The Colorama

This is a great piece in the Times today about advertising in Grand Central Station or the lack there of. For about 40 years the east balcony was filed with a giant photographic mural, actually a 60 ft. chrome called the Colorama. Described as the worlds largest photograph, I remember it vividly the first time I arrived in the venerable station, the size that is. The image I believe was some birds?? I don't think I had ever seen an image that size before. You were really in New York now. By the time it was ready to come down it had lost its glory and to say it was dated would be kind. Kodak was the brains behind this, see all the various images through the years here. I love that photographer David Dunlap took both shots and by god he got pretty close to his original.

BLACK WATCH

If your still need some political psycho drama in your life, now that the two year vetting process for president is over, get you ass over to St Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn for the National Theatre of Scotland's production of Black Watch. Not only is it one of the most exhilarating nights of theatre you will have but it will also keep your blood boiling and break your heart to hear the first hand recounting of how these Scottish boys ended up in this man made mess, that is the Iraq war.

LYNN DAVIS

Lynn Davis's show continues at Edwynn Houk gallery until December. Again quality of the work is superb but I feel like I may have seen some of these images before.

BIFAS

The Boston International Fine Arts Show is starting on Thursday. I didn't recognise many of the galleries but Iris Gallery from Great Barrington MA, did contact me, they represent David Burdeny and their Boston gallery now has a show featuring Blurb Book winner Beth Dow. They should Have some interesting stuff. So if you are in Bean Town this weekend give it look.

ALL HANDS ON DECK AT DAWN

Echo and the Bunnymen made a triumphant return to NYC last night with a concert rendition, accompanied by orchestra, of their classic 1984 album Ocean Rain. The band are celebrating 30 years in the business and along with their home town of Liverpool and the Royal Albert Hall in London, they recreated the sound of our generation here in NYC. If they weren't THE seminal band, Joy Division were, they certainly were my favorite. This album, though not my favorite of theirs, HEAVEN UP HERE & CROCODILES are, contains one of my favorite lines ever, from the final song ocean rain "all hands on deck at dawn". If I play it I will sing that that line in my head for days. I just love the rhythm of it flowing off your tongue and the imagery of our Liverpudlian shipmates lost in a foggy sea of forlorn love, "sailing to sadder shores". I bought Crocodiles, their first album, my final year in high school, and wore the grooves out. This was the direction our music was going?, an 'aha' moment. Nobodies voice soared and drowned with melancholy quite like Ian McColloch's and nobodies hair soared quite like the Haystack he produced in the late '70s either, but here it was last night making a modest return like an old friend. Mac himself was in great form, compared to the surly crank that showed up at their last concert in Irving Plaza many years ago, this time joking and remarking on how great it was to be here, wondering if "Billy Crystal" was in attendance. Actually this is up for some conjecture as only a handful of people could understand what he was saying, but his singing voice was crystalline, seemly no different than the first time I saw them in 1982. The crowd jammed the famous old hall. Full of expats, half the NYC photo and film community, they didn't sit all night, the bar being open till almost the end of the show also help to fuel the crowds regressing to their formative years. Images were shown on both sides of the stage on large screens, taken by guitarist Will Sargent, at the beginning of the Bunnymen journey. Man they were so young, Christ. Not unlike Corbjin's in the quality, deep grained B&W, they were quite moving as they included pics of drummer Pete Defreitas who died many years ago. I remember seeing some of those images for the first time in music mags as a teenager and being spellbound by the bands seemingly natural abilities to play to the camera, now in hindsight they seemed like happy go lucky kids, pups, all mood and drama posturing. Fantastic. The sound was fab, or though the drums could have been harder, and the album sounded as new and fresh as it did twenty odd years ago. So it feels our favorite scousers have another couple of years left in them, great, as long as their calling for all hands on deck it gives us all a little more time to make our mark.

