GET YOUR OWN GREATS

I thought I may be going to DC for work so I looked up the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery to see if their are any shows and lo and behold a show ending in Sept called Great Britons. Traveling from the NPG in London. Fab. I had a quick look to see what was being presented and was struck, not once, not twice but three times at some of the choices for the all time Great Britons. Sir Winston yes, Queen Victoria check, James Joyce of course...... whooooa horsey, did I miss something, did Dublin move, is it still in the Emerald Isle? James Augustine Aloysius Joyce, Séamus Seoighe as Gealge, in Irish. Born Feb 2nd, 1882, Rathgar, Dublin. Does that sound like someone who was born in Chelsea. Alright so you give 'em one, so who's next, Oscar Wilde? For the love of mike. Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde, their wasn't a English Victorian mother who would bestow that moniker upon any child, plus they threw him in jail for his ...poetry. I'm sure he wasn't the only Poet in England at the time, but he was an Irish poet. So what am I gleaning from this. The National Portrait in London decided that if your country had been invaded by the Empire, you renounced you nationality whether you like it or not, you fell nicely into their category of Briton, as the commonwealth was spread nice and wide back then. So would that make Mahatma Ghandi a big Tottenham Hotspur fan?, he still wouldn't be happy about that today. Now to round all this off, here's another one who snugly fit in between Queen V and Kate Winslett, Oliver Cromwell. Well if this wasn't a genocidal maniac roaming the seas I don't know who was. Responsible for the death of anywhere between 2 and 10,000 Irish people in quelling the rebellion of 1641, he may have single handedly set of a string of events that would hold sway over Ireland for the next 400 years. Pitting Protestants again Catholics, this divisiveness festered till, well.... today. The saying " may Cromwell's curse be on ya" still is used by many old timers in the auld sod. My great auntie Jo would spit every time his name was mentioned and believe it or not its still mentioned. Plus he rankled his own crowd so much they dug him from his grave, hung him and then beheaded him. Nice chap. I'm not quite sure what the NPG were thinking here, what was the prerequisite for entrance to the hallowed list. This may sound like an inferiority complex, trust me its not. The Commonwealth has influenced my thinking as much as anyone, but you have to stick up for your own even if they are all dead. Get your own greats leave ours alone. PS Becks never look better.

Image resizing

I received an email from regular Pelicula 64 devotee Scott McDermott last night, with this very interesting You Tube video on image resizing. Basically an algorithm software for changing the size of an image without distorting it. Watching the first minute or two is really fun till you realize exactly how this could and will be used in our business. Scott's words were "interesting, aside from the artistic and ethical ramifications". Right on. I Love the narrator who comforts all of us with " we gracefully re size the image to fit into a window". Can't you see it now, break you heart to set up a shot, with specific this, that, and the other thing, all coinciding just to make your image, YOURS. Then some schmuck comes along at a magazine and squares up your perfectly aligned 8x10.... just so as it fits.......who will notice? This is well worth keeping an eye on because it will be used. Right on Scott thanks for noticing.

Nina Berman

Nice layout in the Arts section of the Times on Wednesday for Nina Berman and her new book Purple Hearts. The series revolves around soldiers who have been injured in Iraq. I just went to the opening of her show at Jen Beckman gallery on Spring St. Moving and thought provoking to say the least and she also seems like a really nice person. The show is up till the 30th of August so give a visit if you can. Nice work Nina.

The Most Beautiful Born

Great post from the Online Photographer in regards to "airbrushing" of celebs. If you have ever worked in the larger studios in NYC you see this go on all the time as they try to sell you their digital package. You can browse the celebrity clean up line with your latte, and notice he's got the same scar I do. Not for long boyo. But I haven't been around those studios too much lately so I have forgotten just how insane it really looks. It just blows me away what they try to sell up the river. No wonder kids are bulimic. The chic form Grey's Anatomy's tits are raised at least 3 inches. I love the guy with the pimple on his nose, Kelly Clarkeson loses 4 inches all round and Eva Longoria, and they made SKINNIER!!!! Impossible, what magic. Anyway if you have teenagers, or even God forbid adults you know who idolize these people, go to iwannexstudio, click on portfolio and scroll over the most beautiful born among us. God bless Penelope Cruz, who doesn't love one breast higher than the other.

