Photographer’s Works Are Printed on Heavy Slabs

The most enduring images to emerge from the recent earthquakes may soon come out of photographer Robbie Cavolina’s camera.

Not because his pictures are dynamite. Because they’re concrete.

Instead of using glossy photo finishing paper, Cavolina prints his photographs on slabs of heavy concrete.

It’s the perfect way to illustrate man’s environment, according to Cavolina, 28.

“They’re like human beings themselves,” he said of his eight-pound pictures. “They’re really strong, but they’re really fragile at the same time.”

To depict the earthquakes, Cavolina intends to travel to Yucca Valley this weekend to photograph cracks and fault lines that have popped up in the high desert region since the current shaking began 2 1/2 weeks ago.

After that, he plans to search for chunks of concrete that were broken loose from roadways and sidewalks by the 7.5-magnitude Landers temblor.

When he gets back to his studio in Echo Park north of downtown Los Angeles, Cavolina will coat the chunks with a light-sensitive chemical. Then he will heft the pieces under his photographic enlarger and project the quake negatives onto them.

Once the slab pictures are developed in photochemical trays and washed in ice water in his bathtub, Cavolina will have image upon image of the seismic upheaval.

Cavolina said he has felt a heavy responsibility to perfect his concrete art since he first painted a picture on a piece of concrete six years ago at Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design.

“Other students were making snide remarks about my work,” he recalled. “I had really tight paint strokes and they said, ‘Why don’t you just take a picture?’ ”

Why not, indeed, Cavolina decided.

Since then, he has devised a way to cast his concrete slabs with hidden reinforcing wire that keeps them from breaking if dropped. He lets freshly cast chunks harden on canvas cloth. That gives the gray, fence-post concrete a textured finish.

Cavolina has concocted a special sealer to keep the photographic image from fading or accidentally soaking into the porous concrete. (His secret ingredient: lighter fluid.)

His hundreds of concrete photos have included images of people and scenery. His most recent series of about 50 pictures depicts telephone poles. In Cavolina’s view, they are the cross-like deities of modern man.

“They charge your home with power. They provide you with contact with the world. They’re everywhere. But they’re invisible at the same time,” he explained.

Although other artists have combined photography and stone--Venice artist Diane Buckler uses a photochemical and sandblasting technique to etch marble, for example--local art dealers said they know of no other photographer working in concrete.

Cavolina’s concrete photos sell for about $1,200 each at the Shea & Bornstein Gallery in Santa Monica.

Producer-musician Larry Klein received a concrete image of an oak tree as a birthday gift last year from his wife, singer Joni Mitchell.

“Everyone who sees mine wants to pick it up,” he said. “It’s very striking.”

Klein admits he is in no mood to be struck by it in case of an earthquake, however: His picture is propped up against a wall at his recording studio. “I might be a little hesitant to hang it over my head, say over the bed,” he said with a laugh.

Singer-songwriter Victoria Williams keeps her concrete photo of a rose on her mantle.

“It’s like sculpture,” Williams said. “It has a feeling of being very old.”

There’s little likelihood that concrete pictures will become the newest photo fad, however. That’s because there’s no such thing as one-hour photo processing.

It’s a two-week process, Cavolina said. And that should just about cement his hold on the pictures-by-the-pound business.