I95 Branford is this year’s offering.  Opening is 10/8/09, come see.

A fine workshop conducted at Maine Media Workshops finished today with a good time seemingly had by all.  Students made fine progress, lots of pictures made, some of note.  The weather turned out to be spectacular all week.

I leave early tomorrow for Newport and the Jazz Festival there.  I should be a great one.  More soon.

An interesting show curated by Debbie Hesse and Donna Ruff about the use of social networking tools in art making.  Good tuff.

The beginning of it anyway; a day that falls midway between the Ides of March and April Fool’s day.  what can that mean?  March remains the cruelest of months.

SWC/M 1997-2009

Today is the first day in 33 years that I do not own a Hasselblad.  My good friend for 12 years produced a mess of pictures has gone off to a new home in Austin, TX.  Although emotionally attached to the idea of film and to the venerable Hasselblad name, dropping it off at FedEx today only brought relief knowing that it is going to a good home and that picture making is not (necessarily) camera specific.  It was kind of like dropping your kid off at school.  I have to say: the camera had soul.

As a result of this transaction, a Canon 5D Mk2 will be the replacement (not sure about the soul part) and with it will be pretty big files made through good glass (Zeiss 25/2.8) and I won’t be scanning negs and cleaning them for hours.  I can live with that.  Not much soul though.  Lots of buttons.  Batteries, too.

Life moves along.

Last night at the Regatta Bar in the Charles Hotel in Cambridge we saw/heard McCoy Tyner.  Boy, he can play.  The trio also including Gary Bartz on saxophones was tight and first rate.  Tyner must be in his 70s and looks it but on stage you would not know it.  He is able to make the piano thunder.  One cool thing was he played a piece dedicated to his teacher: John Coltrane.

Opening February 1 in New Haven at Kehler Liddell Gallery the ten print Suite Niagara plus ten additional grids all from 2008.  I am pretty high on this work as it was the kind of work that presented itself and also told me when the idea was done.  I like that.

Why grids? I have been mulling this over for some time now; partly to write a cogent statement about the work and partly to figure out why they are happening at all. I had a long email conversation with Neal Rantoul, a long time user of the grid, about what grids do and, to be sure, his insight helped.

Some historical context first. I began making extended pictures seriously in the early 80s (perhaps even late 70s) but my first extended piece was made in 1971. I still have it in my studio and I can say that beyond the historical context it provides, it is awful. I think that early piece was a result of the book/exhibition by Nathan: “Vision and Expression”. John Wood and my experience at VSW furthered my interest in seeing and thinking beyond the single frame. I think about how frames of film are attached theoretically as well as literally in/about time and this gave basis for my picture making. I also traveled often with Bart Parker whose pictures were extended images within single images by virtue of in-camera collage and then extending those with text and other images. He has always made my head spin around.

Cubist painting gave insight about multiple views. I am not involved with that kind of creation but being able to record views/elevations of front, right center, etc., and see them together was instructional. Much of my early work with extended images was somewhat random and heavy handed, and very literal. Later I learned about typologies (and topologies) to discuss, compare and contrast stuff and conditions.

It seems to me that often when I am attracted to some picture hovering, it is the idea that attracted me. My job as a photographer is to ferret out what that is and then construct/create a compelling visual understanding. The stuff I have been attracted to is interesting as surface or idea or irony but minimal in nature. My involvement with is rarely a single picture but rather 4-8 frames as I attempt to better understand why I stopped in the first place. We speak about bracketing our exposure, our focus, our camera angle. I found I was making a mess of exposures to find or focus on what attracted me in the first place. It is as a result of the contact sheet that the extended pieces evolved, when I would see on the sheet or light table a bunch of related images I could make connections within the connections. The connections reveal the idea of the extended image of the whole being much stronger than the parts.

Then it occurred to me that as the pictures are taken over a period of time, they represent time.  A contact sheet was about the passing of time in a roll of film all connected by the film.  The grids I am working on are about time in the way that film stills are about time.  Connected by the presentation format, and becasue of metadata I know the time that has passed, the interval, and the duration of each frame.  Another layer of meaning.  Additionally the graphic component of what the resultant amalgam of images (often unexpected but invited) and of course the typologic comparison and revealtion.

From Jim Stone at the Heart Attack Grill. Imagine.

Avast, today is Internationational Talk Like a Pirate Day. Invented 1993, popularized seven years ago by Dave Barry, columnist for the Miami Herald, so talk it up, me heartie .

Thomas L. Friedman got me thinking with an column in the Times this Sunday, titled “Making America Stupid”.  I have resisted writing about the campaign because I am feeling bereft and adrift and shaking my head a lot.  But this quote has resonated and stcks not only for what it says about some of the current politics, it also applies to my recent thinking about making art.  “As they say in Texas: “If all you ever do is all you’ve ever done, then all you’ll ever get is all you ever got’”  It is brilliant in its simplicity and language.  He is a really smart guy.

I haven’t posted a picture as I don’t have one I feel is appropriate just now but I will.  It may be something new.

The rain continues…day IV of the workshop hostage crisis here at Penland, NC.  We got out to shoot for about 2 hours this afternoon but now (9:30pm) it is raining again, a lot.  Clothes from yesterday are still wet.

