Shoes and Tattoos

Oryx and Topi - Oregon, 2007

NYC panoramas, continued...

Tapes n' Tapes live at the 930 Club

Papal Mass in DC

A large crowd of ticketless Catholic worshippers who were unable to attend the Pope's mass at Nationals Stadium were able to watch a big-screen broadcast that was set up just outside the venue.

One more from the archives

For those of you who remember my earlier post about this project, here's the before-and-after of another forgotten picture. Making Buckminster Fuller proud, circa 1968.

One of the Chosen People

Some good news! Three of the photos that I submitted to American Photography 24 were chosen to appear on the AI-AP web gallery disTRIBUTE this year. The photos are from the feature for German Geo that was published this past October ("Utopia im Wald"). Needless to say, I'm really excited about that (I'm in a state of disbelief, actually), and I'm also looking forward to the annual AI-AP Pub Party this November. It's supposed to be an incredible party, and it will be a great excuse to visit friends in NYC. It's been a big transition leaving NYC and moving to DC this past month, but I'm getting settled in, starting work on a couple of new projects (and of course continuing the older long-term projects), making the rounds, and generally getting my act together. Expect more new pictures soon...

Heavy Metal Drummer

Here's a picture from a recent death metal show at the Corpse Fortress, a group house in Silver Springs, MD that hosts metal and punk shows. A total of four bands performed in the basement that night.

99 Cents Only!

The best use of an Andreas Gursky photo ever?

From the 99 Cent Stores' website: "Renowned photographer Andreas Gursky describes his famous '99 Cent' photo as aisles of brightly packaged merchandise fused into a perfectly ordered whole. This 11 by 7 foot photo has been displayed in the New York Museum of Modern Art, as well as museums in Paris, London, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. It was taken in 1999 at the 99¢ Only Stores located on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. This photograph recently sold for over $1,999,999!"

Personally, I really love the fact that Gursky let them use the photo. That's quite a way to give back.

Sean's zombie

My good friend Sean Samoheyl had his work included in the WPA art auction in DC last week. I had the opportunity to crash the party and hang out with him and another Virginia artist and all-around good guy Warren Craghead. It was great seeing Sean's monster dolls on display in a museum setting -- his art's getting a lot of exposure these days, and he's currently planning to take his phenomenally amazing one-man puppet shows on tour this summer (he'll be opening for Kimya Dawson, of Juno fame). Sean gave me a hand-carved wooden Leica M6 a couple of years back, and it's one of my most prized possessions. Check out his website, and if you get a chance, go see him perform live--you will not be disappointed.

Fire + Hula Hoop = Fun

Salsa dancing

Walk for Obama NYC

Gearing up for an exciting election year...

Berlin Alexanderplatz at PS-1

Fassbinder's controversial and bizarre epic "Berlin Alexanderplatz" is on exhibit at PS-1, both as a "multichannel video installation" (is what I believe they call it) and as a series of film stills--the room filled with film stills is what really caught my attention. Viewed as single images, the cinematography (by Xaver Schwarzenberger) becomes even more captivating and lyrical.

Harlem

Blind Light

Anthony Gormley's installation "Blind Light", at the Sean Kelly Gallery in Chelsea.

Morningside Heights

Richmond, Virginia

Jacob Riis Park (Queens, NY)

Geo Magazine - October 2007

Last night, I was sitting in the ICP library, flipping through books, and killing time before meeting up with a friend, when I happened to glance over at the magazine rack. There, nestled comfortably among all the back-issues of PDN and Aperture, was the October issue of Geo Magazine, staring back at me seductively. A look inside the issue reveals a 12-page feature that was the result of a one-week assignment, a return trip, and (on my end) a few years' worth of occasional visits before that, as part of a long-term project that I've been working on. (The picture above is an outtake from the assignment.) For this feature, I had the great fortune to work with a highly intelligent staff writer (Gabriele Riedle), and I also relied heavily on the tremendous expertise and guidance of two photo editors that I greatly admire, Nadja Masri and Tina Ahrens. It's my most impressive tearsheet by far, and I still can't believe that it all worked out so amazingly well.

