HOUSE AND GONE

Ran into old friend photographer Francois Dishinger (see Francois's GQ spread in last month's issue) last night and he told me House and Garden magazine was closing in December. Francois has done oceans of work for them through the years and was feeling for all his compadres who will be out looking for new work. New people at new magazines means new work. He didn't feel so bad after that. Anyway, Lots of large format guys have cut their teeth on that magazine and found ways into the Conde Nast labyrinth of work. My lasting memory of the mag came last December. Everyone was blogging and talking about Robert Polidori's opening at the Met, for his book on New Orleans. The scope of the tome he had produced had people apolectict, and now the work was being elevated to the Holiest of sights. The MET. But there was Big Bob out in someones garden doing his three page spread for H & G. When your working your working.

100 YEARS IN LIVING COLOR

Nice piece in the Smithsonian magazine this month about the photo process unveiled 100 years ago by the Lumieres, them again, the Autochrome. With all the different and excellent writings and shows on the history of color photography, (Martin Parr, Christian Patterson,) this seemed complementary. The photos in the Magazine are far better than on line so if you get a chance to sneak a peak somewhere its worth it. The process seems quite outrageous, potatoes and silver bromide, but what photographic process isn't and the outcome is wondrous, as if Seurat himself picked up the camera and said this is what I want it to look like. The way things are going in the sheet film world I may have to farm a couple of acres of spuds, see if the wife will give up the spaghetti squash in her garden.