A Glimpse of a Luthier's Art: Violins
Lawrence Haussler makes and repairs violins, violas and the occassional cello - working on over one thousand instruments in a year - plying the hand tools of the luthier to restore instruments up to performance quality.
Last year, Lawrence allowed me to take photographs while he was making a violin and a viola. The process took months and every call from Lawrence announcing a new stage in the making of these instrument made me run to his studio above a store front with the curiosity and emotion of a child. In December 2003, this proud member of the "Roof Raccoon Society of Palo Alto Violin Makers and School of Repairs" - as he likes to call himself - completed these two fine instruments.
Part of what we do not normally see - the artist at work - is presented here as open praise for what takes place behind the scenes, the human response to circumstance and contingency, those unseen tremors that demand a constantly changing, nimble sense of self.
A. Chaverri
June, 2004
Photographs/series: 48
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