A photographer, model and multi-media artist gathered at the Unison Arts Center in New Paltz, N.Y. for a photoshoot during the Covid-19 lockdown: the photographer Dan McCormack, the model Lenoir, and Stuart Bigley, whose photographic images documented the creative process on both sides of the camera lens. This unique book of photographic art is the fruit of a three-person artistic exploration of the human form.
Bigley, Stuart: - DAN MCCORMACK earned his BA degree in Photography at the Institute of Design in Chicago. He went on to earn an MFA in Photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where as a student he photographed his first nudes. Photographing the nude was the theme for his MFA thesis which he earned in 1969. Over the last 50+ years, Dan has continued to explore the image of the nude with various techniques, processes and cameras. Around 1999, he began shooting 8x10 film in a homemade pinhole camera manufactured from a Quaker Oats container. For this project, "Nude at Home," he took two-minute exposures, even while using a 650-watt studio lamp. Around 2018, Dan began to explore the cell phone camera. The cell phone camera made image-making very spontaneous, and the spontaneity made his images more alive.Dan McCormack has exhibited his photography works since 1968 in local, na¬tional and international exhibits. He exhibits regularly in Woodstock, Kingston, Troy, Saratoga Springs, Livingston Manor and Garrison in New York. He also Exhibits regularly at PH21 Gallery in Budapest, HungaryLENOIR grew up in Northern New York, near the Saint Lawrence River, a rural environment which fos¬tered in her a deep appreciation for nature and landscape. She studied Art and Photography at school in the Hudson Valley, and, as part of the school's program, traveled to Iceland where the wild landscapes of that country gifted her with a new and fresh perspective of the world. "It was through my photography studies that I met Dan McCormack, who offered me a po¬sition assisting him with his life-sized photogram project," she says. "I learned so much about image-making from working with Dan. It was only a matter of time before I found myself in front of the camera as well."STUART BIGLEY is a multidisciplinary artist focusing on painting, drawing and photography. He studied at the Corcoran College of Art & Design and then went on to graduate from the Silvermine College of Art. In 1976, he co-founded the Unison Arts Center in New Paltz, NY, and served as its executive director from 1980 to 2013. "Over the last 25 years, my photography has transitioned from film to digital," Stuart explains. "And three years ago, my painting also evolved from lyrical abstraction to more figurative mixed media works incorporating my drawings and photographs of models and dancers." Stuart has exhibited his work in both solo and group shows at various galleries in the Hudson Valley, Long Island, Connecticut, Washington D.C. and New York City."I've been drawing the human figure practically every week of my life for the last 50 years," he adds. "All of my work celebrates the human figure as its primary reference point."
