D. Wesley Vaughan

Sue Summers, On the Arts

"It isn’t every photographer who tries to get black and white image to make music. David Wesley Vaughan’s latest series: “Black, White and the Blues,” is a tribute to a variety of blues, rock and pop entertainers who’ve appeared at venues throughout the west.

Vaughan explains that his true goal lies beyond documentation. He wants the viewer to feel as if they are there, hearing the music; and beyond that, he wants the process of printing the picture in the darkroom to be an original event, like a live performance. ""These one-of-a-kind darkroom creations are 20x24 inches, and were made by combining images from negatives with spur of the moment special effects. Vaughan experimented by exposing multiple images, sandwiching negatives with objects, painting developer, bleach or toner, directly onto the photo paper much like as in a painting. Vaughan chose not to reveal all his methods to me, but described the intuitive process as “jamming with my images,’ so that each print would be as improvised as a blues musician’s rendition of a song."

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