Statement
A lighthearted look at ordinary (and not so ordinary) objects that look like the moon.
Soon to be a handmade artist book in a limited edition of 125, offered on Kickstarter, fall 2021.
It all started last year, with the gift of a 3-D printed LED nite lite in the shape of the moon, combined with a love of still-life photography and the desire to create a limited edition, hand-made artist’s book. I started shooting the nite lite, and
wanted to add other moon images to the set, but didn’t find other moon models that worked. Then, as sometimes happens, I came up with the title:
Things That Look Like the MOON (but are not the moon) and that led to images of balls of string, cantaloupes, killer space stations, sports equipment and more. I couldn’t go anywhere without seeing things that look the moon! This body of work is the result.
At least I’d like to say it all started last year, but my relationship with the moon goes much further back! The moon was big in the 1960’s and I was little. I remember being on an airliner (the kind with propellers, that you climbed up a stairway to get into) for the first time, in July 1969. My parents and I were flying to Rochester NY to visit Eastman Kodak. The pilot came on to announce that Apollo 11 had launched for the moon! Two firsts the same day, air travel for me and space travel for everyone. I remeber my father telling me that when I grew up I’d be able to travel in space as easily as we were traveling in the air that day. So far I don’t have the money to fly around in Jeff Bezos’ new rocket ship but you never know! As you can see in the photo above of my six year old self, I went Trick or Treating dressed as the moon that fall. I don’t have that costume but I do still have the lunar orbiter and lander cutouts that I’m holding in the picture. So I’ve been facinated by the moon for a long time.
The Book’s First Mockup
To set the images in a book format, I am starting simply. MOON is to be modest in size at 6.5” square and will contain ten images and text on approximately 30 pages. In the spirit of Anna Atkins’ Photography of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843), MOON will be printed photographically using a classic cyanotype formula (no ink involved). The images were shot on 4×5 Kodak TXP. The negatives to print the covers, endpapers, text blocks and other graphics will be created in PhotoShop, using the Futura Medium font, and output onto Pictorico OHP film, which will also be contact printed using cyanotype. For more info about the bookmaking aspect of this project go to The MOON at redbarnletterpress.com
As of this writing (August 2021) the images have been chosen and a concertina binding has been decided upon. That way MOON can be experienced as a hand held book or as a sculptural object. Papers have been tested and Hahnemuhle’s Sumi-e is the winner, hands down! Sumi-e is a heavy tissue, brite white, strong and slightly translucent. I’m working on cover graphics and copy now. The goal is to create a prototype book in November and have examples of presentation materials ready by December 2021. MOON is to be offered with the option of a presentation case, a single editioned 10×8” print or a full set of ten prints. When everything is set, MOON will launch on Kickstarter.
Bio
David Sokosh is a photographer living in Claverack, NY. He creates photographs using the 19th Century processes of Cyanotype and Wet-Plate Collodion (tintype) and makes artist’s books by combining letterpress printing with Cyanotype. HIs current projects include: “Things That Look Like the MOON (but are not the moon); “Objectified in the Time of Covid” and “John Rogers in the 21st Century, Contemporary Issues Seen Through a 19th Century Lens”.
Raised in Bethel, Connecticut by two amateur photographers, Sokosh began taking pictures at an early age. He holds a BA in Photography from WCSU. He moved from Connecticut to Brooklyn, NY in 1989.
Sokosh worked as a client liaison at Kelton Labs from 1989 to 1998. During that time he had the honor of working with Lillian Bassman, Steven Klein, Brigitte Lacombe, Helen Leavitt, Mary Ellen Mark, Mark Seliger, Lou Stettner, and many others.
He created photographs with the Polaroid Transfer process and received a number of grants from the Polaroid Corporation, culminating in a 20×24-studio grant and inclusion in their permanent collection. A study of the relationship between power lines and architecture was published as the book “Provincetown Lines”. His reportage series “Gay 90’s” at Underbridge Pictures in DUMBO Brooklyn was part of the Magnum Festival. His tintypes appeared in The New York Times accompanying the story: This Just in from the 1890’s
Sokosh was the director of Underbridge Pictures which specialized in both vintage and contemporary images of architecture, exhibiting painting and photography.
He founded Brooklyn Watches in 2008, building men’s wristwatches using a combination of vintage and newly made components.
He moved to Claverack, NY in 2015.
Most recently his images have been included in: Time Lapse-Contemporary Analog Photography at Shelburne Museum; Views of Antiquity Shaping the Classical Ideal at the Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg, FL; Mortals, Saints & Myths at Carrie Haddad Gallery; the Member’s Show at the Center for Photography at Woodstock and Members Project(ions) at the Griffin Museum, Winchester, MA
His work is included in the Pfizer collection; the Kinsey Institute; the Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg, FL; Shelburne Museum and many private collections.
Sokosh is represented by Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
Cassandra Goldwater is a former adjunct professor at Lesley University where she taught Creative Nonfiction, freshman English and survey literature classes to undergraduates for almost 10 years. Additionally, she mentored students in the Low Residency MFA program in word image projects. Partnering with Karen Davis, she co-taught Word Image in the extension program at Lesley. She holds an MFA from Lesley University, an MBA from Simmons College, and a BA from the University of New Hampshire.
Jill Frances Johnson is the Assistant Nonfiction Editor at Solstice Literary Magazine. Jill earned her MFA in Creative Nonfiction at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA in 2017 after graduating from Smith College in the Ada Comstock Scholars Program for nontraditional (older!) students. Her work appears in Under the Gum Tree and Clockhouse and SolsticeLitMag. Her current project is a memoir Water Skiing in Kashmir about her expat life during the ‘60’s.
