CHANGE OF PACE...

Well, I've certainly threatened it enough times, and at last, the time seems nigh at hand- things will be definitely slowing down a tad here. Not only have I said much that needs be said (photographically and otherwise), but I now find myself somewhat involved with this thing we love called photography- this time, my own. I've finally got this portrait project off the launchpad, and though I still have no idea if it will successfully achieve orbit- it has launched, and is effectively accelerating.

Unfortunately, because of the nature of the subject matter (ie- respect to those participating with developmental disabilities) I won't be posting the results as I go along. I think they have to be viewed in context, and as a whole. That said, if pleased with how they progress, I may gather a strong dozen (if and when that occurs) and attempt some kind of publication, grant writing or other recourse toward funding- something that will lead to actual prints, publication, exhibition, whatever. Again, that is one possible version of the future...

In the meantime, making exhibition quality files of high res scans from these portraits, as well as some other recent, non related work, is taking a considerable amount of my free time and effort. Usually, down and dirty lo res scans suffice, but these high res scans (all silver negs) are some highly picky critters that demand attention, time and concentration, lots of it, (particularly from a photoshop amateur on a toy monitor).

I'm in uncharted waters, studio type portraits ain't my usual- and the sensitive subject matter and my bare bones approach makes it necessary to proceed and feel my way s-l-o-w-l-y. No pain, no gain as they say...

 BTW, the 40mm Ultron is one killer performer!

Sweet vs Pellegrin

Photo: Ozzie Sweet

Honestly, I never heard of Ozzie Sweet till this week; then I read the very first paragraph of this NY Times article, and... deja vu all over again. No, it's not exactly the same as Mr. Pellegrin's modern day misadventure- then again, it pretty much served the same purpose (filling a visual gap by blurring both identity and reality). Mr. Sweet's Newsweek cover sold us near total fugazi; Pellegrin on the other hand, makes us more active participants in our own deception- there's just enough real weed in that oregano to take the novice unaware.



Reminds me of the old Johnny Carson joke: "Would you have sex with me for a million dollars? Well... yeah, of course. Would you have sex with me for five dollars? Hey, what kind of girl do ya think I am? We've already established that, we're just arguing about price."

The Invisible War

This can be fixed to a very large extent if the will is (ever) found- instead of stonewalled, denied and obfuscated. In the meantime, it is a travesty of monumental proportions inflicted on its survivors, and a shame upon us all. Not that women are perfect, but my own sex really does sicken me at times...

And it's certainly not just about India- or the military....

Can't Help But Think...

... of the amount of outright scorn and ridicule that would have resulted if someone other than the likes of Big Dawg David Hume Kennerly* came out with the comment he unleashed on Bag! Anyone lower down the food chain would have been laughed straight outta town and kicked off the precipice for good measure for suggesting any racial overtones...

* I'm sure this was just an isolated case...

The 4x5 Gallery & Glass Key Photo

The Lower Haight in San Francisco has a new photo gallery/camera/darkroom supply emporium, and it's well worth the visit! The The 4x5 Gallery is a nicely situated storefront enterprise that is currently seeking artists to display on the walls and in its print bins, while the back of the gallery houses Glass Key Photo, which is stocked with a nice selection of B&W paper, chemicals and film. And did I mention the impressive collection of clean film cameras and lenses they have for sale at very reasonable prices?

This is one heckuva nice addition to the neighborhood, one that will hopefully continue to grow and prosper...

The US Political System (in well under a minute)

the expanded version here...

Consolation Prize De Jour...

Aline Smithson at Lenscratch in collaboration with Canteen has showcased the work of several of the first round losers (eg- yours truly) in the latter's photographic competition- along with the official judging remarks and the individual photographer's response. This really is breaking new ground in how things are done...

Securing Your Legacy

For years I have thought myself fairly secure in the notion that my negatives were safe from the ravage and devastation of flame and fire. After all, they were safely tucked away within the vaulted confines of my "fireproof" Kodak Photofile safe.  Security, preservation, peace of mind...

NOT!!! A minimum amount of research this holiday season proved I was nowhere near the level of security Papa Kodak had led me to believe. While my current safe may protect paper with a minimum amount of security (provided the fire is put out pronto)- it will do little else.

Seems my "fireproof safe" passes a UL350 testing for 1/2hr, which means it'll keep the confines of the safe within 350 degrees (ie- oven hot) for a grand total of thirty minutes before my glob of already melted negs go up in smoke with the "safe" itself... in other words, it's useless- you don't wanna let your precious negs go beyond 125 degrees max. What ya need is a media safe with a 125 UL testing for 1hr- that'll keep 'em nice and cool and healthy presumably till the firemen have done their thing... But media safes ain't cheap!

I started researching this 'cause my current (not so) safe is just about full up. The only media safe I can afford (the First Alert 2040) that at least touts the required fire safety qualifications (alas, someone in the commentary already proved it sure ain't waterproof as claimed) has internal dimensions that are miniscule. Fortunately, I'm able to fit everything I now have in there since I cut my negs into 5 frame strips, but will need another shortly...

