Permission To Suck

Did You Make Art Today? – The Swanko Solution

Monday, July 19, 2010

I have a friend who asks at the end of a shoot, “Did you make art today?” “I think so” was my typical response because I’m never sure what I did with my camera that day will be considered art. Thinking back, it’s probably because I’ve assessed too many contact sheets and digital proofs filled with prosaic visual records.

Looks Like We’re All Going to Return to Film Cameras

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

0 Comments

I’m geeking out on this one. Since everyone is a photographer and nearly everything is a camera, it may do the imagination good to understand where technology is going.

Photography and Quantum Physics Need “The Ideal Observer”

Friday, June 18, 2010

0 Comments

Many cultures fear loss of soul through photographs. In brutally frankness, photographers characteristically pinch intimacy and trigger vulnerability that only close examination bares. Anyone retouching a high resolution image can tell you they risk knowing way too much about their subject.

Influenced by Weegee the Famous – Who?

Thursday, May 27, 2010

0 Comments

I've been influenced by Usher Fellig (aka Weegee the Famous). I had no idea. But I’m in good company from Diane Arbus to Cindy Sherman, and the rest of us. It’s hard to peel away the nostalgia from his photos from mid 20th century NYC, but as I try the feeling of intensity remains; as though one held a candle under humanity fluid and let it reduce.

The Vernacular Photograph an Accidental Masterpiece

Thursday, May 6, 2010

0 Comments

Like colloquial speech is to literature, vernacular photography is any type that isn’t intended as art. "There are no accidental masterpieces in painting, but there are accidental masterpieces in photography." - Chuck Close

What’s the Deal With Storytelling?

Monday, April 5, 2010

3 Comments

Things begin to go awry when I have no point of view; no opinion, no specific observation, nothing to reveal. I spend most of my time trying to uncover the problem, though once established, the rest is hard work that is relatively relaxing. I’ve discovered that most of my restlessness lies in finding the story not telling it.

What I Learned from John Maeda, I Used on the Beach

Monday, March 22, 2010

4 Comments

Complexity assaults me because I’m not close enough to what’s important or it overwhelms me because I haven’t stepped back far enough. John Maeda wrote the laws of Simplicity a few years ago and I pressed a few into service on a trip to Bulls Island, SC.

Behind the Scenes – December Vogue Arts Issue

Thursday, January 14, 2010

0 Comments

This is a great behind the scenes look at the creation of the Vogue Magazine photo series in the December Arts Issue with Annie Leibovitz and Grace Coddington featuring Lady Gaga and Cate Blanchett.

Photographic Point of View – Ralph Gibson

Monday, January 11, 2010

0 Comments

Listening to Ralph Gibson speak, and reviewing his work, something hit me. Yes, his work is simultaneously complex and simple. Its complexity is hidden by simplicity. His chosen frame is the disguise. But moreover, his work over five decades is astonishingly similar and that, to me, is especially remarkable when bearing in mind that I consider changing my approach daily.

The Space Between Your Notes

Thursday, December 17, 2009

0 Comments

“Music is the space between the notes” – Claude Debussy I thought of this quote before discovering someone much more intelligent said it first. I was at a show listening to bluegrass virtuosos play so fast that it was hard to discern a space between notes. It made me realize that there was only one interpretation possible. There were no spaces for me to think or feel anything but the energy of their content.