Old Fan Press ~ Louisiana
(Frank Hamrick)

Stronger than the Waves Crashing on Us
By Frank Hamrick
Ruston, Louisiana: Old Fan Press, 2024. Edition of 50.

9 x 8.75 x .25"; 20 pages. Inkjet printed with Epson UltraChrome HDX archival pigment inks on double-sided matte Red River Paper. Colophon and edition number set in Craw Modern typeface. Pamphlet bound with 18/3 Irish linen thread. 18 black & white photographs from the 1999 Tibetan Freedom Concert in Amsterdam. Amsterdam images captured on Kodak Tri-X 35mm black & white film in a Pentax SLR camera with a 50mm prime lens. Title letterpress printed, set in Cheltenham and Ruben typefaces, and Old Fan Press logo relief printed in metallic silver oil-based ink on handmade cotton rag paper. Cover paper color varies - blue, purple, or gray. Signed and numbered by the artist.

Frank Hamrick, Colophon: "Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys and social activist Erin Potts established the Milarepa Fund in 1994 to help advocate for a free Tibet. They organized the 1996 Tibetan Freedom Concert in San Francisco, which was followed by a second festival in New York in 1997, and a third in Washington D.C. in 1998, generating greater public awareness and financial support for the cause.

“Four Tibetan Freedom Concerts took place Sunday, June 13, 1999 in Japan, Australia, the United States, and the Netherlands. The music festival held at RAI Parkhal in Amsterdam featured a speech by former political prisoner Ama Adhe, as well as musical sets by Luscious Jackson, Urban Dance Squad, Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros, Dutch band NRA, Gang Chenpa, Garbage, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, Alanis Morissette, and Blur.

“10% from the sale of each book will be donated to the Tibet Action Institute."

Lens/cratch, October 20,2024 "Frank Hamrick: Stronger Than the Waves Crashing on Us"
$100

When the light becomes eternal
By Frank Hamrick
Ruston, Louisiana: Old Fan Press, 2023. Edition of 50.

8.75 x 8.75”; 16 unnumbered pages. 14 Tintype photographs altered. Cover art, Craw Modern typeface, and Old Fan Press logo relief printed using oil-based ink on handmade cotton rag paper. Bound with 18/3 Irish linen thread. Softcover with sewn binding. Inkjet printed on double-sided matte Red River Paper using Epson UltraChrome HDX archival pigment ink. Press numbered. Signed by the artist.

Frank Hamrick, Colophon: “The solar eclipse darkened the afternoon sky. Frogs and crickets by the pond started to croak and chirp, then fell silent again when the sun reappeared. My neighbor suggested I fly a toy drone before using the professional drone at work. The manual’s translated directions stated the light on the toy drone would flash when first turned on while the propellers accelerate towards operational speed and then be ready to fly when the light becomes eternal. Chance, the simple gardener in ‘Being There’, became Chauncey Gardiner to others who misinterpreted his conversations about gardens as metaphors for cycles in global economics and relationships between individuals. Some things in life briefly take flight while others achieve orbit.

“Moving subjects, shifting light, failing equipment, recycled materials, as well as contaminated, homemade, and exhausted chemistry helped create these original wet plate collodion tintype photographs between 2013 and 2021 in Georgia, Louisiana, Texas and Tennessee.”

LenS/cratch article “Frank Hamrick: When the Light Becomes Eternal” by Aline Smithson
$100

Chasing the Sun
By Frank Hamrick
Ruston, Louisiana: Frank Hamrick, 2010. Edition of 25.

6.25 x 6.25"; 13 pages. Double-sided accordion structure attached to back pastedown. Mocha and gray Hahnemühle Bugra papers. Adobe Garamond Pro typeface. Paper stained by cooking it in tea. Quarter cloth binding over Davey binder boards.

Frank Hamrick: "My first trip west led me across Texas and into New Mexico. The vast, open landscape surrounding Highway 90 was much different than the thick terrain of my native Georgia. Later abstract art reminded me of the open landscape I had seen in west Texas where the land and sky were reduced to large swathes of color when the day transitioned into night."
(SOLD)

It was there all along
By Frank Hamrick
Ruston, Louisiana: Old Fan Press, 2019. Edition of 55.

