Tethered

Speaking of Poltergeists...

2012-01-27T17:36:00.002-05:00

This is a non-digitally altered shot of a scene I created using a run-of-the-mill printout from the web, it's of the house used in the movie Poltergeist which I then cut out and taped to a window (I'm revealing my amazing technical secrets to the world here...)

Thoughts on things that creeped me out, and other lofty ideas

2012-01-27T15:37:00.000-05:00

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When I was in grade school I loved looking at books about UFOs, ghosts, the supernatural, and really whatever whacked-out mysterious things might exist ("might" being the operative word in my mind at the time). In 7th grade I went through a serious ouija board phase--at the time one of my closest friends claimed to have seen the ghost of a man in a top hat and tails in her parent's bedroom and I must admit her house was fairly creepy (the third floor bathroom was basically in a turret). So of course this meant that it was our favorite place to pose questions to the mass-manufactured Parker Brothers game that we invested so much faith in. (But not really, I mean, we pretended not really, being in that weird place where we had one foot in adolescent skepticism and one finger trying to still hold on to the imaginary realm of childhood.)

I'm not sure if I fully believed in any of it, but it still scared the heck out of me; I had both the mind of a doubting scientist who wanted evidence (I once asked Santa for a picture of Jesus, meaning a photograph not a painting, Mom and Dad) and the mind of a sometime spiritualist who recognized that the world is full of unsolvable and vastly unknowable questions--and possibly horrifying hairless demons that might live in a tiny closet in your bedroom like on that one episode of Tales from the Darkside.

I continued my seeking ways during college, spending hours in the self-help section of the local St. Louis Barnes & Noble reading everything from cognitive therapy-based books to volumes on runes. I resided--and mostly still do--in this middle ground: my logical brain thinks I'm a skeptic, and my artistic brain thinks I'm a speck floating in a mind-bending soup of who-knows-what. Call me wishy-washy, but I guess that means I'm intellectually agnostic.

My latest series (still unnamed) is an attempt on my part to try to recapture some of that old feeling of fascination and awe that got shelved quite a bit in the day-to-day of making sure the kids were mostly clean, were every once in a while eating something other than beige-colored food, and as of late telling them I don't care who did what to whom, just stop bickering forgodsakes. I had already begun to examine some supernatural ideas with "Strange Happenings" but for whatever reason I just wasn't fully invested in it. Once I shifted my focus slightly to connect it to my past a bit more I began to feel like I'd found my voice again. Throw a dash of physics, astronomy, Jung and all things ancient into the mix and you've basically got an understanding of where my influences lie.

Still, in many ways it's difficult to capture visually how it felt to watch scary shows and movies back then, what it meant to read about chaos theory and Shrodinger's cat (which, trust me, I had/have only a very basic grasp of but still find compelling nonetheless). The best way I can describe it is to say that overall certain images are embedded in my mind, along with a hard-to-describe feeling--one that's unsettling but not entirely unpleasant either. If I look for clips now they strike me as cheesy, but also bring back some of that old feeling, a kind of weird nostalgia.

While this is the impetus for the current series, I'm feeling that some of it has been approached too cerebrally (though that may be central to the images in some ways). It's that logical vs. imaginative brain thing again, that middle ground I always seem to be pulled towards. Still, the photos right now seem too "clean" to me--I've been thinking about how to make them less pristine, more messy in that crazy adolescent poltergeist way. But maybe too there's a chaos I'm trying to control, which might root them in the more orderly nature of how the pictures have been coming together. I don't know, I'm thinking out loud, at which point blog posts can become boring so I'll shut up now. Long story short it's at least coming together more than before. We'll see what happens next.

(Wait--did you know there's a theory that poltergeists aren't ghosts but actually the pent-up energy of teenager's (mostly girls') anxiety and hormones being physically manifested? An interesting tidbit I think.)

Still alive

2012-01-20T16:36:00.000-05:00

Well, hello. Has it really been over a month since I posted? Why, yes, it has. Blake Andrews wrote an entry about dying and/or dead blogs ("In Memoriam: Photoblogs 2011"), citing those that fizzled out, those that spontaneously combusted, and those that at last check were hovering somewhere in between. I've been thinking a lot about that post since I read it; specifically, about whether there's still life worth breathing into Tethered--whether it's merely convalescing until I nurse it back into health, or whether it's on its last legs.

The truth is, I'm not ready to let it go. I hope no one will notice if another month goes by with empty space unfilled, or that if people do notice they'll stick with me through the lean times. Feast or famine, baby. One of the difficult things (of course) is that the less I write the harder it is to write (duh). It gets to be that there's too much to say, so I don't say anything at all. But still, a month (and a half) hardly doth mean the final curtain has gone down.

All that said I have grand plans as always--new website, new book, finally getting my new series into a ready-to-show happy place. But then the kids get sick, or I get sick, or holidays happen, or my sister gets married, or I'm sad that my sister's wedding is over and that she's so grown up and that I'm getting older and perhaps not living up to my potential (whatever that might mean). Or, truth be told, I simply procrastinate and procrastinate which leads to paralysis. Still, here I am, pulling myself out of the creative rut once again. I guess that's how this artist thing works--bursts of creativity then go fallow while I wrestle with my various demons and attempt to abolish guilt. I'm trying to remember that I always seem to make it back out of the hole. And a post, any post, is as good a restart as any.

Perhaps not my most profound or interesting entry, but long story short the defibrillator has been utilized, and here's hoping that the blog-heart keeps pumping, and that I can become a bit more consistent.

As far as the images above are concerned, they feel a bit wistful and time-gone-by to me, which is about where I am mentally. I'm not sure why but they make me sad, and for that reason they'll be factoring into the as-yet unnamed new body of work which I'll be revealing more of asap.

Thanks for listening.

4th grade students interpret my work

2011-12-08T08:23:00.001-05:00

When I was at the Haverford opening last month I met the exhibition coordinator's girlfriend Jennifer Clark who's a 4th grade teacher. She recently took her students to see the show and just wrote about the experience here. It's fantastic--I love hearing their thoughts about the work and the imaginative stories they came up with around the origins of the pictures. Apparently there is a lot of getting in trouble by whomever they infer created the messes I document. First off, here's how it works in Jennifer's words:

The corner of the world that has inspired me as of late is the work on display currently at the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery. My fourth grade students were shown some of the images and asked to think about what happened immediately before the photo was taken, what happened when the photo was taken, and what happened immediately after the photo was taken. Their interpretations or inferences needed to have proof within the photograph supporting their reasoning. They also had the chance to give the photograph a title they thought suited it best. The following are what they so creatively produced.

The simplicity of the title "Need a New Light Bulb" is great--humorous in its directness. Here's the entirety:

Actual Title: "Broken"

Student Title: "Baseball Accident"
By: Hannah

Before the picture was taken a couple of boys were playing baseball in the backyard and the ball broke the light bulb. During the picture the boys were in big trouble. I know that because now the light bulb is broken and a door is open so the boys are saying sorry. After the boys were not allowed to play baseball.

Actual Title: "Broken"
Student Title: "Need A New Light Bulb"
By: Grace

Before the picture was taken a girl was looking for a place to sing and did it in the living room. During the picture she started to sing and the light bulb broke. I know this because sometimes a high pitch can break glass. After the picture was taken, she got in huge trouble for singing.

Actual Title: "Analog"

Student Title: "Party All Night"
By: Connor

Before the picture was taken, there was a party and they tried to open a bag of string, but it popped. I know this because there is a lot of string on the ground. During the picture, the person throwing the party goes and gets a broom to clean up the mess. I know this because you can't see the person. After the picture was taken, the person cleaned up the mess and partied all night!

Actual Title: "Analog"
Student Title: "Party Cleaners"
By: Gabrielle

Before the picture was taken, a teenager's parents left for a cruise that didn't allow kids under 18 and told the teenager no parties. I know this because in the picture it doesn't show a person and the streamers didn't look so old so they could have been taken out a bit later. During the picture the party ended and all of the guests are leaving and the teenager's parents park the car in the driveway. I know this because in the picture streamers are trashed and the light from the car lights is shining through the window. After the picture is taken, the teenager's parents come in, see the mess, and make the teenager clean up the whole mess and then they grounded her.

Holiday shopping idea

2011-11-22T09:12:00.001-05:00

Speaking of collect.give, the holidays are coming up and some prints of my image "Hammock" (below) are still available via the site, you can see my page here.

collect.give: new book, new website--check them out

2011-11-22T08:56:00.000-05:00

For Immediate Release

The charity-based online photography gallery

collect.give announces the release of a book celebrating

the project's first 50 photographers - all of whom have

pledged to donate 100% of their print proceeds to
charities they've selected. Since 2009, collect.give

has raised over $28,000 for a wide variety of charitable

organizations, by selling affordable, limited edition photographs.

Description
128 pages, softcover, perfect bound, printed by MagCloud.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Design By

Heidi Romano

Photographs By

Jane Fulton Alt, Malu Alvarez, Jonathan Blaustein, Mark Brautigam, Jesse Burke,

Barbara Ciurej & Lindsay Lochman, Katrina d'Autremont, Amy Eckert, Matt Eich,

Jon Feinstein, Sarina Finkelstein, Elizabeth Fleming, Max. S. Gerber, Meggan Gould,

Andrew Hetherington, Geoffrey Hiller, Peter Hoffman, Jon Horvath, Ben Huff, Dave

Jordano, Stella Kalaw, Melissa Kaseman, Liz Kuball, Shane Lavalette, David Leventi,

John Loomis, S. Billie Mandle, Kerry Mansfield, Mark Menjivar, Kevin J. Miyazaki,

Annie Marie Musselman, Colleen Plumb, Susana Raab, Shawn Records, Ellen

Rennard, Dalton Rooney, Jonathan Saunders, Manjari Sharma, Daniel Shea, Kelly

Shimoda, Emily Shur, Allison V. Smith, Aline Smithson, Brea Souders, Sarah Sudhoff,

Jake Stangel, Lacey Terrell, Sonja Thomsen, Susan Worsham and David Wright.

Essays By

Crista Dix, Darius Himes, Lisa Hostetler, Rachel Hulin, Miki Johnson, Larissa Leclair, Wally Mason, George Slade, Amy Stein and Alison Zavos.

_________________________________________________________________________

To Benefit

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA). In keeping with the collect.give mission to donate 100% of proceeds to charity, all profits from this book will be donated to the RSPCA, a charity chosen by the designer Heidi Romano.

Price

$22.00

To Preview or Purchase

http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/290686

__________________________________________________________________________

Contact

For more information, visit www.collectdotgive.org or send an email to Kevin J. Miyazaki.

Thank You

collect.give wishes to thank Heidi Romano of threestones and publisher MagCloud for their generous in-kind donations related to the book project.