And, on a side note, Chris Marker's new book Staring Back is both incredibly powerful and highly relevant. That may be surprising to hear from a "purist" like myself, since Marker digitally manipulates his images. What I like is that he alters his photographs in ways that challenge our assumptions about documentary work--and in such a purposefully obvious manner that one cannot fail to notice it, even at first glance. It's the rare photo book where the way in which the photos are presented becomes one of the main themes of the book. (And it's also the real reason why I was running so late last night. Thank you, ICP library.)

Found Photographs

I'm taking a break tonight from working on the archival restoration of old snapshots that chronicle the 40-year history of a small rural community in Virginia. Most are scratched and dusty, the colors have shifted in some of them, and a few are even covered in mold. Needless to say, I've got my work cut out for me. But I'm putting away the anti-static cloth and the isopropyl alcohol for the night, in order to showcase two others who are also dedicated to the cause.

1) Paco Gomez, a member of the Spanish photographer's collective NoPhoto, has a project called “The Modlins” that focuses on a family of American expatriates who relocated (on the advice of Henry Miller) to Madrid. Gomez found the photographs and other memorabilia in trash bags discarded outside what had once been the Modlins' apartment building, and his curiosity was sparked by this random discovery. The family’s unusual history is reconstructed through these vintage artifacts, which Gomez has preserved and restored, and augmented with meticulous research. He's also posted an interesting excerpt from an old home video on YouTube.

2) Found Magazine defies description, as do many of the found objects contained therein. Submit your own "find of the day" (photos, drawings, etc), and while you're at it, join their Flickr group (or one of the other similar groups that are also dedicated to celebrating random glimpses into other people's lives).

Francesca, Greenmarket

I ran into Francesca Magnani last weekend in Union Square, while photographing for Time Out New York's Sight's and Blights issue. If you look really closely, she's in the far distance in a couple of the pictures, in a "where's Waldo" kind of way (a face in the crowd walking past Katz's delicatessen, casually perusing Wilt Chamberlain's autobiography in the dollar book section outside the Strand, etc), but this is the picture that we were crossing our fingers and hoping they would use. They didn't, and considering it would have been the only picture featuring a person prominently, the decision definitely makes sense. But in a perfect world....

Barack Obama Rally in Washington Square Park

Lightstalkers Photo Blog Directory

It's definitely no secret that a lot of photojournalists have blogs these days. This recent Lightstalkers thread is a great resource of photo-j blogs, and the list is continually being added to.

Rock and Roll Summer Camp

From the 2007 final showcase concert.

A Critic At Large

Damn, I wish that was my camera. Anthony Lane reports on the cult of Leica in this month's issue of the New Yorker.

Sarajevo Film Festival

Mag Burger!

When in Perpignan, don't forget to stop by the Mag Burger. I highly recommend the Pommes Frites and the Nutella-covered waffle.

Humble Arts Foundation-Group Show No.18

A photograph of mine appears in this month's group show on the Humble Arts Foundation's website. There are a lot of strong images in the show, and in particular, the work of Lydia Panas (from The Mark of Abel series) really caught my eye.

Also, the deadline to apply for the Humble Arts Foundation's grant for emerging photographers is October 1.

Two photographers whose work you probably haven't seen before (and one whose work you probably have)

Jerry Berndt's series The Dive explores life in dive bars, including some located in Boston's infamous "combat zone." The photos were shot in the 1960s and 70s, and they're remarkably visceral. You could get a hangover just from looking at them. And there's a complicitness for the viewer--at least there is for me--I'm right there in the bar with these people and I have the vague sense that I'm about to do something that I'll really regret the next day. And that these people already have.

Jesus F. Salvadores' intimate and ethereal reportage on the Rainbow Family may not be as trendy as all those Burning Man projects that are floating around out there, but it's a lot deeper and a lot more interesting. Timeless images, taken quite recently.

Taryn Simon is the aforementioned photographer whose work you're probably already well aware of, and An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar is easily my favorite photo book of the year. Taryn Simon is just plain brilliant.