9 x 9"; 24 pages. Tintype inkjet reproductions printed on double-sided matte Red River Paper using Epson UltraChrome HDX archival pigment inks. Hand-carved relief printed cover art and Old Fan Press logo printed on cotton rag covers. Edition number letterpress printed onto cotton rag end sheets. Cover paper and end sheets produced at the Texas Woman's University Department of Visual Arts. Signed by the artist.

Colophon: "These wet plate collodion tintype photographs were created throughout Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, Texas, and Tennessee near the Cumberland, Ouachita, North Toe, and Mississippi Rivers, as well as the Little Choudrant, McNutt, Sand and Whites Creeks, and the Gulf of Mexico.

"This book's publication coincides with the exhibition 'It Was There All Along' at the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Georgia."

Frank Hamrick: "The images are made in response to growing concerns of water issues, whether it is recreation, faming, drought, flooding, or coastal erosion.

"As the grandson of a well driller, I learned early in life that water does not originate from a faucet, nor simply disappear after going down the drain."
(SOLD/Out of Print)

My face tastes like salt
By Frank Hamrick
Ruston, Louisiana: Old Fan Press, 2017. Edition of 41.

7.5 x 3.75"; 20 pages. 18 illustrations (duotone, four color). Indigo digital printing process. Materials: Jade 711 PVA glue, 18/3 Irish linen thread; .08 Davey binder's board, cotton rag paper, 80 lb., uncoated, Mohawk paper. Signed by the artist. Edition number stamped onto the end sheet. Handbound pamphlet binding with quarter cloth and paper over boards. Cover art and title are letterpress printed on cotton rag paper handmade at the University of Georgia and its study abroad facility in Cortona, Italy.

Frank Hamrick: "My face tastes like salt is an artist's book … featuring eighteen portraits, landscapes, and still life images originally created as 8 x 10" and 8 x 8" tintypes, which focus on looking at and moving through the natural world."

The images were created using wet plat collodion tintype photographs and are of scenes in Georgia, Louisiana, and Tennessee.
(SOLD/Out of print)

Sometimes Rivers Flow Backwards
By Frank Hamrick
Ruston, Louisiana: Old Fan Press, 2014. Edition of 25.

7.25 x 7.5"; 14 pages. Interior pages inkjet printed. LaserJet printed colophon. Printed on 50 lb. double-sided, matte, Red River Paper. Bound in paper-covered boards with Canapetta bookcloth spine. Paper for boards and endsheets handmade from cotton rag. Signed and numbered on the colophon.

Images by Frank Hamrick using tintype photography.

Colophon: "Natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes can cause rivers to reverse. Letterpress type is inversely carved so that words read properly when inked and pressed onto paper. Tintypes capture mirror images of their subjects. Just like multiplying two negatives results in a positive, making a wet plate of letterpress characters produced the cover's right reading inset tintype."

Frank Hamrick, Light Leaked interview: "Digital photography has made things more accessible to people but also leaves many feeling removed from the process. These hands on, alternative methods being practiced can be seen as a reaction to the proliferation of digital processes, but there are also a lot of analog/digital hybrid processes being developed.

"My bookmaking is a good example of blending analog and digital methods.

"A few years ago one of my graduate students had been unsuccessfully trying to learn how to make tintypes. I did not know how to guide him. My solution was to start learning the process over winter break and then return to school and show him."
(SOLD/Out of print)

This Machine Kills Fascism
By Frank Hamrick
Ruston, Louisiana: Old Fan Press, 2020. Edition of 12.

7.25 x 7.25"; 12 pages. Coptic binding with hardcover. Relief printed image and letterpress type. Typefaces include: Cheltenham Extra Condensed Bold, Craw Modern Regular, Franklin Gothic Extra Condensed. Printed on cotton rag paper handmade at Texas Woman's University. Signed and numbered.

A book to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment which was passed in August of 1920. The deciding vote was from 23-year-old Representative Harry T. Burn, a Republican from McMinn County in Tennessee. In the colophon Hamrick gives a nod to Burn. Interestingly it was Burn's mother that convinced him to approve it.

The amendment reads: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

In November of that year more than 8 million women across the United States voted in elections for the first time. We've come a long way, baby!

Another little historical tidbit – Woodie Guthrie inscribed "This Machine Kills Fascists" on his guitar in 1943. He permanently painted the words on his guitar as a form of constant protest (Info from Reddit and Wikipedia).
(SOLD/Out of print)