Critical Mass doppelgängers

2011-11-19T21:17:00.001-05:00

Technology can be a hoot sometimes. James was on the couch with his iPad and I was here at our desk computer and for a good half hour we were both looking at the Critical Mass top 50 web page at the same time, keeping up a running dialog while we checked out the winners. We were having a lovely time going back and forth telling each other to "check out so-and-so" or "so-and-so's work bores me" or "so-and-so's is hilarious (in a good way)" when we soon we realized that there were quite a few instances where one artist's work uncannily resembled another person's. For example:

Lucia Ganieva

vs.

Mark Lyon

I wonder whether it would feel weird to see images that were so similar to my own in such close proximity. Moving on, here we have:

Jane Fulton Alt

vs.

Youngsuk Suh

In reading the statements that correspond to the matching series I'm reminded of how subjective the act of interpreting one's work is. Let us move on to developing trays vs. viewfinders:

John Cyr

vs.

Meggan Gould

Or Russia vs. the Ukraine, just add or subtract snow:

Evgenia Arbugaeva

vs.

Misha Friedman

All of this perhaps points to a potential issue with the CM means of judging: because the winners are based on a blind mathematical system of voting there's a large possibility that there could be a lack of variety, as seen above (and in other work on the list which I'm not showing here). I'm not sure if this repetitiveness has always been in evidence--maybe I've just never scrutinized the winners this closely in the past. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to knock Critical Mass, it's a great opportunity for photographers and Photolucida is an amazing organization. But it's an interesting conundrum--jury by a group of 200 can lead in the end to a sort of non-curated whole that gets, well, a little monotonous when all is said and done.

iPL at the Corcoran

2011-11-02T20:18:00.000-04:00

My book is now part of an exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery which opened today, announcement below. See the full list of books and artists here. Many thanks to the curators for selecting my publication--you can buy your very own copy for only $12 by going to here.

Daily Candy and more

2011-10-28T16:38:00.000-04:00

Whew, I'm wiped out--big week back and forth between NJ and Philly. The gallery talk at Haverford on Tuesday went quite well I think, despite one point where I believe I mentioned Jung, Freud and semiotics in one sentence. (In my defense, I was being self-deprecating.) Shen Wei's description of his work was particularly eloquent and interesting, and it made me like his images that much more.

In other self-promotion news my image "Fort" is up on Daily Candy as part of their Affordable Art Roundup (through The Ten), screenshot below. Larissa Leclair also kindly took some photos at Jennifer Schwartz Gallery when she visited there which you can also see below. Which leads me to a call to donate to Jennifer's very cool new endeavor called "Crusade for Collecting." You can contribute via Kickstarter; if you're interested you've got 33 days to join the ultra-cool Backers club, so go help her out and see more details about the project here.

Man I could use a nap...

Gallery talk tomorrow at 4:30

2011-10-24T17:18:00.000-04:00

Through the Plain Camera: Small and Shapely Pleasures in Contemporary Photography - Gallery Talk with artists Elizabeth Fleming, Christian Patterson, and Shen Wei led by curators Sarah Kaufman and Rebecca Robertson

Featuring work by: Jessica Backhaus, Elizabeth Fleming, Vita Litvak, Christian Patterson, and Shen Wei Curated by Sarah Kaufman and Rebecca Robertson

October 21-December 11, 2011

Opening Reception: Friday, October 21, 2011, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Gallery Talk: Tuesday, October 25, 2011, 4:30 p.m.

ABOUT THE EXHIBIT

While contemporary photographic practice has recently moved toward the the constructed image, this show celebrates five photographers who take pictures. Theirs remains "a process based not on synthesis but on selection," as John Szarkowski wrote in 1966. Embracing photography’s essential characteristics, they ask the world to reveal itself and to represent something more, building a web of meaning through relationship and metaphor.

For More Info

Hurford Humanities Center
610-795-6518
jweissin@haverford.edu

Haverford: tonight's the night

2011-10-21T10:02:00.000-04:00

Tonight's the night! Thanks to Robin Cembalest, executive editor of ARTnews for mentioning the show (in the post "I'll stop the world and melt with you") using my Rejected popsicle image:

“Through the Plain Camera: Small and Shapely Pleasures in Contemporary Photography,” opening at 5:30 at Haverford College’s Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery. The exhibition, curated by ARTnews photo editor Rebecca Robertson and Sarah Kaufman, spotlights images of “intimate, unposed moments seemingly snapped from the daily lives of the photographers: a stain on a sofa, a bar of soap left on the sink, a perfectly wrapped package of Chinese noodle soup.”

Now I have to go figure out what the heck I'm going to wear. The gallery is about 20 minutes away from where I grew up so I'm looking forward to seeing my family, some childhood friends, and parents of childhood friends this evening (despite the fact that I had a stress dream about trying to figure out what the heck I'm going to wear...)

Past and present

2011-10-20T14:19:00.001-04:00

I'm potentially going to completely embarrass myself here, but I've been rereading old journals as "research" for my newest project and find myself alternately vaguely impressed and vaguely mortified by my 16-year-old self. I had to keep a notebook for English class where I was required to write for about 15 minutes every night during my sophomore year, and it's interesting how open I managed to be within the framework, given that I knew my teacher would be reading my entries. When I write about my life and stick with stream-of-consciousness I find the pages holding my interest (though only most likely because it's about myself, not because it's inherently any good...). But where I decide to delve into fiction it's wretched. My stories are overwrought, trying too hard, flowery, and sadly seem to be attempting a paltry imitation of some sort of Nabokovian voice that doesn't suit me.

The reason I mention all this is because there are a fair amount of pages that touch on my future, and I find myself reaching back through the last 20 (20?!) years trying to remember what it felt like to be a teenager, to not know the bulk of what was coming formatively: who I would marry, where I would live, how many children I would have (if any). I recall it being scary to wonder how it would all play out, while simultaneously not being able to grasp the reality of what it meant to be an adult.

I can only remember being that age abstractly--though in many ways my teenage voice on the page is not so different from the voice I use in my current journals. Frankly it's a bit scary to see how much I resemble myself, if that makes sense--the ideas I ponder that I think are so original to the present day are in many cases just rehashed bits I've been going over again and again, apparently for years on end. Why is the capacity for memory so selective? With how much I think I've actually changed over time my personality, for all its growth, has in most respects remained fairly fixed. I do find that in this journal I'm less pessimistic than I recall being, though I was certainly cynical (weren't we all at that age) and as over analytical as I am now. Long story short, behold my desires for my future, and hold them up to my current state based on whatever past entries you may have read here on the blog (and please try not to laugh):

I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. I've wanted to be an artist for as long as I can remember, but I don't know how I can make a living from it. I guess when I was young I figured I'd just find some rich guy, fall in love, get married and then I'd be fine. But that's kid stuff. The first thing I want to do is get married to a great guy (not a rich one). Then I want a job I love, in art, or writing, or something creative. I don't know if I want to have children or not--I mean, I do, but there's such a loss of freedom. I guess I'll wait until I'm in my 30s. Here I am planning my life and watch, everything I get will be the exact opposite of everything I want.

Anyhow, last night I put Annie [my little sister who is 12 years younger than I am] to bed, she was being so cute. And I remembered how when she was very little and she would cry and cry I would to sing her to sleep. Then she got older and I probably haven't sung to her in about six months. So last night I just started singing "Hush little baby" and her eyes lit up. I said "do you remember that song?" and she said "uh-huh (yes) keep singing!" She made me sing it to her three times. She seemed peaceful, yet there was also a sadness behind her eyes, as if she was remembering something. Could she possibly recall how I used to sing to her in the dark, rocking her in the rocking chair when I was very upset? That's what I used to do for comfort. As she got older I thought she didn't care as much, but now I see she does and that makes me very, very happy.

I've been singing "Hush little baby" to the girls since they were born, and I still do, so life really does maintain a certain trajectory. It appears I've gotten what I essentially wanted when I was sixteen, which is quite heartening I think.

So that's my trip down memory lane, thanks for indulging me. Now I think I'll go blush in the corner for a bit. Adieu.

Show opening this Friday

2011-10-17T14:04:00.001-04:00

I'm happy to be included in what looks to be a great show which is opening at Haverford College's Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery this Friday the 21st from 5:30-7:30. I'll be there so if you're in the Philly area please come by and say hello! Ten of my photographs will be up alongside work by Jessica Backhaus, Vita Litvak, Christian Patterson and Shen Wei. I'll also be giving a gallery talk along with Christian and Shen on Tuesday the 25th at 4:30.

The statement for the show really touches on many of the things I've thought about in terms of my own themes and interests so I'm going to copy much of it below for your reading pleasure. To see the entire write-up and for more information on directions, etc. go here.

In 1967 the Museum of Modern Art in New York unveiled a revolutionary show, New Documents, which heralded the arrival of a new photographic style, one that prized ordinary subjects captured in a snapshot-like fashion. The exhibition, which featured the works of Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander and Gary Winogrand, was organized by the late John Szarkowski, a man whose 2007 New York Times obituary called him “a curator who almost single-handedly elevated photography’s status in the last half-century to that of a fine art.” Szarkowski was moved by the intimacy and personal exploration of a new generation of photographic artists, writing in the text that accompanied New Documents that “(t)heir aim has been not to reform life, but to know it.” Today, almost 45 years after he wrote those words, their influence can still be felt.

Through the Plain Camera: Small and Shapely Pleasures in Contemporary Photography, which runs at Haverford’s Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery October 21 through December 11, gathers together some of the young voices in contemporary photography who are working from and grappling with Szarkowski’s legacy. In the show’s 36 images, we see intimate, unposed moments seemingly snapped from the daily lives of the photographers: a stain on a sofa, a bar of soap left on the sink, a perfectly wrapped package of Chinese noodle soup. These casually captured, private moments—most of which are devoid of human subjects—feel at once deeply personal and specific to the lives of the artists and yet also broadly universal and relatable to the viewers. They are lively and expressive, but also enigmatic.

Curated by Sarah Kaufman ’03 and Rebecca Robertson BMC ’00, both former students of Professor of Fine Arts William Earle Williams, Through the Plain Camera celebrates photographers who take pictures that describe and yet transcend everyday experience, suggesting something about the specific interior lives of these artists. Inspired by Szarkowsky’s writing, Kaufman and Robertson have gathered unconstructed, unmanipulated images, which represent direct photographic interaction with the world as it is, so that we may all look at their commonplace subjects with new eyes. “There are different kinds of responses that you can have looking at the world around you,” says Kaufman, who is a visiting assistant professor of art at Ursinus College. “I would hope that people looking at the show could take it back with them and start to think about what kinds of meanings their own experience can have.”

Here's the work artfully framed and wrapped by my fantastic better half...

A Day in My Life

2011-09-29T13:29:00.000-04:00

When Jennifer Schwartz asked me to think of a creative idea for a blog post for The Ten I thought of James' "A Day in the Life" video--I figured he could do a similar stop-motion montage of one of my typical days, but after discussing it it became obvious that the amount of time it would take to shoot--let alone the amount of time it would take my poor husband to edit the piece--would be astronomical. As a result I decided that it might be a sign that I needed to take it upon myself to do something along the same lines but to make it fully, intimately my own.