Media safes with considerably larger interiors are con$iderably more expensive. And while much is made about the necessity of preserving your digital files on diamond encrusted, platinum encased DVDs, etc- unless you go through the pains of depositing multiple files at multiple locations on a regular basis, they better be fireproofed, wherever they are...

House Of Cards

This entire series looks like it was done in one take. That's not a put down, it's very well done and quite entertaining, just that the lead is the kind that Kevin Spacey can somnambulate  through and still get nominated (and win) whatever award this particular series could entitle him to. In it he plays a major Congressional wheeler and dealer- one I'm sure many can only dream of replicating in real life.

Anyway, the major reason I'm writing anything about this is because there was one very "humorous" scene in which George Stephanapoulos is interviewing grilling a politico on network news that the Kevin Spacey character has set up- and Lil' Georgie is not taking no for an answer. He's tenacious, a veritable pit bull, pushing him up against the wall and pimp slapping him at will. It's very much the way I've seen British interviewers go after their own home town wankers. The only problem is that Lovable Lil' Georgie is a veritable puppy dog in his real life news escapades- he's acting out his own macho idealization of himself in the wet dream of his life and career. Perhaps one day he'll be allowed to play the part in his own TV series, the one he could never achieve in real life...

Same As It Ever Was- History Illustrated

It Was The Best Of Times...

Two interesting essays on today's photography, one from ARTnews  concerning disaster photography and documentary exploitation via Duckrabbit, the other from Joerg Colberg concerning the overwhelming saturation of images we now live under.

I think the very fact that more of us now demand and expect context, background and explanation to complete and complement documentary and even many forms of “fine art” photography is actually quite the step forward- and I’m hardly the optimist. It is now a large part of what differentiates “serious” photography from the immeasurable clutter that perpetually clouds our peripheral view.

Of course, there are now not only photographers who provide relevant background and history to their work, there are also the magnificent mavericks who take it that crucial step beyond and try to directly do something positive to better said situation(s).

Meanwhile, Joerg seems pretty stressed by the current "avalanche of photographs," how we make sense of it all, and how we separate the wheat from the chaff. He also suggests one possible "solution" to help us find our way through the ever proliferating muck and mire, and a very valid one at that. 

Perhaps, if I too made my living immersed in photography, dealing with it the majority of each and every day, I'd also be seeking out more viable filters and solutions. We are inundated by a tidal wave of junk images via every image making (and storing) piece of technology imaginable (with yet more to come), and truth be told- there's an incredibly wide variance of good imagery out there as well, and we no longer have the necessary time to make sense of it all before the new batch comes flooding in. We no longer have the luxury of time to savor, examine and fall in love with much of the photography that would naturally, or eventually, appeal to us the most. We've been stripped of adequate time for reflection- the next images await! We are now making photographs, both bad and good, faster and more plentiful than ever before, faster and more plentiful than the time it takes to sort them all out. We now view, as well as shoot, photographs in fractions of a second.

Since before I picked up a camera, photography has strived to make both its language and technology accessible to all. It has succeeded, and in the process made most everything redundant- each of us to make peace with it in our own way...

Nikon Repair- Sad, Sorry, Sordid...

Any time you have to send a camera body in for a "repair" (consisting solely of replacing a missing screw on the outside of said body), you have one seriously flawed "repair" service!

Their no parts policy  is not only ridiculous and without just cause, it's pernicious- and for any new potential camera buyer, good reason alone to look elsewhere when making that initial investment for a product with very similar features...

Thirty plus years of brand loyalty and you end up being denied a part that costs them .005 cents to make! For fellow (soon to be former?) Nikon users- you can sign the petition here... less than 75 signatures needed for 10,000 (as of above date).

Fifteen Bucks A Lecture? Really!?

Photo: Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen

If you haven't seen Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen's B&W series at Lens, you're in for one helluva treat- terrific stuff! Really. And the color update ain't bad either. That said... Fifteen freakin' greenbacks for a slide show and a talk... Jeeez! C'mon now! Love ya Sirkka-Liisa, and I know it ain't your fault, but does ICP not see the not too subtle irony of charging an amount the likes of which the very people pictured in the photos (then or now) could ill afford?

Ans.- Why would they, Stan? Photography has a long tradition of making money off the poor and starving. Right. What a vast (vast) difference between their policy and say... that of The Anastasia Gallery, which actually hooks up a charity with the photographic theme of each exhibit. But Stan, they're two completely different kinds of institutions doing... lemme stop ya right there- yes, they are! Night and day.

By the way, I'll be seeing and listening to Todd Papageorge (3/07) and Martin Parr (3/12) here in San Francisco courtesy of Pier 24 for... zero, nada, goose egg. And I doubt ICP will be holding any free reviews anytime soon...

... My Kingdom For A (Good) Screw!