FLAK ANDY

Andy Adams sure did get around last week. I love when someone comes in from out of town, just has an allotted amount of time to see people.... and off they go. Andy is the creator of FlakPhoto, where he designed a terrific Blog on photography. To call Flak a blog is a disservice to the Site as Andy is far more advanced in the tech dept. than most of us photo bloggers. The site Curates an image a day as well features on individual, group shows, and in Print books. He coraled not only myself, but Amy Stein, Andrew Hetherington, Jonathan Larson, Joshua Lutz to name few. He was all inquiries on how the business model is working for us and how can we move forward in the new tech /photo age, and brought and outsiders opinion to our struggle, which is always eyeopening. He also likes a little Jameson which endears him to almost everyone. Hope to see him for the photo festival in May

GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK

So after forty four years the curtain is finally coming down. The Stadium that William Shea built to bring National league baseball back to NYC will close its doors for good. Shea Stadium along with Yankee Stadium will both be demolished at the end of the season, to make way for gleaming new/old ball parks. As a Metropolitan fan since arriving here from Ireland, obviously Shea's ending has a far more personal effect on me than the decrepit place in the South Bronx. Actually many times I prayed that the Babe's house would implode all on its own, but I digress. After spending many a night out in Flushing I went on Sunday, probably for the last time. The auld joint was buzzing, the game was great, but I found myself reminiscing, to myself and anyone else who would listen, about specific nights that had Shea as its backdrop. All were baseball related but not all the stories were between the lines, like the night after too much crap beer I fell asleep on the subway and woke up in Coney Island, fell back to sleep and woke up in the last stop in Queens, and, you guessed it all the way back again. The night I was chased all the way around the upper level by Cardinal fans after I called Terry Pendleton something reminesent to McCains wife name calling. The night I saw Ronnie Darling pitch a complete game to win the pennant. The day I tried to figure out when they would clinch the pennant, I had a rain delayed ticket, only to be off by a day. I show up for the day game anyway with 5,000 other poor souls, watching the triple A team play in a cow patch. The sod had been dug the night before by the rampaging fans, BG, before Giuliani, when you were aloud to invade the field to show you gratitude for 14 seasons of ineptitude. The night I took James Doyle to his first game, we got stoned and couldn't find the car in the parking lot. To this day I think he holds it against me for introducing him to the blue and orange instead of pinstripes, as he has wallowed in the many years of woe along with me. My favorite players, Doc, Lenny, Wally, Coney, Piazza, Mex, Seaver #41 the Franchise, Mook. The craziness from the '86 team - Ojeada and the hand, Hernandez and Stawberry throwin punches. "The worst team money could buy" in the '90s. The bad trades - Lenny for Juan Samuel, I almost cried in the car when I heard it, my brother on vacation from Ireland howling with laughter at me - Nolan Ryan for Jim Fragosi, Cone for Ryan (5 tool,tool is right) Thompson and Jeff Kent, the worst trade in Met history. And of course we don't mention last year, never mention last year. Shea was the first stadium I entered in the US, its colors so vibrant, its size immense, I had never seen anything like it and yet I felt like I had been coming here all my life. But for all its pennant futility it still gives me the greatest of pleasure to say I'm a Met fan. To put the radio on in the middle of a summer night and hear Howie Rose float faintly across the airwaves could not make me happier. Goodnight Bob Murphy and Gill Hodges, Hello Citi Field.
Click on image for enlargement.

BLURB & SLEEPING GIANT

The self publishing Giant Blurb have decided to have a competition for all the newly pubbed photographers, that's insider publishing talk. Yours truly has entered Sleeping Giant, and many counterparts have also put their wares for judgement. Blurb has also added a peoples choice award, where one can go to the web site, here, and vote for your favorite. If your reading this blog you may then want to go and vote for me. Pure shill, so what, well were all sick and tired of trying to be coy. Go vote. I don't know what the award is but it will be coming to me, so there.

GOODFELLAS AND SLEEPING GIANT

Henry Hill and Juniors!!!!! Yes indeed, the leading figure in the tell all mobster tale Goodfellas is a devotee of Juniors restarurant. Now many people may think that its the Juniors diner chain that have been dotted around Manhattan for years, but one would be wrong. Chris McLallen pointed this out to me as he noticed, while scouring the BBC, that it was the little family owned, heavy on Italian joint, in Long Island City. He remembered the shot from my project SLEEPING GIANT. I have looked at that building many different ways while working on SG, trying to find my quintessential angle, but could never get over the fact that here was a restaurant with silos emerging from its roof. I read the book Goodfellas long before the movie came out and Henry Hill was so clear and concise in his retelling of the crimes and there proximity to where I lived, I felt as if they happened just down the street. Well I'm sure some of them did. Now that Signora Hill is apart of the local lore, that image takes a slightly different tone for me. Listen to the interview, don't know if its just bravado or lunacy but that guy is still not someone to mess with. And of course look for the shoot of him outside Juniors

IT IS WHAT IT IS!!!!

