Grant Ernhart photography

The New Year has started out on the right foot! I have been really busy with all kinds of photo related business which has felt really great. One of the newest things to happen is that I have finally found a studio space here in San Francisco and have moved in. For those who do not know, I had been looking for place to work outside of my apartment for almost a year. I had identified a need to move my art operations out of the living room and into a dedicated space sometime around May of 2008. To make a long story short I found an amazing space down in the Mission district with my friend Andrea Wyner, but as soon as I signed the lease the building went under construction to replace the awesome warehouse style windows that we had on two walls. It was a beautiful space, and so I thought I would just hold onto it until it was remodeled, how long could that take anyway? Flash forward to October, when I finally could get in there, but some of the appeal was gone for me, the light was not as nice and it just felt stagnant because I had been wanting it for so long, The studio had become connected to a feeling of annoyance in my mind. Luckily, a few buddies(ryan, josh and nick) and I found another work space relatively quickly. It is definitely less glamorous, but it is also less money$ and cLose Weight Exercise/”>Lose Weight Exerciser to my house. However, that was around the Holidays and so we really just moved in and got going the beginning of January!

It has felt great to get in there and be working. I have used it quite a lot already in preparing for my recent Photo Alliance lecture(which went quite well I must say!), as well as making some prints for upcoming shows. Thats right, making prints! This is probably the biggest excitement for me in this new year….. I purchased a new Epson 9880 inkjet as a sort of early Christmas present to me and my practice. Epson was giving amazing rebates and prices were lower than normal probably due to the economic downturn. Luckily I had a bit of cash saved up just for a moment like this.

It feels like a big change to be actually printing my own work again, as well as having to bone up on my Photoshop skills, but the prices at local labs were just to terrible to face. Every time I wanted to create new work I would dread the dent it would put in my wallet. Plus, beyond being expensive I always walked away feeling like I was only 85% satisfied with the final product. Now I can make sure that images are finished the way that I want them to look which is really satisfying.

So, a lot of new things have been filling my time in 2009, things that feel like the right kind of work regarding photography. I am optimistic about this year and I wish the same for everyone else!

I have the pleasure of giving the opening lecture tonight at the Photo Alliance event here in San Francisco. I will be talking about my work starting at 7:30 followed by Andrew Moore as the main speaker. I know this is short notice but if you are in the city and looking for something to do please come by. The lecture will be held at the San Francisco Art Institute.