favorite blog for today
as my friend put it, “Dwell magazine made non-pretentious.” Sounds like a pretty lofty ambition to me…
-
speaking of that hookah, i love what they did with that obvious straight-on strobe shadow. so bad. I woulda pulled that out and shot a frame to do a slick composite for that horrible shadow. but that’s just me… don’t even get me started on AD.
this wolf is a model
This quite beautiful picture of a wolf jumping a fence won the award for best wildlife photo of 2009, against 43,000 others. However, upon further investigation, the committee responsible for the award found that the photographer actually hired the wolf for this shoot. What a loser.
full story here
broke
my friend adam used to own a shop in seattle. there were a lot of things stapled to the wall in the shop area. the shop is still there, it’s called counterbalance. anyway i remember one of those things said “shit wears out” as a reference for people trying to wrench out 1 more rainy season or whatever out of old parts that were ready to go.
well sometimes shit wears out, and other times it fails catastrophically.
-
public phone project
this is a work in progress. i thought it would be a funny idea to shoot pictures of empty public phone stations. but shoot the pictures with a cell phone, which is the reason there aren’t phones around. whatever.
it’s raining.
-
mobile photos v3
this is a re-edit of the photos off my old blackberry. the first edit was mobile photos v2. you will see some of the same characters… also, you will see a couple photos of a bobcat. and a raccoon eating feral cat food.
we’re pretty much up to speed now on the mobile photos, the next batch will be newer. and you bet your ass it’ll be fresher.
-
new work up on main site OR architecture and time
I don’t know many photographers who cannot see the beauty in architectural decay; abandoned barns, ghost towns, things like this. Part of the beauty is that many times a roof is just about to cave in, so there is a sense of urgency involved with getting a good photo representation. Or perhaps the building is about to be demoed for something new, like luxury condos or the like. And this is dealing with time on a grand scale, not even giving thought to the technical aspects of photography that must address issues like the time of day, year, season that affect the lighting and ambient qualities of a final image. We’re going to take those things for granted and look at building-time, which is kind of like dog years. But the other way. You’ll have to use your imagination.
We have identified that one major concern with these subjects is the issue of time vs architecture. We usually associate buildings with a sort of timeless sheltering or civic quality, we are not used to temporary structures, or things like war or natural disaster that re-shape our landscape on a whim. When these things do happen though, we quickly erase all signs of the “problem” asap and get on with our “normal” activities and lives, without being burdened by a memory of what has happened in a specific time and place. An exception to this in photography and journalism would be a war photographer, but that’s an entirely different path to discuss at another time.
One place that has a longer than usual rebuilding/rehabilitation time is the american south. I was born in a small town on the Mississippi river, and have had the opportunity to visit there a lot throughout my life, having divorced parents. I really always thought the situation was pretty awesome, travelling so much at a young age. I’m positive that influenced my relation to this subject matter. Also, I had the perspective that most people in these areas do not, in that I was constantly changing my outside perspective by moving my full-time home (army brat) while this small town never really changed at all. And most residents, with the exception of a ski trip or summer vacation, never really travelled to other parts of the country. Which of course isn’t to say they did not see what I saw, that would be an arrogant assumption. It’s just that I was given a unique vision and experience, like everyone in their own right, and I have become driven to capture this feeling in photographs. The things I look at, for whatever reason, are the most appealing to me, personally. I determined a few years ago that the only thing I look for in a subject for this body of work is character. The thing in front of the camera must convey some sort of character. These sound like dumb things to say, but every photograph has these truths embedded in it one way or another. These are what makes one photographer have his/her own style, different from anyone else.
So now the old derelict buildings are going to change. Now that society in general is making the conscious shift to return and revitalize downtown areas that were left for decades to rot. Now I feel the need to rush in there and shoot these buildings before they lose their original character and aesthetic that has been devolving for so long into what they look like at this specific point in time. To me, that is the beauty of these buildings. I guess they could bum some people out, or others just don’t care. That’s fine, but if you are into it, there are so many clues to the passing of time and the human interaction with these structures that it makes for a rich aesthetic and idea for a photograph. The fact that someone, at some point, bricked up a doorway is a clue to the reappropriation of a structure from its original state. That, along with the fact that they will not look like this for much longer. There are always photos of finished projects, I make my living off of that fact. But there is also a need for documenting other times of these places.
And I’m not even getting into the role of nature yet, and how it is part of time and how much more that enriches this whole conversation.
Here are a couple artists I found throughout my arch/photo studies that have influenced me on this subject:
William Christenberry, who originally took snapshots of these kinds of structures for later use in paintings and eventally sculpture (he shys away from calling them architectural models). Effectively, his subject has become the changing south, and illustrates the role of time quite well.
Lebbeus Woods is not so passive in dealing with time and architecture. He deals a lot with the idea of adapting buildings that have experienced catastrophe into something that incorporates that, rather than hides it, as seen in his scabs and scars idea.
-
here’s a link to my new work, the american south
badass gorilla
on the way up to south lake tahoe we stopped in davis. right next to murder burger, there is this big handpainted sign of a gorilla (in overalls with a trucker hat) with a chainsaw and a lawnmower. it’s amazing.
-
leave a comment