Pitchertakin'

SOME DAYS....

2009-11-03T10:23:00.002-06:00

Grafton, Massachusetts October 1994

WILD THINGS

2009-10-27T12:12:00.002-05:00

Libbie and the Wild Things....1986?

MODERN POSTISM

2009-10-25T10:47:00.003-05:00

Bordentown, New Jersey August 1992

THE AUNTS

2009-10-24T12:36:00.002-05:00

Maggie and Alma, Carizozo, New Mexico May 14, 1992

During a SWPW workshop in 1992, we stopped in Carizozo, NM, and while roaming the streets, these two ladies came out to see what we were doing across from their house. We talked, I asked permission to photograph them with the 8x10. This is Maggie and Alma, known in Carizozo at "The Aunts" -- they are retired old maid school teachers. Spent their entire careers in the Carizozo schools. When passing through Carizozo in 2002, I asked about them, and was told they had both moved to a retirement home. Last I heard of them.

PORTALS

2009-10-17T22:12:00.002-05:00

Logan, New Mexico October 1991
Beverly, New Jersey June 1991
Smithville, New Jersey April 1991
Homing, Oklahoma January 1991

Fall 2009

2009-10-10T15:55:00.002-05:00

West Boylston, MA 10 October 2009

I have challenged my digital students to make a fall image what with all the color about these days. I stepped out in my back yard this morning and noticed our little bird bath with the water and the leaves.

SIGNS 3

2009-10-09T13:52:00.002-05:00

South Dayton, New York July 1990

Tioga County, Pennsylvania July 1990

Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania July 1990

Mount Laurel, New Jersey April 1990

Renovo, Pennsylvania April 1990

DON'T ASK, I DON'T KNOW

2009-10-03T07:57:00.003-05:00

Burlington, New Jersey November 1989

Suffock, Virginia July 1989

Kerhonkson, New York April 1989

Jackson Mills, New Jersey April 1989

Pensacola, Florida July 1989

Sometimes, there is no way to explain the things I find when snooping arouond small towns. Once in a conversation with a curator friend of mine he told me, "You shoot'em, we'll try to explain'em." I suppose it has something to do with my warpped sense of humor, and the belief that much of the visual irony I encounter just happens, sometimes for no reason at all, and sometimes because people just take the short cut. Leavin's are just that, what's left behind.

STILL LOVING IT....THE 5D2, that is

2009-09-26T09:47:00.003-05:00

Back in August, I attented a wedding party that was held the evening before the actual wedding. Sitting around the table with the light fading fast, and with mostly just the glow of some candles, I made this image of the woman sitting across from me. In the color version, you can easily see the cast of reddish light from the candles. I shot this with my Canon 5D Mark II using my 24-105mm Canon EF IS L lens at 105mm, 1/10 sec at f/4, ISO 3200. Image stabilization is a marvel because no way I could hand-hold a 105 mm lens at 1/10 and have any hope for a sharp image -- maybe in my younger days, but certainly not now. The quality is remarkable -- remember, it's shot with the camera set to ISO 3200!! No b&w film I know of could come anywhere close. Be sure to click on either image to imbigger them for better viewing of the detail and quality.

SYMBOLS 2

2009-09-06T11:40:00.003-05:00

Riverside, New Jersey 1986

Comfort, Texas 1986

Silver City, Nevada 1986

Virginia City, Nevada 1986

Waco, Texas 1986

Classes started this past week, my wonderful Epson 3800 printer broke (not so wonderful currently), and it is time again -- today -- for the Annual Pine Arden Block Party. All which means I have been busier than a whole hive of bees. Classes are going to be great -- I love to greet the new faces for the beginning photo course -- their first assignment: one roll of exposed film for the next class meeting where they WILL process it...hehehe. And it's also great to see previous students returning for another round with me as they enter the world of digital. Their first assignment: establish a blog. My printer is away at the Epson repair station (ouch -- that's frigging expensive). Seems I'm the only one of all the people at the block party that's brave enough to put their images on public display. I spent the day Friday at school, and while waiting on the calibration software to run on the last of the monitors to do its thing, I printed a set of enlarged contacts of all the block pics I shot last year. So begins the fall.

SIGNS 2

2009-08-29T12:08:00.002-05:00

Oakwood, Texas October 1982

Tesuque, New Mexico June 1983

Robertsdale, Pennsylvania March 1986

Austin, Texas Feburary 1982

DOORS 2

2009-08-26T08:21:00.002-05:00

Silver City, Nevada August 1985

Mt. Laurel, New Jersey April 1986

Whiting, Vermont June 1987

Keatchie, Louisiana January 1987

TREES 3

2009-08-25T08:36:00.003-05:00

Eldorado National Forest, California June 1984

Truchas, New Mexico June 1983

Sante National Forest, New Mexico June 1983

Eldorado National Forest, California August 1982

TREES 2

2009-08-24T10:29:00.004-05:00

Storey County, Nevada August 1985

Colorado August 1985

Mt. Laurel, New Jersey January 1985

Santa Fe National Forest, New Mexico August 1987

SYMBOLS

2009-08-23T10:06:00.003-05:00

Glenn Spring Arroyo, Big Bend National Park, Texas January 1987

New Home, Texas July 1987

Waco, Texas July 1987

La Mesa, Texas July 1987

Dayton, Nevada August 1987

SIGNS

2009-08-22T10:33:00.002-05:00

Dailey, Colorado August 1987

Calera, Alabama July 1987

Abilene, Texas July 1987

Hotchkiss, Colorado August 1987
(click the image to see it bigger)