I think maybe its time to knock the whole self publishing problem on the head. After Joerg's post and APE's intervention, in regards to the hazards associated with trying to reproduce a Rizzoli product for $30.00, here's where we stand. In the same place as yesterday and the same place 15 months ago. Its self publishing for Christ's sake. Nobody has the perfect answer. For $20 to $60 what do you really expect. You have a book in your hand that that you didn't have a week before. Could that have happened 3 years ago, NO. Some people thinks its great, some don't. Its just another tool. If you cant get the color right, try another company. Is that a pain and really quite disappointing, Yes, but since when has anything come easy in the arts and especially in photography. Only a few months ago I had to go back to my printer 4 times to get a print right that I was making, and these guys are one of the best in the city, and I was standing next to the to the printer. It happens. Oh, in case you wanted to shell out more that $30 you could go to LeLivre d'art, and get the most beautiful color reproduction. I'm sure there wouldn't be any bitching and moaning. You got $10,000.00. It is what it is.

SUMMER PROGRAMES, continued

Early last month I listed some of the great galleries and shows in Upstate N.Y. for this summer, well on that thread here are two long running programmes that I have never had the chance to attend until this week.
The first is in Garrison N.Y., a little ways from my upstate haunts, but really worth the effort, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. The group performs on the grounds of Boscobel, one of the finest examples of Federalist architecture in the country. It is quite breathtaking to walk onto the grounds and have the Hudson river greet you in such a a majestic manner. The stage is situated so that when you are seated the backdrop is the panoramic Hudson valley view in the image above. Very dramatic. The rest of the season is Twelfth Night, go if you can.
The other event I have been remiss in attending is the Music and Film night, back in the city, at Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City. A banner turnout Wed night for the Red Balloon, their largest in their 10 year history. Along with the Museum of the Moving Image, the Socrates gang put on a very intimate big city evening. It has 4 more showings into Sept. I have to say we are very lucky to have such terrific organizations working for us locally.

McCARREN POOL (over and out)

A couple of weeks ago I started to shoot some work in McCarren Park, Brooklyn, and posted some images with the feeling that I could put together some sort of project or at least create a collection of interesting images. Not long after, word came back that the Architecture agency, who were getting the designs ready for the new look pool, they weren't so crazy about my project anymore. Whaaaat??? The police had asked a member of the management team to leave the premises even though he had keys and id. So another project falls through, wasn't the first wont be the last.I then find out yesterday that the reason behind all the police activity is.... DEAD BODY in the park. Nobody is quite sure who it is yet or how long it was there but I had stuck my head into a few if the old changing rooms, just to have a look. That would not have been fun. The Gothamist blog reported it back in July. I have only come across one other dead body in all my time in New York. I took a photograph. It wasn't my best day. So, the remaining images of McCarren Pool circa 2008 will be some nimrod, in a stone cold stupor, shakin his ass to a reformed Devo. Wooooooo

NOW AVAILABLE AT.........THE NOGUCHI

After spending quite some time diligently shooting, cataloguing and producing SLEEPING GIANT | 11101 REZONED, my Large Format project on the urban uprising in Long Island City, N.Y., it is with great pleasure that I can announce that the uber prestigious Noguchi Museum in New York has decided to to carry my self- published book in its museum store. I feel very honored that this weighty institution sees this project as one that fits their artistic sensibilities. The book itself is 13x11 hardcover, made by Blurb. As we all know feedback is the litmus test for our work and so far it has been terrific.
Some history on SG's new home. Created by Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988), the Museum opened in 1985, presenting a comprehensive collection of the artist's works in stone, metal, wood, and clay, as well as models for public projects and gardens, dance sets, and Akari Light Sculptures. The Museum--chartered as The Noguchi Museum--is housed in thirteen galleries within a converted factory building and encircles a garden containing major granite and basalt sculptures. In addition to housing and exhibiting a collection of Noguchi's works, the Museum also serves the international art community by loaning works to other institutions for special exhibitions, organizing traveling exhibitions, and offering scholars access to the artist's extensive archives, including his records, correspondence, manuscripts, and photographs. The Museum also collaborates with The Isamu Noguchi Foundation in Japan.
Great thanks to Bonnie Rychlack and Douglas DiNapoli for making this happen.

