Boris Riabov - 6 March 2025

The Keynote - 1915 - William Arthur Chase

My grandmother often told me that the devil knew more not because he was the devil but because he was an old man. Because I am 82, I can assert that I know stuff and that some of that stuff is useful.

I started taking photographs in 1958 and I have continued until now. And from now, I am continuing until I meet my oblivion.

It is for that that I can assert that the Holy Grail of photography in the 20^th century was a style that could be readily identified. We could discern the styles of Philippe Halsmann, Annie Leibovitz, Irving Penn, Helmut Newton, Diane Arbus, Ansel Adams, and many more.

In this 21^st century with magazines and newspapers all but gone the profession of editorial (magazine, newspaper) photograph has all but disappeared.

Ansel Adams’s photos are famous to this day as we know where he took his pictures and we understand the clarity of his zone system that brings out the shadows without blowing out the whites.

Because of the proliferation of phone photographs, we now see lots of nature/garden, sunset photographs. It is very difficult (my opinion) for anybody to identify these photographs to a particular photographer. It was the portrait of that past century, where a sense of style was obvious and lighting was used.

I look at my large collection of photo books and I wonder who will want them when I am gone. At the same time I know why I purchased them and why I read them all.

To have an identifiable style in that 20^thcentury one had to rip off styles of other photographers, and sooner or later the rip-offs had enough variation that they became the property of the photographer. I have looked at photographs, sculptures and paintings and I have used them for inspiration. My photographs might not make the rip-off obvious but it is there. Even poetry such as that of Emily Dickinson and my countryman Jorge Luís Borges that inspires me to take photographs to illustrate one of their poems.

I equate a photographer with a 19th century American gunfighter. A gunfighter’s last shot had to be good or he would be dead. While death is not the result for a photographer who takes a bad photograph,  I would think that a photographer is as good as their last photograph.

Such was the case (a subjective opinion it is) of my photograph last night of the mercurial Boris Riabov who is gainfully employed by Beau Photo.

Boris Riabov - June 6, 2024

Because of the excellent (my opinion) algorithms of Facebook and Twitter and since I rarely comment or discuss politics and religion, my feed is a wonderful and constant show of Vincent van Goghs, and other artist of the pasts to this day. There was one that caught my eye. His name is William Arthur Chase:

 Born:  1878 - Bristol, England

Died:   1944 - Blewbury, England

Known for: Portrait and floral still life painting.

A few weeks before last night, I had been visited by Riabov and his Beau Photo friend Nicole Langdon-Davies. He sat down at my baby grand Chickering piano and played for almost 45 minutes. When a bit later I saw the Chase’s piano painting I was inspired.

For the photograph I used a Fuji X-E3 equipped with a Lensbaby attachement and wide-angle extension. I took 8 photographs and one (in my eyes is perfect).

Today Friday, March 7 I find myself still alive.

An added piece of information important to me is that the music on the Chickering was one of three albums of my great aunt Buenaventura Gálvez Puig who was a concert pianist. The book is open at a Chopin Impromtu.