I hit on the idea of taking pictures every two hours throughout my day with commentary about what I was thinking at each given moment, and I must admit it felt pretty amazing to have a reason to step outside of my usual box as observer and instead to create work with myself at the forefront.

I have an internal dialog that runs in my head almost constantly it seems; shooting these images and writing the accompanying text felt like a way to examine that dialog, to make it concrete, maybe as a first step towards processing all of the good, bad and otherwise that I confront every day.

Below are three images/text which will hopefully whet your appetite for more--there are 8 photographs total on The Ten blog which you can see here.

7 a.m. I've just rolled out of bed and am about to wake up my 7 year old daughter Edie; I usually go into her room first because she's harder to get going than my 5 year old June. In this photo I'm feeling exhausted because I stayed up too late reading and then Edie got up in the middle of the night, and I'm already worrying about everything I have to get done that day.

9 a.m. Here I'm looking at my blog roll, and have been on the computer since I got home at 8:05 from dropping the girls off at school. I keep thinking I should get moving on my day but I have a bad habit of hopping online the second I walk in the door. I tend to use the computer as a way to numb out due to anxiety, and I beat myself up over how much I procrastinate and waste time.

11 a.m. Our dishwasher is coated in a layer of mashed up paper because I washed a jar with a label on it the night before so I'm scrubbing it out, which isn't altogether unpleasant because it makes me feel productive. I'm unaware that I've forgotten about that green feather in my back pocket which June had handed to me on the walk to school. It ended up going through the laundry.

Good Moms--and Dads...

2011-09-29T10:32:00.000-04:00

Will try to keep this in mind the next time I'm all worried about cleaning the toilets...

Shawn Records book release

2011-09-22T08:51:00.000-04:00

I've been a big fan of Shawn Records's work for a while now, and was happy to have the pleasure of meeting him in person when I was out in Portland for my Newspace show opening. So it's great to hear that he has a new book out called From the Bottom of a Well which is now available for pre-order from A-Jump books for only 20 bucks. There's also going to be a book/print special edition combo coming out soon so I'm holding off on buying the book until I see which photo is going to be on offer. The image above isn't from the book itself but I wanted to share just because I love it. Cheers.

Clare Gallagher

2011-09-21T12:41:00.000-04:00

Apologies to those who follow Lenscratch as this post is going to pretty much mimic what Aline put up today, but I had to share Clare Gallagher's work. I always love it when I find out about photographers who examine the domestic sphere, as Gallagher does beautifully. Above are my favorites, visit her website to see more. Her artist statement is also great, and echoes so many of the thoughts I have about my own daily existence very eloquently. An excerpt:

The everyday is complex terrain. It is always there, readily and universally available; surely it is so obvious that it needs no unveiling. And yet it is also shrouded in haze, our sense of it dulled by familiarity and habit. It may induce a feeling of comfort in simple rituals or of imprisonment in tedious routine. Ambivalence is a central experience of everydayness but that quality also means it is difficult to define, depict and study. While the ordinary and unremarkable constitute the fabric of much of life, our attention is lured away from the quotidian toward the dramatic and exotic.

This privileging of the apparent over the obscure fuels the fragmentation of everyday life and creates an impression that those parts of life lived away from the public arenas of street, workplace and media are unproductive and insignificant. The result of this “triviality barrier” is that the most ordinary, familiar parts of daily life, while seeming the most present and obvious, are often disconnected from our sensory perceptions and conscious thoughts. We are at risk of missing out a significant portion of our experience that is ever-present yet escapes attention.

Art and Fear

2011-09-16T10:47:00.003-04:00

I have the quote below saved in a folder in my email which I return to from time to time. Currently I'm in the challenging-my-fears phase they talk about, and it's the engagement part that I seem to be having the most difficult time with. Or should I say not necessarily engagement, but getting over my tendency to procrastinate, which I think is a technique I use to avoid the self-doubt.

It's weird--I do feel internal enthusiasm about my newest series. I have the itch to create, and when I actually get out there and get shooting--even though I have the usual "these are going to suck/these are going to be great" debate going on in my head--I generally love the act of making the pictures despite the mental arguments. But the issue is, despite feeling the drive, I'm so easily sidetracked. And the more I get sidetracked the more the enthusiasm subsides, the more I beat myself up over how much time I waste, and then the next day the cycle starts over again.

The key for me I know is to just do it, first thing, before I can get sucked into email and my blog reader and decor websites. I believe it's the fear running underneath the surface that creates the hesitation, which further creates an almost addictive call to mindlessly float around without direction. I need a jump-start, I need to get in a groove, and I'm hoping once I finally force myself into a rhythm this general depression will lift. I know all artists need time to let ideas marinate and be vaguely directionless, but that time is over, I've gone beyond that, so I'm putting it out there into the world that it's necessary that I challenge myself. Now that I've said it out loud I'm hoping I'll hold myself to it.

Here's the quote:

"The line between the artist and his/her work is a fine one at best, and for the artist it feels (quite naturally) like there is no such line. Making art can feel dangerous and revealing. Making art is dangerous and revealing. Making art precipitates self-doubt, stirring deep waters that lay between what you know you should be, and what you fear you might be...What separates artists from ex-artists is that those who challenge their fears, continue; those who don't, quit. Each step in the artmaking process puts that issue to the test.

Some people who make art are driven by inspiration, others by provocation, still others by desperation. Artmaking grants access to worlds that may be dangerous, sacred, forbidden, seductive, or all of the above. It grants access to worlds you may otherwise never fully engage. It may in fact be the engagement--not the art--that you seek. The difference is that making art allows, indeed guarantees, that you declare yourself. Art is contact, and your work necessarily reveals the nature of that contact. In making art you declare what is important."

From: Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and rewards) of Artmaking

Caleb Charland

2011-09-15T19:55:00.000-04:00

I wanted to say goodnight here on Tethered with a post that's not all about myself because I've just started writing again after a dry summer and don't want this to turn into one of those yawn-fest self-promo blogs right out of the gate. With that said, I've spent the last half hour or so letting James put the kids to bed while I putz around the internets, and in my sort-of-sleepy red-wine state one link led to another and I ended up on Michael Mazzeo's site which I hadn't checked out in a while. There was a solo show of Caleb Charland's series Fathom and Fray at the gallery in the spring and many of his images are quite beautiful. Some do feel a bit too obvious for my taste, but the ones that are more abstract and mysterious are striking; two of my favorites are above. Now off to load the dishwasher.

The Ten / Facebook

2011-09-15T19:14:00.000-04:00

Another entry about The Ten: Jennifer wrote a very kind post about my images called "Small Moments that Stick" on the project's blog; I'm flattered and send out a big thank you to her for really "getting" my work and saying such lovely things.

Also, if you have a second and would consider following my page on Facebook you can find it here. I'm trying to get some more momentum going with it, and have been checking out other photo pages a bit so I can peripherally participate in the the online art community from time to time without getting completely sucked in. (To fill in those who haven't followed my blog for all that long, I deleted my personal Facebook account in December of '09--you can read my reasons for quitting here. I did however rejoin Twitter, one can't maintain a completely ascetic existence after all...)

The Ten

2011-09-14T13:16:00.001-04:00

I'm very excited to announce my participation in Jennifer Schwartz Gallery's project The Ten where a collection of ten of my images are now for sale in an exclusive limited edition. The other artists so far are my good friend and very talented photographer Laura Griffin, Rachel Barrett, and Lori Vrba. I hope you'll go check out my selection of photographs here.

Saying goodbye

2011-09-13T12:03:00.002-04:00

This is a picture of me and the girls on the ferry from Martha's Vineyard, waving to my father who is somewhere out there on a dock, holding a red towel as a goodbye flag. I never could quite make out the small fleck of red that was his send-off, and I found myself wishing I could have been positive that I truly visually witnessed his goodbye. It reminded me of the well-known fact that we are all just specks, technically tiny and inconsequential, yet still so fundamentally important to one another. The people we love the most are the axes we rotate around, are so precious to us that squinting to make out a tiny flash of color can feel momentous.

I thought about this two days ago on 9/11, about how every person who suffered a loss was grieving over one tiny person out of billions, but that each of those people takes up the space of the universe. I read somewhere that the Talmud says "he who destroys one life, it is as if he had destroyed the entire world" which articulates what I'm not sure I'm able to express clearly here.

In physics there is a phenomenon known as Caesar's last breath which essentially states that we are all breathing molecules that were exhaled by Caesar, or any other number of ancient people. On September 11th, 2001, when smoke from the twin towers filtered over my Brooklyn apartment, a horrible kind of physics was changing the world irrevocably.

I suppose in some ways then we really are all connected in a base physical way. But I fight against the notion that we are all "one." Like most people these days I take yoga, and while it's good for my body, part of my mind still rebels against some of its tenets. I do believe in seeking acceptance, and will still work on meditating and reading self-help books and practicing presence. But I have to wonder if those who lost someone on 9/11, particularly a son or daughter, can truly accept. I don't know--I was lucky enough not to lose anyone that day, and I hope against hope that I will never have to know.

Research question

2011-07-25T21:46:00.001-04:00

Summer is always a quiet time blog-wise--schedules are less, well, scheduled, we're out of the house more and right now I'm focusing on shooting and working on a new magazine and book. Speaking of which, I have a research question: what bits of consumerism ca. 1985 make you feel the most visceral sense of nostalgia (e.g. Rubik's cube, Ouija board, Brady Bunch reruns, E.T., etc.) Would love stories around the memories--one of mine is swimming all day at the local pool, coming home sunburned (in the olden times before copious SPF use) and showering with Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific shampoo (remember that stuff?) followed by Tame conditioner. Afterwards I'd sit on the sunporch with my hot burned skin cooling under the ceiling fan and watch TV as it got dark out. I need to find a bottle of Tame (it's now discontinued) and have myself a madeleine moment (see Involuntary Memory).

A Book of Beds

2011-07-09T22:46:00.000-04:00

One of my images is included in Foam Magazine's recently released publication A Book of Beds. If you're so inclined you can browse their other publications here. Thanks, Foam!

The Chain

2011-07-08T19:58:00.004-04:00

Stuart Pilkington was kind enough to ask me to participate in his latest project "The Chain" which went live a couple of days ago (my contribution is above). I loved having an assignment--structure and deadlines are always a nice change of pace. Here's the gist of the project, from the website:

Stuart invited 107 photographers from around the globe to participate in the project at the beginning of 2011. And in February 2011 each photographer submitted a title/instruction to inspire a photograph by another person in the project. The photographers were connected like links in a chain. They were asked to respond to the title set by the person directly behind them. The title they set was directed to the photographer directly in front of them. For example, Elizabeth Gordon responded to the title set by Andrea Chu. Hiroshi Watanabe responded to the title set by Elizabeth Gordon. Harry Borden responded to the title set by Hiroshi Watanabe. And so on and so on.