THE CLARK

If anyone is in the Upper Hudson Valley or the Berkshires this summer, you will certainly not want for cultural distractions. Besides the myriad of galleries dotted around the country towns and villages, this area also plays home to some innovative and classic museums. MASS MOCA, where my wife and I travelled up to see Beth Orton on Sat night, ( by the way she stunk, beware Prospect Park) is one the countries premier museums. Their courtyard feels like a Yorkshire creamery at the turn of the 19th century, awesome. BERKSHIRE Museum, The NORMAN ROCKWELL Museum, tons of fun, OLANA, home of Fredrich Church of the Hudson River gang, is open for tours. But its THE CLARK that stands out in my mind from the rest. Situated in Williamstown MA, nestled among the surrounding hills, its an ideal setting for one to step back in time and reflect on the works of some great masters. Small and intimate, easy to navigate, and very little in the way of crowds. Certainly not avant garde, in terms of the work being shown, its a little like watching TMC on a rainy afternoon. Of course we have moved on, but look at how we got here, brilliant, luminous and still working its magic. The buildings themselves are quite modern and beautifully designed. Right now "LIKE BREATH ON GLASS the art of painting softly" is showing. The works of Whistler, Innes, Homer, Steichen etc. Steichen's inclusion is wonderful from a photographic point of view as you can see exactly where he put his palate down and picked up his camera. There is almost nothing lost in the crossover and with so many photographers using modern techniques to achieve the look portrayed by this work, it seems pretty relevant today. Well worth a summer trip to the country.
PS Walk out back in the next two weeks, while he lillies bloom for their recreation of Monets Lilly pond at Giverny.

MOTHA-NATURE

Around 7:15 pm on Tuesday evening the skies darkened and made like the end of days.

VOTE FOR DICK

Trying to survive the day to day trials of our fair city is hard enough without taking on the good fight against all things commercial, but reading the Op Ed page in the Daily News today I felt quite ashamed that I hadn't jumped on Dick Zigan's band wagon before now. Dick is the unnofficial mayor of Coney Island, Brooklyn. A modern day PT Barnum, he is the founder of CONEY ISLAND USA, CONEY ISLAND CIRCUS SHOW, producer of THE MERMAID PARADE and has been a figure in the dark arts since I arrived in the City. He wrote and produced one of the first plays my wife appeared in, our cat is named for the mythical "Feejee the mermaid", from said show.

He is also director of the CONEY ISLAND DEVELOPMENT CORP, which has being trying to save whats left of one of the most famous resorts in all the world, The Coney Island Amusement Park. His eleoquint piece on the saving of New York's National institution, while remaining cognasent of the need for city input and the bullying pyranha to have their say, seemed so ...evolved. Read the Op Ed page for the complete detailed account of the ten year journey. But of course as always in these type of negotiations, once one sides gives, the other tries to take advantage and so again the the city just seems to want suck up every last inch of city soil in its quest for the Vegasing/Disneying of NYC. Just when the CIDC thinks it has achieved a morally and commercially viable solution, that would save what's left of the working man's oasis, up jumps the mayor and his cronies with more slabs of luxury living.

Dick and his troop are the very heart and soul of what makes NYC the capitol of the world, and I don't mean venture capitol of the world. They have carved out a niche for themselves in an area that politicians, as well as everyone else, had givin up on as a poster child of urban blight. Now the visionaries that run our city see that a lifestyle that seemed so you outside the norm twenty years ago, is possibly what will save and revive this great area to its former glory. So what is the other sides offering in moral high ground, lets fuck em and take it for ourselves. Lovely. Contact the CIDC to give whatever help you can before Dick takes his show and goes home.

