Luis G. Palma: Goldtones & Stained Prints

Luis Gonzalez Palma

Collection

BODYGUARDS “Bodyguards” is an integrated series of images created by Luis Gonzalez Palma in 2008 and realized in print form throughout 2009. First and foremost, these photographs are objects of great beauty which carry a palpable physical presence.

The series is also a meditation on several important themes and ideas. The most fundamental ideas concern identity (personal and cultural); strength and vulnerability; and paradox. The artist’s vision and intent has been realized through a ten-month, highly collaborative process with two master printers with decades of combined experience in alternative and historic photographic processes. This collaboration has resulted in the creation of prints in two rare and esoteric processes, each of unsurpassed beauty and power. Both are unique within Palma’s œvre in several respects.

When looking at these extraordinary prints one is immediately struck by their power, beauty, subtlety and delicacy. From hundreds of possible combinations of, processes, techniques, materials, and interpretation the final ones selected for creating the finished prints were chosen over an arduous tenmonth period. This required over twelve-hundredhours of research, experimentation, trial and error.

This prolonged collaboration allowed the master

printers to fully realize the artist’s intent and vision.

The imagery and the final prints are both multilayered and densely packed with meaning, significance, and subtlety.

The artist, I believe, wants us first and foremost to explore the nature of identity. Who are we? How do our cultural values and preconceptions effect how we view ourselves and others. Palma employs numerous paradoxes to engage us in thinking further about these issues: the powerful, trained bodyguards adorned in a delicate (and somewhat feminine) 16th century collar, it was worn only by the rich and elite (the very type of person for whom the bodyguards now work). There is also an obvious vulnerability evidenced by many of subjects, yet these are men we know and value for their strength, resolve and ability to protect their employers in even the most exigent and hostile of circumstances. The simplicity and uniformity of the dress and the setting contrasts with and emphasizes the complexity and variety evident in the eight human faces. Thus, these warm, delicate, luminous, penetrating and mysterious prints help lead us in to a deep exploration of the beauty and meaning of these multifaceted images and the nature of our own identity.

—Christopher Cardozo Minneapolis, September 2010

Bodyguard No. 1 Platinum Palladium, Hand-Stained All images are approximately 18” x 23” All paper is approximately 21” x 29”

Bodyguard No. 2 Platinum Palladium, Hand-Stained

Bodyguard No. 3 Platinum Palladium, Hand-Stained

Bodyguard No. 4 Platinum Palladium, Hand-Stained

Bodyguard No. 5 Platinum Palladium, Hand-Stained

Bodyguard No. 6 Platinum Palladium, Hand-Stained

Bodyguard No. 7 Platinum Palladium, Hand-Stained

Bodyguard No. 8 Platinum Palladium, Hand-Stained

Bodyguard No. 1 Platinum Palladium, Coffee-stained Signed and stained by Palma All images are approximately 18” x 23” All paper is approximately 21” x 29”

Bodyguard No. 2 Platinum Palladium, Coffee-stained Signed and stained by Palma

Bodyguard No. 3 Platinum Palladium, Coffee-stained Signed and stained by Palma

Bodyguard No. 4 Platinum Palladium, Coffee-stained Signed and stained by Palma

Bodyguard No. 5 Platinum Palladium, Coffee-stained Signed and stained by Palma

Bodyguard No. 6 Platinum Palladium, Coffee-stained Signed and stained by Palma

Bodyguard No. 7 Platinum Palladium, Coffee-stained Signed and stained by Palma

Bodyguard No. 8 Platinum Palladium, Coffee-stained Signed and stained by Palma

“...if you can explain a poem, it is not a poem. Poetry has to be inexplicable. And it is impossible to explain the emotion of the violin from Bach. You can talk about something, but to explain why you feel things...you can’t. So I try to have an emotional impact, not with words or sounds, but I try to get these deep emotions from images.”

—Luis G. Palma

Bodyguard No. 1 Contemporary Goldtone Quarter Plate (4 1/4 x 3 1/4) Vintage Daguerreotype Case c.1850

Bodyguard No. 2 Contemporary Goldtone Sixth Plate (3 1/4 x 2 3/4�)

Vintage Daguerreotype Case c.1850

Bodyguard No. 3 Contemporary Goldtone SIxth Plate (3 1/4 x 2 3/4�)

Vintage Daguerreotype Case c.1850

Bodyguard No. 4 Contemporary Goldtone Sixth Plate (3 1/4 x 2 3/4�)

Vintage Daguerreotype Case c.1850

Bodyguard No. 5 Contemporary Goldtone Sixth Plate (3 1/4 x 2 3/4�)

Vintage Daguerreotype Case c.1850

Bodyguard No. 6 Contemporary Goldtone Sixth Plate (3 1/4 x 2 3/4�)

Vintage Daguerreotype Case c.1850

Bodyguard No. 7 Contemporary Goldtone Sixth Plate (3 1/4 x 2 3/4�)

Vintage Daguerreotype Case c.1850

Bodyguard No. 8 Contemporary Goldtone Quarter Plate (4 1/4 x 3 1/4�)

Vintage Daguerreotype Case c.1850

Goldtone Museum Set Contemporary Goldtones Vintage Daguerreotype Cases c.1850

Bodyguard No. 1 Platinum Palladium Coffee-stained Individual Print Signed and stained by Palma

Bodyguard No. 3 Platinum Palladium Coffee-stained Individual Print Signed and stained by Palma

Bodyguard No. 6 Platinum Palladium Coffee-stained Individual Print Signed and stained by Palma

Bodyguard No. 8 Platinum Palladium Coffee-stained Individual Print Signed and stained by Palma

Luis Gonzalez Palma Pricing Information Coffee-Stained Individual Prints..................................$5,000 Hand-Stained Suite..................................................$22,500 Coffee-Stained Suite.................................................$30,000 Goldtone Museum Set.............................................$15,000