My title was "The shadow of a doubt" (provided by Beth Dow) which I found very inspiring, and quite relevant as my newest series has some darker undercurrents, with things lurking below the surface and all that jazz. Today I was online researching poltergeists and their relationship to repressed adolescent emotion and got myself good and creeped out (it's not as pretentious as it potentially sounds--hopefully...). I have an idea of where it's all going and I'm in that stage where things that seemed only loosely related are starting to make sense as a whole.

As far as the title I assigned is concerned ("take a picture of something you hate"), I wish I hadn't been so literal--I think I literally took the assignment to come up with a title too literally. Har har. After reading all of the other titles I realize in retrospect that there was a real opportunity to be more experimental with it. All the more so since Colin Blakely was my assignee (is that a word?) and the titles for his own work are full of meaning; for example the image below--which I've always loved--is called "Recollection of the Battles Fought Maintaining the Home Front":

And above is the "thing he hates" which I think he should try christening with a title of his own making.

P.S. Stupid Blogger is making my formatting all wonky, apologies.

I do not heart Lacan

2011-05-23T11:42:00.003-04:00

Oh man, how much am I loving Jonathan Blaustein these days. If you're not reading his articles for A Photo Editor you should be because he's a no-holds-barred kind of writer and I love it. (Full disclosure here: he's also a friend, but I guarantee you if you ever have the chance to meet him he is just as outspoken and hilarious in person.) Get a load of this, from his piece "Cash Rules the Conceptual Art World":

The art world plays by a different set of rules, and I think that can boil photographers’ blood. Artists view everything as fair game. The rules are there are no rules. And this can often lead to sophomoric bullshit, like Vito Acconci jerking off beneath the floorboards. Or Richard Prince so blatantly ripping off some Jamaican portraits, slapping them on canvas, and marking the images up 10,000%. Then he had the gall to claim it was his right, as the source material wasn’t creative or original enough to merit copyright protection. Seriously? That’s like the school bully stealing your bologna sandwich and then taking a crap on it in front of the whole school.

ROTFL as they say. Another gem: "Many photographers equate the art world with inane video installations backed by dense press releases packed with large words that bludgeon the average viewer." Reminds me of all the postmodern crap I had to read in art school. Every time I think about how long it took me to figure out the distinction between "signifier" and "signified" I shudder. I wonder whether kids these days are still forced to suffer through Lacan or if he's finally passé. I like to reread George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" from time to time as a good reality check: it helps me remember that Lacan is incomprehensible not because I lack the correct psychoanalytic (and by extension art-speak) chops but because, essentially, he writes pretentious gobbledygook.

The latest on 100 Portraits/100 Photographers

2011-05-12T11:39:00.000-04:00

What began as an exhibit during FotoWeek DC, 100 Portraits/100 Photographers has recently traveled to Snap! Orlando in Florida and the Head On Photography Festival in Sydney, Australia, with I believe more shows in the works. Andy will be giving a lecture on this and other topics this Saturday at 1pm during the NYPH just mentioned in my last post, details here.

Much like Larissa, Andy has been tireless in his support and promotion of photographers, and 100 Portraits is no exception. Sorry for the kiss assedness of this post, but these two have been good to me and to the photo world at large, and without people like them the art community wouldn't be the same.

*Update: Just saw there's a conversation between Andy, Larissa and Visura Magazine editor Adriana Teresa on the NYPH blog, check it out.

Indie Photobook Library at the New York Photo Festival

2011-05-12T11:13:00.000-04:00

I can't make any promises as the next few days are nuts schedule-wise, but I'm hoping to maybe be able to swing by this event on Sunday, details below. Larissa Leclair has done amazing things with the Indie Photobook library in an impressively short amount of time and the full collection of iPL titles will be on display at the NYPH, including my magazine (you can buy a copy online here if you'd like one to keep). My book will also be available for viewing as part of the Photography Book Now honorable mentions display. All of the info you need can be found here; as always I'm grateful for the exposure.

Larissa has also been busy via her involvement with 100 Portraits/100 Photographers; there are some events around the project this weekend and beyond as well, more on that in another post in a moment.

Good question...

2011-05-06T10:06:00.000-04:00

Aline Smithson has a very thought-provoking post up on Lenscratch today here. In it she raises questions about whether we as artists can "afford" success--both literally and figuratively. I actually had the pleasure of seeing Aline in person last month at one of the exhibitions she sites--it was an excellent show and I was drawn to her series in particular because the girls in her images were all Edie's age, but staged in a way to create a dichotomy between a sense of the old-fashioned (through their clothing and wallpapered backdrops) while also pointing to the future, as one could imagine what they might be like as adults. During the opening Aline and I touched on some of the issues she talks about in her post, mainly portfolio reviews and what a photographer can and can't expect to get out of the experience.

When I attended Review Santa Fe it was wonderful for me socially, and gave me a sense of community that has been invaluable. However, as far as the actual monetary costs involved were concerned, there was no gain as such. Obviously there is more to all of this than earnings, and for me the trip was worth it. But as my income hasn't increased since then it has become more and more financially difficult to swing certain things, and the reality is that if I wanted to attend RSF again I would need to approach it realistically, being willing to sacrifice other things in order to be able to go. All of this points to the choices I as an artist struggle with: the necessity of making work in order to feel fulfilled coupled with frustration that I can't have my cake and eat it too, at least not for the foreseeable future.

This reminds me of Colin Pantall's post "What is Success?" My answer to the question was generally philosophical (scroll down to read my answer), but when I see Aline so clearly outline the other, more practical side it is pretty depressing I must admit. Is there a scenario in which photographers might again be "rewarded" for participation in things rather than footing the bill to have the work out there? I don't know the answer.

I'll close with the end of Aline's post, where she summarized so well the difficulties I and other photographers face:

"We need to be marketers, promoters, and navigate through social media. We are required to wear many hats and be capable of many tasks, and still have a creative voice, and find stillness in the chaos to make work.

Something is wrong with this template. In addition, this enormous expense put onto the photographer narrows our community, narrows who can participate. I don't have the answers, but it's time we figure it out. Otherwise, we won't be able to afford our own success."

Tim Hetherington 1970-2011

2011-04-20T17:53:00.000-04:00

I've been quiet on the blogging front lately--it's mostly due to good things, along with the usual dash of laziness induced by the general sleepiness that accompanies keeping up with children/housework/chores/etc. I'm finally truly hunkering down and immersing myself in a new series, and around now is the time when my poor husband can barely get my attention as I begin poring over gardening books and digging with abandon in the yard. Blogging has taken a back seat, for better or for worse.

© Tim Hetherington

All that aside, I feel compelled to post for the first time in a while due simply to wanting express my sadness over the tragic news that Tim Hetherington was killed today in Libya. He was a photojournalist who captured images of war with artistry, particularly in the intimate, quiet moments he showed in his pictures of sleeping soldiers. Here's to all of the photographers out there who risk their lives as Hetherington did.

Exposure Capture interview

2011-03-19T10:03:00.000-04:00

Thank you to the folks over at the Exposure Capture blog for interviewing me recently. You can read the whole thing here. I'm in a philosophical mood this morning so I'll leave you with this somewhat predictable (but powerful nonetheless) mantra that I'm holding onto today: "May all beings be happy."

Amaury da Cunha

2011-03-11T10:04:00.000-05:00

I'm on the Galerie Voies Off mailing list and just got an email about an exhibition of work by a photographer I hadn't heard off, Amaury da Cunha. I visited his website and was intrigued by many of his images--though some feel a bit overly-predictable street photography-ish (which doesn't seem in keeping with the overall tone and I find a bit distracting) the ones that are more mysterious and cinematic really drew me in. The front page of each of his portfolios shows the work in a grid format, and seeing the pictures all together creates a nice allegorical feel; above are some of my favorites. The Voies Off press release mentions that da Cunha's show will combine photographs and sound, "where visual and sound 'images' interplay, questioning the relationship between both media." Seems like an interesting concept. He also has some beautiful photographs on his blog.

What do you think this is a picture of?

2011-03-10T17:54:00.002-05:00

See the answer here.

And Introducing...at Worksound Gallery

2011-03-09T17:05:00.000-05:00

WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? Devon Dikeou From Sculpture 1991: Ongoing Series Replica of Lobby Directory Board

Announcing Gallery Listing of Artists, Curators, Exhibition Titles, & Dates

My fantastically smart, creative and fashionable friend Melanie Flood has curated a show which opens this Friday in Portland--wish I could head out to the West Coast to see it. I love the curatorial statement, here it is:

And introducing breaking the rules. Introducing personality. Introducing prisons, inflatable mattresses, and Don’t Mess with Texas. Introducing a way of discovering how you want to belong and how you can. Introducing a $175 million debt, Learning how to Dougie, Tina Turner and introducing found objects. Introducing cactus blasting, plastic Easter eggs and an exposure that’s one to two cigarettes long. Introducing Erica Allen, Jason Polan, Breanne Trammell, Devon Dikeou, Stephen Watt, Noah Kalina, and Micheal Shelton (the Longboard Kid).

Curated by Melanie Flood, And Introducing… breaks existing rules and invents brand-new ones. The show is polemical in how personal it is, conceptual in how random. These artists are connected by a strand twined together from creativity, experience, and life. They do their own things. They are not controlled, collected, composed. The artists of And Introducing… express, through photographs, drawings, objects, and ideas a deep and true commitment to life under the creative influence.

There aren’t any rules left anymore, at least not in this show. Or there are rules, but they’re new ones. Create. Consider. Throw it away and do it again. Crochet a Cheeto just because you can, and do a drawing every day, just because you want to. Isn’t that what art was always supposed to be about? Let’s leave it to the critics to throw in their extrapolations, their ideals, their historical juxtapositions and critical ideologies. But we’ll just come and look. And see. And laugh. And feel better, just before we feel worse, just before we feel fucking great.

And so, here, it’s time.

Curtain call.

And introducing…

Opening Reception Friday March 11, 2011, 6-9PM Worksound Gallery 820 SE Alder Portland, OR 97214

Narcissistic personality disorder

2011-03-02T11:13:00.001-05:00

cra•zy |ˈkrāzē| informaladjective ( -zier , -ziest )mentally deranged, esp. as manifested in a wild or aggressive way. See also: Sheen, Charlie; Gaddafi, Muammar.

Love Issue #2

2011-02-25T15:48:00.000-05:00

Many thanks to Constantin Nimigean for asking me to be part of the second installment of his online magazine Love Issue. It's wonderful to have my work shown alongside that of David Newsom, Warren Harold, Aline Smithson, Tierney Gearon, Narcis Virgiliu, Charlotte Tanguy and Ana-Maria Ilinca. Love Issue comes out of Romania, and while Issue #1 explored couples, Issue #2 widens to include family as a whole. The magazines are absorbing and great to spend some time with (be sure to check out both), and also have a look at Constantin's excellent blog oitzarisme.