McCarren Pool, Brooklyn, New York

After working like a dog for what seems like months straight, missing all of the photo Festival because of it, and enjoining Manchester United's glorious night in Europe for what seems like a week, I was more than happy to rise with the dawn to travel into neighboring Greenpoint, after been offered keys to the much maligned McCarren Pool .The pool opened in July 1936. One of 10 large city pools built by Robert Moses with federal Works Progress Administration funds, the six-acre pool could accommodate 6,800 swimmers and was said to have been among the largest public pools built at that time. The design, by Moses’ architect Aymar Embury II, features a striped arch, more than 38 feet high, that served as a bathhouse.
The other nine WPA pools still function, but McCarren closed in 1983 for renovation. Some residents, claiming it had become a magnet for raucous kids and illegal activities, opposed reopening it.
Now, 25 years later, it remains shut. It has been opening in the summer for concerts and movies but in a very indie sort of way for the past few years. In 2001, the city presented a $26 million plan for the pool but nothing ever came of it. “Right now, it is the city's most poignant ruin,” Francis Morrone wrote in the New York Sun last year. “For more than 20 years, it has been a monument to shame.” But word has it that the Dept of Parks along with A major architecture firm are restoring the grand old summer outlet to its former glory. A full six acres of urban aqua fun, and restoration of its magnificent diving pool. We will see. Personally it looks like there might be some sort of project here. Why? just because it deserves it. this ruinous version is part of its history also and quite beautiful in its own right. Here are some images, though the early morning light was brutally harsh and gave me nothing that I wanted.

SAY NO MORE!!!!

RIVER LIGHTS

Last Saturday Night, in North Adams, home of MASS MOCA, a new art installation was launched by local artist Ralph Brill. Using various pieces of light artwork and sculpture, artists from around the world came together to create a unique light display in the concrete channels that house the Hossic river. Brill,also in collabaration with the Rennsellaer Polytechnic Lighting class, and whose gallery in the Eclipse Mill, came up with the idea for the Hoosic River Lights Project two years ago after searching for a way to rediscover what he calls "the lost river". The Hoosic was the life of this mill town … and the whole notion of the river in Adams and North Adams has disappeared from our minds," said Brill, pointing out that local tourist maps fail to note the river in the city at all. "We drive right over it and it looks like nothing but concrete chutes." A major success in terms of the amount of people in attendance, some felt the light show a little lacking. Personally I think the Hossac left its game face at home as the lighting was terrific but the river needed a little more oomph to transfer the artists vision of moving light.

ART RACE

This sounds hysterical and really fun, if you are about twenty.

"Gallery HD and Illuminations Media are looking for two Fearless, Charismatic, Intelligent, Sassy, Witty, Passionate & Informed ARTISTS to take the definitive chutzpah road trip.

Two Artist/Art Racers must cross the US in 40 days, surviving only on Art. Armed with art materials, cameras, and a $1 dollar budget, the Artist/Art Racers must "trade" art for food, shelter and other art-works.

Starting on opposite coasts (one in NYC, one in LA), the Artist/Art Racers' odyssey culminates in a home-city exhibition of all the works they have created and collected along the way. The winner is the Artist/Art Racer who sells/trades the most artwork. Or at least the one who survives.

No prior on-camera experience required but must be a Great Communicator who interacts well with all types of people in all sorts of situations and can make smart commentary as life happens.

If this is you, please submit the following ASAP to: subs@barbarabarnacasting.com

--recent photo (not older than 6 months)
--bio or resume
--sample of your art (photo reproductions okay)
--short essay explaining why you are an Art Racer
--be sure to include your full name, phone number and city you currently live in.

**PHOTO ATTACHMENTS OKAY -- ALL OTHER INFORMATION MUST BE IN THE BODY OF THE EMAIL**

hard copy submissions to:

Barbara Barna Casting
249 Smith Street PMB 122
Brooklyn, NY 11231

Art Racers must live in the greater New York City/tri-state area, be at least 21 years old and a US citizen or legal alien resident.

ART RACE shoots May 26 - July 11 for appx 40 days on the road + up to 5 add'l shoot days & voice over.

The production company is Illuminations Media UK http://www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/

ART RACE will air on Gallery HD in the US -- http://www.voom.tv/galleryhd.html

• Location: New York City
• Compensation: $25K flat
• Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests."