VANS FRIDAY

I found this on a blog from Ireland called Bubble Brothers. They sell wine and give out some great information on smaller vineyards and more reasonably priced wine. This is Van Morrison and Chet Baker doing Send in the Clowns. From the looks of it, it may be Ronnie Scotts, a jazz club in London but I will have to look that up. I have been a fan of the The Mans since my brother Joe introduced him to me and he and Kieran Healy made me listen to Its Too Late To Stop It Now, vowing a better live record was yet to be made. Since that recording in 1974 Van has released 2 more live recordings. But this I had never heard of. He did do a string of jazz club in the early and mid 80's, not a lot of regular concert hall gigs, Van being infamous for leaving the stage at a whim and other rock eccentricities. This was also right before he made a four or five of Irish centric albums, going back to live in Ireland after being in the US and England for years. What's great is not only the pairing but the fact that they murder this version. Every great song writer has one or two songs that everybody thought they could sing the best, this happens to Stephan Sondheim's, the greatest American song writer of the latter 20th century. This was also right before Chet died in Holland, I'm sure not too much footage of him before he went. This may have been Chet's set as Van seem to be reading the lyrics and looks like he just joined for one song. About as hackneyed a song as their is but give a listen, these two martyrs will still move ya. Maybe this will become a regular spot, Vans Friday

Flux Capacitor, no its a Lumen stupid.

Just to continue the thread of the Crewdson piece, there is an interview with his director of photography, Richard Sands, This guy does ferocious work. I have worked on many large scale sets, non film, all still photography, but seeing their lighting set list is quite daunting. 136 lights at one time, massive. So a major shout out to Richard and his crew. But I found listening to the interview, an expression I had vaguely heard before, maybe not, I just don't want to sound like a complete idiot. Lumen. A lot of film guys have different terms for the same gear we use on still shoots, but in context of the interview I was a little lost. Sands says "because we are trying to achieve an F-stop 32.5 we have to use intense Lumieres? (type of HMI?). HMI sources have the best Lumens per watt effecicecy". Lumieres must be a type of light, though I could not find a reference for it anywhere. Please tell me he is not using the French term for light. But Lumens? Not comin to me. Anyway I looked up Lumen in the dictionary and here it is. If a light source emits one candela of luminous intensity into a solid angle of one steradian, the total luminous flux emitted into that solid angle is one lumen. Alternatively, an isotropic one-candela light source emits a total luminous flux of exactly 4π lumens.
Boy can't you hear that on the walkie talkie, "That 10K needs to come down -4π lumens and not a candela more. Yes Gregory".

BRITISH STAND DOWN IN IRELAND

The British army ends on Tuesday July 31st its 38-year role supporting police in Northern Ireland, its longest ever military operation.

THE SWIMMING VISIONARY?

