I discovered Matthew Besinger today via Lane Collins’ new blog. I quickly became a huge fan of his after seeing his Annex the Desert project and had to pass it on. It’s well worth taking the time to look through.
I just posted some new work on my website. You can see the new gallery here.
I just watched this episode of art:21 and had to pass it on. Great bit with Robert Adams talking about some of his recent work. The Adams segment starts about 27 minutes in, but the whole episode is well worth taking the time to watch.
Watch the full episode. See more ART:21.
I helped a friend move across town yesterday, and took the opportunity to test out a f1.2 lens on loan from the U of A. I think I might have to go buy one…
I’m 50 pages into a fantastic book (despite its dreadfully boring title) called Lanscape Theory. It’s a collection of essays and the result of a round-table discussion from the big players in landscape theory. This book not at all what I was expecting, but at this point I’m inclined to say that’s a good thing. Suffice it to say that I have filled several pages in my notebook from the first 50 pages alone.
In the midst of “One with Nature“, Anne Whiston Spirn says something that stopped me dead in my tracks: “Circles have centers, paths have direction.”
This immediately transformed into a metaphor for various ways that I could go about making work, and inadvertently forced a bit of inward reflection on my part. Generally speaking, I’m a very linear person (I like paths, if we adhere to the analogy). I blame my computer science background, but that’s neither here nor there. I conceptualize beyond the point of exhaustion before I even pull out the camera(s). This is an agonizing process. The final product never comes out to be what I was hoping for, and more often than not I’m extremely disappointed.
I decided last month that I’d experiment what I will from now on refer to as the “circular” approach. The jury’s still out on whether this is a better way for me to photograph, but early indications are pointing toward “abso-f-ing-lutely”. I’ve been giving myself a lot more conceptual slack in the planning stages and trusting my field intuition with a lot more responsibility. With one short-term project done in this manner (it’ll show up on the website soon), and a few others just beginning, I’m having a lot more fun with the whole photography endeavor. Ultimately, the circular approach is leading me to images that I never would have dreamed of making before. And they’re really good!
I think I might let myself evolve into a circle…
It’s been on my to-do list for a long time, and I’ve been dreading it because I thought it would be a lot more work than it really was. The motivating factor? A timely Twitter rant from Isa Leshko. Thank you, Isa, for expediting something that should have been in the original launch of my website.
So what is this magical new feature that should have been there to begin with? Permalinks. Visitors can now copy/paste/share/etc. direct links to galleries within my one-page website. But wait, there’s more: I’ve scripted permalinks for individual images! If you get the itch to show off just one image and don’t want anyone to see the rest of the series, you can simply copy the url attached to the “[permalink]” under your chosen photograph. Click the image below to see it in action.
Now, go forth and link me up!
A few months ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Jacinda Russell when she was in town. We spoke about a project she’s been working on, called Nine Fake Cakes in Nine Bodies of Water. Inspired by Ed Ruscha (one of my personal heroes), Jacinda constructed nine artificial cakes, and is now traveling across the country to photograph them floating in bodies of water – swimming pools, lakes, rivers, etc. The entire journey has been documented on the blog. It’s a fantastic project, and well worth taking the time to dig through the archives.
Since our meeting in May, I have been finding postcards from Jacinda in my mailbox with photographs from the project. Here are some scans of the postcards Jacinda has been kind enough to send my way. When I received the first one, I had no idea she’d be sending more. I now have five in my possession, and can’t wait for more!
It’s been at least 3 years since I’ve made any effort to organize my digital photo archives, and for this reason I’ve decided to do a little house cleaning this summer. I’ve found some pretty strange and uncharacteristic images on my aptly named Photo drive, such as the one above, and I’m looking forward to the laborious task ahead of me. Expect to see more of these dusty gems over the course of the summer.
