Water Reflections, Ralph B. Clark Regional Park, Buena Park, CA copyright Stan Kuran 1994
By Douglas Stockdale –
Recently I have been working on a series of photographs that investigate aspects of particle physics and was developing some of these photographs into black and white images, when I saw this on-line photography by Stan Kuran. Wow. This abstract photograph just blew me away. We can probably recognize that these are water reflections even without reading Kuran’s title, but other than that, this graphic black and white photograph is very ambiguous; are we looking at a lake, pond or someone’s backyard pool, and what is the actual size of this, when in the day, month or year was it created? Looking at this image, it could have been photographed in California or Japan or Berlin, as there are not any indications for the location, other than the title. We cannot even be sure examining the lines and shapes of the mass what’s being reflected. This photograph is just so exquisite.
The scientific aspect of this visual event is described by Fresnel Coefficients that explains light reflections within the expansive world of Quantum Mechanics. This is a classic example and so cool. Thus I needed to exchange photographic prints with Kuran, swapping a small open edition print of his photograph for one of mine, as this just has to be in my print collection. I had also asked Kuran if he had printed this photograph on the Hahnemuehle Metallic Rag, which creates beautiful black and white prints. Since he was having printer issues, he sent me the file to print on the Metallic Rag. The only adjustment that was required for printing was adding a slight adjustment curve to compensate for the lower contrast of the Metallic Rag, as I explained on my personal Art/Photo blog, Singular Images. The printed results are stunning as this Metallic Rag makes the image shimmer. I made a second print for Kuran and mailed it to him. Cool!
This wonderful print now sits next to my monitor and I know that I have now been inspired to a be on the lookout for similar visual phenomena.
At this time Kuran does not have gallery representation or a website, thus for inquires about his work, you will need to contact him directly at kfullerton8@aol.com
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