Hi all- sorry for the very long silence on here. Life has been tempest-tossed the last year or so, so I’ve been kinda out-of-action on the blogging front. Anyway, back at it. I was just interviewed on the Film Factor Podcast, talking about alternative processes, collecting daguerreotypes, and teaching photography in a pandemic. Film Factor Podcast is hosted by Franz Lopez, a devoted photography enthusiast in the Philippines. Getting everything synced up for the live show was a little interesting, given the vagaries of the global internet and the twelve-hour time difference. Here’s the link to the recording of the session:
Just a little experiment I’ve been wanting to try for a while. I’ve wanted to shoot the tunnel between stations because it’s something most subway riders never see or pay attention to. There’s some interesting architecture in the tunnels, and they’re not the black voids we tend to think of them as.
Here’s the same concept but in standard frame rate.
Just a real quick video of an exposed print being developed. This is what a develop-out print looks like, and how quickly the developer works. The print is almost fully realized in the first twenty seconds of the development cycle, but you still need to give the full two minutes to let the highlights fully develop.
This is what the raw, unexposed double-coated emulsion looks like. I double-coat to get better shadow depth and highlight separation. You can see the two coatings on the lower left. The reason I’m willing to double-coat is that I’m making such small prints that the extra cost isn’t prohibitive.
And the finished print. I think the end result justifies the added labor and expense.
Today I was out at the Colosseum (which I did not enter because the line, even with a ticket in hand, was 2 hours long!). There was this amazingly talented juggler who I shot some video of, which I’ll share here. One clip is him juggling and talking (not in the clip is his explanation that all Italian schoolchildren start English in first or second grade, which is why he sounds so good). The other clip is him in slo-mo. I’m not sure what order WordPress will put them in and since I’m on my phone with an abysmal wi-fi connection I’ll leave them alone.
A turtle grabbing some lunch in one of the ponds at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Washington DC. I know I don’t shoot or post much video, but this was a nice, short clip I shot this afternoon that I wanted to share. Shot on my iPhone 6.
An introductory video discussion about my upcoming class at Glen Echo Photoworks. The course runs on Fridays, from September 19 to November 7, from 7-10pm. The concept of the course is to introduce students to the use of the human figure in narrative photography – telling a story with pictures whether it is a single image, a diptych or triptych, or a series. We will cover the historical use of male figures in narrative photography, from Hippolyte Bayard’s nude self-portrait as a drowned man in protest of having withheld his announcement of the photographic process he invented so that Daguerre could go first (and get all the credit and financial rewards that came from being first) to modern photographers like John Dugdale, Arthur Tress, and Duane Michals. We will also look at the use of the male figure in relation to questions of gender, sexuality, and identity. To register for the course, click here – The Narrative and the Male Figure
Having a slow news day at the office, I thought I’d post some of the stuff from my iPhone that I shot in Paris. Here’s a very short video clip I took of a fire spinner in front of Notre Dame cathedral using fireworks as part of his act.
I got a two page spread in Metalsmith magazine in a feature article about my friend Nick Dong, whose installation piece was part of the “40 under 40” show at the Renwick Gallery here in Washington last year.
Metalsmith, June 2013, p.46Metalsmith, June 2013, p.47
If you want to get a copy for yourself, you can check it out on their website and order hard copies or PDF copies. Metalsmith Magazine
I’m also including a video I shot of Nick’s installation. My apologies for the video quality, but it was my first time shooting with that camera and I didn’t know about adjusting the video noise, so the low-light segments are rather grainy looking.
You can see more about Nick and his work on his website – Studio Dong. Nick is originally from Taiwan, and now lives and works in the San Francisco Bay area.
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