Camera in hand, subject before me, things are looking good. Press the shutter and... and... the advance lever doesn't budge! Huh? It's frozen, rock solid, this mother ain't going nowhere, no how. Thirty years plus of thumb action and I ain't ever seen nothing like it. I play with it and get it to work- sorta. A shot here, a shot there- but only when it wants to. I take the film out, reload and smoothly advance to where we left off. As soon as I take the first shot, dead stop. Play with it again, a shot here and a shot there- no apparent rhyme or reason. Fortunately, my subject is more than patient as I try to conceal my urge to chuck the damn thing across the avenue- my Nikon FM3A, the camera that's supposed to outlive me.

So while I'm on hold for Nikon Repair, I notice the screw under the frame counter on the camera's top plate is missing. Related? I keep playing with the camera and finally notice that whenever I apply downward pressure on the top plate, the lever advances. The 1/2 millimeter misalignment caused by the missing screw was the problem- end of story. Went to the camera store, a salesman threw me a loose screw- back in business. Now to see what's on that film...

Now I Ain't No Scientist...

but I sure as hell saw this one coming years back when they first started totin' their poisonous goddamn Miracle product...

Alien Harvest

This is old news (as far back as the sixties), but it continues to occur to this day. Horses and cows with there anuses, utters, throats and sexual reproductive organs cored out with the utmost surgical precision- and without a drop of blood (or tracks) to be found anywhere in sight! In some, the carcasses have actually made indentations in the ground as if dropped from considerable height. Of course, skeptics will dismiss all the above as the work of predatory animals. Try telling that to experienced ranchers- especially when scavengers will not even go near the remains!

At first many considered it the work of UFOs, since strange lights would be seen in the area(s) around the time of these occurrences. Some thought "cultists," although not one has ever been connected or arrested to any of these instances over the decades. Lately however, more terrestrial causes are being considered and an "experimental sedative" has been found in some of the carcasses. But the question still remains as to exactly who, or what, and even more importantly- why...

Set Up, Railroaded & Convicted

According to Kiriakou, based on what he had been told by the CIA, it had taken only a single brief instance of waterboarding to extract answers to an interrogator's questions from Abu Zubaydah....

He was able to withstand the waterboarding for quite some time. And by that I mean probably 30, 35 seconds... and a short time afterwards, in the next day or so, he told his interrogator that Allah had visited him in his cell during the night and told him to cooperate.

Eventually it became known that Abu Zubaydah had in fact been waterboarded at least 83 times, and that little or no useful extra information may have been gained by "harsh methods".

The only Fed to be convicted and sent to jail for torture was the one official who didn't engage in it and spoke out publicly against it. And in order to get that prized conviction in The Era Of Obama Transparency, John Kiriakou was set up and railroaded lock, stock and barrel. The animals who did the actual torturing, the lying, son of a bitch, bastard who destroyed records of those proud, defining moments in American history are home resting, getting their pay checks with drink (and flag) in hand.

Tilted Horizons And Antiquated Style

 8.
Great style, but I’d like something that ties the photos together that goes beyond styling–not necessarily a coherent narrative, but something that makes the images somehow build on each other. But I do love the mood of these, the antiquated feel. This photographer is obviously skillful. Though I also don’t get the crooked shots employed in a few of these–I’m not getting how they benefit the composition.


Antiquated. Well, I've definitely been called worse- a lot worse. It's also reported that I got style and skill. The latter two did naught to save me however as I went down in the first round of judging in the Canteen competition. I thought the photographs I submitted worked and interacted quite strongly together, obviously the judges thought otherwise and saw them as single, unrelated images, which automatically puts you at considerable disadvantage. Fair enough, I guess...

The crooked shots criticism however is, if anything- antiquated. I mean, geez, tilted horizon lines are at least as old as old man Winogrand himself! Are they necessary? Well, when they help create a composition that brings the picture to life... yes! Used with discretion, it's as valid a technique as any other compositional tool. You'd think any obviously skilled photographer, with style, would know that...

Photo: Gary Winogrand (on the straight and narrow)

Photo: Gary Winogrand (listing into photographic history)

Noir City Film Festival

 

Every year I treat myself to at least one double feature at The Noir City Film Festival held at the Castro Theater in San Fransisco. This year I saw The Sniper ('52), one of your earlier treatments on serial killers, and Experiment In Terror ('62), a fairly in your face thriller (what a difference a decade can make) concerning a sexual predator. Many of the theater goers attend in period dress and the flicks are usually quite entertaining. The pair mentioned above were both shot in San Fransisco, and as an added bonus we were treated afterwards to location shots both as they appeared in the film, and how they look today (complete with addresses)...

Blatant Nepotism At Its Absolute Best...

None other than the daughter of Groucho Marx makes her all out bid for sixties pop song fame and posterity! Joyous and utterly innocent in execution- they must have worked on the choreography for hours in her bedroom. (via Boingboing)