What is success?

2011-02-17T16:10:00.000-05:00

Colin Pantall asked, we answered. Read Part 1 (which includes my thoughts) here; Part 2 here; and my favorite answer "Kittens" here.

My famoly

2011-02-16T16:27:00.002-05:00

Above is one of Edie's recent pictures--on the right you'll see Frida with a halo and wings, along with our new dog Willa in the middle. E also wrote a wonderful entry in her school journal about how much she loved Frida--it made me both cry and laugh because of its sweet honesty ("Frida barked a lot bot I will alwase love her"). June on the other hand was overheard recently having a conversation with her best friend Nola in which they were discussing where Frida had gone. Nola was telling June that Frida was in heaven, up in the sky--she looked out of the window and pointed. June shook her head and said "no, Frida's not in the sky, she's at the doctor's office. Dead." One of the many reasons why I love having children is this ability to tell things just as they see them, free from any attempts to impress or soften whatever differences of opinion they might hold.

Valentine's excess

2011-02-14T11:44:00.000-05:00

Be Mine from James Worrell on Vimeo.

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T11:41:00.002-05:00

This one goes out to my James--today we celebrate our 14th Valentine's day together. How is it that I blinked and so much time has passed?!

Why not mark the occasion by purchasing this print by Shawn Records through collect.give:

Wah waah

2011-02-03T20:19:00.000-05:00

I feel like I should be playing "The Circle Game" on a tiny violin--we're a month into 2011 and already it's kicking my lack-of-exercise/lack-of-proper-nutrition snow snow and more snow missing my dog and my husband had gallbladder surgery backside. When I feel stuck like this I'll often go back and read previous posts of mine to gauge whether I'm "better" or "worse" off than the year before (better/worse being relative terms); in some ways it's cyclical and in other ways it seems entirely random. 2011 is not being good to me. Creative-wise, the focal point outside of all of these life-crises, from month to month there are periods of frenetic creativity followed by malaise, often with a forgetfulness that I have done things or been in things, an example being that lately I feel like a lazy bum, which negates the fact that I worked harder on my Photo Editor post than I've worked on anything art-wise in recent memory. Do other photographers have this amnesia? Is it a perfectionist thing--that you can never do enough be enough produce enough? I'm constantly reminding myself and trying to convince myself that the down times are when the creative ideas are brewing--and I actually have quite a few truth be told--but it's the execution, the actual mustering up of momentum that I avoid and delay and worry about. Enough already, excuse me while I go fulfill the wintertime blues cliche of eating chocolate cake in front of the TV.

Doug DuBois interview

2011-01-28T13:27:00.000-05:00

Doug DuBois's book All the Days and Nights continues to be one of my photo library favorites. It's one of those page-through-it-slowly publications, honest and sometimes brutal and beautifully quiet. Interview from Georgi Unkovski on Vimeo, found via Horses Think via Sunday & Wednesday and also mentioned by Liz Kuball (who loves the book as well.) Oh, and he was born in 1960, so I seriously would like to know what anti-aging cream he's using.

I love you Frida

2011-01-16T21:14:00.000-05:00

Frida Fleming Worrell

September 9th 2001 - January 15th 2011

In the span of a few days Frida's legs became paralyzed and we had to make the awful decision to put her down. James and I were there with her at the end--it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. She was the best dog and now the house feels empty without her. I'm going to miss you puppy. Love, Mama

wall space

2011-01-14T15:56:00.000-05:00

Thanks to David Bram for sending along a shot of my image in the wall space show--fun to see I'm right above Kristen Fecker Peroni's picture; the photo world can be wonderfully circular sometimes.

Guns kill people

2011-01-13T15:48:00.000-05:00

Handguns Murdered:

373 people in Germany
151 people in Canada
57 people in Australia
19 people in Japan
54 people in England and Wales, and
11,789 people in the United States (suicides not included)

Wake up America.

(Statistics from The Brady campaign to Prevent Gun Violence; read more on the topic in a great post called "Gun Control, the Elephant in the room" by my husband--see it here.)

Look See Now

2011-01-12T09:52:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Sally Ashley-Cound for asking me to do an interview for her blog Look See Now; I always enjoy having an opportunity to share thoughts on my process of creating and I appreciate her kind words about my work. Read the full interview here.

No Loaded Firearms No Exceptions

2011-01-11T18:50:00.000-05:00

© Brian Ulrich

"[This is] not about the Second Amendment. It's about a technology the founding fathers never could have imagined." Gail Collins for the New York Times.

wall space New Directions opening

2011-01-11T18:09:00.000-05:00

The wall space New Directions opening in CA is tomorrow night--have fun to everyone who is heading out there! See all of the images in the show here.

Priya Kambli

2011-01-09T15:15:00.000-05:00

© Priya Kambli

I find Priya Kambli's work to be extremely inspiring--she won a Critical Mass book award a couple of years ago so I was able to receive a free copy and I find myself paging through it often, a bit wistfully thinking about the kind of work I'd like to make, how there are possibilities beyond "straight" photography, how memory and deeply present emotions can intermingle. I admire how she manages to show a kind of visual perfection without it becoming too pretty or empty. Just look at the diamond shadow of the window mimicking the suit collar in that bottom photograph--every part of her images feels just right, like a mini installation. You can see more of her beautiful work on her website.

From her artist statement: "My move from India to the United States 13 years ago left me feeling that I do not belong fully to either culture leaving me unable to anchor myself in any particular cultural framework. This disconnection from both cultures has changed the way I perceive myself by forming a hybrid identity, a patching together of two cultures within one person. Photography has been a way of bridging the gap between the two cultures while coming to terms with my dual nature."

Kristen Fecker Peroni

2011-01-04T10:50:00.000-05:00

© Kristin Fecker Peroni

Kristin Fecker Peroni is a fellow photographer/mother who is up on Lenscratch today, see the post here. It's always good to know I'm not alone in this crazy soup of artistic exploration, particularly after these last few days managing the brouhaha over my APE article. Without question I knew what I was getting into, and madness aside I feel it's important for people to challenge themselves and put themselves out there even if they know there will be a strong reaction. But now I want to turn my focus back to images that inspire and challenge me, that can be beautiful and complex at the same time. I must admit, writing this post is tricky--I feel like every word will be picked over and examined in a hunt for contradictions; if I were to say anything further it would be that even though I have my strong personal opinions I try as best I can to use those opinions to examine larger theoretical questions. While intellectual discourse has its place, inspiration and creation are fundamentally more important so I'd like to thank Kristin for pulling me out of my furrowed-brow headspace. You can read Kristin's own thoughts on her creative process on her blog Mother vs Artist.

Comments have posted

2011-01-02T21:43:00.000-05:00

After very carefully reading through what people had to say I decided I was comfortable with joining in the discussion over on APE--you can read my thoughts here. As I say in my final comment, from here on in I'm going to bow out of the conversation as I feel I've answered all I can as best I can and that in the end the article must stand on its own merits. To continue on I think would run the risk of becoming an unproductive exercise in parsing words.

Now I'm hoping to clear my brain and get back to some less loaded thinking and more serious creating. Phew!

Comments perhaps not forthcoming

2010-12-31T19:21:00.000-05:00

I've decided to wait until the furor dies down to consider whether I'll respond to those who disagree with my article, and if so how I'll frame the discussion. If at some point I believe there is actually the possibility of a calm and reasonable back and forth with those who have objections to my post then I'll potentially be willing to engage in a conversation. For now I'll let the piece stand on its own, and reassure anyone who's wondering how things are faring on my end that I'm taking the negative responses with a large grain of salt. Before I sign off I'd like to quickly thank Alison Fechtel for her insightful take on my words and for adding a dose of reason to the conversation; you can read her words in the comments section here.

I hope all of you have a wonderful New Year, happy 2011!

Comments forthcoming

2010-12-30T22:49:00.000-05:00

My article has drummed up some heated comments, as I knew it would. No worries, I'll have a carefully considered response soon--in the meantime I thought I'd put up a quick post reassuring everyone that they won't be hearing only metaphorical crickets from me indefinitely. I'm going to go sleep on it all and attempt to deal with the fray in the next day or so. Cheers!

Jock Sturges in the Internet Age

2010-12-30T12:13:00.000-05:00

My article "Jock Sturges in the Internet Age" is now live on A Photo Editor, check it out here. Many thanks to Rob Haggart for providing a forum for tackling such a loaded subject.

Merry Happy

2010-12-25T10:08:00.000-05:00

Christmas 1:58 by my very own James. Merry post-holiday to all, and a happy New Year in advance.

Drive

2010-12-20T11:41:00.000-05:00

I've finally gotten around to editing images that have been hanging out in my folders for a while. I'm getting into a work kick, which is always the cruel thing about not working--the less you do, the less you want to do. And then you get into a groove, do a lot at once, and fall out of the groove again. I'm trying to just appreciate being in this phase and not think too much about the energy drying up. The strange thing is, this week should have taken it out of me: I was dealing with stomach bugs (Edie Thursday and Friday, June today), furious article writing (my piece should post this week, I'll let you know where to find it when the time comes) and general Christmas madness (not that I've actually sent the presents I bought...) I haven't slept for days, but I have this wild desire to buckle down. Maybe it's a getting-over-the-hump thing: halfway through the article it seemed like there was no way my ideas were ever going to cohere into something understandable and I was completely exhausted, but now that I've pushed through and come out the other side I feel like all of the cobwebs have been burned out of me.

Eakins, sort of

2010-12-19T18:19:00.001-05:00

These were taken at the end of the summer on Martha's Vineyard, just when the light starts telling you that fall is on the way. My trusty Canon had run out of juice so these were shot on a lesser quality camera; I did what I could and though they're not the greatest images they reminded me a little of Thomas Eakins, a fellow Philadelphian, which got me thinking about an offshoot project I've been pondering. A vague description you didn't really need to know, but sometimes I have to use this blog as a way to remind my small brain of what it was thinking while it was thinking it.

All my ego wants for Christmas...

2010-12-19T10:31:00.000-05:00

...is for you to become a Facebook fan. Seeing those numbers climb helps me to delay a bit longer my New Year's resolution to be more Buddha-like. (Insert "chagrined" emoticon here.)

Jonathan Blaustein for A Photo Editor

2010-12-14T17:27:00.002-05:00

Speaking of Jonathan, I've been meaning to mention a recent article he wrote about the Chelsea Gallery scene for A Photo Editor. I had the pleasure of meeting up with him last month as he toured the latest shows; he is as sharp and witty as they come and I was honored that he invited me along for the ride while he conducted his research. I don't have the brain capacity to add to the dialog he started, but it really isn't necessary--he's done a wonderful job of describing the current climate--go here to read the full piece. Now back to my own writing. (More to come on that--suffice to say it's kicking my poor little mental capabilities...)

