Melissa Catanese

Over on A Photo Editor there was a vote for a “virtual” consultation. One of the contestants was Melissa Catanese, who has given kudos on a number of blogs, but it wasn’t until I took a close look at her site that my attention was really caught.  Melissa has some really cool series of contemporary landscapes on her site.  The textures, colors and abstractness of these scenes make them so interesting.  Her series Stardust and When the Bugs Come Back are very Eggleston in their style but at the same time very original. She also has a couple of books available from Lulu and Ping Pong.  Here is some of her work

 

Olmsted trees as seen by Friedlander

Too long since my last post. There were a couple topics I was going to write about but just never quite got around to. There was a great post over on Musings by Tim Atherton last week that really caught my attention. He mentioned the work of Marten Lange, who has some really cool abstract landscape images. I really identify with them and it reminded me of some shots I’d seen in a Lee Friedlander book I’d recently purchased entitled At Work. There were many images of the wires and cables of machines that were similar to Lange’s.

Many of the images also were similar to Friedlander’s landscape images from his series of Olmsted parks. Its pretty cool because Olmsted designed the grounds for the Biltmore Estate right here in Asheville and Friedlander participated in a project entitled A Ramble in Olmsted Parks. Although, I don’t think the Biltmore is featured, the photos are wonderful.

 

Copyright Lee Friedlander

Canoes

There is a scene near my house that I’ve become very enarmored with. Its a nice little lake with all these canoes that line the shore and are kept stored on the banks.  I like the scene best when we have a snow because the bright, colorful canoes stand in such contrast to the white, neutral snow.  There are many great compositional frames that the canoes lend themselves to. Also, the boats right on the shore sometimes cast a nice reflection in the water, along with the trees. I’ve even taken my Polaroid SX-70 camera with on several occasions to photograph as well. Here is one of those shots on my Flickr page. I really love the polaroid shots as well, especially this one because the colors in the sky and water are so striking.  The scan just doesn’t do justice to looking at the actual print, but that is so often the case with polaroids.

I find it is a spot that I can revisit and find new lighting and compositions time after time. Whenever I leave my house, I end up driving by, which makes it difficult to not stop sometimes.

 

 

Today’s Polaroids

More recent polaroids. Tomorrow we’re expecting some snow, so there should be some good conditions to go shoot in. I plan on heading over to a nearby bald called Max Patch to get some nice vista shots.

Time to grow up?

There are some things that have been troubling me recently, and no that itchy rash isn’t what I’m referring to. What I’m talking about is the immaturity of the photography industry. Whooa you say, that’s a pretty broad statement, and you’re right it is. But of course I don’t mean all photographers. In fact I may be speaking to a select group, but what I am referring to could hardly be called isolated.

I am a member of the ASMP and throughout my career have been a member of various photography guilds or organizations including PPA, WPPI, Digital Wedding Forum and WPJA. Now here’s somewhat of a provocative statement, but when I felt it was time to grow up I joined ASMP and let my membership lapse in the others. Now, I’m not saying these organizations are not good or right for many people, but I felt what I needed could best be found elsewhere. But recently the ASMP has become buddy, buddy with WPPI and this somewhat troubles me. They have joined forces in supporting UPDIG, which is great but ASMP is now also sponsoring the WPPI Convention along with APA.

My thing is this, the WPPI convention is what bothers me most about WPPI, which is primarily a wedding photography organization and since I have photographed primarily weddings for six years, it made sense to join. But what I see over and over and over and over again is the emphasis on equipment, flash websites, cool seminars with dudes who rock and “superstars” who can’t control their highlights, would be lost without Nik or Kubota Actions, emphasize style over substance and are way too in love with themselves. I’m not naming names, but they know who they are and you probably do too.

