The One, The Only- Mel's Hole...

Been a while since I originally heard this, and no one's asking you to actually errr.... believe it- just to listen. One of the greatest folklore legends of the latter 20th century- and one helluva hoot to boot! Why it hasn't been made into a movie with its ready made script, I don't know... PS- It goes full tilt around part twenty, but let it slowly reel you in from #1 for the full experience!

SUCCESS- and the seeming lack thereof...

Colin Pantall has a most interesting post on the meaning of... Success! Colin was kind enough to ask moi for my input, and truth be told, despite having a productive exchange, I really couldn't put together anything really coherent- and humor (self deprecatory or otherwise) sometimes has the nasty habit of not translating well via email. So he ultimately, and most understandably chose not to run my reply.*

Do Not Hump

It took a while to realize why my initial response was as scattered as it was. Ask me why I like a picture, and I can tell you, ask me what motivates me and I can probably come up with a reason or two; ask me about success in relation to photography, and uh, well... that's not a particular morsel I've ever savored. It's just not a word I use in the same sentence with me and photography.

Photography is a medium that quite literally demands to be seen. And my work (besides the occasional and much appreciated shout out from the blogoshere) is not uhmm... much in the public eye- via print, gallery, whatever. So it's hard to comment on success, when you haven't really experienced it- particularly by the very means that the medium espouses. And yes, I fully do well realize that there's a helluva lot better, more important work out there that is always scratching and clawing to be seen.

Saying that you do it for yourself is cool- if you also have the occasional independent venue that shows or presents your work. But it can be reduced to a grand masturbatory proclamation if that work doesn't leave the confines of your own domain. And so to continue, to persevere year after anonymous year, Success is a word no longer in your equation, it's a loaded word fraught with self doubt and failure.

How I wonder what Vivian would've had to say!

*Update: Seems there was a bit of miscommunication- Colin (one of the good guys out there in photo blogdom has since posted it), warts and all.

If This Isn't A Sign...

of what an absolute shambles our education system is in- I really don't know what is...

Back To The Future- Irina Werning

Must admit- these Diptych Make Overs are quite the fun...
(via Boing Boing)

Gear Lust Finally Hits...

These past ten digital years, I've been pretty immune from the plague of gear lust that so often and so easily distracts so many of us. Good thing too, cause I could never afford new WA lenses and a less than FF sensor DSLR (not to mention suffer their minuscule viewfinders), and FF bodies are just too damn clumsy (and expensive).

But this little Olympus EPL2 seems to deliver a decent amount of IQ in an ever so cute and compact body, at a fairly inexpensive price (although the $250 EVF would be a necessity)- and their equally compact 9-18 zoom gives me the focal lengths I require. That's one fairly versatile and very lightweight combo to carry about. And the fact that you can get square, 3:4 and 2:3 aspect ratios really sweetens the deal (not to mention no more scanning)!

 My god help me- I even like the white one best!!!

Either way, I'll have plenty of time to contemplate this move since I'm currently paying off two root canals, last year's vacation (and the one previous to that). And the next 2-3 yrs are no doubt gonna see several more fairly compact cameras (hopefully with WA options) that can deliver fairly serious goods. Anyone wanna buy some (very) limited edition silver prints?

Pros
                                                                                                                                             Compact                                                                                                                                         

Lightweight                                                                                                                   Inexpensive                                                                                    
Versatile                                                                                                                                                
Various aspect ratios!                                                                                                            

                                                                
Cons

Plasticky
No true optical finder
Creepy, butt fugly protruding lens and lotus lens hood
Destroys against all odds, rebel film mystique
Not metal
Plasticky

Update:  I just saw the above camera in its (less than attractive) red incarnation; what was exceedingly appalling however, was the kit lens with its protruding proboscis- I mean... it looks like you have to buy a fanny pack as a prerequisite to be seen using one of those things!

Paid To Shut Up...

Patriot, Hero, Whistleblower...