TO FLICK OR NOT TO FLICK

After the furor over APE's choice of to use Flickr as his tool for his showcase, I came up against some of the same Flickr discrimination myself last week. After meeting a very nice photographer at the Blindspot auction, I emailed him some images based on a conversation we had on regards to alternative process. I sent him a number of images of mine using Flickr. Private, only he could see them, but he emailed me back and from the tenor of his comment was shocked and quite perturbed, that I would take the time to shoot 8x10 but then put them on Fkickr. We joked back and forth about it, but the underlying feeling was that this tool was so beneath me, I should be ashamed to be seen in its company. I was a little dismayed at this but it made me read over the Jackanory's comments about the resentment in some quarters to Rob using this program. What are people thinking? Its reminds me of the hue and cry on Photoshop's arrival."No way, I shoot everything in camera" Wonder if those guys are still saying that today. ITS A TOOL PEOPLE. Use it accordingly. Use your noggins. Nobody has to know you have stuff up on it. There are plenty of times when I need to put something together fast, other than my website for a potential client. You have another tool to show them work, that may tip the scales in your favor, great, thanks. Personally I think clients couldn't care less, they have a lot more shit to think about than Flickr. Use it for what it is and move on. Lets get pass this to more pressing and interesting subjects, like ......Polidori in Versailles. Now where's Soth when you need him?

HAIRCUT HAIKU from laurena

"no way about your hair!
is that a recent cut?
and do you think you have enough hair?
that is not your hair
did you get a blow out?
now i really have to see you."

laurena

Seriously, Who got the best haircut here

Found these sitting in drawer, with tons of other chromes, with the tag TO BE SCANNED. Never got to it, till now. I'm glad I did. How many of these do all of us have sitting in boxes, just that bit to busy to get to them. You happened to be in the right place, right time for nature to give you a private display but your working on a project and these just don't fit in, so they get relegated to some obscure part of the office, only to be happened upon years later. Happens to us all. These kind of finds make me happy.
Click on to enlarge

SURFIN' IRL

I saw this image and story, "ON FRIGID CELTIC WAVES" in the Times on Thursday and couldn't help but laugh. I Love the photo but the incongruous nature of Ireland and surfing makes me howl. Isn't everyones idea of surfing somewhere between Frankie & Annette and Big Wednesday. This is the home I left because the unemployment line trailed from one end of the country to the other, now scads of people are coming with the highest of techie surf gear, hangin' ten, checkin' the gnarly surf in the most remote regions. Well done. It takes a brave soul to go to Bundorran at the best of times, look at that image , doesn't that look fun. Glad to see the rain still keeping its word, that no matter what sport you take up it will be a willing partner

NOTHING IS FREE, and if it is, is it worth it?

1,314 photographers saw something last week and did something about it. Not to disparage our cities surveillance advertising, but that was some turnout for Rob " A Photo Editor". Now all we have to do is wait for Rob's decree and in the process do like CNN or MSNBC and break down the social experiment aspect of the whole schbang till we are blue in the face. But seriously, it was very interesting to see who showed up for the dance and why. There were some old names I hadn't seen in a while, quite surprising. Plenty of names that were not familiar at all, but it was what people decided to show, not who, that was so interesting.... actually confounding. Andrew Hetherington wrote about taking part in the experiment and what he felt were the ups and downs of such an exercise, all of it I felt was really pertinent to how we behave as professionals in our business. Sometimes our business feels like high school, not quite professional, but what you gonna do . What I found mystifying is how people made their decisions on what to show. Over and over people put up images that had no real connection to the work on their websites. What in heavens name is that about. Yes its Flickr but do you really think that someone editing is going to pour over your trip to Italy, even though you shoot high end Still life in the real world. Get a grip. Have people learned nothing from reading these blogs in regards to producing and submitting coherent bodies of work? Some people decided to partake but made the images private, isn't the whole idea for people to see your work, or is it only the right sort of people are given the privilege. And then some people sent their images to Rob via email so as not to dain mixing with the Flickr riff raff. Egalitarian my ass. Maybe its the free aspect, I would like to talk to someone at PDN and asked them if a $40.00 entry fee makes any difference. I don't mean to be doggin anyone in particular here but if I read one more blog about how hard it is to find work and how can we get in the door, and this is how the business responds to a free "get in the door", well. Lets hope it turns out to be what it truly was supposed to be, but as they say the proof will be in the pudding. I am excited to see the outcome but I'm positive we will not have heard the last of this once the envy'd list is revealed

OLAF OTTO BECKER

Olaf Otto Becker has a sublime show finishing at Cohen Amador in NYC on the 14th of March and then heading West to Stephen Cohen Gallery in L.A..This is well worth the visit. Jorg has nice interview with him here.