WORDS

2009-08-20T19:41:00.002-05:00

American Flat, Nevada 1986

Halfway, Texas 1986

Bainville, Montana 1986

Virgina City, Nevada 1986

Fordyce, Arkansas 1986

DOORS

2009-08-19T11:33:00.003-05:00

Lamy, New Mexico 1986

Ray, North Dakota 1986

Shoshone, Idaho 1986

Comfort, Texas 1986

I've been everywhere, man.

Crossed the desert bare, man.

I've breathed the mountain air, man.

Of travel I've had my share, man.

I've been everywhere.

Johnny Cash

TREES

2009-08-18T12:01:00.002-05:00

Mt. Laurel, New Jersey 26 October 1986

Steuben County, New York 2 October 1986

Cache River, Arkansas 12 December 1986

THEY'S HITCHED

2009-08-12T16:58:00.006-05:00

Scarsdale, New York 9 August 2009

My niece got married this past weekend. People as far away as New Zealand and England attended. Susan is a New Yorker, and Martin is a Brit. Her Dad, a minister and seen over the right shoulder of Martin, performed the marriage ceremony. Lots and lots of fun. I was not the photographer of record, but merely walked around and shot what seemed worth shooting. I perched for a time in one of the church's windows which overlooks the patio where the reception was held. May have been the hottest weekend of the year in Scarsdale, but with plenty of iced bottles of water and iced champagne, everyone made like cool. Many more images here.

MAGIC SLIPPERS?

2009-08-11T16:27:00.002-05:00

Susan and Martin's Wedding, Scarsdale, New York 9 August 2009

Susan is my neice by marriage, and Ellen, Libbie and I went down on Saturday morning in time to retrieve Grandma from Laguardia in the early afternoon. Hell-of-a-party that night. Sunday, the day of the wedding, it was swealtering in Scarsdale. In some ways, I surprised that more than shoes didn't come off....there were some blazers and suit coats shed, mine included. Obviously like every other bride ever, those new and beautiful shoes had confined and hurt her feet long enough. Long may they be happy and have to good sense to know when the shoes need to come off so they can "get down."

THINGS SELDOM NOTICED

2009-08-07T09:59:00.004-05:00

Carlin, Nevada 1986

Waco, Texas 1986

Mt. Laurel, New Jersey 1986

Boynton, Pennsylvania 1986

These four images probably say a lot about my photographic style and subject matter: straight forward, no fancy camera tricks, they present for further visual discussion small, obscure and transitory details of the ubran and rural social landscape fabric. By that, I mean my subjects are not hiddlen, but rarely noticed by the passerby. I think I'm drawn to theses symbols and signs on a sub-subconscious level and their meanings never quite surface. They are like pieces of a puzzle, individually their meanings are not clear, but maybe seen together and viewed over time, their relevance will become more evident. A quote from the photographer, Nadar Kander, I read somewhere: "I have always, without knowing it, realized that the eye needs only to see a fragment and the mind will fill in the rest."

MODERN MARVEL

2009-08-03T13:39:00.003-05:00

Caryville, Tennessee -- Google view

I got to thinking just how amazing it is that I can easily show you this view of the images I posted a few days back. I remember I had to park across the highway and walk over to the rise between the water and the road. It took me almost a half hour to find a spot where no tree branches or grasses interferred with my view -- all the while with my tripod mounted 8x10 camera on one shoulder and a bag of film holders on the other. I probably stomped a few grasses out of the way just in front of the camera. I do well remember it was a cold and wet December day, the tripod legs were making my fingers hurt as I adjusted them. How really amazing is that we now have satellite views of locations I photographed 26 years ago. 26 years ago, I didn't own a computer, had no concept of a digital camera, had heard of the internet but didn't understand what it was, was newly living in Philadelphia, and wondering what the hell was a Texas boy going to do to survive Yankee land. Any look into the future I preceived then is not how it turned out. Never does. Actually turned out better than I thought it would. A lot better.

24 YEARS AGO TODAY

2009-08-02T14:30:00.003-05:00

Sublette County, Wyoming 2 August 1985

It is only by chance that I scanned this negative today, exactly 24-years from the day I made the image. It is so rewarding to scan these older 8x10" negatives because it allows me to see the images, for the very first time, bigger than a contact print. I made a very beautiful 17x22" print of this one today. This image is in the permanent collection of MOMA.

NEW SCANS of older work

2009-08-01T09:35:00.003-05:00

Pottsville, Texas July 1984