Nice piece in PDN this month about Gregory Crewdson. Go here for an equally compelling Q&A on NPR . Very candid in his answers about his process. This guy is another one, who like Gursky, elicits a lot of chatter. Of course I feel camaraderie for the paysan because of his affinity for 8x10, but I have had some people ask me " how is he a photographer anymore". I suppose I could have told them to go listen to the NPR piece but then we wouldn't have any thing to write about. Anyway, I'm sure most people ask the above question in the true sense of the word, - see the image - shoot the scene - print the picture. Of course our business is ever changing and that model seems quite quaint in comparison to what in fact is the reality of most peoples photography today, no matter what their process is. Instead of is he a photographer?, maybe the question really is, what is a photographer today? With the advent of digital, Flickr etc just about everyone can be and seems to be a photographer. Martin Parr's story about Bruce Davidson losing out on a rather large job to a Flickrite, being an example. If you can point it, shoot it and you get some work then where does that place someone like Crewdson, in photographic terms. You really can't say he just takes a photograph. The production alone would make Walker Evans, one of his original inspirations, turn in his grave. Imagining the Mis-en-scene is so complex, putting a six figure photo shoot is immense, that work alone could kill ya. But.... in reality he doesn't light the scene himself, doesn't do any of the digital work himself, which seems like a monumental part of the job, doesn't proof his prints, doesn't print the finished product. These are all things we loved about being photographers right? I would have my minions do all that kind of drudgery also. So what exactly does he do? "Acctionn" Click.He has a crew of 70 people to run the whole schebang. I know that's pretty simplistic, in view of the huge production but... photographically? How much of the work do you have to do yourself to be still considered a photographer, in the old sense of the word. For all intense and purposes he is a director but he doesn't have to illicit the range of emotions all directors have to get from their actors. I think the cobbling together of the images and director of photography he uses, seem to be the sticking points for a lot of people also. So is there another newer, more modern name for Mr Crewdson and his ilk, image director, photo imager, image creator, or just Visionary. I know other photographers have left some of less glamorous photographic work behind them along time ago, advertising and Fine Art guys in particular but I wonder if Crewdson did much more of the process in camera, would that quell some of the questions?. He says he has never used strobe but considering he doesn't do it himself anyway, why not. I'm sure someone out there would be willing to take on the challenge of one of his lighting scenarios. Find some old Stacked Ascors, they will give you F32 in hurry. Before the advent of the new technology this was one of the great challenges posed to many an advertising photographer, "I want all that in the frame and I will pay you to do it". No Photoshop, figure it out. And how is that different from the galleries funding Crewdson's work so they can all make profit from the final image. Is that really a fine art or a pure money making venture for Crewdson and the galleries?, not unlike making a film for a studio. Certainly artistic with great vision but there is a bottom line, somebody will want a return on their money. Nothing wrong with any of this, we are all looking for funding in some way or other.
Now lets get this straight the finished product is terrific. What he creates in one image can sometimes be mesmerising but these are many of the questions being raised with the advent of digital and how one implements it in ones work. The other is whether Mr Crewdson could give a rats ass what he is called. And will that word photographer, as we once knew it, be obsolete sometime soon?

YOU DOUITY RAT!

There are many terrific reasons for living in NYC. Quite honestly the list is endless, but there is one thing almost all New Yorkers can agree on, rodents can be a problem. Cut to bucolic Columbia County,Upstate New York. Farm land, lakes, summer haze rising off the pastures and RATS NEST IN MY ENGINE!!!!. So you can imagine the scene, relaxing in the great wide open, birds twittering outside you window, bees buzzing and then you hear your wife and to be honest myself shriek at the site of a rodents home in your car. This weekend alone we saw deer, fox, blue heron, Hawks, Fish and a fuckin fried rat. Now last weekend I filled up with oil and coolant and I can quite assure you that big balloon was not coming out of the battery. So in one week the rat found a home, stole some kids balloon, had coffee at Dunkun Doughnuts, read many a newspaper, and found a wristband. Only in New York.
PS Thats the rat on the left hand side.

IT WAS A GOOD DAY

Spent a nice afternoon in Billyburg last week visiting galleries including A. M. Richards Fine Art. This great space is on the second floor of a Brooklyn brownstone, with beautiful Afternoon light. The main attraction of the visit was old friend, painter Susan Wanklyn's new work, who along with Jessica Weiss form the the bulk of the exhibit. Both artist's work play off each other wonderfully in this setting. But a nice surprise was to find Jill Freedman, standard bearer for New York photojournalists for the last 30 years or so, be part of the last exhibition. After speaking with owner Ann Marie for awhile I find out Jill has not one but two books on Ireland in publication, one better than the next, A TIME THAT WAS & IRELAND EVER, with forwards by the now world renowned McCourt brothers, non the less. The images are terrific and feel like a continuation of "Dorothea Lange's Ireland", 20 years later. Yet in some respects the country had changed so little in those years it feels like they could have been shot simultaneously. Andrew Hetherington's "Made in Ireland" series feels like the bookend to the trilogy, now that I think of it. Life's funny, if you head off with good intentions on one road its amazing how many different roads open in front of you, wanted to see some great work by a specific person and end up overloaded with incredible work by many different artists. Oh and by the way check out photographer Andrew Garne, who has some beautiful work up at Ann Marie Richards also. Good work people.

