Here are a few frames from the book I laid out using blurb.com. It’s hard to believe you can have a hardcover 13×11″ book printed and delivered to your door for as little as 54 bucks. There’s nothing like calling your mom to say, “You want to buy a copy of my book?” Of course the feeling of joy is quickly deflated as she answers you with a no. I did sell one copy though. It’s fair to count myself right?
Cecil Vortex features a handful of a interviews with artists on their creative process. Well worth checking out if you’re as fascainated with the creative process as I am.
A few highlights:
The other part is to be ready when they are. Which is to say, a notebook and a writing implement are your passport…But it’s also important to have [these tools] beside your bed so no dream gets lost. – Bob Halman
If you’re sitting down to write a poem, the first thing to do is to forget that you’re sitting down to write a poem. And not to censor yourself in any form when you’re writing. Later on you can censor yourself all you want. It’s called editing, and it’s necessary to take that poem from this originating explosion into the crafted art that’s going to allow it to live alone. – Bob HalmanJoe Strummer said that — you have to have input to have output.
I also came across a book by Annie Lamott called Bird by Bird that should be on my doorstep in a few days thanks to Amazon. The book is a manual on writing and life and one you may want to add to your library if you don’t already have it.
She has a story I love:
Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. (It) was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.
I spent yesterday photographing a great painter by the name of William Kortlander. The afternoon consisted of me trying to understand how Kortlander approaches the creative process. Along with watching other photographers work I’m fascinated with how artists in other medium’s approach the process of creation. As photographers we’re always told if you want to understand composition to study not only good photographs, but paintings. In watching Kortlander work I noticed he’d analyze his composition in a variety of ways. He’d take the painting off his easel and lay it on the floor or he’d take it into the living room to see it in a completely new environment. You often hear artists saying that a timeless piece of art is one that you can tolerate seeing day after day on your wall. He’d also did something Cartier-Bresson did and that was to look at his work upside down. This took the focus off the subject matter and made it more about the shapes.
Bill also gave me this great quote, which I thought worked nicely with the picture I took. “I always like the connection with nature. I’m able to step outside and walk through what I’m painting.”
In the past few weeks I’ve been working on a project I love; truck driving. It takes me back to a time when I was a kid wheeling around with my Tonka trucks in the backyard sandbox. Or who can forget the joy on your face when as a child you gave a trucker the good ole fist pump and they gave you an ear pleasing salute with their horn?
I’ve also discovered how valuable it is to work with a sense of a direction and style. The first few weeks of this project I spent pointing my camera in every possible direction and using a variety of styles(strobed portraits, documentary pj, tilt shift, etc.) Not good if you’re looking to produce a body of work.
What did I learn? You can take pretty pictures using a variety of the formats and techniques, but if you want a body of work rather than a nice single you better stick with one format and technique and let the content do the talking.
Now with an approach defined I feel myself in the calm before the storm. It’ll only be a matter of days before the shooting ends washing me into the high tide of post-production and into a frenzy of caffeine filled nights. Sleep now my friend.
Me as a little trucker.
Below you’ll find the project I just finished about the portrayal of women on late-night TV. Be warned the content is a little racy although it’s nothing you couldn’t find watching basic cable TV programming. As I was sitting alone surrounded by darkness absorbing the visual spice thrown my way it took me back to being a kid when I discovered the treasure of all treasures to a teenage boy — a stash of Playboys. Hidden below the surface of life or simply the mattress you know you shouldn’t look, but the temptation can’t be contained. With 52% of kids under 16 having a TV in their room it’s not hard to imagine hundreds of boys experiencing that same feeling night after night. It’s also no surprise then that 69% of what teenagers know about sex comes from the media.
Here’s what a I saw over a few nights:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17N8VaOJvnE[/youtube]
Today I had the chance to do something I haven’t been able to do in awhile; enjoy an afternoon with my sister and mom. I made the trek to DC where I met up with them and we made a short trip to Gettysburg, PA. There we did the audio auto tour of The Gettysburg National Park. I’ll confess to not taking much away from the tour, but it became a great time to bond as we made our way through the park poking fun at those poor lemmings huddled in their tour groups. It also meant finding a balance between trying to make nice pictures, but not letting it consume our time together. In the past I would of been that photographer consumed with the possibility of making a great image. That didn’t happen today until I came across the scene you see below. I took the first frame and tried to ignore the voice in my head telling I needed a human element. I couldn’t fight the urge so with a 30-mile wind buzzing by I waited as those previously mentioned lemmings made their way to and from the bus. That’s when it appeared, my human element. A kid much like the wind came zipping through my frame to catch up with his group. With his head down he forced his way through the frame allowing me to snap off a picture or two before running off myself to catch up with my “group”.
I’ve been seduced in the last couple nights by the seductive and naughty creature we call late-night TV. Here are a few shots from the project looking at how woman are portrayed on late-night TV. Since I don’t own a TV this has literally been an eye opener for me as I wasn’t aware how racy TV programming can get. At times it felt like I was watching Playboy TV with the barrage of sexual content enticing me to keep my finger off the remote and on the camera’s shutter.
