Mac Read, Black Mountain Photo Arts

Black Mountain Photo Arts photographs paintings and produces giclée prints for artists in western North Carolina. The business is owned and operated by Mac Read, a fine art photographer. Hallmarks of the reproductions include accurate color, prints on fine art paper or canvas, and very attractive prices. Black Mountain Photo Arts offers many options, from low-cost décor papers to high-end art papers. Artists can choose either.

 

Finished work is typically packaged for immediate resale. In the case of paper prints, options include: bare prints, sleeved prints on foam board; sleeved and matted prints; and matted and framed prints. Canvas prints are typically varnished and delivered on stretcher frames. However, customers have the option of saving money by doing this themselves.

 

Read, a physical chemist and a former principal research scientist with the DuPont Company, retired in 1994. He and another retiree founded a consulting company that dealt with regulatory issues in the pharmaceutical industry. Mac’s specialty was computer security.

 

After selling the business in 2003, he moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he formed and operated an art gallery, a major art reproduction studio, and a camera store catering to professional photographers. He also taught black and white photography at Santa Fe Community College. In 2016, he moved to the Asheville area to be closer to his family.

 

Read photographs anything he finds interesting. His favorite genres include botanicals, wildlife, figure studies, abstracts and landscapes. Locally, his pictures can be seen at the Red House Gallery (Black Mountain), Trackside Studios (River Arts District, Asheville), and the Arrowhead Gallery (Old Fort).

Mac also offers classes on photographing art, color management and giclée printing.

Black Mountain Photo Arts is located in Swannanoa.