Shelburn Falls, MA 1981

The Peripheral Vision Portfolio are works connected to the “Peripheral Vision” blog from Bill Schwab, where he shares stories of selected alternate photographs from his archives of never before-made-available prints. All come as high-quality pigment prints signed by the artist.

Title: Shelburn Falls, MA 1981

“It’s the summer of 1981 and I am a student at Fred Picker’s Zone VI Workshops in Putney, Vemont. The workshops are structured following Ansel Adams’ out in Yosemite National Park, but those are a little out of my league as a college student. There are other photographers of note teaching here as well, but today is my small group’s day with the big guy, Fred Picker. We’ve gone to nearby Shelburn Falls, MA to make photos and I have my Busch Pressman 4×5 set up on a tripod in ankle deep water composing this scene. Fred is making the rounds to each person and spending a little time with them and it is now my turn. He comes up to me, hanging over my shoulder as I finish my composition and ready myself to press the plunger on the cable release. I can feel Fred there getting antsy while the light is changing and just about when I am about to make the exposure, he all but yells into my ear in his down east accent the only words I remember him speaking to me that week, “Take the F&%king Pitcha!””

Edition: Peripheral Vision – open
– Pigment Print
– 8 x 6 -inch image size
– 8.5 x 11 Hahnemühle Baryta
– Signed, titled, and dated by the artist on reverse
– Unmounted