Eleven
This is Dek Unu Magazine. In Esperanto, dek unu means "eleven." Eleven images from a single artist. Eleven artists in eleven solo issues in each publication year. Dek Unu publishes the work of a new artist-photographer in each issue. The artist's work and words are featured in individual focus as the sole purpose for each issue of the magazine. Unlike other arts and letters magazines which might look for work from a variety of artists to support an editorial staff's theme, at Dek Unu, theme and imagery are always each artist's own.
It was the dean of landscape photographers, Ansel Adams himself, who said, “Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer—and often the supreme disappointment.” There is certainly no one among us who, back at home after a serious outdoor photo jaunt, has not looked at the result, only to learn again exactly what Adams was talking about. Whether it’s a hundred digital exposures or a roll of 12 two-and-a-quarters, the losers often easily outnumber the winners. There are always two consolations though. Any walk through and deep conversation with nature is its own reward, and even Adams, the man who “wrote the book,” had plenty of similar, disappointing days.
Artist and analog photographer Tom Kirkendall’s title for this series is “Trees” but these are not at all a botanist’s specimens. In his craft and vision, Kirkendall makes each of these artworks as a proposed solution to the riddle of the landscape—how to pull location, weather, equipment, composition, and darkroom alchemy together to share an equivalent image of the photographer’s feeling—the original moment of “Wow!”—with the rest of us. His long career has often focused on outdoor and adventure photography, and this series comes from his travels in the back-country of California, the Carolinas, Arizona, and his home in Washington state. His trip takes us to one surprise after another: a leaf, a rootball, an odd natural arch of moss covered limbs. Each is a gourmet's example of traditional black-and-white photography. Each artworks is a singularity in our image-saturated visual universe, a one-of-a-kind record of a single test of patience, skill, and luck. For April, Kirkendall presents eleven of them, each one a winner.