New Directions 11

2010-12-14T17:12:00.000-05:00

I was very excited to find out this morning that my work was selected to be in New Directions 11: Moments of Being which was curated by the esteemed David Bram. Congratulations to friends Jonathan Blaustein and Mike Sebastian for their inclusion. From the wall space website:

Haley Jane Samuelson

We are thrilled to announce New Directions 2011, Moments of Being at wall space. Curated by the creative and talented David Bram, creator and publisher of Fraction Magazine Moments of Being is the visual connection, the emotional relationship between photographer and subject.

David’s job was extremely difficult, paring down to 38 images from over 1400. All the images submitted presented a challenge, defining that moment, looking for that emotional bond captured through the lens.

We can’t wait for you to see the show. Join us in Santa Barbara in January, or Seattle in February. We are looking at additional venues as the year progresses, so stay tuned.

ND11 | Moments of Being

January 4th – 29th, 2011 | wall space gallery Santa Barbara, California

Reception with David Bram January 12th, 6 to 8pm.

February 3rd – 26th, 2011 | wall space gallery @ Angle Gallery, Tashiro Kaplan Building Seattle, Washington

First Thursday ArtWalk Opening February 3rd, 6 to 8pm.

Introducing this year’s artists featured in Moments of Being (in alphabetical order)

Leon Alesi
Steven Alverez
Steven Beckly
Jonathan Blaustein
Nan Brown
Liz Clayman
Daniel Coburn
Andy Cook
Kristen Fecker Peroni
Jon Feinstein
Elizabeth Fleming
Martha Fleming Ives
Alan Gastelum
Flavie Guerrand
Max Hirshfeld
Ann Conway Jennings
Eddie Lanieri
Ash LaRose
Winky Lewis
Elizabeth Clark Libert
Holly Lynton
Coco Martin
Meridith Miller
Heather Musto
Russ Osterweil
Kate Pollard
Shawn Robinson
Haley Jane Samuelson
Michael Sebastian
Larysa Sendich
Katie Shapiro
Meera Margaret Singh
Tabitha Soren
Agnieszka Sosnowska
Amber Terranova
Chikara Umihara
Vikky Wilkes
Antonio Ysursa

Timothy Archibald interview

2010-12-03T18:16:00.001-05:00

The project was so wrapped up in our every day life it didn’t seem to have a moment of clarity, when it all seemed to be mapped out and we knew how to make it good. Almost the opposite of that happened…its almost like it was best when we were all in the dark and just exploring...

...I found myself telling my wife that I wanted it to be more like the photographs were: dreamy, romantic, quiet, poetic, organic, this whole inner emotional journey where I was in control and he and I were equals.. She laughed and reminded me that it never really was like that. That was a fiction made out of the conflict….and it made some intriguing photographs. But the reality was always harder and messier.

Wonderful interview with Timothy Archibald over on Colin Pantal's blog, read it now.

100 Portraits video + online community press

2010-12-03T17:20:00.000-05:00

100 Portraits — 100 Photographers: Selections from the FlakPhoto.com Archive from FlakPhoto.com on Vimeo; visit the exhibition online here.

You can also check out all of the press that's been going around the web here.

collect.give one year anniversary

2010-12-01T11:35:00.000-05:00

Announcing limited edition prints by photographers Sarina Finkelstein and David Leventi. The New York City-based photographers are each offering an edition of (20) photographs, at a print price of $40. collect.give photographers pledge 100% of their print profits to organizations they support, and Sarina has chosen Doctors Without Borders, while David will be supportingThe International Rescue Committee.

collect.give is one year old this week! In celebration, we've got great gifts to give away for those who purchase a print from now through December 8th.

(4) $100 gift certificates from the photo-eye bookstore
(5) copies of Food Journal by Mark Menjivar and Kate Bingaman-Burt
(1) free print for a single lucky buyer on Thursday, December 2nd: Buy one print from the website on that day and email us to be eligible for another print of your choice (that's currently available) at no cost!

* In all cases, to be eligible, you must email kevin@collectdotgive.org with print and date information to be included in the drawings. For more details: collectdotgive.org/anniversary

Cyclone, Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York, 2005 © David Leventi

Del Oro Theatre, Grass Valley, California, 2010 © Sarina Finkelstein

List of participating photographers: Jane Fulton Alt, Jonathan Blaustein, Mark Brautigam, Barbara Ciurej, Amy Eckert, Matt Eich, Jon Feinstein, Sarina Finkelstein, Elizabeth Fleming, Max S. Gerber, Ben Huff, Dave Jordano, Stella Kalaw, Melissa Kaseman, David Leventi, Lindsay Lochman, John Loomis, Kerry Mansfield, Mark Menjivar, Kevin J. Miyazaki, Annie Marie Musselman, Susana Raab, Dalton Rooney, Ellen Rennard, Kelly Shimoda, Emily Shur, Allison V. Smith, Aline Smithson, Brea Souders, Lacey Terrell, Sonja Thomsen and David Wright.

Photo Center NW Juried Show/book

2010-11-30T18:24:00.000-05:00

Many thanks to Crista Dix of wall space gallery for choosing my work to be a part of Photo Center NW's 15th Annual Juried show--two of my favorite images from other photographers in the exhibit can be seen above. The opening is this Friday in Seattle; everything you need to know is right here.

Two of my images were also picked by the Photo Center's curators for inclusion in their 4th annual publication which can be purchased (or perused) here.

Nils Jorgensen Flak Photo of the day

2010-11-30T15:03:00.001-05:00

Photo above Featured on Flak today; read an interesting and in-depth review of the book here on Blake Andrews's blog.

Lenscratch Family exhibit

2010-11-29T15:56:00.002-05:00

On Thanksgiving the prolific and wonderful blogger/photographer Aline Smithson of Lenscratch put up an online exhibit of photographs from an open submission on the theme of Family. Above are some of my favorites--see the rest here; my contribution is below. We spent Thursday at our house with a group of good friends and a bunch of pie, couldn't ask for more. It was a lovely day--I hope yours was too.

Happy happy birthday my sweet Edie

2010-11-18T13:29:00.001-05:00

Can't believe my baby is 7 today. Happy birthday to my lovely Edie.

Andi Schreiber

2010-11-13T09:02:00.000-05:00

© Andi Schreiber

A little Saturday eye candy for you--love this shot by Andi Schreiber of WonderLust. Her book Lush Light recently received an Honorable Mention in Blurb's Photography.Book.Now competition, see her entry here. Enjoy your weekend!

The Corcoran / aCurator

2010-11-08T11:53:00.007-05:00

Larissa Leclair just put this image of my photo being projected on the side of the Corcoran up on twitter--pretty nuts! See all of the other photographer's projections here. My image is also highlighted on aCurator along with Richard Renaldi, Sophia Wallace, Brea Souders, Jen Davis, Carrie Will, Manjari Sharma, Shen Wei, Dorothee Deiss, David Wright, Phillip Toledano, Susan Worsham, Brian Ulrich, Ben Handzo, and LaToya Ruby Frazier; read the write-up here. Thanks to Julie Grahame, aCurator editor in chief, for including me.

Jo Ann Walters

2010-11-08T11:14:00.000-05:00

© Jo Ann Walters

I just discovered the work of Jo Ann Walters today on Gabriela Herman's blog--Walters's series Vanity + Consolation is on display now at Kris Graves Projects and all I can say is wow, and how did I not know about her before? These are the kinds of photographs that make me feel awe, along with a bit of envy. The above picture in particular is striking because when it comes to "art" photography (versus family snapshots) smiling people in general, and smiling children in particular, can be problematic. There is always the danger of sentimentality, and of cuteness, something I've touched on as part of a previous post here, and am always afraid of in my own work. Instead what I find above is an almost painful tenderness: the smiling girl feels incidental in comparison to the two children wholeheartedly embracing. That kind of abandon, the full-on affection, is such a product of a certain age, and I see my girls in their stances. It is an entirely fleeting moment, and somehow seems like an image that belongs to the past; there is a bittersweet sense that these children are now all grown up--and the mother in the background, with her own tenderness on display, becomes an archetype of maternal affection. To have a photograph that could potentially be overly "happy" instead make me feel a certain kind of painful recognition is quite a feat.

There is a blurb from Laura Wexler that further puts into writing what I feel when I look at Walters's imagery: "Here are childhood's intimations as well as adult recollection; here is a finely chiseled, technically beautiful piece of art; a pensive, searing, almost sacred meditation on the ordinary." Unfortunately I can't get Walters's site to show anything but the first page, so we'll have to rely on Gabi and Kris for now--thanks to both for sharing such amazing work.

100 Portraits-Ben Huff's take

2010-11-05T09:34:00.000-04:00

I enjoyed reading Ben Huff's post on the Flak show just now, check it out here. Speaking of Ben, his image Seuss Tree above is available for sale in an edition of 30 for $50 each. I've been a fan of this photo since the first time I saw it and am excited to have it be part of my small but growing collection. Get yours here.

And speaking of my photo collection, in looking at the various images up on our walls I realized I apparently have a thing for trees. I'm not sure why I never noticed the connection before; at some point I'll have to post the various pictures together so you can see what I mean.

Reminder: FotoWeek DC starts tonight!

2010-11-05T09:01:00.008-04:00

100 Portraits -- 100 Photographers: Selections from the FlakPhoto.com Archive

Andy Adams's Curatorial statement:

For the past four years I've been publishing FlakPhoto.com, a website that features contemporary photography from an international community of artists. This fall, I teamed up with curator and Indie Photobook Library creator Larissa Leclair to produce a photo projection for FotoWeek DC, which is showing at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, November 6-13, 2010. In the spirit of the public art projection at the festival we've mounted this online exhibition, so the global photo community can experience the work of these 100 photographers from anywhere in the world. If you enjoyed these portraits, by all means mention the project in your blog and share it with friends, students and colleagues on Facebook or Twitter. Larissa and I will be joining the other NightGallery curators for a Behind the Projections panel discussion at the Corcoran on Saturday, November 6. If you're planning to be in Washington, D. C. for the festival, come by and say hello!

Exhibition Statement

As an added fine art component to FotoWeek DC's NightGallery projections, the screening features 100 dynamic portraits from an exciting group of contemporary photographers in all stages of their careers, each selected from the digital archive on FlakPhoto.com. Our decision to highlight work from this website celebrates the role that a thriving online photography community plays in the discovery and dissemination of work produced by significant artists in the Internet Era. Contemporary photo culture is marked by a continuous flow of images online, and our aim is to take a moment to recognize some of the noteworthy photographs published in this ever-expanding archive over the past four years. In this context, projected several times larger than life, these portraits look back at us and embody a louder voice in the discourse of the gaze. To see the entire list of artists go here.

collect.give Giveaway

2010-11-04T18:42:00.012-04:00

A signed copy of my Life is series of small moments magazine has just gone up as the collect.give monthly giveaway. From the website:

If you’re like us, you love photography books in all forms – traditionally published, self-published, zines and magazine style books. As a bonus to buying a print on collect.give, we’ll give away a free photo book each month, generously donated by one of our participating photographers. To be eligible to win a book, email kevin@collectdotgive.org and tell us which print you purchased (in that given month), along with the date. At the end of each month, we’ll draw the name of one lucky winner, who will receive the book directly from the photographer. New books will always be added to the list, including upcoming publications with the work of photographers Dalton Rooney and Ben Huff.

