Pittsburgh WetPlate + NYC
We made it to Brooklyn last night. Set up shop today. Starting to varnish and process plates and files. Here’s an initial nice plate, 8×10, of Kristi Jan Hoover, in the back room of the Masonic Hall in Pittsburgh. I had a few issues at first with my Silver Bath, but I was working in Jason’s darkbox. It took a while to get acclimated. Also a second image of Jason Snyder below that. And then a scary picture of Abby, on the steps of the Steven’s apartment, with the afternoon night streaming in. Fourth image is a portrait of Steve; he now owns the Lodge that we worked in. He’s an architect and sculptor. He’s bringing the building back to life. We call this his “Charles Bukowski Portrait”.
Kitra Cahana
This is what you get from good parenting. This woman is only 17 years old. Very strong view, and great images. Impressive.
Dr Brene Brown; Gratitude
Going overboard on the videos, but the latter part of this four minute video is excellent. Everyone knows this woman from the Ted Talks, but this video is really good too.
Manuel and Janice Zeitlin’s beautiful new space
Chestnut Street area coming alive. An event last night; stopped in after Dane’s open studio. (Then we went on a crazy late night search to rescue a stray dog, but that’s another story entirely). Fun night.
Within earshot of the fireworks, on summer nights. Sounds Stadium.
Jesus Kidnapped
Today, with my iPhone hanging out my passenger window at 75mph. They tied him up and were last seen, headed to Gallatin.
Two days at Portfolio Center
This is Russell Kaye’s blog post and assignment, after the presentation and class event at Portfolio Center in Atlanta.
I also met Rachel LaCour Niesen and her husband Andrew at dinner one night — both of them are doing interesting things in this new world of commercial photography.
Very bottom: Brett Falcon and Amy holding up one of the large Lambda prints, that are enlarged copies of some of the wet-plate work.
Color Run: Titans Stadium
The Color Run 5k, for charity, (and then a crazy dance-fest afterwards).
… And the clean-up.
… And probably, a trashed camera that’s only a week old, even when it was wrapped in plastic beforehand.
Sean Dudley portfolios
I found these in a box yesterday. Wonderful custom portfolios made for us by Sean Dudley, back when we were on Ewing Avenue. They started out as 11×14 size, but then the Fedex charges became too much, so Sean cut them down for us; down to hold 8×10 prints. (Bad decision on my part; should have stayed large). All I remember, in my instructions to him: “Go buy a gun, and shoot holes into the front cover”. What shocked me was: He did it. They’re amazing to look at now, and to hold in hand. Somehow, a website just doesn’t deliver the same tactile satisfaction.
And then the final one was one that we made later; that’s Brett in the picture, in a highjacked location in Hendersonville, for a book cover.
Temporary Books
Worked on temporary books all weekend. New Polaroid and Collodion prints added in; heavy on Portrait and Editorial. Feel a road trip coming on. Maybe even more. Trying to find a way to include some original metal 8×10 plates right in the book.
Dane Carder + Mary Addison Hackett
A detail, back in the rear of Dane’s studio on Chestnutt, during the “Still Life, Landscapes, Posers” show, curated by Mary Addison Hackett.
Jim McGuire
I was backing up some hard drives today, and found this image of Jim McGuire today. He’d asked me to shoot a portrait of him for his solo show. Great dog, too.
Birthdays and Valentines Day
Spent the day in Bowling Green today with my family. I love photographing them. This was belated Birthday party for my brother; early Birthday for me; belated Valentines Day for my mother.
My mother with her balloon, at the end of the day.
The scene in my rear-view mirror, and we canvassed the city for a barbeque restaurant. Love the look on Booker’s face.
My mother, my niece Amber, and Booker. I love how my mother’s expression matches Booker’s expression. We called in some Prozac for Booker, after seeing this picture — losing his will to live, even at age one.
Melissa Greener
We worked on this yesterday — a wet-plate portrait, and other images for my friend Melissa Greener.
Noah Levine retreat: new Dharma center
We moved into the new Dharma center a few weeks ago. Dave brought in Noah Levine this past weekend, for a short talk on Friday night, and then an all-day meditation on Saturday. More information on the center and the schedule here.
Dave Smith, (left), with Noah Levine, in the front window of the new center.
Quick portrait of Noah, after the event on Saturday.
