A couple of friends have visited me in recent months. Nick is an old friend, visiting from clown school. Here he is on my couch.
So, welcome to 2007! I have joined the Rangefinderforum's PAW (picture a week) challenge, in a renewed effort at proper work motivation, so watch this space. Meanwhile, here's an old picture which I happen to like. This was shot a couple of years ago, when I still lived in new York City. My girlfriend's parents were in town visiting us and packing in as much Broadway and other NYC fun as they could into a five day visit. I shot this while walking around SoHo with them. I never got around to printing it until about two weeks ago (thus the need for reform), but I found the shot on the contact sheet, and decided it was worth taking a closer look at. I'd love to hear what you think.
For those of you who are into the technical details, this was shot with a Leica M3 and 50mm DR Summicron, on Kodak Plus-X film, processed in Rodinal.
So starting in just a few days, I'll be posting my first picture of 2007, and I will add a new picture at the end of every week.
Happy New Year!
I shot this image about three weeks ago, also at a wedding I was photographing. I just think it's a cool shot.
So, here's another old friend of mine who kicks ass- Timothy Briner. This kid is several years younger than I am, but his work is really mature and interesting. He's a story teller, a technical adept, and an irreverent, creative dude just doing his thing. Last I talked to him, he was working as a night desk phone operator in a seedy hotel in Manhattan to pay the bills, crashing with his girlfriend, and making his own work on fairly regular schedule, and showing it just as regularly.
He first really came to my attention in 2002 when we both had work up in a show at the now defunct WhiteSpace Studio. It was an assistant's show, and 30 or 40 assistants were invited by the photographers they worked for to show their own work. It was an interesting concept. I knew Tim because he had graduated from the Hallmark Institute of Photography a few years after me. Pretty much all the H.I.P. grads in New York knew each other at that time- there were maybe 20 of us working in the industry in the City. But Tim's work was really suprising- beautiful, and very mature artistically. I was frankly blow away. Since then, he has gone on to do more and more really interesting stuff, and he is getting some well deserved recognition for it. Go, Tim!
OK, in an effort to reform myself, I am trying to make myself put my work out there somehow by posting pictures and stories here. Today's inspiration is Shannon Fagan. He is a very fine photographer and a good guy I met while working in New York City several years ago. He was an assistant with me on a few jobs for a commercial shooter. He's a bit younger than me, and when we first worked together, I was the more experienced assistant on the job, and he was the relative newbie, at least with the guy we were working for. He quickly moved on to bigger and better things. He gained much deserved recognition his for outstanding work on of a couple of projects, and was soon enough out on his own, getting commercial clients, and is now doing the work he wants to do. Meanwhile, I'm still here trying to get my shit together. I do not grudge Shannon his success at all- rather, I see him as an example of the success that is possible through lots of hard work and taking some good risks. So. Here's what I think is a good, recent picture. I shot this one a few weeks ago at a wedding I was covering. I like it, even though the bride's face is obscured. What do you think?
I seem to be having a bad hair life- I'm having a hard time getting started. The darkroom is set up, albeit without ventilation or plumbing, but hey, at least I can print. Trouble is, I don't. Besides- I still don't have a scanner, and here it is 2006. But there are a lot of other things I need to get first- like a life. Anway, here's a photo of a dragon that used to hang out on my wall when I lived on Beaver St.