Queen vs Queen

Well the story was too good to be true. I was laughing before I read 2 sentences. Our beloved Queen of Photography bollocks out the Queen of England. Priceless. Anybody who has worked with Annie Leibovitz and we all know plenty of people have who have, say this would seem to be about par for the course. This apparently was how it went.

Leibovitz photographed the queen in March at Buckingham Palace to mark the monarch's state visit to the U.S. in May. The session was recorded as part of ``A Year With the Queen,'' a documentary to be shown later this year on the BBC One. The trailer was shown yesterday at the channel's preview of its autumn season.

In one clip, here, the queen is wearing the traditional floor- length Garter robe of the monarch. Leibovitz tells the queen she will look better without her tiara because ``the Garter robe is so ...,'' Before the photographer can say ``extraordinary,'' the queen points to the robe, saying, ``Less dressy. What do you think this is?''

In the next clip, the queen appears to walk off, telling an aide, ``I'm not changing anything. I've had enough dressing like this, thank you very much.''

Now I'm lovin' this, how perfect, Annie the arbiter of court fashion. But then the BBC come out and apologise saying the footage of the queen walking was filmed as she entered the room, before the photo session began and the manipulated it to seem like there had been friction between them. But still its the Queen of England not Victoria Beckham. "Yo Queen that thing on you head, yeah its...... too DRESSY. Yes the Tiara made by Garrard in the 1870's, royally past down for generations, too dressy. Priceless.

Just when you thought it was safe.....

Do you ever think construction will ever stop in NYC?, naaah me neither. But you always feel sorry for the guy who's building is right next door to the new monstrosity right, well keep looking out your window because this could be happening to you sooner than you think.

Villan Photographers

If ever one needed to know the absurdity of a bureaucracy, it may be coming to a street near you. The city of New York wants to implement a process that would require any group of two or more people who want to use a camera in a single public location for more than a half hour to get a city permit and insurance. The same requirements would apply to any group of five or more people who plan to use a tripod in a public location for more than 10 minutes, including the time it takes to set up the equipment. You can go Here for all the other legal ins and outs but if you ever have tried to shoot on the streets since 9/11 you will understand how this could be misunderstood by any yahoo who doesn't want you taking any kind of photographs at all. Shooting large format on the street as I do has always been a difficult proposition. People think its a weapon, (post 9/11), people think its a movie " who's in it", people want to show you their digital camera, and then try to take the same shot your taking, but most of all people think whatever your doing is 'almost' illegal and gives them the right to come and accost you. With this new ruling I can only imagine how this will be interpretted by the authorities never mind the man in the street. Now there have been plenty of occasions when I have applied and gotten permits but sometimes you just want to get out when the mood takes you or the light just happens to doing what you have always wanted it to. And don't you think the cops have enough to do?, how about policing Canal street at 3 o clock on a Friday afternoon so that the most insane gridlock doesn't occur. This is where I was when I first read about this great new City strategy. Now this happens every day especially Friday for the last oh... 30 years or so but nary a copper in sight again! But that evil family taking snaps of the Empire State are securely in custody. We can all sleep safe in our beds.