Good luck if you enter to win; keep an eye out for future giveaways from the likes of Dave Jordano and Lacey Terrell.

*For some reason I'm having trouble formatting this post--there are links to the site where it says "collect.give monthly giveaway" and to Jordano and Terrell's websites even though the links aren't readily apparent, thanks.

Tree climbing

2010-10-29T16:23:00.000-04:00

FotoWeek DC

2010-10-27T20:00:00.001-04:00

I'm happy to report that one of my photographs will be in the upcoming FotoWeek DC Night Gallery program as part of 100 Portraits-100 Photographers curated by Andy Adams of FlakPhoto and Larissa Leclair curator extraordinaire--a big thanks to both! Images will be projected across architecture in Washington, including The Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Newseum. More details on the festivities can be found here and here.

End of a dry spell?

2010-10-21T21:57:00.008-04:00

Bodies are gross--here in my house we just finished dealing with a common childhood parasite that's haunting my dreams (trust me, you're better off if I spare you the details. I'll only say this: it's not due to a lack of hygiene--i.e., we're merely innocent bystanders). Bodies are mean--I found out this morning that a friend has breast cancer; there's no word yet on her prognosis so I'm hoping for the best, but it's scary and sad and I keep thinking about her two little boys. It's unsettling to be at a point in my life when the probability is higher that friends will become sick. People live longer now than they used to I know, but today I feel like mortality is staring me in the face and I'm occupying a slightly alternative reality.

I've also felt the pressures of domesticity quite acutely lately, not that it's a new topic. Still, a good amount of my conversations with friends seem to be centering on the crushing weight of laundry, on how two minutes after straightening up a room it's torn apart. I'm getting better at letting go of general neatness, but as winter approaches and we'll be shut in more a clean house feels like something to aspire to. Keeping up with it all is actually part of the reason I haven't been posting much recently.

A few days ago I finally shot a little--June is a performer and an active participant now in the photographic process, wanting to see every image after I take it, and always saying "one more!" Being a a bit creative again after a dry spell feels good, like progress.

Jonathan Blaustein on the NY Times LENS blog

2010-10-14T18:58:00.003-04:00

© Jonathan Blaustein

Great article about Jonathan Blaustein's "The Value of a Dollar" series on the New York Times LENS Blog; check it out here.

Women in Art Photography UK

2010-10-08T10:41:00.000-04:00

Tess Hurrell, Chaology no. 1, 2006, 20 x 24 in., silver gelatin print, Ed. 4/8

If you happen to be in the UK stop by and check out Humble Arts Foundation's latest endeavor. I love the image above--there's some very interesting work by Tess Hurrell, see more here. All the info you need can be found in the press release below:

Women in Art Photography U.K.
CURATED BY JON FEINSTEIN & AMANI OLU
Private view: Thursday, October 14, 6 PM On view: Thursday, October 14 – Saturday, November 13, 2010

MUSIC BY COZETTE
TASCHEN Store London 12 Duke of York Square
London, SW3 4LY
Hours: Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri 10 AM – 6 PM; Wed & Sat 10 AM – 7 PM; Sun 12 – 6 PM
Exhibiting photographers: Natasha Caruana, Noemie Goudal, Alicia Hart, Tess Hurrell, Emily Keegin, Karen Knorr, Agata Madejska, Zoe Maxwell, Laura Pannack, Regine Petersen, Sarah Pickering, Dana Popa, Clare Strand, Emma Weislander, and Tereza Zelenkova

TASCHEN and Humble Arts Foundation are pleased to present Women in Art Photography U.K., curated by Jon Feinstein and amani olu. Similar to its American counterpart, this exhibition attempts to avoid a decidedly “female” voice and instead presents the work of a stylistic variety of women photographers based in the U.K. The photographs in this exhibition transcend rigid categorical distinctions, and can easily fall across multiple genres within art photography. This ranges from constructed studio works to pictures that explore or comment on traditional notions of portraiture, still life, and landscape photography. Agata Madejska transforms everyday playgrounds into jarring, outer space sculptures, Laura Pannack transcends preconceived notions of youth culture in her tense, uncomfortable portraits of adolescents, and Sarah Pickering’s images of controlled test explosions explore the vulnerability of everyday life during wartime, and the construction of military preparedness. By placing a variety of styles and influences in the same context, the curators encourage viewers to draw abstract relationships between the works and challenge their own notions of what it means to photograph as a woman in the contemporary landscape.

Uninspired

2010-09-23T18:06:00.004-04:00

I've been feeling extremely stuck lately. I tend to play mind games with myself thinking "once the girls are in school things will get better" or "once the summer is over and I'm stuck inside and have to work things will get better" which eventually turns into "once the winter ends and I'm not stuck inside things will get better." It's a continual struggle, the antithesis of Zen. In the moment is not my specialty. And no matter how many self-help books I read or mental exercises I perform the present remains mostly elusive. I have instants of clarity, but when I'm unclear I forget that I ever felt creative or motivated. So for all of my "things will get better" thinking, frankly I have to say right now they're not improving. But yesterday it occurred to me that I have a copy of The Artist's Way lying around, so I went and pulled it off the shelf after not looking at it since we moved to New Jersey. I find it oddly embarrassing to admit to having used it once; I shouldn't knock it--it's a great book and highly beneficial for artistic types, and years ago it kicked me back into gear--but it's also pretty corny, and I always feel like I need to make excuses for cheesiness. Long story short, I'm hoping it will get me back into the swing of things, despite my admittance earlier that self-help is not always helpful.

This afternoon I sat down at the computer around 3:00 and thought "I have loads of time." The next thing I knew it was 5:30 and I'd gotten nothing much done. I picked up Cameron's book and saw this quote: "It is the attention to detail that stays with us: the singular image is what haunts us and becomes art. Even in the midst of pain, this singular image brings delight. The artist who tells you different is lying." And for the first time in a week or so I felt like writing a blog post. Maybe just the act of reading something, anything, about art was enough to motivate me, even if the moment will ultimately be fleeting.

Portfolio reviews at Hous Projects

2010-09-16T17:38:00.002-04:00

Fall Portfolio Review-

Manhattan, New York City, Saturday,October 9, 2010 at 10:00am; Saturday, October 16, 2010 at 6:00pm

Location: hous projects

Gallery Address: 31 Howard Street , Second Floor,SoHo, New York NY, 212-965-1238 or 212 -965-1251

We cordially invite you to be part of the Fall Portfolio Review in Manhattan, NYC at the hous projects NYC gallery branch.You will have your portfolio review by 3 prominent figures in the Manhattan Art World. This is an exploratory portfolio review focused mostly on photography. The idea is to find new talent in the East Coast for a bi-coastal portraiture show opening simultaneously in NYC and Los Angeles January 2011. The show will be called EAST MEETS WEST.The fee for the portfolio review is $150.00 and will guarantee time with Michael, Elizabeth and Ruben. We will consider work shown for the portraiture show if applicable. This a great opportunity to have your work to be seen by three highly experienced NYC gallerists.

1. Michael Hoeh- Art Collector/ Curator/ Editor in Chief of Modern Art Obession Arts Blog and Co-Chairman of Aperture Foundation 2010 Fall Gala Benefit.

2. Ruben Natal-San Miguel-Curator /Art Collector /Photographer/ PhotolucidaCritical Mass judge and pre screener/ARTmostfierce Art Blog Editor in Chief (Ruben will also be part of En FOCO's next portfolio review on September 25th with a great lineup, see details here.)

3 Elizabeth Houston- hous projects gallery owner/Gallerist/ Art Collector/ Photolucida's Critical Mass Judge

9 years

2010-09-11T10:31:00.005-04:00

I think this was the first morning in nine years that my immediate thoughts didn't turn to 9/11. It only took a few minutes to remember the anniversary, but every year feels further from the life I had then, and the shock of it all. Nevertheless, I did what I always do, which is to replay the day in my mind. It's almost ritualistic now: I think about the red pants and black shirt I was wearing, I think about my office, my boss telling us about the planes, I think about the phone calls and strangely and especially the bathroom where I privately broke down. I think about my colleague Meg, and how we walked home to Brooklyn, I think about my apartment which was under renovation, and lying on the mattress in our empty bedroom watching the news. I think about the restaurants, the friends we ate with, how it was all we could talk about, and the financial papers that drifted down onto our terrace.

Most of all today though I'm thinking about how so much in my life has changed--except for James as my one constant I live in a different place, I now have children and a dog and my closest friends are for the most part different people. Still, the weather is uncannily exactly the same. After I got out of bed I spied on the girls in the driveway from the bathroom window, Edie riding her bike in circles, June playing with her stuffed animal, James loading up the minivan for bulk refuse day. It almost hurt to look at them, but it made me happy too.

Indie Photobook Library

2010-09-10T14:58:00.006-04:00

Another great resource to check out is the Indie Photobook Library. Put together by my talented friend and one-time college roommate Larissa Leclair--mentioned more than once here on Tethered--it's an amazing collection of all types of photography publications. From the website:

The Indie Photobook Library (iPL) was founded in 2010 by Larissa Leclair. It is an archive that strives to preserve and showcase self-published photobooks, photobooks independently published and distributed, photography exhibition catalogs, print-on-demand photobooks, artist books, zines, photobooks printed on newsprint, limited edition photobooks, and non-English language photography books to be seen in person through traveling exhibitions and as a non-circulating public library. Having a specific collection dedicated to these kinds of books allows for the development of future discourse on trends in self-publishing, the ability to reflect on and compare books in the collection, and for scholarly research to be conducted in years, decades, and centuries to come.

Upcoming places to see the Indie Photobook Library collection include the Flash Forward Festival (Toronto, October 6-10, 2010) and FotoWeek DC (Washington, DC, November 6-13, 2010).

Thank you as always to Larissa for her ongoing support of my work and for including me on the site. If you'd like to own a copy of Life is a series of small moments seen above (for only $12 I might add) please visit MagCloud here to purchase.

Snapsort

2010-09-10T14:33:00.004-04:00

A month or so ago I received an email from Christopher Reid, co-founder of a new startup called snapsort. Christopher and a group of self-proclaimed software engineers and photography geeks got the idea for the site while trying to solve the age-old problem of which camera to purchase. As he says:

"I'm sure you've been asked a million times by friends, family and readers what camera they should buy. 150 new cameras every year from 15 manufacturers makes it pretty hard to know what the best one is to recommend in all scenarios. That was our problem also. We felt that most people have a really hard time figuring out exactly what camera is right for them. With 400-500 cameras for sale how's the average Joe to know, can't very well go read 400 reviews.

