The Art of Fine Art Photography

Underhill Adjusts a Painting

Yesterday, Larry had a job at Copro-Nason Art Gallery at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica. For a few years he's been photographing artwork for this gallery and others and for various L.A. artists (SHAG, Joe Vaux, Audrey Kawasaki, Dennis Larkins, Jerico Woggon, Mike Shinoda and more). His transparencies are later used for the print media or to reproduce giclees (fine art prints of paintings). Photographing paintings in the proper light so that the reproduction looks as good as the actual painting is an exact art and science. Larry Underhill has been a professional photographer for 30 years and he knows his stuff!

Affixing the Black & White Register

Since my office is close to the gallery, I brought Larry a delicious sub-sandwich from Bay Cities Italian Market for lunch, plus I wanted to visit and to watch him work his magic in the gallery.

Checking Alignment

There is a precise science to this art of copying paintings. Larry has to set up the lights so that the color and focus are perfect. If he's photographing paintings of varying sizes, then he has to realign, re-adjust and re-measure everything. This is a long and drawn out process in a gallery full of paintings to copy.

Loading the Film

Snapping the Shot

Copro-Nason Gallery recently released a new book called "Copro/Nason Fine Art - a Catalogue Raisonné". There are over 450 images on 275 pages. Larry photographed most of the artwork for the book. It's a marvelous volume containing the history of the lowbrow art movement and over 15 years of exhibition history of the gallery.

Photographer, Larry Underhill