Travel-Travails

Well its been a terrible long time between posts, many apologies. Most of this time was spent in Europe, then back here and straight back into more work. I would have posted in Antibes, Cotes d'Azure (above) but some back water experiences occurred that threw me for bit of a loop. Usually I would have been electrically set up but forgetting my transformer and trying to get one in the South of France and South of Ireland turned out to be more than I could overcome so to hell with posting. Shoot, drink, eat, enjoy- goes without saying, you lot can live without my ramblings. But low and behold people out there in cyber world felt their day was not complete with out a little Pelicula 64 in it, who knew, and thanks.
Anyway not to disparage both these fantastic places, but it goes to show if your working outside the country you have be prepared for just about anything. Being someone who has done this and thinks they are prepared, it can bring you to your knees pretty quickly if you are not on the ball. So basically No power, different voltage, no cell phone, Tri band didn't work, and don't think that every town you will be in will have a radio shack on the corner. This was a simple problem which could easily have been averted if I was not so nonchalant about it but try getting through Heathrow Airport nonchalantly if you have more than one carry on, that will screw up your days work in a hurry. Now I know what you are saying, I knew that, but this isn't the States. When they say one bag they mean ONE bag. No computer and shoulder bag. No purse and computer bag. So which would you like to give up, your shot film bag or your computer. These were the options been bandied about when we arrived with 4 carry on between 2 people. This has been implemented since last years bomb threats and they implement it with almost gleeful zeal. Americans in Heathrow seem especially bamboozled by this, many of them losing their minds at an astonishing rate. Its quite funny really. Of course if you don't speak the English, forget it. I noticed Japanese people standing at the entrance looking about as lost as one can in another country. I asked a British friend how they are manage to work with these restrictions, "its painful". They would rather come to the States and rent absolutely everything than go through the hastle. Plus your only allowed 20Kilos (40lbs or so)in the hold, internally in the EU, so you pay through the nose to get it on if you bring any grip, lighting etc. To say the least my 8x10 kit came in over. So hope this helps any of you travelling for work or pleasure, its worth taking a little time to do some homework and figure the ins and outs. All that being said you can drink Rose in France and Guinness in Ireland and that make all the Travails a little rosier.

GOTHAM CITY, 5/22/07 8:18 p.m.

IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME? DA

This is the great thing about photography, I guess the arts in general, to find other people in your field who you have never heard of, but are out there doing amazing projects. Whether they are self initiated or assignment work, it gives us all hope that some project will come our way and just blow our socks off. I have just seen the current exhibition at the Storefront for Art and Architecture in NYC and this is such a project. Shot by French man Frederic Chaubin, editor of the magazine Citizen K, he has discovered architectural relics from Soviet Union and they are really something special. These gems, hidden from the Western world since their inception, reveal what architects at the time in the CCCP saw as, I would assume, modern. In comparison to the rest of the world it was either completely ahead of the pack or light years behind, depending on your taste. An Arcihitect I know said Druzhba(above) looks like something being built in Dubai right now, without the height, but considering most of the buildings in the show were finished in the mid 1980's where does that leave you. The resounding theme was the Space Age but others like Brezhnev summer getaway has all the opulence of a Tsarist Palace inside, with the structure of a Soviet administration building. One thing that struck me was that three of the most outrageous buildings were sanatoriums, sick people need art and design too? or they just don't criticize. It made me look around my community, even somewhere as "modern"as NYC and I dare you to find any architecture there as adventurous for that time. The exhibit has a totalitarian look, keeping with the theme. I would not have gone with lamination of the prints, but its a great show, a study of a place lost in time, and of what can be achieved with absolutely no knowledge of whats going on in the outside world.

Mother........

Last night Sundance premier'd the Tierney Gearon film The Mother Project and it is quite a compelling hour of film making. I'm sure most of you by now know the back story of Gearon's work, and the subject of this film continues the interaction between the artist, her mother and her own children. The photographs she takes are personal studies of her family, yet raise larger issues of aging, mental illness, and the complicated dynamic of the mother-child relationship. Also breaking as many photo rules as possible in one hour. Its heartbreaking at times to watch, the mother-daughter aspect not the rule breaking, but a side from the emotional response, my wife especially had, I found myself watching her more as a photographer and how she worked, than Tierney the mother. Catching things she did throughout the film that would get you thrown off set and fired immediately from almost all shoots. Now I know this is petty for such a weighty subject as Alzheimer's, but I just had to laugh as she loaded film in bright, open sunlight, left the bag of film sitting in the midday sun without a hint of shade. She also left the new born baby out in the Midday sun without a hint of shade but which is worse? Many European photographers I know would pick the former. Lots of shooting handheld in very dark situations, yet the images seemed to have no movement. Shooting in bright sunlight and heavy shade but the images have plenty of everything, shadow detail, highlights, not a piece of fill insight. Her printer Mick Jones would seem to be the star here, that guy must do Trojan work. Not all of these are rules but at least general parameters. People will find these photo infractions small potatoes compared to her mothering skills, as I'm sure many people would like to throw her out of the mothers club all together, but all of this led to a fascinating piece and well worth the watch.

