Shadow study.

Pictureville, ahoy!

I can already tell you that this post will be a bit disjointed and lacking in images... but this is not a bad thing. We're in day two of From Craft to Concept, an alternative process photography class taught by the always dapperly dressed and exceptionally well-mannered Dan Estabrook. For those of you not familiar with alternative process photography, we're making photographs in the most messy and hands-on way possible, mixing, tearing, coating, exposing, washing, fixing, and re-washing our way to lovely, one-of-a-kind photographs that we wouldn't have any other way. By the end of the class, we'll have made our way through most of the historical processes that brought photography to where it is today. That's not to say we're joining the ranks of the Luddites, smashing printers and having monitor bonfires, but instead using digital as just one tool in our arsenal.

Our first real day of class was also the first really chilly, cloudy day of fall. Due to issues with reservoirs and water pumps and other things beyond our control, it was also the first day of the year without running water. Not that it stopped us. Dan started the day collecting rainwater and we made it through without a hitch in our collective step, even with a collective deficit of coffee and sleep. As of today, we've made it through cyanotypes, salt prints, and homemade negatives. Gee, I love this stuff. Wednesday will be our first critique of the class, something that will continue throughout the session as a way to bring some focus to our work. I'm hoping it will help me think about why I make the work I do, and the differences and similarities in the way my classmates and I understand my work. I'm hoping to develop a well-printed, cohesive body of work, with something resembling an artist statement to boot.

Oh, and also very exciting, today I was gifted with an Ansco Shur Shot by Mr. Robin Dreyer. What a sweet, sweet gift. I've already shot my first roll which I'm waiting to develop. After that, I should hopefully have a better idea of its personality. It's a very simple camera, which means all the figuring of film speed in relation to the amount of light available and how this will affect the image will be going on in my head, or more likely my gut. I tend to trust that gut feeling, hoping that it is a result of tiny bits of knowledge floating about in my head all coming together at just the right moment.

Okay, to you I promise more pictures. Coming soon. Along with more ramblings on beeswax, silver, eggs, platinum, , watercolors, birds nests, and other delightful things.

Ladies and Gentleman.

Class was great. I learned many neat things about lighting, did some location shooting, made some props, got over my fear of shooting people (film, not bullets), and learned a good deal more about my digital camera and Photoshop. I'm not ready to title these yet, so use your imagination. The class was a lovely break from my desk, and made me super excited about class this fall. I love school!

Long time, no see.

Currently in Jo Whaley's class, The Theater in Photography, grappling with strobe lights, hot lights, more digital than I've done before, Photoshop, portraiture, and the list goes on. So far it has been challenging (in a good way). I've absorbed a lot of very useful information that I just need to process now. More to come later...

A little positivity.

Prince has a few words on the subject...


Don't kiss the beast
We need love & honesty, peace & harmony
Positivity
Love & honesty, peace & harmony
I said, hold on 2 your soul,
U got a long way 2 go
sho' nuff, sho' nuff, sho' nuff


... some of which make sense, some which don't. Sho'nuff. Now that I'm done with that tangent, here's my actual post:


I'm feeling pretty good about things right now. It could be the fact that we are on the cusp of summer and when I look out my door, these are the shades I see:


Green Target
Jasper Johns

1955

Encaustic on newspaper and cloth over canvas

Pretty nice, right? I've got new plants in the ground, 1 1/2 weeks before students arrive, a happy dog, a class or two on the horizon, a new loaf of homemade bread, 14 (14!) rolls of film being developed, and time for possibilities. Not that I know what they are yet, but the prospect is exhilarating. I've been bouncing in and out of town all this spring, and now I'm ready to be here, just here, for awhile. I feel energized, ready to create, spend some time with old friends, meet some new ones, take in everything this place has to offer, and not get bogged down in the things that can make it trying at times. Sho' nuff.

Looking through.

I went to Spain and I don't speak Spanish. While I was there, the spoken word would wash into my ears on a wave, knocking the language section of my brain right off its feet. I love language and all its intricacies and subtle nuances, but I was reduced to the bare bones of sentence structure. A few nouns, their friendly adjectives, and a verb or two if I was lucky, snatched up from a sentence before the next one began. The isolation caused by the language barrier forced my brain to switch its attention to the visual.

I am walking in their alleys, standing in their rooms and sheds and workshops, looking in and out of their windows. -Ansel Adams



Being an observer and photographer can be a wonderful thing, and this area of Spain provided a new vocabulary, but the disconnect from the people made it feel like a not fully fleshed-out scene. The people were characters in sets, but without descriptions or backgrounds, there to be recorded but not fully understood.

I picked up some Spanish and took many pictures while I was there, but it was a true/strange joy to be stuck in the airport surrounded by fellow travelers, all stranded there by an Icelandic volcano. We traded stories with a college Spanish instructor from Virginia who was hoping the volcano would not interfere with a student backpacking trip he was supposed to lead back in Spain in just a few short days, a Québécois ex-pat pop opera singer/nutritionist trying to make his way home to Orlando for a singing engagement, and an audiologist from Mexico City who travels to Paris every year to purchase tools for her practice, among others. It was a good way to end the trip, just letting the words flow, feeding each other's hunger for familiarity.

Root Bound.

Francis Baker, Every Day Garden

So I like Francis Baker's work, but am particularly enamored with his Every Day Garden series. For me it is a visual representation of how I feel when I have been in one place/situation for too long, like I can only take so much in and put so much out before I need somewhere else. Traveling has always been one of my favorite things to do and it always makes me feel better about any situation I am in, like a constant reminder that escape is possible and is as easy as packing a bag and going. It's not that wherever I am going is particularly better, but it is always different and gives my mind a break from the place that it was in.

Looking forward to a little transplanting next week.

Bonus stuff:

This song

This photograph