I just wrote all this stuff about my trip to Savannah and then the browser crashed. So here it is: Savannah is cool. If I lived there I would photograph in the west side and around MLK Blvd, they have many cool signs buildings etc. Also Savannah is old, really old even for the U.S. So that is tricks. Also, it has cool alleys which is good for secrets. The town raises more questions than it answers. And the to-go cups is just too funny.
Copyright Scott Lessing Hubener
No recent posts because I’ve been ill with head cold. Hopefully it ends soon. Two upcoming assignments have me excited. I haven’t been able to get off my butt and do them because of aforementioned illness. Our State Magazine, the “official” North Carolina mag and have me shooting a profile of Black Mountain, the quaint little town next door. More interesting though is a shoot for a story on haunted inns, which we have a few of around here. Typically one thinks of Charleston or Savannah for haunting, but good ole WNC has its fair share.
This is a great opportunity to get out of the same old same old. An assignment conveying creepiness is fantastic. It’s affords me the freedom and license to document without flattery. A lot of editorial requires flattery to some degree. Especially for a regional publication and assignment, there’s a dearth of unique stories. Most are just rehashes of rehashes; outdoor sports, recreation, restaurants/food and profiles of persons of interest. Its nice having an assignment be of interest and an opportunity to create meaningful and creative work. For once I don’t have to turn to personal work for satisfaction.
I will be on vacation until next week so here are a few recent photos I’m leaving with. My daughter is now shooting a series of Polaroids that we’ll publish once its done. The neat thing is that she is only five years old. Her photos have been surprisingly good. I’ll have a link to the book available for purchase once its done. Here are a couple of my own Polaroids as well.
Over the last two days I’ve been traveling around WNC and east Tennessee. Yesterday I was around Gatlinburg and today near Saluda. These Polaroids were taken while en route and while exploring thse places.
The participants for this year’s Santa Fe Review have been listed on their site, along with sample photos from their body of work and links to their websites. I’ve looked through a number of the images and have to say that I think there are a lot of lackluster bodies of work in this session. I can’t say if this is something unique to just this year’s entrants or if this was also true of the past because I didn’t see all the previous entrants’ bodies of work. A lot of the work doesn’t seem to merit review on its saliency and a lot of it is just plain horrible. I don’t say that lightly. A lot of the work is recycled and for the 1,000th time; empty freeways, come on.
A lot of the work, as with much of photography these days, seems very overproduced. I think the Santa Fe Review should eschew this kind of work and I thought that they did, but apparently not. Every time I see very produced work, I can’t help but think of the intro Jello Biafra says for Nazi Punks Fuck Off; “This is fuck off overproduced by Martin Hannett take 4!”
I’m a lo-fi kind of guy. I’m just not interested in seeing commercial treatments of fine art by big time commercial cats. The music analogy is very relevant to me. ELO, The Eagles, REO Speedwagon, Peter Frampton, Doobie Brothers grate on my last nerve. If there is content there, why try to glitter it up and if there isn’t any content, overproduction doesn’t overcome its absence. Its true for music and it is certainly true for photography.
So the 20×10 is taking longer than I planned. The problem is with the Google Checkout. For some reason it isn’t liking WordPress at the moment. If and when I figure it out, it will appear. If I can’t use the Google Checkout, I may come up with something else.
New work over at Purpose Magazine rocks pretty hard. Check it out.