Early morning light, on Saturday morning, as we began the retreat.
Hanging around, after the event, on Saturday.
Virginia Team’s world
Last Sunday, Jerry Joyner made a meal from scratch, and we drove out and visited Virginia Team, at her home near Ashland City. I met Virginia in the early 1980′s, when she was the main Art Director at CBS Records, on Music Row. She had a reputation as being a world-class Art Director, with high standards. I remember being terrified when I went their the first time to show her my book. I remember it was summer, and she was dressed in all white, and the sun was shining in the window, and she was nice to me and welcoming.
Later, we became true friends, as we traveled the country, doing record covers over the years. There were many fun adventures out west, in Arizona and New Mexico, scouting remote locations. She has a heart of gold, (even though it was scary to work for her!). She has an eye for subtle CMYK color like I’ve never seen with anyone else. She was known for taking her grease pencil to Matchprints, and marking them up for retouching. I’d just stand in her office and marvel over what she’d take note of. There was this retouching broker, in those days — Bob Towery — and he’d bring in these Matchprints and retouching — on dye transfer prints, done by hand in those days, and she’d send them back, over and over, til they were perfect.
Now, she’s retired, and lives on many acres outside of Nashville, with sixteen chickens, two cats, and Beau, the dog. Pete died a while back; he looks a lot like Beau.
We made a nice meal that day; took the golf cart out across the land; and built a nice fire. Was a good day.
Virginia Team, behind one of the many outbuildings on her land. She’s holding a basket that we used to gather lettuce for the salad, out of her winter garden.
A day afterwards, Virginia emailed me this photo of her as a small girl, in South Carolina. Look at that priceless face, and her prized possession.
Virginia throwing seed to the chickens, outside the kitchen door. Jerry, amused by it all. Beau, following our every footstep, on security detail. She even grows homemade sprouts to spoil the chickens. They’re the best-fed chickens in all of Cheatham county.
Virginia said that one day, she left the kitchen door cracked, and she turned around and the chickens had come into the house, and were on the kitchen side table, eating the cat food. So she showed me how they entered…
Serene setting in her living room, with Scooter holding court.
While we were in the winter garden, collecting lettuce, the cat delivered a prize, in the center of the kitchen floor.
Virginia, armed and dangerous, and looking like either Annie Oakley or Shirley Temple, with her father, in South Carolina.
We made a nice campfire that burned all day. This is one of three firepits on the property; take your pick.
Beau followed us wherever we went, all afternoon. He’s about 12 or 13, but doing great, for a large dog.
Every afternoon, Virginia takes out the golf cart, through the roads on her land, and Beau gets a workout, running along beside the cart.
This is Simon Levy, one of the many roosters on the land. (Simon, in real life, was well-respected Art Director at Warner Brothers, in both LA and Nashville. Great guy and excellent artist).
A wooden egg, in the henhouse, to remind the hens about their role in life.
Interior of the henhouse, in the late afternoon, when they (automatically) come home, and hop up on their perch, for bed.
On the dining room table was a beautiful book from Virginia’s father. He’d made the book when he was about eleven years old. (Love the typeface, and everything about this book).
There is this famous graphic that floats around the internet — a mark-up by Richard Avedon, to show his B/W printer how to print the final print. I sent this to Virginia to show her that there was at least one person more demanding about retouching than her! (I guess it’s not bad to play second fiddle to Richard Avedon).
Hollis Bennett, Kelly Koeppel, Griffin Norman
Here are a couple of frames from short wet-plate sessions with Hollis Bennett and Kelly Koeppel and Griffin Norman, from yesterday.
Hollis just returned from his honeymoon. Objects from his travels in right-hand image: A piece of rock salt from Baja, Mexico. The hand is a salt shaker found in an abandoned house in Colorado.
Kerouac, Burroughs, Ginsberg (and Frank)
Photography in the Beat Generation, Part One and Part Two.
Edit: Another slide show in the NYTimes today, from Allen Ginsberg.
“I sit in the car amazed to see the photographic artist prowling like a cat, or an angry bear, in the grass and roads, shooting whatever he wants to see. How I wished I’d have had a camera of my own, a mad mental camera that could register pictorial shots, of the photographic artist himself prowling about for his ultimate shot – an epic in itself.” — Kerouac, writing about Robert Frank.
Kerouac, on right.
2 comments