— Photographing the Mendocino Coast of Northern California since 1970 —
- updated 12/8/2011 -
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Nicholas Wilson & Friends
Forty Year Anniversary Art & Photo Exhibit
December 10 - 27, 2011
Odd Fellows Hall, Mendocino, California
Rock band publicity photo for Cat Mother, December 1971, the first photo sold by Nicholas Wilson.
It was 40 years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play, and in late December of 1971 Nicholas Wilson sold a photo from his first roll of black and white film. It was the above publicity photo for the renowned rock band Cat Mother (formerly Cat Mother and the All-Night Newsboys). That photo launched his career as an independent photographer, which included fine-art photo shows at Bill Zacha's original Bay Window Gallery, and later at the Highlight Gallery and the Mendocino Art Center Gallery. Wilson recently began showing at the Mendocino Coast Photographer Guild Gallery in Fort Bragg, where he will be the featured artist in March 2012.Mendocino's historic Odd Fellows Hall gallery reopens on Second Saturday, Dec. 10, with a group art show featuring Nicholas Wilson and Friends celebrating his 40 years as a documentary and fine art photographer. The Full Moon Second Saturday opening party starts at 5 pm and continues until it's over, with live music and slide shows. The show runs from Dec. 10 through Dec. 26 from 11 AM to 5 PM most days. Evening hours and more slide shows are planned for Saturday Dec. 17.
Joining Wilson in the show are several well-known artist friends: painters Robert Ross and Eduardo Smissen, graphic artist John Chamberlin, zany sculptor and multimedia artist Larry Fuente, ceramicist Christopher Cisper and multimedia artist Molly Boynoff. Ross and Smissen will show amazing paintings and prints; Chamberlin will show his unique poster and sign art; Fuente will have something new and surprising as well as vintage pieces; Cisper will have skillfully made pottery, ceramic sculptures and drums; and Ms. Boynoff will show some of her work in textiles, paper and other media.
Wilson is the author of the photo book "Mendocino In The Seventies." His photos have been published nationally and internationally in magazines, newspapers, books, films and video. He was the documentary photographer aboard two anti-whaling voyages, first with the Mendocino Whale War in 1976, and then with Greenpeace Hawaii in 1977.
Wilson will show selected prints from his documentary photo archive as well as some new work. Besides the physical art work, there will also be a HDTV screen with a serial display of images, including more of Wilson's images and also "slides" representing the work of other artists in the group. While this will not be a comprehensive retrospective exhibit for Wilson, he does plan to show examples of the many kinds of photography and subject matter he has done over the years.
For more information and schedule updates please email mail@nwilsonphoto.com or check back here for updates. Odd Fellows Hall is located at the corner of Kasten and Ukiah Sts. in Mendocino, California.
Here are web links for some of the other participating artists:
Robert Ross: www.robertrossstudio.com
Eduardo Smissen: www.eduardosmissen.com
Larry Fuente: www.google.com
Christopher Cisper: www.christophercisper.com
Photo Book
"New Pioneer Family" - Tony and Ella Russell with son Jesse near their home in Elk / Greenwood, California, 1972 - © Nicholas Wilson
Click on the picture for more information about the book.Here's the front cover of Nicholas Wilson's photo book released in December 2006. It covers people, places and events of the Mendocino Coast during the 1970s and early '80s.
The book has been a local bestseller. The limited first edition of 200 signed and numbered books sold out in a week, and the revised edition has gone through a dozen additional small printings.
Books are in stock at Gallery Bookshop in Mendocino, Cheshire Bookshop in Fort Bragg, and Mendocino Book Company in Ukiah, California. A paperback version is available for a bit less than the hard cover, but only by direct order from Blurb.com A deluxe Image Wrap binding is also available by direct order from Blurb.com for a bit more than the standard hard cover.
Click here for more information about the book and how to get it
See a page of sample photos from the book
Mendocino Wedding Photography
An outdoor wedding at Point Cabrillo in the late 1970sNicholas Wilson is an award-winning Mendocino photographer with nearly four decades of experience and hundreds of happy customers. He brings an artist's eye to documentary style wedding photography that captures the highlights and the emotions of the day in a story-telling photo essay.
More about wedding photography
Music, Performance and Special Events Photography
Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn headlined the Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival 2006.
Nicholas Wilson has excelled at documentary photography of music, performance and special events since the early 1970s, starting with the Mendocino Coast's legendary outdoor boogies (rock 'n roll dance/picnics) organized by the late, lamented Cat Mother And The All-Night Newsboys, who fled the Big Apple and started a vibrant live music scene on the Mendocino Coast that still echoes today.
From the Music, Performance and Special Events index page you can view web photo galleries including:
Mendocino's annual July 4 parades and Independence Day celebrations
The Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festivals of 2004-2008
Mendocino Film Festivals of 2006-2009
Philo Hayward's Shuffle Band Reunion and Tribal Stomp 2007
The great Bill Irwin in performance 2007
Opera Fresca's 2006 Production of Puccini's La Bohème
Fine Scenic Photography
Mendocino Coast at Cuffey's Cove, 1973
(click photo for larger view of this and other scenic photos)Nicholas Wilson has been making scenic photographs on the beautiful Mendocino Coast since the early 1970s. His fine prints were exhibited for many years at Zacha's Bay Window Gallery and Highlight Gallery in Mendocino. He was the only photographer represented by Zacha's, the first art gallery in Mendocino, which presented annual one-man shows of his work. Hundreds of his scenic landscape and marine view prints are in private collections nationwide. Many have been published in national magazines and newspapers, including the The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and Oceans magazine.
(Scroll to the bottom of this page for a more recent color scenic view)
Documentary, News and Historical Photography
Mendocino Whale War and Greenpeace vessels rendezvous 100 miles off Cape Mendocino
during the anti-whaling campaign of 1976. This photo went out internationally over the UPI wire service.Photojournalism and documentary photography have been important activities of Nicholas Wilson over the past three decades. His news and documentary photos have been published in national magazines and newspapers including The New York Times and Germany's Stern magazine.
Nicholas has published a new book of his documentary photos of Mendocino in the Seventies.
In 1976 Nicholas was the official photographer for the Mendocino Whale War, a colorful local community effort to stop whaling fleets from Japan and the Soviet Union from slaughtering whales off the Mendocino Coast.
The Mendocino Whale War web photo gallery was prepared for the 2006 annual Mendocino Whale Festival in Mendocino and Fort Bragg, which marked the 30th anniversary of the events. It was presented as a slide show and history talk at the Kelley House Museum in Mendocino in March 2006. (For more about the festival see www.mendocinocoast.com)
The two links below take you to the story of the Mendocino Whale War and the online photo gallery.
The Story of the Mendocino Whale War of 1976
story and photos by Nicholas WilsonMendocino Whale War 30th Anniversary Photo Gallery
photos by Nicholas Wilson
Announcements
Archival Framing prints of most photos in Mendocino In The Seventies or the web photo galleries may be special ordered. Available print sizes include 8x10, 11x14 and 16x20. Email mail@nwilsonphoto.com for prices and availability. Please identify images by book page or web image file number.
View the poster for the Dec. 9, 2006 book release and gallery opening events.
(1.2 MB PDF file opens in a new window, requires the free Adobe Reader to view.)
Contact Information
Nicholas Wilson
Phone 707-937-0137 or toll free 866-201-3576 (Pacific time)
P.O. Box 943
Fax by prearrangement only, please phone first
Mendocino CA 95460-0943
Email: mail@nwilsonphoto.com
If you have comments, requests or suggestions, please write or email.
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