‘The equivalent of what I saw, and felt.’ – Alfred Stieglitz’s philosophy of image making.

Robert Walion has been making photographs since the early 1960’s, initially using his father’s 120 roll film single click shutter Ansco box camera. He was highly excited to bring his very first roll of film to the local grocery store. Oddly, he was also a bit disappointed to learn about “processing turn-around time” – he wondered: ‘Why can’t I see my pictures right now?’ Instant gratification wouldn’t arrive until the digital revolution!

Graduating to a Ricoh ‘Point, and shoot’ camera in 1972, he began making photos from peculiar angles, still depending on the local mom ‘n pop grocery to send his film out to be processed. In late 1973, he acquired a Minolta SRT-101, referred to by some as the ‘Chevy of Cameras’, which served him well for his first of many trips to Europe, and into his college years.

He moved on to a $15 flea market Yashica 2 1/4” square format camera, which was a return to his initial genesis of using the clunky, paper backed 120 roll film. A hunger for more image ‘real estate’ was in order, as the square image was a magnitude larger than 35mm film. Much trial and error ensued with correct exposure and development using this meterless camera.

By evolution, the camera itself became much less important but learning the discipline of observing the frame out to the edges became key to understanding the 35mm world as cropping tends to degrade an image quickly.  Cropping makes artistic intent randomized, instead of executed with purpose.

Robert entered the Fine Arts Program at Buffalo State College, and studied with Les Krims, in Photography, and Bonnie Gordon in the Design Dept.  Experimentation ensued with a number of non-silver photographic processes, such as Van Dyke Printing, Gum Printing, Cyanotype, and Photo Etching. Robert recounted: “Bonnie Gordon was a huge influence on me” “Via her influence, I had embraced the concept that image making did not have to be conventional in the usage of film, materials, or processing”. ‘The Formaldehyde’ was killer in preparing those many Gum Bichromate prints that I made during that time”

Robert enrolled at the Rochester Institute of Technology and learned the intricacies photographic chemistry, film, processing, lighting, and composition with even larger film cameras up to 8”X10” in size.  Learning Ansel Adams’ ‘Zone System’ was a turning point in his mastering of final image quality. Pre-visualized tonality could be harnessed in a very exact manner via a few simple calculations using a light meter. The use of color had finally taken a seat beside ‘fine art’ black & white imagery. Conceptual, Illustrative studio photography was the benchmark of the program in the final two years as a result of this methodical merging of color, texture, and lighting.

Today, Robert takes commissions for portraits and is very active with nature studies, and abstractions in nature. He describes his technique as ‘Post Visualization’, as an extension of the philosophy of Alfred Stieglitz, whose Manifesto was making an image The equivalent of what I saw, and felt’.