03/11/12 Untitled

I’m especially attracted to simulacra of living things: sculptures, mannequins, and toys. Perhaps it is their unsullied innocence (though they may seem to engender human foibles), but it’s also that they’re in many ways taken for granted and largely unnoticed, ignored, or even abandoned, yet they endure. They seem to return my gaze and possess a history. They are mute witnesses to the theatre of the streets, and sometimes, if the convergences are right, they serve up a story or two.

Place: Macy’s, Philadelphia

Camera: Nikon F

Exposure: By guess

File size: 11.5” x 9.3” @240 dpi

Film: Tri-X rated at ISO 200

Develop: HC110 1:49, 6.5 min @68F

Scan: Epson V500

Proof: Epson 3880, Museo Silver Rag

Week of 03/04/2013: More Window Thinking

Location: 22^nd near South, Philadelphia

Size: 9” x 13.5” @240 dpi

Camera: Canonet QL17

Lens: Canon 40mm,  f1.7

Film: Tri-X 35mm rated at ISO 200

Exposure: Automatic, not recorded

Develop: HC110 1:49 6.5 min

Scan: Epson V500

Proof: Epson 3880 w/Quadtone Rip

I’m slowly catching up with developing film. I don’t like having a backlog and I’m not an advocate of waiting a long stretch of time before the film becomes a photograph as a way of maintaining objectivity. Sometimes that roll that’s been sitting around can yield some pleasant surprises and puzzlements such as “What was I thinking?” The timing couldn't have been better since a whole slew of window shots will be showing at Frame Fatale in April. (Stay tuned!) This shot, I’m pretty sure was from back in October or possibly the summer. Already that feels like ancient history. 

The Concrete Muse/ Week of 02/25/2013: All Mechanical, All Analog Capture

One of my drawing teachers, Charles Eldred, used to say, “What’s bothering you will find its way into the work.” I do believe this. Lately, the seemingly nonsensical has been tugging on my shirttail.

Location: Near Broad and Chestnut

Image Size: 14.4” x 9.7” @240 DPI

Camera: Nikon F without meter

Exposure: Guesstimate, f8 @ 1/125

Lens: Nikkor 35-70 Zoom

Film: Tri-X @ISO 200

Dev. HC110 1:49 one stop pull—6.5 minutes at 68F


Buy this print on Etsy: Click Here

The Concrete Muse, Week of 02/18/2013

Location: 22^nd and South

Camera:    Canon SD600 Digital Elph

Image Size: 9” x 12” @240 dpi

Conversion from color jpeg done in Photoshop

Proof: Quadtone Rip, Epson 3880 on Canon Pixma II paper,

The essential question this week has been how many layers can I put on, still move, and maintain an ongoing concentration? I really enjoy studying the subject and considering the options. Its not unusual for me to use my fingers to make a frame to see what kind of composition something might make, or I casually raise the camera to my eye just to see how the lens frames things, but not necessarily to snap an image. However, sometimes working quickly, impulsively and without conscious mediation is an advantage. In this case it was. I saw the Leonardo, the gargoyle and the reflections in the window of an oriental carpet store that is in my neighborhood. I pulled out the point-n-shoot digital I sometimes carry, took a quick shot and headed home. I had been out for hours and was blind to my subject, at least consciously. 

When I made the print, I was both intrigued and put a bit on edge. I kept on telling myself I should have shot it with more care and consideration and I should have pulled out the superior film camera. Even though I think most modern photographs are over-sharp, I always want more depth and detail in my images. Attempts to revisit the “crime” scene proved fruitless; what I had captured was a one-time event.

I think there are many lessons to be learned from this. For one, anything worth photographing is worth doing with best instrument possible. I have since banished the little point-n-shoot from my camera bag. Photographs are, for the most part, moments of convergence that are not repeatable. This is a large reason why they interest me. Too, one has to learn to let go and move forward. Philadelphia is full of fascinating things that await a visual conversation.

Purchase on Etsy: Click Here

Week of 02/11/2013: The Last of Ortlieb's Brewery

Location: Site of former Orlieb’s Brewery, near 3r^d and American Streets.

Camera: Superheadz Black Slim Devil

Lens: 22mm

Film: Tri-X

Develop: HCll0 1:49 for 200 ISO rating-6.5 minutes

Scan: Epson V500

Proof: Epson 3880 using Quad-Tone Rip*

Paper: Canon Pixma II Gloss for proof, Museo Silver Rag for final.

Part of the mysterious power that the urban landscape possesses for the camera is that it is ephemeral and ever changing. I knew this site would soon be seeing the wrecker’s ball to remove the last structures, so back in October I got my licks in. Desolate spots hold for me a special photographic appeal and there was nary a soul around.

*Quad-Tone Rip is a program I’m really enjoying. It controls the printer directly for black and white printing and allows the user to bypass all the mumbo-jumbo of the Epson print procedure. Common printer profiles are built in, others you can create them. (Something, which I haven’t done as yet.)  The software will work with conventional Epson cartridges but it was designed for Cone Piezographic (archival carbon) inks, something that I am planning on setting up in the near future. 

02 04 2013: The Space In-Between

Location: 22^nd and Pine Street vicinity

Camera: Superheadz Black Slim Devil

Lens: Superfat 22mm, plastic, most likely a doublet.

Exposure: f8@ 1/125 approx

Film: Tri-X 35mm

Develop: HCll0 1:49, 6.5min at 68F

Scan: Epson V500

Proof: Epson 3880 on Canon Photo Glossy II

This shot was in many ways un-meditated. I had framed the scene zooming out to 35mm and it just didn't seem to cut it. Though I could tell the light was far from optimal for a toy camera with a slow lens and high shutter speed, I took a chance.  What happens at the point of capture is fairly incomprehensible and, as I’ve found, like lightening, it rarely strikes twice in the same place. The moments captured by the camera are not just optical phenomena. I’m not even sure exactly where this was taken, but chances are I won’t get to re-shoot. It’s the fine surprises, like this one, when the unconscious and the capture device have entered into cahoots, which keep me shooting day in and day out and walking miles in the cold. 

Week of 01/28/2013: Blame it on Nipper!

“Much nonsense is divinest sense.”-Emily Dickinson

I remember in graduate school trying to articulate in a critique (and badly I may say) that I was interested in creating on canvas the same kind of feel that a 78rpm record can engender—the way the sound emerges from a noisy maelstrom.  I believe I was trying to recapture a childhood memory of listening to obsolete shellac discs-- possibly that first awareness that there was something bigger, fuller, more interesting, and (probably more dangerous) out there; more than I had imagined my future could be.

I never did figure out how to create that kind of haunting resonance in paint (though I tried and failed repeatedly), yet that center did not vanish. It’s the background jumble, the disorder, the big mess, and the nonsense that attracts my sensibilities. I’m watching the kitchen door as it were and finding it much more interesting than the parade out front. 

Last week I rambled into Fairmount. I nearly passed this one by, perhaps because I fear repeating myself. When I shoot film, I find I’m much more selective about what I photograph. I slow down (even more!) and really examine what’s in the viewfinder and think about what the final print may look like, yet something told me “Go ahead.” 

Buy on Etsy: Click Here

Title: Dangling Conversation

Size: 8” x 12” @240 dpi

Location: 19^th and Spring Garden vicinity

Camera: Nikon F100

Lens: 35-70mm Nikkor Zoom

Film: Kodak Portra 400, 35mm color

Develop: Lab

Scan: Epson V500 (scanned as black and white)

Adjustments and slight crop in Photoshop

Printer: Epson 3880

Proof: Canon Pixma Glossy II