Making Space Book Image Mark Ballogg Photography

Photographer Mark Ballogg

Photographer Mark Ballogg Announces New Book: MAKING SPACE Illuminates Artist's Studios in Chicago Region

CHICAGO, IL, UNITED STATES, June 8, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- Making Space
Ballogg reflects, "On November 18th, 2017, I had the good fortune to visit the Lincoln Park studio of the sculptor Richard Hunt. Since 1971, Richard has worked on his sculpture and drawings in a former Chicago Transit Authority power substation. That visit inspired a suite of images illuminating the diverse spaces artists use to conceive of and make their work.

After fleshing out my idea with friends and reviewing numerous existing books on artists' studios, I felt confident that I could create a uniquely nuanced book. Making Space was a five-year project, interrupted by Covid, photographing 166 artist studios in Chicago, resulting in around 5000 images. Each studio visit with two hours of photography ended with an hour of recorded conversation with the artist. I explored the studio as a reflection of artists and their practices. In the process, the temperament of creative people and where they work is revealed. To that end, a wide range of artists, in all aspects of gender, practice, and defining circumstances, are included.

The book represents 119 Chicago artists with 94 studio photographs intermingled with 80 artists' quotes. Wide angle, midrange, and closeup views are the basic template for an interpretive approach illustrating an extraordinary diversity of spaces. The conversations touched on all things Art, from the individual artists' relationship with their studio and how that studio models their practice outward to such questions as what art is, why make art, and art's personal and public impact. The combination of quotes and images illuminates the intersections of thoughts and structures, stories, circumstances, and ambitions and their material realization."

Photographers Statement
My work illustrates a need to find order in chaos with representation and creative interpretation held in precarious balance. I'm always looking to go beyond documentation, to elevate the image to a new level of emotional and intellectual vibrancy, to arrange and distill complex disparate elements into a dynamic whole.

I consider myself a traditionalist who embraces technology, and the move from analog to digital has been liberating, creatively. After 30 plus years as a professional architectural photographer, I have learned to recognize the moment that illuminates a project in it's best light. More importantly, my experience has nurtured a core intuition that helps me instantly pre-visualize the final image and capture compositions that blend grace and simplicity with visual complexity.

Every subject has a point at which its expressive potential is fully realized, and I strive to reach that point. At it's best, the resulting image is transformative, the photograph is no longer just a document, but a new and surprising re-imagining that transcends the captured subject.

Artist Bio/Statement
Mark Ballogg [b. 1951 - St. Petersburg, FL] was raised in Chicago. He is a practicing photographic artist engaging the concept of community through investigating varied studio spaces and practices in Chicago. In doing so, he aims to navigate the threads between his own life and the notion of foundational studio practice as it relates to the making of artwork and his own presence within the canon. After receiving an undergraduate degree in photography from Columbia College, Chicago, Ballogg lived in Paris on a 13 month scholarship. Inspired by his Paris sojourn, he produced a body of work, Pere Lachaise, published in 2015 – discovering his love for bookmaking in the process. Returning from Paris in 1983 he started a commercial photographic practice; allowing him to support his family while maintaining a more personal artistic pursuit. This balanced approach gifted him a unique insight into the power that photography holds in its ubiquity.

A loving husband and proud father of two sons, Ballogg has shifted his life experiences and practices inward: to a more personal reflection of his creative practice. His most recent book project, Making Space, consists of selected photographs and quotes derived from investigating 162 Chicagoland artists and their studios. With this community’s support, he has fashioned his lived experience into the construction of his own artistic process. Simultaneously confronting his thoughts about art and art making on an intrinsic level, hopefully leaving a foundational path that others may follow to build their own unique yet universal creative spaces.
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Contact info -
Mark Ballogg
mark@balloggphoto.com
804-912-6447
balloggphoto.com
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/makingspace_book/ @makingspace_book
https://www.instagram.com/balloggphoto/ @balloggphoto
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Product information -
Title: Making Space
Author: Mark Ballogg
Publication/Delivery Date: End of August.
Available at: Website (Pre-release link) - https://balloggphoto.com/making-space-book-2023.php
ISBN: ISBN: 979-8-218-16331-0
Retail Price: $75.00
Page count: 191
Genre/subgenre: Art, Photography, Chicago, Studios, Art Studios etc.
Dimesions: 9.5”x13”
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Mark Ballogg
Mark Ballogg Photography
+1 804-912-6447
mark@balloggphoto.com
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