Your cart is currently empty!
Tag: B&W
July 11, 2012 – Forgotten Piano
[download_box]To save, click the image to open it, then right click and save as…[/download_box]
I came across this shot while driving around the countryside killing some time. Usually when Leah is in church, I’ll drive around exploring and taking pictures of whatever I can find. On this particular Sunday morning, I was getting frustrated with a lack of material. I was running out of time and hadn’t taken a single shot.
Right before I gave up and turned around, I noticed what I thought was a bench in the ditch. As I drove by it I thought it was weird how the top of this bench had what looked like piano pedals sticking out of the top of it. Didn’t seem like a comfortable design.
I was about 500 meters past it before I clued in. I slammed on the brakes and backed up. I think I spent the next 20-30 minutes photographing this both with my digital and with my Graflex Crown Graphic 4×5 press camera. This picture is taken with the Graflex.
June 22, 2012 – Vivian Maier
Ok, so I made it through a week on schedule! I feel pretty good about the site so far, and am excited for what’s to come.
This is the first of my “Photography Friday” posts. I’m still trying to solidify what I want from these. In a broad sense I want to use them to share other photographers that inspire me, but that will likely develop into me writing about other things related to photography and art, gear I like, things that bug me, stuff like that.
I’d also like to have a small interview component for the artists I write about, and have started sending out a set of questions that I think make sense for this. Of course, that won’t work for those who are no longer with us, but I’ll figure something out to make it interesting.
For my first week, I’ve decided to write about one of my my favorite photography stories from last few years. If you spend any amount of time online, you have likely seen a viral video about Vivian Maier. She was an American street photographer from the second half of the last century. Completely unknown while she was alive, her vast body of work was discovered when her storage locker contents went up for auction.
Born in 1926, Vivian spent the first 25 years of her life in France, before moving to New York, and then Chicago. She worked on and off as a nanny for the next 40 years. She was from all accounts a very private person, and details of her life are still being discovered and pieced together. In her later years, she may have been homeless for a time, before some of the now grown children she raised provided her with an apartment. She slipped on some ice in 2008 and hit her head. She never fully recovered, passing away April 21st, 2009, at age 83.
Her work started to surface in 2007, when Chicago real estate agent John Maloof acquired 30,000 prints and negatives from an auction house. Maloof was collecting photos to publish a book on the history of his community when he found them. The photos weren’t relevant to the book, but after it was completed John went back, and started scanning them. He became inspired himself and started shooting, taking courses, and created a darkroom to learn how to process film.
Over the next year, he also managed, along with another collector, to salvage the rest of her collection that had gone to other buyers (over 100,000 negatives!). After posting some of the pictures to a discussion group on flickr, interest in Maier’s work exploded.
Though she photographed almost compulsively, she never showed her work to anyone. In her later years she fell on hard times; she couldn’t afford to develop the photos she took, and simply amassed thousands of rolls of exposed film; continually shooting, but never seeing the result.
There are many things I love about this story. The thought that somewhere, in every town, there could be a storage locker like this, containing the brilliant work of someone who seemingly had no interest in greatness or recognition or fame. Just an honest interpretation of the world through their eyes, that they felt compelled to create. To me that is art in one of its truest forms.
I won’t go into too much more detail here; I hope I have ignited enough of an interest that you will check out the official Vivian Maier website. It has some amazing galleries, as well as information on the process of researching and curating this wonderful collection. Also, I highly recommend the book, which does a beautiful job of presenting some of her work, and is one of the favorites on my shelf. You should also check out John Maloof’s blog; although it hasn’t been updated in a while it’s a great repository of her work. If you are interested in buying prints you can contact the Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York City.
All images in this post are of course by Vivian Maier and are part of the Maloof Collection.
For a little bonus, this is the video that first introduced me to her work:
June 16, 2012 – Henry Rollins
So here it is; the first of my try-and-keep-to-a-schedule posts. Mondays posts are going to center around music. Cause, you know, they both start with M. Very groundbreaking, if I do say so myself. My girlfriend is also very impressed and in no way laughed at me.
Because Leah and I are both musicians, we spend a lot of time around other musicians. Photographically speaking, live music is among my favorite things to shoot. It is definitely the only thing involving people that I can shoot without second guessing myself.
In these posts my goal will be to centre on a particular artist I find inspiring, and what surrounded the particular shots I share.
Since this is my first post, I figure I’ll start with the most recent I have seen; arguably the most well known artist as well.
Last week, Leah’s workplace, The Grand Theatre, played host to Henry Rollins. I found out about the show a few months back and got tickets right away. It was well worth the price of admission. Rollins gave up music (his words) years ago, and does amazing spoken word shows, as well as television and movie work.
He is best known, musically at least, for fronting Black Flag, widely considered to be central in the development of the underground punk scene that came up around the mid to late 80s. Though I don’t consider myself a huge fan of hardcore punk, there is no doubt that Rollins was a huge influence both directly and indirectly on my taste in music and how I thought about it.
If you get a chance to see him live, take it. Though you could describe it as “a cool guy tells you cool stories for three hours” its much, much more than that. First off its three hours. No water, no break, no props. I’ve never seen anything like it. It feels like he’s just talking unrehearsed, directly to you, in your seat. He’ll be telling a story, then branch off into another related story, and merge back in 45 minutes later, seamless.
As far as subject matter, the stories are indeed cool. From road tales with Black Flag to wrestling alligators for National Geographic, to politics and to what punk-rock means to him. There was so much. As I type this I’m killing myself to remember a particular thing he said that I thought I should write down, and I can’t remember for the life of me, because there was simply so much cool stuff.
One message I did get from the show as a whole was to just try the things you think you are afraid of. He didn’t say it directly, but thats what I took from it. And this is where we swing around back to photography.
Anybody who knows me, knows I don’t really take a lot of photos of people. I get nervous and I forget to check settings. I get shy and hesitant to direct the person I’m shooting. I am terrified of going up to a stranger and asking to take a picture of them. I don’t know why, but I am.
Sitting listening to Henry talk, I decided I was going to ask to take his portrait after the show. I had everything I would say planned out in my head. I was gonna check my settings right after the show and make sure everything was right, I was going to take my flash off the camera and light it off axis. It would all go fine and I would see that I wouldn’t have to be nervous.
So the show ended, Leah, some friends and I went out to the stage door to wait. When he came out we introduced ourselves and asked if we could get some pictures with him. He said sure so I handed the camera to my friend and they snapped a shot. Then we traded and I got a shot of them. I wasn’t looking for anything spectacular, just a memento of our meeting.
Bad focus wasn’t my friends fault, I should have put it on auto 🙁 
Not sure what my excuse was, using my own camera and all…. Though it would have been nice if either of them were in focus. This is an example of what happens when I get in front of a subject. I forget to check things, just little things, like what the picture looks like. I suppose I didn’t want to waste his time, or look stupid, or both.
Since we had gotten all our pictures taken, I asked if he would mind if I took a portrait of him. It did not come out like I thought I was going to say it. Again, he said sure. He is an extremely nice guy, and very patient. I snapped a quick shot, thanked him and retreated. I didn’t take the flash off, didn’t think about lighting. Upon getting to the van and seeing the quality of the group shots, I was terrified for how the portrait turned out.
Henry Rollins, London Ontario, June, 12 2012- Click to Enlarge A little bit of processing in lightroom, and I am very happy with the result. I’m glad I asked for the chance, but am pretty sure the next time I do it will be just as nerve wracking. At least I know it will be worth it, so I’m likely to try again.