The Sun Magazine, September 2007

One of my photographs appears on Page 10 of this month's issue of The Sun Magazine, which is something that I'm really excited about. It's one of my favorite magazines. My picture accompanies the interview feature, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World: David Korten on Putting an End to Global Competition" by Arnie Cooper. Korten and Cooper discuss corporate globalization and touch on many other topics as well.

Coney Island - Sideshows by the Seashore

OK, I admit it, I have yet to complete Alec Soth's photography assignment. However, after spending Saturday afternoon at the Coney Island Rockabilly Festival, I'm currently debating starting a new Flickr group: "guys with dollar bills stapled to their chests."

Emma Goldman stencil graffiti

Three online exhibits worth looking at

The latest in a series of exhibitions, Moving Walls 13 is an initiative of the Soros Foundation's Open Society Institute, dedicated to providing valuable exposure for documentary projects that raise awareness of economic, social and human rights issues.

This month, the Humble Arts Foundation's Group Show No. 17 features the work of 18 emerging fine art photographers.

And for those unfamiliar with Jacob Holdt's life's work, American Pictures is definitely the place to start. There's a ton of work on his site, and it's one that I've bookmarked and return to often.

Two from the Archives

These aren't my photos. In fact, so far, they're the only photos that I've posted on my blog that weren't taken by me--but these images, along with many others, are now partly my responsibility, and one of my goals, in addition to digitally preserving and restoring them, is to give other people the chance to see them as well. Snapshots are extremely historically important as documents, and when they are made public, a personal and highly individualized visual lexicon is suddenly open to a more general public interpretation. It's at this point that the boundaries between snapshots, photojournalism and fine art break down, and the distinctions become a lot more indistinct.

These images weren't made by professional photographers, just hobbyists. Personally, I think most of us would be proud to have taken the second photograph -- it's a great moment, very intimate and beautifully framed and composed. And it depicts a time and place that no longer exists. Of course, part of the beauty lies in the fact that these photographs look old. In the age of digital photography, 35 mm Kodachrome slides have themselves become signifiers. And the dust and scratches add to that as well, sort of the "metadata." What you're looking at here are the uncorrected scans, exactly as I made them--prior to the removal of dust, the addition of contrast, the color correction (or, rather, the attempt to shift the colors back to the way they used to be, before decades of lying in a dusty shoebox in the heat and humidity of the South took their toll). After all of the long hours and stress and attention to detail and various frustrations with the amazing tool that is Photoshop, I realized that there is quite a bit of magic in these "things as they are"--or, more accurately, things that they became.

Of course, snapshot photography is first and foremost a window into the ways that people document their own lives, and what they choose to recognize as important. But--knowing nothing about the people in these photographs, the obvious question is, what exactly was it that was important to the photographers in these moments? And the obvious follow-up question is, what makes them interesting and significant to us, as we try to translate the personal, communal, and universal elements at work here, in terms of our own experiences? The only hard information that I'll provide for now will be dates: The top photo was taken in Autumn 1967, the bottom photo sometime in 1968.

I'll continue to post more of these images, along with updates and commentary. And I'll continue to spend late nights working on digitally preserving and restoring the archival photographs of a small rural community that is, in many ways, extremely important and unique.

Panorama #5

LoudQuietLoud

Union Square

A couple of nights ago, I decided to try "shooting from the hip," in an effort to break free of my usual way of seeing things, and do something different for a change. Taking pictures without looking through the viewfinder is actually really liberating. I don't think I'll be doing it often, but it was a great way to shake some of the habits and mannerisms that I've developed, and just enjoy taking pictures, without having any clue what I was photographing until I saw the pictures afterwards.

Speaking of street photography, "absurd" and "draconian" are just two of the very apt adjectives being used to describe a proposed change to NYC regulations regarding filming and photographing in public. You can learn more about it, and sign the online petition here.

Taking the message to the streets!

It's good to see all these young fellers getting interested in politics nowadays.