We thought: wouldn't it be cool if you could compare, review and understand every single digital camera in one place before looking for detailed reviews? Build your own custom round ups and comparisons based on what is important to you. For the last 10 months we've been building just that: compare, review and roundup every camera based on your unique criteria and help you understand the important differences."

While those of us who have been in the photography business for a while now might have an easier time knowing what we want, this is a great site for finding everything in one place and for people who have no idea where to begin. They've done some serious legwork, and it's very well organized. The "learn" section has a vast array of descriptions on the particulars of digital cameras, and which cameras are best for varying specificities; for those of us who have been out of school for a while now and may be rusty on our technical terms this is the place to brush up on all your techie-speak. Best of all, it relieves us photographers from having to give lengthy explanations on why a Canon is better than a Nikon or vice versa to friends or relatives who want a good camera but aren't necessarily professionals. Refer them along to snapsort and let the site do all the work.

Critical Mass

2010-08-28T09:01:00.004-04:00

Hallelujah, I've been selected as a Critical Mass finalist. I've had a rough go of it lately submission-wise--I was starting to think I might have to create work out of my rejections à la "It's Not Us, It's You." But as those of us in this tricky biz know, it's par for the course, and though it's easy to forget that basic truth, and even if you wake up in the middle of the night thinking about what you would do if you actually never again got into another show, something comes along and you can breath a little easier again.

I was a finalist last year as well and moving past the sad-sack poor-me paragraph above I'm very happy and frankly relieved to be included again this year. I didn't make the top 50 in 2009 so I'll be keeping my fingers crossed on that front (though I've got some stiff competition)--in the meantime I'll be going about my day feeling a bit lighter. A huge thank you to the pre-screeners, and congratulations to talented photo friends Jesse Burke, Katrina d'Autremont, Ben Huff, Isa Leshko, Jennifer Loeber, Stephen Mallon, Yoichi Nagata, Nancy Newberry, Justin James Reed, Michael Sebastian, and Manjari Sharma for their inclusion. (If I left anyone I know off here it wasn't on purpose, please email and I'll add you right away.) For the rest of the finalists go here, and good luck to all!

I'm back--briefly

2010-08-16T09:43:00.004-04:00

Hello world. I'm back for a moment to say hey, after which I'll be disappearing for another week due to heading off for a family vacation. I've actually been itching a bit to write, but when you take a chunk of time off there's so much to say it can be hard to know where to begin. Therefore it was nice to receive an email that has given me a place to start in getting back into my blogging habit.

Last week I heard from Stephen Pierson, publisher of Canteen Magazine, about an upcoming event (details in a moment). I had a subscription to Canteen when it first came out and enjoyed the mix of imagery and writing, including poetry and essays. Over the last year I let all of my subscriptions lapse (including, gasp, The New York Times) as a way to tighten the belt. I was quite excited then when Stephen very kindly offered to give me a comp on the next four issues when I mentioned I used to subscribe; I'm looking forward to catching up and exercising my brain, something that's been severely lacking this summer.

The event in question is described below; I wish I could attend but, as mentioned above, we'll be away. Here's all of the info you need should you be in town, sounds like a fun night out:

Naked Judging Exposed: The 2010 Canteen Awards in Photography at powerHouse Arena

Exhibition: August 4 – August 29 2010

Party: Thursday August 19, 7-10

(Brooklyn, NY) In too many photo contests it feels like the fix is in: the outsiders' entry fees pay for the insiders' prizes. Canteen is confronting this feeling head on. We exhibit the winning images alongside the comments of our judges, Brooklyn Museum director Arnold Lehman and photographer Matthew Porter—even when those comments clash. The exhibition will run from August 4 through August 29, with a party on Thursday, August 19 from 7:00 p.m. till 10:00 p.m at powerHouse Arena. The party will feature live music by the acclaimed Brooklyn band Hank & Cupcakes and cocktails courtesy of Bulldog Gin. Free with RSVP (rsvp@canteenmag.com), $5 at the door. In addition, artist Arthur Ou will be giving flash-portfolio critiques.

A special exhibition catalogue, available both at the show and in Canteen magazine’s issue #6, will offer a provocative sampling of Mr. Lehman’s and Mr. Porter’s methodology, their biases, and their disagreements with each other. The exhibition will feature work from contest winner Rowan James, and runners-up Bobby Davidson, Shea Naer, Tribble & Mancenido, Michal Kawecki, and Geoff Smith.

About Canteen: Canteen Arts Inc., based in New York and San Francisco, produces a biannual literary and arts publication that asks accomplished creative types (writers, artists, chefs, and even a CIA agent) to reveal their creative process—writing about their successes, failures, motivations, fears, drug addictions, and much more. Canteen Arts also runs a writing program for youth in Harlem, NY.

canteenmag.com

Loafing

2010-07-05T19:06:00.002-04:00

It's summer--which means I'm loafing and I don't feel guilty about it. I probably won't see you until roundabout September. Cheers!

Major website update has launched!

2010-06-21T14:50:00.004-04:00

Finnaallly: I've finished a major refurbish of my website (insert sigh of relief here). Many new images can be seen in an entirely new order in Life is a series of small moments; and I have a body of work up called Strange Happenings (formerly known as Windowpane, which I was never crazy about as a title) which has been quite retooled and changed. Any suggestions and/or comments are always appreciated. Many thanks!

Timothy Archibald's Echolilia

2010-06-21T14:32:00.003-04:00

Echolilia is one of my favorite series out there that includes a parent photographing a child--Timothy Archibald is singularly talented, and Echolilia is haunting and beautiful. I wrote about his work almost two years ago, and have been following it since; there's now a limited edition book of the series available for purchase. Here are the details:

"ECHOLILIA / Sometimes I Wonder
Published June 2010 by Echo Press, San Francisco, CA
Hardcover / 11 x 13 inches/ 70 pages / 43 photographs with an interview by Andy Levin of 100 Eyes Magazine.
First Printing: 20 copies signed by the artists $120.00 plus shipping and handling via Paypal

A view into the father / son relationship from the head of the kid and the eyes of the Dad. What better time to get your hands on this project than Father's Day? All copies signed by myself and Eli."

Buy HERE.

WIP grant

2010-06-17T17:07:00.003-04:00

It's that time of year again--WIP has opened up submissions for its 2010 grant. Money! Yahoo! Here are the details:

Women in Photography is pleased to announce the 2010 WIP- LTI / Lightside Individual Project Grant, funded by LTI / Lightside Photographic Services with guest judge Karen Irvine. The $3,000 grant award will provide funding to one female photographer to support project costs. In addition WIPNYC is excited to announce the 2010 WIP- LTI / Lightside Materials Grant, funded by Kodak. This grant provides $1000 in artists choice of Kodak materials and will be awarded to one female photographer.
DEADLINE: Thursday, July 15th, 2010, by 11:59pm
To apply go here.

HeART for Haiti auction at Aperture tonight

2010-06-16T12:54:00.004-04:00

James and I both have images available for bidding in the HeART for Haiti auction; the exhibition of works is tonight at Aperture Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, 4th floor. All proceeds will go to Doctors Without Borders. See all of the photographs available here and help out a great cause.

Fears

2010-06-15T15:40:00.004-04:00

I shot these images at a friend's house on Memorial day. There was a point when I was sitting in their playroom (in the middle image) and I had this moment of total fear. The oil spill and the ramifications for my children hit me in that dark space; the lights were out, there was a particular late afternoon quiet, and the light was eerie in its beauty. I felt the way I used to feel as a kid when I thought about nuclear war, about annihilation. Not entirely realistic, but still in the realm of possibility.

I thought of the oceans becoming completely polluted, the planet collapsing--melodramatic potentially, but for a flash I really felt it. I felt that Edie and June's children might not make it--I felt it even within that sunny pleasant day, no catastrophe in actual visual sight. We may be just fine and we may not, but I think any parent will understand the mindset and the parallel futures we imagine: the one with good things and the one without.

Will Steacy opening tonight

2010-06-10T16:01:00.002-04:00

This should be another great opening, get all your info here.

Jesse Burke opening tomorrow

2010-06-09T15:57:00.008-04:00

I really wish I could make it to the opening but unfortunately

I'm not free, wah. If you can go you definitely should.

Jesse Burke is great, CLAMPART is great, what more could you

ask for? Here's all the info you need:

JESSE BURKE: Intertidal

June 3 - July 10, 2010
_____________________

Artist's Reception:
This Thursday, June 10, 2010
6.00 - 8.00 p.m.
_____________________

CLAMPART
521-531 West 25th Street
Ground Floor
New York City 10001

After-Reception Party

Shotgun-A-Beer photo booth and Rock-N-Roll DJ

MOTOR CITY BAR

127 Ludlow Street (between Rivington & Delancey)

Impostor syndrome

2010-06-07T11:59:00.001-04:00

Blogs are a strange thing--it's so easy to be seen smiling out of a picture at an opening, and to be genuinely happy that night, and to present this version of your life that is at once true and too simple. I want to thank the people who have helped me, but sometimes it all can feel like hubris, and not necessarily meaningful to my readership, whoever those readers may be. Pardon my mood, I'm wiped out from a succession of busy weekends...

James and I talk often about "impostor syndrome," a term we learned from a good friend who is currently earning her PhD at Harvard, and one of the most brilliant people we know. She told us that so many people in her program suffer from the above that they hold seminars on the topic. I find this comforting, as I think I may be one of the afflicted. I wonder if we all are, to some degree. Is there anyone who's found the key to supreme and constant self-confidence?

It does feel somehow ungrateful to "out" myself--I don't want to write a post that appears to not recognize what I've got and where I am, but through this blog I also hope to be authentic, and I feel I'd be lying if I didn't at least give some voice to my insecurities, which are plentiful. I often wonder if Alec Soth suffers from impostor syndrome, if the up-and-comers and big guns are just as nervous and self-doubting as those of us trying to get our names out there. It always makes me feel less alone to hear about the anxieties of those at the top, and makes me wonder why we as a collective species seem somewhat more inclined to doubt ourselves than to be able to relax into our accomplishments. For me I think I fear that all of it will dry up--I've had my run and that's it, or my next creative endeavor won't be as well-received, or won't be what I envisioned.

Some of what I'm feeling currently stems from a portfolio review I attended last week in which a curator dubbed my work, if I remember correctly, "overly sentimental" and generally too simplistic. While there were nuggets of wisdom to be gleaned from the exchange, I left with the sense that my images were seen in an entirely different light than intended, which is the frustration of art I suppose, that it's all so bleeping subjective. But more on that another day, I need to go write some thank-you emails for said review.

Good times

2010-05-28T20:01:00.007-04:00

James shot these in the driveway today (still waiting on a good one of Edie). If anyone ever wonders why parenting is exhausting, just take a look at my June--can you tell she does her own thing, always? Though it can wear me out, I do love her for it: she's bold and curious and hilarious and wild. As far as Frida goes, she's a big dog in a little body.

The girls

2010-05-27T17:48:00.001-04:00