How to Succeed in Advertising When All You Have Is Talent

Alright, so you want to be a big time advertising shooter, get some of that cash that's floating around. Sick of editorial day rate and PE's yankin your chain, well here's a story of how it can get squirrelly when you play with the big boys even if you have 20 years experience.
A friend of mine who has been in the advertising game for that lenght of time has a client, national brand, six quality shoots a year. Nice base to keep his Manhattan studio open and collect other clients along the way. Nice working relationship with the agency and client, though just like any work relationship, one month they love you, next cant stand you, one day your a genius, next a hack. But this has been going on for years and everyone gets what they want. Sooo, the brand gets bought out by another company about six months ago. Will that have any effect on my friends job security? who knows, but he's been doing this so long that if things get hinky he feels he will be able to suss it out. Along comes another shoot, nothing strange, this one quite big, keep three weeks on hold. That means 20 freelancers. This is a pretty fair amount of responsibility and production to get this together. Now its getting closer to the supposed shoot day, stylists are calling hourly to know if the job is officially booked. At this point it hadn't been, which is a bit strange, but no biggie. He uses 5 stylists, 5 assistants, 2 producers plus numerous other people depending on the shoot. Some are beginning to get other jobs which means trying to find replacements, the core group stays but they need to know whats happening, like now. He's shooting another job so all these people calling becomes a royal pain. Anyway, a couple of days before the job he gets a call from the agency. Are you free this week, the client wants a SHOOT OUT, between him and 2 other photographers. A shoot out, how fucking corporate can you get, a nice way of saying you might be getting the chop. The new people at the top want a new direction. They want to see what you can really do, as if the last six years working on this account was shot by some imposter. What a crock, but you gotta play the game up to a point. Some of you might say you've had your run, move it, but its his living and he's worked damn hard to get where he is. You got to pay the bills. But he tells them not a hope, knowing that he is the incumbent and hasn't a chance of winning that game. If the client feels the need for change or the agency is feeling the heat, your dead. Apologies all round, but still the agency wants to keep the hold, (in case the other shooters suck). Imagine calling all the freelancers up and telling them you want to put them back on a three week hold but my job is in jeopardy and there is a really good chance its not going to come in anyway. Click!!!!, is what you hear on the other end of the phone. So sorry my guy says, can't do the SHOOT OUT, everyone has to move on and get other work. He leaves with his dignity and a couple of months short in mortgage payments. He's feeling some serious pressure though. How will this play out with the client, how are the agency going to feel, freakin landlord's going to looking for his, etc. Everybody who has been waiting around for weeks for this to happen is pissed but that's the nature of the game. Its called freelance for a reason.
Fade to two days later, he gets am email from the agency seeing if he was available for a Pre Pro the following Tuesday. "Of course the first week is off, can't get layouts together, but we will have the meeting and firm everything up". Emails back, "that sounds great". Now to any normal person this would sound like game back on right?, he stood his ground and they blinked. But this is advertising photography a little bit like black magic, lots of deceit cloaked in fairy dust. He stops short of trying to get everyone back on hold till he hears from the client. Good thinking, because the Tuesday comes and goes and not a dickybird from anybody. Wed. Thur. Fri. also. After some back and forth he finds out the agency went ahead and shot with someone else. Led him on to think everyone was working feverishly on the said layouts. Not one call from anybody at the agency, or the client , who he is on very good terms with. Not a care for all the people who lost out on other jobs while waiting for the OK. If he had not been so savvy he could have been out serious cash, not to mention the mindfuck of trying to figure out if you have lost your bread and butter for good. Of course there is always the chance they will go to another shooter when you call their bluff but still.... give the guy a call.
Maybe you have noticed I really haven't once mentioned photography in this post, not a word about cameras, prints vs web, film vs digital. It all has little or nothing to do with the time of day, its business pure and simple. So if you like the idea of twenty of thirty people screaming at you and blaming you for the loss of their income, the downfall of their product, and not having the imagination to follow their Michelangelo like layouts, then for sure, this is the career for you.