Backstage at Lincoln Center

Portland protest

Panorama #4

Friday poem

Flickr.com

Yes, blog-keteers, it's true. I finally took the plunge and signed up for a free flickr.com account! Hey, why not? It's one more way to show off my pictures a little, and who knows? I may get lucky and get an email one day from someone who says they really love one of my images and want permission to publish it for free. And what a great day that will be.

Anyway, as I noticed older posts slipping off the main page and into the monthly archived area, never to be seen again, the idea occurred to me to create a slideshow that showcased the "best of the blog," as it were. So, as I add photos and text to the blog, I'll also be simultaneously placing the images on flickr, where you can view them all together in a slideshow format. I'm still working on putting the work from this past year up on the flickr site, but if you have a moment, I hope you'll check it out.

Spring has arrived

Things have been busy the past few weeks, but busy in a really good way. I just got back from Virginia, where I've been shooting a magazine feature that I'm really excited about. I'll write more about it later, but so far, it's been such a great experience that it's hard to believe it's actually happening: a great writer, two great editors, getting the chance to collaborate with highly intelligent people whose standards are more demanding than my own and who are committed to high quality reportage. Without overstating things, I think it's safe to say that this is exactly the kind of opportunity I hoped to find when I decided to pursue photojournalism.

Josef Koudelka

For years, I've said that the photographer I would most like to meet in person is Josef Koudelka. Last Wednesday, I finally had the chance, when he spoke at the Aperture Gallery in Chelsea, and signed copies of his new monograph, Koudelka. Needless to say, the room was packed to overflowing, with a lot of Magnum photographers sitting in the front rows. From where I was, I could just barely see and hear, but still, it was pretty great. Max Pasion has made an excellent mp3 recording of Koudelka's talk available on his site (in case you're listening to it and wondering, the moderator is photography critic Vicki Goldberg.) Warning--the brief audience question-and-answer session at the end is more than a little disappointing--I was hoping that people would ask better questions, instead of "have you ever done color photography?" (Yes, I have a follow up question for Mr. Koudelka: what do you think about shooting digital?) If I had been a little closer, and a little bolder, I would have asked him to talk a little more about his editing process, and the ways in which he teaches himself through rigorously editing his contact sheets, which I found really interesting. Afterwards, the booksigning line was endless-- and I just had enough time to thank him for autographing my book.

Two friends, and two exhibits at the U.N.

Last Wednesday, I went to the United Nations for the opening of a photography exhibit called "Enduring Fear," in conjunction with International Mine Awareness Day, and also to see James Nachtwey's amazing exhibition, "A World Free of TB." Surely enough, I ran into Christoph Bangert and Chiho Kitajima, two old friends I hadn't seen in a while. I had brought my camera along, hoping to take a picture or two to update the blog with, and they were kind enough to volunteer to help out with that! I wrote about Christoph's first book, Travel Notes, in an earlier post. He's now working hard putting together a second book on Iraq. Two books in one year. Bit of an overachiever, that one.

Last week was quite the week for documentary photography--the following night, Josef Koudelka gave a presentation and signed books at Aperture Gallery. More about that soon.

back on the street with the Ansco Pix Panoramic

Funding has been made possible by...

Some great news! Just as I was beginning to feel a little bit down on myself and my photography, I received a letter from the Puffin Foundation, awarding me a grant to continue, and to prepare an exhibition of a long-term documentary project that I've been working on entitled "Between the Ideal and the Real". When I saw the paper-thin envelope, I prepared myself for the inevitable "We received many worthy applications this year, but..." I couldn't quite believe my eyes when I opened it up and a check fell out. It's quite the ego-boost, and I'll try not to let it go to my head too much. But after a long day of photo-assisting which mostly entailed: 1) me driving a van around Manhattan, desperately looking for someplace to park, and 2) me somehow accidentally giving myself paper cuts and bleeding all over everything towards the end of the day, this was just what I needed to raise my spirits. A huge thank you to the Puffin Foundation for taking an interest in my project and finding it worthy of funding. I am extremely grateful.