Here are some Polaroids I found looking through my girlfriend’s old family photo albums. There were some real keepers I found, but these two in particular I was really drawn to. It makes me want to go out and shoot some good ‘ol Polaroids. Also after seeing the new Philip-Lorca diCorcia book coming out entitled Thousand, which features 1,000 of his Polaroids and then Andre Kertesz’s book The Polaroids I’m wanting to run out and grab a 600 series for myself.
Philip-Lorca diCrocia’s book that I recently purchased has really grabbed my attention. The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston has a retrospective and published a book along with the exhibit. Its a great introduction as much of diCorcia’s projects are here. There is a good introduction and background that starts things off. Also, at the end of the book is an interview which is also very informative into the approach used. A few years ago I heard about a case involving diCorcia in which a subject of one of his “head” series sued in objection to his photo being published and sold. diCorcia won of course.
diCorcia’s work is worth looking into. It appears documentary, but is set up and contrived often with paid subjects, sets and strobes. But there is always a lot going on. His commercial and editorial work is great as well. Check out his representative at Leslie Simitch Limited.
Copyright Philip-Lorca diCorcia
I need to get back on track with post here. I’m in the process of moving so thats part of the reason. I’ve got carpet to pull up and a huge task of refinishing a hardwood floor that has been covered with over 1, 000 padding staples and carpet glue. Ugh, I don’t know why anyone would do that to these beautiful floors. Also walls to paint, so I’ll be the home improvement guy for the next few weeks. I hope everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving Holiday.
Some photos from a work in progress. In the fall I decided to document the tress as they go from bright colors to leafless. I’m really interested in the different textures I find. Not sure of a title yet.
Seems now is the time for receiving grants. I myself and waiting to hear on a couple I applied for. A couple people who don’t have to wait to hear are Zoe Strauss and Ben Huff. Congrats to both of them for the respective accomplishments. Receiving a grant helps out a lot for photographers trying to do a project mostly from their own financing. It seems nowadays documentary photographers are even more important as many publications don’t do serious documentary or even journalistic work. Long gone are the FSA and other government organizations to create stories. Over 90% of the photo books I see are self-assigned projects. Persistence is the key.
Over at A Photo Editor, there’s a new feature photogrpahers can use to submit work. It’s a cool feature and has taken off. Participants can submit a website, a photo, a project any number of portfolios and peer view them, comment and rank them. This will be a very popular feature.
Here are some more photos from a series I’ve been doing. I’ve added a gallery to my website as well. Its coming along well and I’ve really enjoyed the process. The photo of the tombstones plays well with the whole While You Were Sleeping title. Once I’ve gotten the photos completed and edited I’ll be looking to hang a show. Getting there, but we’ll see.
Here’s a photo from Cameron Davidson of a former lake in NC near Raleigh. I wrote in some previous entries about our water shortage. Buncombe county is now “critical” which is the most serious stage. There doesn’t seem to be much concern for the seriousness of the situation. The water manager was quoted as saying “we should be okay”. Should be, that’s real comforting. It does make for a pretty picture though.
The Coen Brothers are back with a new film, being widely heralded as a masterpiece. I’ve been a fan of the Coen Brothers for years. Their cinematography is always top notch, dating back to the Barry Sonnenfeld days. The last few movies they’ve knocked out have left me feeling somewhat disappointed, especially after setting their own bar so high with Fargo and my personal favorite, The Big Lebowski.
But apparently they are back on track and in full force. Returning to a style described as similar to their first effort Blood Simple. This week in the New York Times Magazine there is an article and photo essay recreating many scenes of the Coen’s movies. Photographer Finlay MacKay does a great job creating a cinematic feel in each of the nine pictures. It reminds me of a series I saw a couple months back that Annie Leibovitz did in Vanity Fair. Finlay did another recent piece in the Times Magazine, seems they’re equally pleased with his work.
Finlay MacKay
I went to Greensboro yesterday for a board meeting for the NC chapter of the ASMP. Our meeting was near downtown at Dan Routh’s studio. The neighborhood where he’s located was really cool. I got there early enough to walk around for a few minutes. It was an ecclectic mix, there were old storefronts, from the 1930s and parked in front was a brand new six figure Lotus sportscar. The scene was surreal.
As I walked towards Dan’s studio I came across a gentelman standing in front of his workplace. I was immediately struck by his clothing which matched the building exterior. He allowed me to make his photo.
Media Storm has a great photo documentary on their site. The project is entitled Never Coming Home and is a photo and audio documentary of some of the troops killed in Iraq. I can’t tell you how emotional the stories are. The families tell about their loved one and their loss. Here’s a description by MediaStorm:
As soldiers and marines perish in Iraq, headlines and funerals mark their passage. The families that cannot forget are often forgotten themselves. In the summer of 2004, audio producer Zac Barr partnered with photojournalist Andrew Lichtenstein and began interviewing American families who had lost a loved one in Iraq.
The pair traveled to the South, Midwest and Northeast and into family’s homes to record their memories. At the same time, interactive designer Tim Klimowicz was producing a data-driven representation of coalition fatalities mapped across the dimensions of time and space.
Never Coming Home details a deeply personal and public bereavement, and shows a portrait of grief and sacrifice of families with a hole in their lives, nothing but memory where once there was a living son and brother.
View the documentary here
I just bought the Walker Evans book Lyric Documentary with an introduction by John Hill. This book is fantastic. I’m really drawn to the Havana 1933 body of work Walker Evans did and it may be my favorite, but in Lyric Documentary we get to see the photos Walker Evans made for the FSA for a brief two years. Many regard this as his most important work. I wouldn’t debate that, however what I really love about this book aside from the photographs is the introducing John Hill writes. It is taken from a lecture that Walker Evans gave at Yale University in the 1960s. The topic Walker Evans speaks only minimally references photography. Instead he speaks about his self-ascribed style, Lyric Documentary. What an eloquent description. I only wish I were able to think of such things.
During his lecture, he looks back into history to Leonardo Da Vinci and his anatomy studies. What Walker Evans appreciates is the information, science and documentation of the anatomy, but which is done in a way that also makes it lyrical or artistic. Walker goes on throughout history to point to other examples, few of which are photographic in nature. I’m very inspired by this book; both by its photos, its message and the approach behind it. Read it if you have the chance.
Some time ago I began a project photographing at night. I’m pleased with the direction and progress so far and feel like sharing a few photos that I have. Hopefully I can finish this up in the next couple months. The project deals with loneliness and solitude. I’ve just added some links to interesting blogs as well over on the right side navigation. There was a recent list on the Magnum Blog with a lot of links, some of which I’ve added to my site. Take a look around and see what you find, there is some really interesting stuff out there.
I just got back from Atlanta. Unfortunately I didn’t make it down for an Atlanta Celebrates Photography, but rather to visit IKEA. It was interesting to visit as Atlanta is having a water crisis right now, not unlike many places out west and even here in WNC. There wasn’t much conversation that I heard while there, which I found in oddly eerie. The situation reminds me of the recent New York Times story on the Perfect Drought, wonderfully photographed by Simon Norfolk.
While I was there to shop at IKEA, I did have time to make some pictures. Last night I drove around and found a seedy little section of town. There was a MARTA station there, which is Atlanta’s above ground rail system. There were many railcars at a station, probably for service that I photographed. And when I was heading home throught Georgia and SC, I came across several lakes that were quite low, which I stopped and photographed. They weren’t as low as our Lake Fontana, but they were getting close.