DEATH IN THE FAMILY

The news that Polaroid had decided to close down their Massachusetts site didn't come as any great shock but as practicing Large Formatist it broke my heart. There are plenty of people still in the business who remember the days before instant film but for myself Polaroid was thriving and King when I entered the game. I remember my first job at a big time advertising studio, putting the the order to Alkit for the new batch and had to ask the first assistant three times, if in fact this was correct. I couldn't imagine anyone would use that much 'roid. And the price, suffice it to say they spent more on Polaroid in one order than on my salary for half a year. We ordered Type 55 B/W Pos/Neg, we had to have the neg. How could you tell it was in focus if you didn't close down to 32 or 45 and pull the neg and look at it on a light box. When I was first shown this I thought this is the game for me, all these little nick/knacks, love it. Type 59 Color, Type 809 Color and the great Type 803 B/W. Cross processing the B&W and Color became a bit of a thing for many photographers. Robert Maxwell, Jose Picayo among others were all great practioners. Whenever I shot people I always tried to get the people in charge of the dough to try cross-processed. Can you imagine if you based your look solely on that, you would be up shit creek? But most people were smart enough to see all this coming. I stopped using 803 on my personal work a while back, because a) with Time exposures it was kind of pointless, and b) the real reason, I just couldn't afford it unless someone was paying for it. I adopted the slogan ©Polaroid is for Pussies, you should know how to expose at this point, but that now seems a little harsh in sight of our great loss. My fave Polaroid story comes from a few years back, I was shooting Lou reed, who would rather have been anywhere but getting a photograph taken. He wanted it done at the double. No problem, only two shots I told him. Great!. Only one camera, no back up so this was it . Ready and......Anyone who has ever heard Polaroid getting stuck in the processor rollers knows from where I speak. Think large cats in heat but with a little added crunch. This did nothing to bolster Lou’s view of me and when my assistant put it in the second time and it happened again, this only louder and longer, you can only imagine the faux look of "no big deal ' on my face. He's a mean bastard Lou, so I had to grab a quickie while he wasn't looking. Not my greatest, but these things happen.
Now it seems like I also now have 3, door stop like Processors for sale. Who knew it would all end like this. From the heady heights those greats have fallen.

Mr New York

The Museum of the City of New York has many photo goings on this month, but front and center is the work of iconic New York photographer Rudy Burckhardt, his show Street Dance opened Feb 1. Also added to this is a film series of his, 15 shorts he had made over his illustrious career, this Sunday coming. The above image is from his book Afternoon in Astoria, a project near and dear to my heart. Check out the cool MOMA album designed in 2002. Could that image have been shot anywhere in postwar Europe? Wow. No its Queens. Antonioni eat you heart out.

50th Anniversary

Stan B over at Reciprocity Failure read my post on Azo film and recommended looking at the work of Joseph Mills. He uses outdated paper with a specific toning technique which includes varnish and achieves a beautiful washed out look, not unlike 8x10 cross processed Polaroid. His work Inner City can be seen here, represented by the Cohen Amador Gallery in NYC

SNOWJOB

With the blizzards Upstate today it reminded me I hadn't posted our own New Years Eve snowfall.

BLACK MAGIC JOHAN: Santana comes to NYC

My last posting on the New York Mets was in reference to their historic meltdown at the end of last season, so I'm sure this will once again be the kiss of death as the best pitcher in MLB, Johan Santana, in his prime comes to the Mets in a four way trade from the Minnesota Twins. I say this because just like the Democratic party the Mets have a way of shooting themselves in the foot, of turning a sure winner into something, completely...not a sure winner. Visions of Frankie V "Sweet Music" Viola, come churning into my head. The last great Twin to arrive back home with all the credentials for an amazing run. Twenty game winner, Cy Young Award winner, World Series winner, New Yorker and a lefty, what could possibly go wrong? Lets hope we don't have a 36 degree April day and Willie decides to leave Santana out there to pitch 158 go 'rounds. A late season collapse of 2-11 in his second year does not a joyous homecoming make. As Dylan says "Don't fall apart on me tonight babe, I just don't think that I could handle it". So here's to our new arrival and may all the good magic, whether it be white, black or from Carlos himself, be with him and our team.

ABOUT FACE

Putting together a cohesive body of work can be daunting and end up taking what seems like forever but here is Bill Bernstein with not one but two completely different portfolios, both coming out in under a calender year. One of my first posts was for his Paul McCartney show last Feb in Soho. His new one is at the Bowery Mission opening on Thur night called "About Face", an essay on the men who daily try to turn their lives around using the Mission as a starting off point. Bill has volunteered at the mission for many years and knows many of the men personally so look forward to seeing this intimate insight into what can sometimes be a heartbreaking or heartwarming endeavour.

OUT OF DATE

I'm a big fan of using all sorts of outdated film, paper etc, just to see what you will get, most of the time not much, but its worth a try. This present from my friend Lori was even too much for me. Check out the date.