ITS BAACK

Anyone who has used Fuji Velvia in their life knows that it is one of the greatest films ever developed. It took kodak 20 years to come up with its rival E100Vs and still the tone and color values of Velvia was unmistakable. Not everyone would have had the need for the super saturated colors it produced or its 50 ASA but it had an iron constitution, you could do anything to it and it still reproduced amazing images. With the advent of digital and most editorial shooters taking up neg, it seemed to just slip away but word from Japan is its back, with ASA 50 emblazoned on the front, not to confuse it with the quite generic 100 speed they have. As with all large format there's a kicker, as of now its only available in Japan from Megapearls webshop and its 16,432Yen a box of 10. OK $142.60, not for the feint of heart.

WE GOT OUR TROPHY BACK

Chelsea fail to beat Arsenal in North London and so Manchester United win the Premiership for an unprecedented 9th time, and go for the double with an FA Cup final win against Chelsea. I can hear the chant now " Were on or way to Wembley Chelsea's gone all trembley La La.. La. la- La La..La.La"

The New York Rangers fail to qualify for Lord Stanley's trophy but bow out with such spirit and grace and grit, that it makes one of the other franchises in another borough look peewee.

The Team that Gehrig and Ruth, DiMaggio, Dickey, Whitey, Scooter, Munson, Heinrich, Mantel, Gator et all, built, bring back the long lost son to Yankeeland, yes indeed the prodigal Roger Clemens. Wandering the wilderness of the national league nigh on these 4 years, searching for a home that was not Boston or Houston or Toronto, with no real baseball family for support, he returns as Suzy W says, HOME. Oh yeah, he gets $28M guaranteed for the season, $1 a start, pitches 5 innings with a 4.63 ERA and doesn't travel to away games. That's how you spell TEAM in the Bronx. Welcome home Rog. The Yaankeeees win, the Yaaaaaankeeeeeeeees win.

THE WEEKENDER

NYC, 600-1500ft above sea level, 4:37 p.m.


Columbia County Fire Tower, N.Y., 1260ft above sea level, 11:24 a.m.


As almost all photographers will tell height is one of the most valuable assists in shooting anything or anybody. How many times have you said to yourself " if I could only get up a little higher" or "where's the ladder... what do ya mean ya didn't bring it". Well this weekend I was lucky enough to get more than those couple of feet. First I was able to traverse lower Manhattan in a helicopter. Couldn't get the 8x10 in but seeing as I was petrified to even move my head I don't think I could have used it anyway. The 4/3 format I have with my digital is really close to the large format dimension so it gives me a very close approximation of what I would see if I could get a view camera to these areas. This is the second time I have been up in a chopper and it is spectacular. Once you get over the initial butterflies and see whats around you, it really is an awesome sight. Unfortunately the blog hurts the image quality so go here for a closer look.
I then found one of the many Fire Towers still standing and dotting New York State. As you can see the panoramas are wonderful, and with any luck this may be a new segment of SKYSCAPES. Thought the 1.65 mile, up hill trek through the State Park might hinder this being a very regular occurrence. We'll see.
PS With all this running around I missed the donnybrook over the Gursky opening at WTJ 'Gursky revealed'. I do have to drop by and see the monsters for myself but for now I will keep my head down, out of the way of the bottle throwing and keep trying to figure out how he gets a view camera 600ft up in in the air over the desert?