The LX tour of New England included stops at Stowe, VT, Franconia, NH, Gloucester, MA and Newport, RI.  A notable stop for dinner was The Alchemist in Waterbury, VT (20 min south of Stowe).  Brewmaster John Kimmich makes perhaps the best IPA in captivity.  Food is recommendable too.  Definitely worth a stop.  Our stop in Gloucester included a chest deep ocean meeting with my able web master Steve Brettler at smallfish web deisgn.  There are firsts for everything.

Further nattering about feeling young: Newport Jazz Festival dished up 78 year old “Saxophone Colassus” Sonny Rollins.  This event marked his return to the Newport Jazz Festival stage for the first time since 1958.  The man can play and play.  When I see someone like Rollins still doing what he clearly loves and does so well, considering he has been doing it for more than 60 years, it is truly humbling.

The two day affair was marked with terrific weather, emerging talent (Anat Cohen, Guillermo Klein, Chris Potter, Brian Blade) and established musicians (Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, Wayne Shorter, Bill Frissell).  It is an extremely well run event in a stunning setting with Fort Adams creating a “natural” amphitheater and Newport Harbor as an awesomely beautiful back drop.

Roman numerals (while difficult to figure out) lend a certain ageless quality.

So I turned 60 on 8/2/08 and I have been entertained by comments and suggestions.  The best being “time to fill your pockets with rocks and walk into the bay.”  Though I am not ready it is a marvelous suggestion.  On 8/2 we saw and listened to Dave Brubeck play with his group and listened to an interview with him and Paquito D’Rivera and I felt rather like a teenager considering he is 87 and managing a pretty full concert schedule.  Oh my.  Last summer he played at Newport Jazz Festival and was terrific.

Yale has in addition to the afore mentioned Abe Morell show a small but worthy show of two pictures by Van Gogh:  Starry Night and Cypresses.   it is a solid art experience to have a timed viewing slot to view two paintings in a yellow room perhaps 15 ft. square with 8 other intimate (new) friends.  Who has time to feel 60?

more soon.

It is here and it is good.  It answers most all the post shoot needs I have, leaving Photoshop for heavy lifting.  The pundits will build it up or tear it down but it works very nicely.  My guess is that it will even get better.

I have been awarded an Artist in Residence position this fall by CEPA in Buffalo, NY.  I will have a month to photograph the corridor between Buffalo and Niagara Falls. The area is full of the stuff I love to look at: tourists, industrial waste land, industry and the power grid, kitch and Niagara Falls.  I figure if I simply work my way from Buffalo to Niagara Falls every day on either Niagara Falls Blvd (rte 62) or Military Avenue I can’t miss. There is enough material to share.  On top of the AIR gig I will have available the Leaf 75S Aptus digital back for my SWC.  How could things get better?  Read on.

Concurrent with the AIR gig, I will be Visiting Artist at VSW covering the 1st year photography line and critic with 2nd year students.  It promises to be an interesting 15 weeks.  The students at VSW are square pegs trying to fit (or not) into round holes.  There is a locus of energy and creativity that is palpable that I have known since I was a workshop student there in 1972.  I return willingly and enjoy my time thouroughly.  I love it.

James Rajotte, student and now colleague has also been selected and has nearly sold out his edition on Jen Bekman’s 20×200.  Great for James and great for Jen.   His work is worth a look.

James is off to Frenchtown, PA (read middle of no where) for three weeks of photo concentration.  I’ll post something form this effort as soon as available.

I am test driving a D3 for a couple of weeks and will post some reactions and images as they show up.  First reaction though was surprise at the size of the camera, particularly with the 24-70 lens on it.  Overall it was about 50% larger than my SWC.  The camera has a very high KPD factor (Knobs per Dollar) requiring 45 minutes to tweak the camera into submission before making the first exposure.  Why are there so many buttons?  I shot this past week with my SWC and with only one button still was able to make pictures.  Go figure.

After shooting for two weeks and before I worked with a file; some comments.  The D3 is still big.  And heavy.  I made it a bit smaller by using a Zeiss 25/2.8 Distagon.  I decided I do not need autofocus but aperture prioity is a good thing.  Te D3 is simply too much camera for the way I work.  Having said that and hearing that Nikon has announced a D700 which is a bit smaller, same sensor and having some fewer bells and whistles and  $2000 less this may be getting closer to the answer.

I shot 6GB with the D3 and found it to be reiable and easy to use once you were ready to use it.  There are still about 50 menues I haven’t touched and won’t.  Why don’t camera manufacturers get it?

I’ll add to this as things develop.  Pun intended.

One of the great places to take and give a workshop is Jackson, WY. The place is terrific, the people (Jon Stuart and Thomas Stimpson) are terrific, and the ghosts of William Henry Jackson and Ansel Adams are felt everywhere. Making new pictures is the hard part, but with excellent weather, great skies, it is worth the effort.

The workshop is “Photographiing the Contemporary Landscape” and runs July 21-25.

Jackson Hole is a place of immense photographic opportunity. From the Tetons to the county fair, from moose and bear to wildlife of another sort, we will investigate how the natural landscape and the social landscape collide to offer up grand photographic possibilities. Students will discover their vision of the American West. There will be daily lectures, critiques and shooting trips in the area and beyond in search of the photographic holy grail. Bring your cameras and plenty of enthusiasm for a week of looking, seeing and picture making. The emphasis is on having a great time in a great place.

Jackson Hole Art Association.