Something on the last roll from Krakow that mystifies me. I took two frames of an old church court yard but they came out blurry. Two frames completely out of focus. I took 5 rolls and many more with the Mamiya 7. I never had is so out of focus before. To some odd degree they almost seem interesting in the softness of the outlines. But I still need to give them a second though before I would post them here. I am a bit surprised how it could have happened.

Well, tomorrow’s evening is a visit to a lecture at the Aperture gallery in NYC form a photographer whose subject have been Muslim women shot on location in the Middle East. The Aperture lectures are phenomenal and I so glad to live in this area if just for these. So tomorrow I might get home late and not have a moment to post but Wednesday I’ll most likely will reflect about it here.

The photograph tonight is from the trip 3 weeks ago with Ilona. This was out view from the window looking toward the Market of our apartment. We had a wonderful time in Krakow. On this very corner is a lounge we were looking for that was highly recommended to us. It might not been the most comfortable or best place we visited but the evening we went there we sat along candles on the table with very good atmospheric music. I remember looking at Ilona’s face to the candle light and it’s in my mind I have a photograph of that moment. We’ll have to shoot something like that so I can have it on paper to look at instead of just remembering. And of course moments like that are very much ones I love in her company.

Tonight I watched a documentary film released last year on Leonard Cohen titled “I’m Your Man”. I know pretty much most of Mr. Cohen’s work. The film itself is a documentary tribute of some folk and other artists singing his songs while in-between Mr. Cohen himself comments on himself mostly. U2’s Bono has probably the best observations on Mr. Cohen as an artist and that is exactly what the documentary is about. Leonard Cohen embraces the fact he is a writer and that so many years yield success only with getting up and wiring everyday. It’s the Patience that has enabled him to reflect in peace on his work. There is a bonus feature that includes an interview but I have not watched it yet. The sinning only shines when at the end of the documentary Mr. Cohen performs ‘Tower of Song’ with U2. The other musicians are mediocre at best. Leonard Cohen is a signature to the songs I came to know and draw pictures from so interpretations do not particularly interest me that much. If I can walkway with one or two ideas that spark my deeper thinking from such films then I call them very helpful. This is one of them but unless you know his work I would suggest listening to his original songs since the musicians here do not justice his lyrics deserve.

Ok, I lied. It would not be fair to get into a Magnum recognition and not post a photograph.

The photograph tonight is of Ilona. This was taken right before our flight back east at San Diego airport. Some 2 hours ago Don asked ‘So where do you want to go’ and I replied ‘The Desert’. Don was all set. Then I realized we sort of had to go back to the hotel and pack. Incredible trip. Don made us both feel like he was family. We were talking about that around the time I took this photo. We both knew we'll miss him.

If there is one photography organization I absolutely love then Magnum is what does it for me. I absolutely love reportage photography.

The strong statements tonight are inspired out of few details coming together. They serve a reminder why and how I found the most comfortable photographs from my early interest in it.

The older I get the more mature I suppose. I don’t think that is always true because I like to look at the world as some peaceful harmony of shapes, shades, and colors. The older I get the more truth I find out. I enjoy reading history books. I like to get the deeply researched works what can tell me how it was unbiased.

Reportage photography does that in a frame. A caption gives you the circumstance. Magnum photographers define life in a photograph.


In other news I have taken my Contax G2 out of retirement. If I’m somewhat successful I will sometimes post just a photograph if I deem it speaking it …. some words.

No photograph tonight. I’m got the last toll from Poland going up tomorrow.

Hey, is 35mm slide still beating a digiSLR?

So one roll is now left to develop and I can’t remember what’s on it. The roll I developed tonight was a bit disappointing not in content but in myself. In the midst of the conversation I set the camera wrong. I just didn’t pay attention because I was also I guest. I like my hermit ways of photographing. I stand there and observe so that with success I can not be too noticeable, or at least the camera. The roll form tonight has 4 more portraits of my uncle. But the photograph tonight a photograph that originally was to capture a trolley I used to take to my grandparents house as a child but we were driving and with the medium format camera everything is manual. I took the photograph but got the man and boy instead and the still man on the shoulder of the boy. There is something here but I am not sure what yet.

Nostalgic photographs tonight from where I grew up and have most found memories of childhood. This is where my childhood friends and I have played. Around these buildings was my world when I was a kid. I remember when near by the grass was tall over us and we would make tunnels. I remember when the summers came and the grass was cut into long lines from which all the children collected it and made heaps and houses from. I remember the first snow of the year and everyone running around occasionally collaborating to make a snowman. I remember all of this. I was there for mere 5 minutes some two weeks ago. I left when I was 11 years old but childhood memories are like fairy tales in my memory now. The photographs to me are full of those sentiments. These photographs are colored in my head.

Family. Part of my trips to Poland are all about seeing and spending time with Family. I have gotten used to living pretty much away from big gatherings. I have lived around my parents for most of my life. But on this trip I almost made a mistake and a chance of seeing my Uncle. His life has been though a dramatic change in the last year that I saw him. In the last day in Warsaw I saw him. I’m glad for the moments like this. It meant a lot to him as well.

The photographs are document in nature. These were two on a roll I just shot in my neighborhood where I grew up. I have an entire roll of him pretty much in this setting and that chair as our talk went on. I love photography for this very reason.

This is an attempt of a tight crop for the photograph below. This might not be a very photograph from start but at least up close the pigeon lady's outfit appears as if a scarecrow while blurred by motion dark figure is approaching. I was just curious what it would look like closer and sharing my comparison here with you.

In 12 plus years of photography I am now learning how much life a photograph has though proper presentation. By some very sad fact I had given this part very little attention now realizing that lack of confidence was because I did not fully remember work I’ve done. The blog is helping a lot by giving me a chance to select and post photographs. But then further down I am also revisiting them though viewing them scanned, then adjusted, and sometimes even cropped somewhat to produce the final image. It’s the process that I am learning about or maybe just really now paying attention to it. Some parts are mundane and repetitive but do yield progress. Some of the elements of the process become a second nature.
Tonight two photographs of quick city photograph of Krakow. The people were chosen for a purpose but not anticipated the perfect moment. The dirty old street has a human and modern element as does the photograph with the pigeon lady. Both photographs ironically have a car in them on these very old streets.

I’ve developed 2 rolls from 5 so far and at random they both happened to be from Krakow. We (Ilona and I) have walked most of the city during the few days there sightseeing for the most part. The weather was sunny the day we got there and sunny again when we were leaving but for the most part it was a cloudy even lit days which occasionally carried a flurry with it. Krakow is famous though European history and by most part undamaged by WWII unlike Warsaw which was rebuilt as far as the old part of town.
I shot at random and almost as if a tourist except the fact I wasn’t too concerned about the historical significance as I was about atmosphere. Shooting while on vacation is still something new to me and combined with how I perceive photography and memories translates into somewhat still to be defined selection.
So tonight I am including two photographs. Both are from Wawel castle where kings and queens were coroneted and biggest events concerning the kingdom took. The first photograph is the outlook though an archer’s hole onto Krakow. The second photograph is a gate which on looks an open yard.

I am back from my short but wonderful vacation. I did not had much access to the internet so hence no Posts but even before I left I had very little time to prepare images for the blog.
I returned on sunday night only to go to work the next day and erupt with a significant cold/flu which resulted in a doctor visit on tuesday and another day of today. Tommorow I am back at work. I have mamnaged to develop two rolls but still scanning and the first pictures from the trip will have to go up tommrow. Short today but tommrow the blog picks up again.