In 2005, General Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters: “It is absolutely the responsibility of every U.S. service member [in Iraq], if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to try to stop it.”  This, in other words, was the obligation of every U.S. service member in Operation Iraqi Freedom; this remains the obligation of every U.S. service member in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.  It is a duty that Pfc. Manning has fulfilled.

Congratulations!!!

On a victory both hard won and beautiful- now comes the hard part...

(If only we had the clarity, will and insight)

Photo: AFP Marco Longari

The Shootist

Just make sure you watch it through...
(Via Multi Media Muse)

African Photographer Shortlist

Much kudos to APAD for getting this together!

Paul Graham (and errr... me)

Saw Paul Graham last night- basically went to see if I could gain a greater appreciation of his latter work upon hearing him explain and present it. After all, how could I have such a general disdain and disregard for it- considering his earlier work which I so respected and admired? I obviously wasn't getting it.

And I still aint. A sunset, followed by a woman eating ham hocks (or was it a woman carrying a case of Pepsi, or a guy mowing the lawn, or...), followed by the same sunset, followed by completely blank pages so we could meditate on what we just saw and experienced, followed by the ham hocks, the sunset, blank pages... On and on it went... And these were (sorry, for the lack of a better word) mostly snapshots, simple snapshots- not the so called "snapshot aesthetic," but... snapshots!

And so I asked as politely as I could, "Uhh, uhmmm, Mr. Graham, sir, do you think you could get major publishers to publish your work today, which is so intensely private and personal and uhhh... esoteric, if you hadn't been a known name for your first three books of more errrr conventional work?" And he answered something to the effect that none of his books made any money, and that anyone can publish their own books these days. I don't think he purposely skirted the question, and I didn't have the heart to press it further since I still do respect the guy for what he once did. After all, it's not like he sold out- he's still staying true to his vision (whatever that now is), and to his credit, it's still somewhat socially based. But the question I really wanted to ask was, "Do you really think any name book publisher, or gallery owner would give you the goddamn time of day if you walked in off the street riding this sequential, conceptual high horse- without having the pedigree of being one of the very first to so brilliantly incorporate color into art/documentary photography? Do you have any idea whatsoever the shit you're getting away with?" 

If I didn't know better, I'd swear the real "conceptual" art being perpetrated here is seeing just how far people will buy (literally and figuratively) whatever the hell is being pumped out by a name brand. Now that's a concept I could almost admire- yes, you know that third pair of blank pages really turned it around for me, it really got me to thinking... 

What compels breakthrough pioneers to ultimately descend into minimalist deconstructed artwork that can be best explained (and appreciated) by some burnt out hippie from the '60s? Then again, Paul could have simply answered, "Who the fuck are you, you sniveling little snot!?"

So I got on my bike and rode home...

Fraction Mag- Nan Brown

I previously posted on Nan Brown, if you didn't catch her then, do yourselves a favor and catch her fabulous trailer portraits at Fraction.

Update...

Well as (my) luck would have it, my Air Tran plane never took off the ground after a dreaded three hour wait on the tarmac that ended at 2AM. Could this possibly be the reason??? I'm betting on it! Never got to NYC, never made the service- and never really wanted to fly on that plane after the first hour they couldn't "fix" it.

Hope Mr. Graham has something uplifting to say tomorrow- or something to really piss me off and light a fire! Now for some sleep...

Was Really Looking Forward To This...

If you're in the SF Bay Area...

Lecture by Paul Graham 

Tuesday, February 8, 2011, 7-9 pm

California College of the Arts San Francisco Campus (directions) 

Timken Lecture Hall 1111 8th St.

2011 Has Not Been Kind Thus Far...

It came in with the passing of a student, and now a former Marine (Korea), NYC fireman, and my former boss at PS-162 in Harlem has also gone. I was very green when he gave me my first class, and had no idea how good he was at his job- and how much easier he made mine. I was soon to learn when he retired ten years later. He had his private side, but he was eminently fair- and always there when you needed him. A class act, and a stand up guy to the very end. One day when he was leading tours at the NYC Fire Dept Museum in the Wall St. area, the public unknowingly got a brief glimpse of him on TV on 9/11. Ever the fireman, he ran his retired butt towards Ground Zero and was glimpsed ghostlike and unrecognizable, completely covered in white ash and dust.

