Fall Monsoon Season

Sometimes I think the weather here in the Southeast is becoming en extension of the tropics, especially this time of year when it seems that we are increasingly battered by large and powerful storms from the Gulf of Mexico that circulate slowly, often for days, bringing humid air, warm temperatures, and excessive rain to our area well into the Fall. The cold fronts from the north and west that used to characterize the Fall are deflected, leaving us with flash floods, falling trees, rot and decay. It reminds me of the first few pages of One Hundred Years of Solitude -- everything is covered with a layer of something deeply funky. Sometimes you can actually smell the mold and fungus in the air when the rain does eventually clear. I find it rather depressing. On the other hand, if they don't fall on your head, dead limbs are interesting to photograph, interesting to photograph, interesting to photograph. 

Blissfully unaware

I still remember taking this photograph using my first digital SLR camera way back in the early 2000s. I was pretty lucky to even have the camera in my possession, as I had stupidly purchased it from a sketchy place in Brooklyn in order to save a lousy $50. This photo was made when we were exploring an old second hand shop out in the country not too far from Columbus, GA. At the time, I was blissfully unaware of many of the technical aspects of digital imaging that I would soon learn about in great detail from the experts on forums and such. One of the things I 'learned' was that blown highlights are bad news, evidence of being a schlub, and so I wasted an hour of my life in a vain struggle to bring back some detail in the mirror. Of all the crappy advice I've been given, most of it revolves around turning photography into a sport. What a distraction! The best images are the ones that are most deeply felt.  

 

Images you continue to love

Whenever I see it, this photograph always reminds me of an ink drawing. I wonder how much that has to do with the fact that it is actually an image of water? I made the photograph using a very early digital camera, and the shadows had a strange color cast, which is why I prefer the monochrome version. We all have plenty of cringe worth images hanging around our archives, so it is always very pleasant when you stumble across one that you look at and think still holds up reasonably well. You might be able to finesse the image a bit, or print it differently, but the composition has good bones. How many really timeless images does a person produce over the course of their life anyway?

Reaching the breaking point

It is common these days to discount the value of anecdotal evidence, yet I think it is still very much the case that, as individuals, we generally trust our own personal experience. That's how art gets made, right? One of the attractions of continuing to work with analog media in the 21st century is that, in my experience, even the mistakes look good. On the other hand, when digital cameras or software fail us, the results usually look like crap. Anecdotally, that is. Maybe it is a generational 'thing'; maybe something more fundamental. I wanted to find out. So, last year, I purchased a Foveon camera after years of prevarication. The general wisdom is that these cameras should be shot at their lowest sensitivities, so naturally, I wanted to see for myself. I found that the files broke down with a certain amount of grace, but were useable, at least when converted to black-and-white. Now I know where the limits are, and can decide if I want to stay with in, or venture beyond, the pale.

Adding interest with multiple images

I've always enjoyed putting together diptychs and triptychs. These image groupings do not necessarily represent a time sequence or the beginnings of a typology, although they certainly could. Usually, for me, they are just a couple of images with interesting visual relationships. With this triptych, I tried to have the horizon at more or less the same position in the frame across the set. I enjoyed how the light and dark areas interacted between the first two images and how the shadows linked between the second and third. These were shot using a Leicaflex and 50 mm Summicron. Slowly, these old playgrounds are being replaced and upgraded.

Subconscious interests...

Even if you aren't walking around with a microscope or multispectral camera in your back pocket, and all you happen to have with you is your bloody phone, sometimes the world presents you with something completely unexpected. You can chose to record the experience or take a pass and move on to the next thing. Anyway, I saw these weird and wonderful reflections one afternoon and decided to make a few photographs. No way was I going to walk past something so out of the ordinary. It was weeks later that I looked at the images again and made a connection to Cy Twombly. What I wonder is, was that subconscious awareness floating around in my brain as I decided to press the shutter? Or, did I make the connection later and create a post capture narrative that fit nicely? Or maybe both played a role.  

Dealing with your hoarding through photography!

Sometimes you just have to stop thinking, pick up the damned camera, and start shooting. Being somewhat infatuated with my new digital workhorse -- the electronic marvel I recently purchased after selling every single underutilized piece of equipment I could find lying around the studio -- I hadn't used my beloved Rolleiflex SL66 that much in a while. So with no particular 'project' in mind, I simply grabbed a roll of Tri-X, loaded up, and started shooting. I had been thinking of thinning out my pile of old dead things, that, in addition to cluttering up the studio, were in great danger of becoming playthings for studio cat, so those ended up being my subject. And, it was interesting that creating a photographic catalog of all my crap made it easier to chuck this stuff out.

I hope your weekend is full of photography and interesting light.