The fine art of Rob Fountain

By ROBIN CAUDELL
Staff Writer

May 01, 2008 04:00 am

— While perusing the pages of this newspaper on a daily basis, one cannot fail to notice Rob Fountain's credit line as staff photographer.
He started his photojournalist journey at age 22 when he purchased a 35mm Olympus OM-10 and walked into the Saranac Lake offices of the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.
"I was friends with the sports editor there, Jim Stowell," Fountain said. "He said if I was interested, I could take high-school football photos for him, so he didn't have to. I started being their sports photographer on Saturdays. I did that for some time. Then their photographer quit, and they asked me to take over."
FINE-ARTS ASPECT
When Fountain first started, he knew little, formally, about photojournalism.
"The publisher, Cathy Moore, told me to fill up the frame and come up with a single photo that best tells the story of the whole situation. I had an idea of what photojournalism was by looking at the newspaper everyday. So a lot of what I did, I looked at other newspapers and saw what other photographers were doing."
Ansel Adams is an iconic influence. Fountain returned back to college at SUNY Potsdam, where he majored in art studio with concentrations in photography, printmaking and ceramics. He graduated cum laude in 2000.
At Potsdam, he studied under Jenny Layne.
"It helped me with composition and lighting. The big thing was she told me the difference between photojournalism and fine art."
Fountain's fine-arts aspect is revealed in "Northern Exposure," his first solo exhibition at Clinton Community College.
"What I have done over the years, and especially in this show, is combine the two, because I think it makes a more interesting photo."
CAPTURED MOMENTS
During his career thus far, Fountain has won 10 statewide and national awards for photography. The most recent was a 2006 Associated Press Award for a portrait of legendary bassist Gordon Edwards.
"It's a portrait of him from the journalistic side, thinking about a question that was asked. At the same time, because I used natural lighting, it creates all this texture in the photo that gives it a fine-arts feeling."
When he's not shooting for the Press-Republican, Fountain shoots for himself: Rob Fountain Photography, where he "creates unique images by combining photojournalism and fine-art photography for weddings, portraits, events, sports and landscapes."
He is a member of the North Country Cultural Center for the Arts, where his work has appeared in annual member shows. His work has also appeared at the Lake Placid Center in the Arts Juried Show and the Gibson Gallery's Art Attack Juried Show.
In his artist statement, he writes:
"All art begins with inspiration. It doesn't matter where that inspiration comes from, you just need that inspiration to spark creativity. For the past 17 years, I've been a photojournalist drawing inspiration from capturing brief moments of people's lives, making them laugh, cry or smile, and at the same time immortalizing them forever."
FINE-ARTS FRAGMENTS
He shoots digital exclusively but when he gets a chance, he likes to develop film and his own prints.
"The technology now makes things easier. As far as the end product, they're basically about the same. There's a feeling of more accomplishment by developing it by hand or making your own prints. In the digital world, you get so much help from the computer. It almost feels like you're cheating. A lot of people who have no idea about photography can take a digital photo and get something relatively good."
His exhibition includes five images from the North Country Ballet Ensemble's 2007 "The Nutcracker." These appeared originally as a slide show on the P-R's Web site.
"They're not your typical ballet shots. I took them from different angles, different lighting and situations. I used an old fine-arts trick, fragment. Instead of an image of the whole dancer, I took a picture of the dancer's legs."
The show also includes his St. Anne's Shrine Series, taken at the Catholic shrine on Isle LaMotte, Vt.
"What they have there is the Stations of the Cross set up on an inlet. I like to do a lot of winter-shadow photos."
EMOTIONAL DEPTH
In his artist statement, he writes:
"My intent as an artist is to capture the moment -- creating real feeling and emotional depth in my work, evoking an emotional response and making a connection with the viewer. If I can touch the viewer, then I have accomplished my goal.
"Northern Exposure" also includes three prints and one drawing. All were based on original photographs.
"One's a lithograph of a friend of mine, Matt, playing a penny whistle. I have two linoleums, similar to a woodcut. One is of a Civil War re-enactor, and the other one is a crucifixion."
The last one is of Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Fountain and his wife, Wendy.
His photography complements his prints and drawings.
"When you take photos that you want to translate into a print, you're still looking for the same lights, shadows and values that are in a photograph that you want in your drawings and prints," Fountain said.
rcaudell@pressrepublican.com

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