I'll be returning to NYC this week for his wake, but I'll leave a few things on the stove here while I'm gone. Death never gets easier- I guess it just gets closer. Photography is very much the active denial of that inevitable end, and a celebration of a time well spent.

Biutiful

So often, a film struggles to do one, maybe two things right; when it succeeds, it is the rare achievement to be celebrated. Many a film has imploded under its own weight should it foolishly attempt grander goals, and it's usually not a pretty sight- and a worse experience. Biutiful goes after the whole damn ball of wax, and grabs it whole- quietly, wholeheartedly and in all the intensity life has to offer. No bells, no whistles- not a car chase, bullet or explosion to be heard or seen. 

This one stays with you.

Not LA

Thought this kinda looked like something outta LA when I composed it. More importantly, knew it would fall flat on its face unless it turned out exactly as my idealized previsualization- for better or worse, and much to my surprise, it's exactly as I previsualized. Asked the wife what she thought- "Looks like LA," she said.

Nobody's Fool

Try as he might, Steve Kroft couldn't trip up Julian Assange and make him sweat. The latter wasn't having it, proved himself one cool customer- and nobody's fool...

Sick F#*king Shit!

Sorry- there's just no other way to put it....

Never (ever) dreamed that even this is so damn crazy crooked here!

Eva Leitolf- Postcards from Europe

 Rostrogordo Picnic Park, Spanish-Moroccan Border, Melilla 2006

Melilla on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast has been held by Spain since 1497. Immediately upon independence from Spain in 1956 Morocco asserted its claim to Melilla and the second Spanish exclave, Ceuta. In 1999 the European Union funded an upgrade of the 12-kilometre border defences to stop undocumented immigration. Two parallel fences up to six metres high are topped with rolls of razor wire and monitored by movement sensors, infrared cameras and watchtowers.Der Tagesspiegel, 24 June 2008; tagesschau.de, 28 August 2000

From the series Eva Leitolf, Postcards from Europe, c-print, 81 x 69 cm, ed. 6+1

I have posted on Eva Leitolf before, so it should be no surprise that I am a huge fan of her work. Postcards from Europe is her latest- and it does not disappoint. This time she revisits specific locations dealing with incidents concerning immigration in Europe. Once again, she follows her previous formula of photographing unoccupied landscapes while supplying detailed descriptions of what occurred there. And once again, her beautifully minimalist scenics eerily manage to resonate with how those problems reverberate in our present day world. Fascinating stuff!

 

 Farm of the Marchese di Cassibile, Cassibile, Italy 2010

On 16 June 2006 staff of Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) dismantled their kitchen and sanitation tents on land owned by the Marchese di Cassibile in order to follow the itinerant workers – who had spent two months harvesting potatoes here – to the tomato harvest in Foggia. According to MSF, before it intervened the mostly undocumented harvest workers lived without running water, toilets or electricity under plastic sheeting, in abandoned houses in the area, or in the abandoned farm. Between April and June 2006, MSF arranged 339 medical appointments, diagnosing mainly illnesses caused by the harsh living and working conditions: respiratory complaints, gastro-intestinal problems, skin infections and muscle injuries. A spokesperson for the organisation said that MSF had been working in Cassibile since 2003 and hoped every year that the local authorities would assume the responsibility and make their intervention superfluous. In the report I frutti dell’ipocrisia: Storie di chi l’agricoltura la fa: Di nascosto, MSF estimates that 15,000 seasonal workers come to Sicily every year.  MSF report of 16 June 2006 (http://www.medicisenzafrontiere.it/msfinforma/comunicati_stampa.asp?id=1348) 

From the series Eva Leitolf, Postcards from Europe, c-print, 81 x 69 cm, ed. 6+1

"Deeply Inadequate"

That's one way to put it...