What got to me most was hearing from every photographer in a seminar or web post or interview was how to be successful you had to be better at marketing than you did at photography. Now in a business seminar, I can see the place for business and marketing info, but this thought became a credo for the whole industry. To impress clients, it was necessary to have lots of photos of yourself on your blog with your newest Mac, Iphone, Ipod etc to show how hip and I guess lucrative you are and how much cash-money you have. And these are “grown” adults acting giddier than most girls I knew in middle school. Give me a break. Its like the OC has taken over the world. Is that what we want, the OC leading the way for wedding photography? Have you seen the OC, Desperate Housewives, Real Housewives of the OC, or the movie Orange County (which is pretty funny btw)? It is disgusting. Are you that desperate, pride less, and immature to sink to that? The content on many of the member blogs is such crap; noise tests of the latest DSLRs, which have been tested by everybody and their brother already, come on give me a break. And video clips of driving through mud puddles in your Hummer? WTF mate.

So that’s what a segment of our industry is reduced to? It goes on to other degrees in the fine art, documentary, and don’t get me started on the commercial guys. But that is for another post. Again, my point is feeling like I graduated to the more, shall we just say mature ranks of the ASMP crowd, who now find it necessary to sponsor this ridiculous WPPI 2008 with my dues. Ouch!

Grooming

Talking about humorous images, I thought this little series I shot was pretty funny.

Copyright Scott Lessing Hubener

Funny Photos

Humorous photographs are great. One of the best has to be Elliot Erwitt. His sense of humor is so invigorating. There is so much seriousness in many photos and because photography is such a salient and powerful medium that is to be expected. But the trivialities of the world have their place as well. Erwitt seemed to find a balance with seriousness and lighthearted photos. That’s an invaluable trait. Photojournalists see firsthand and report on so many tragedies and horrors that a sense of levity is a requisite.

But just trying to make funny photos isn’t easy. I think there has to be a certain mind frame that the photographer is in to capture a humorous moment. In a recent group show I was in, another Asheville photographer Katie Damien had the funniest photo of a large bird statue’s feet alongside a person standing adjacently. It reminded me so much of Erwitt’s New York City, 1974 which features the legs of a Great Dane, a poodle and a booted dog walker. The juxtaposition is just right on.

I can’t say I’ve tried to just get humorous photos and the few I find humorous I must admit I didn’t really even notice at the time, or at least I don’t think I did. So below are some of Erwitt’s humorous gems. Now all of his work is fabulous and having photographed many tragic events such as Kennedy’s funeral, there are many heavy images he’s captured. But here are some of the lighthearted ones.

Copyright Elliot Erwitt

Last week’s photos

We had some snow last week but the last few days have felt more like spring. The snow and cold lasted a few days and gave me a rare opportunity to photograph some snowy, winter conditions. It seems we only get a couple snows a year now so there may not be too many more opportunities this year. Again, my camera of choice was the Polaroid SX-70. I’ve just been having so much fun with this camera that I can’t put it down.

The woman in the photo immediately caught my eye in her coat. I quickly turned my car around and hoped out and asked for a picture. I could barely snap one off before she was heading for her bus. My aim was more to get a portrait of her looking at the camera but she moved too fast, so I got one as she was walking, which I liked once it came up. It got me thinking about doing a portrait month similar to what Liz Kuball came up with on her blog last month. I was just so pleased with the image I got but now might not be the right time for an undertaking like that.

Hello 2008

Happy New Year. Well I’m able to post again. Its been a crazy week or so, but my computer’s processor went dead and I had no computer. Unfortunately I had to order the part and have it installed and this on the heals of my logic board going dead on my laptop, so my luck with computers recently hasn’t been all that good. But it is a new year and a new start.

I saw a recent article on Andrew Phelps‘ book Higley. He discussed the New Topographics movement which I found quite fascinating. William Jenkins orgazied a show consisting of Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen, and Henry Wessel, Jr and Bernd and Hilla Becher. With “landscape” photographs that predominantly featured man and man’s impact on the landscape. This trend or style is still very influential today and even seen in the work of many Magnum photographers and even their collective book Magnum Landscpe. I was unaware of the impetus this show had.

Below are some of Andrew’s images from the book Higley and here is a link to Shane Lavalette’s blog with a post about Higley with some photos and part of an interview. Good stuff.

Copyright Andrew Phelps