169 in Santa Monica Canyon was clear from its title. But the scope of work by photographer Douglas Busch left some guests of the intimate, modernist gallery at the May 8 opening imagining a second artist. Combining vintage black-and-white contact prints downstairs with vibrant digital color images upstairs, the exhibit offers up water in a wide range of incarnations and shows distinctly different versions of the artist’s vision. The large-format black-and-whites focus on structural elements’ some man-made, some natural, like rocks’on or near water. A meditative, faraway shot gives Malibu Pier the long, narrow look of a bridge to nowhere, floating above a near invisible ocean. Another peers in close-up between sand and shadows of the weathered wood underbelly of the Santa Monica Pier. The perspective of each vintage platinum or silver chloride print seems quite deliberate. ‘I only take one image,’ says Busch, a resident of Malibu. ‘If you don’t commit to the image, it comes across.’ An anecdote illustrates that commitment. In the 1980s, Busch was working with 12′ x 20′ cameras (originally designed to capture large groups at banquets) but wanted to photograph Spider Rock, which stands 800 feet high in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona. He completely rebuilt a camera to get the vertical format he needed and drove more than 1,500 miles from Chicago to the national park. There, he shot only two exposures before packing up to drive home. ‘I’m a purist,’ he says, adding, ‘I never crop,’ but only use precisely what is ‘in the glass.’ The digital color photos reveal another sensibility. These, says Busch, ‘are about mood and emotion, [transitioning] from subject to metaphor.’ Most show the ocean uninterrupted to the horizon. Quite abstract, they have a painterly quality, even in near miniature”some works printed on alumibond measure only 6′ x 6.’ Three larger photographs displayed together serve as a study in vivid primary colors. The first, a close-up of undulating ocean unbounded by sky or shore, is pure indigo. The next two show an expanse of the Pacific at sunrise or sunset. Both sky and water are caught in a hot dandelion yellow in one and a vibrantly surreal red in the other. It seems the colors must have been altered in the printing. But Busch says no: ‘Go to the beach and sit there to see the drama that unfolds in changing light.’ Busch worked with large-format cameras for more than 35 years, designing some of his own, including a 40′ x 60′ model that he says is the world’s largest portable camera. He began working with smaller digital cameras as a way to reanimate his vision. A gallery table, filled with both coffee-table and 6′ x 6′ images, includes landscapes, street scenes, the ruins of European castles and Native American pueblos, nudes, gardens, self-portraits, heavily tattooed subjects and snapshot-like images from Miami shot as commentary. That’s all before considering the 58-year-old artist’s extensive work as a residential design-builder (‘it’s three-dimensional art for me’) and his ardent environmentalism. At one point, he mentions the need to avoid ‘getting stale.’ But it’s quickly forgotten as he moves on to his recent work in China, an exhibit to showcase street scenes from Moscow, and development of a center to educate consumers about green building materials. With so many ideas in his head, it’s no wonder some thought his photographs were the work of multiple artists. But no, just one artist with multiple personalities, in a good way. ‘H2O’ shows at gallery 169, 169 W. Channel Rd., through June, by appointment only. Thirty percent of the proceeds from works sold will go to Heal the Bay. Contact: Frank Langen at 310-963-3891.
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