Getting out to see different photographers at book signing is really an experience I was missing. These meetings have been really clearing up my mind. I’ve been very frustrated lately or in the past rather. I can’t say that it all went away because none of it really does, but to some extent it takes on a much suitable form of discipline and attention to the small details that make a shoot a successful one.
I’ve been idling last few weeks with the exception of the 2 photographs two weeks ago. So now that the weather is getting warmer I am coming out of my hibernation. Color print 4x5 film and some darkroom time. Perhaps a workshop at Center of Photography at Woodstock(CPW).
This is a photograph of NYC waking up on a foggy autumn day. The view on such mornings is spectacular. Slightly adjusted in PS to get the color of the day from a vague memory.

I have heard the best definition or defense rather for film photography versus digital last night. I didn’t have the best of days yesterday. I woke up late and running around the house I got dress as if in a routine of everyday except that yesterday as I slipped on two shoes they were different. Similar color but way different style of shoes is what I realized on the train. So at this point embarrassed as I was I did not feel like attend the lecture at the Aperture gallery in NYC that evening. And at the same time I thought why not? Who cares… and if it applies which I think it does, I thought how bohemian. And from there as silly as I felt I figured I wanted to go to this lecture for a reason.
The photographer was Bert Teunissen. His work is all 4x5 and with available light only. His exhibition is titled ‘Domestic Landscapes’ and I think its superb. The important element of attending such lectures is the little stories behind the pictures. Mr. Teunissen connects them very well to his as true photographers do.
But to the original premise of the definition, Mr. Teunissen statement was that film photography consists of the process that is fragile to its surroundings. The digital camera is a computer which at best gives an average of data it captures on a chip. Any Photoshop adjustments are playing with just data. I agree. And to know Mr. Teunissen travels Europe via car and his 4x5 gear gives me a great boost to know all such efforts can produce superb work in a class of its own.
My next thing is to get quick enough with my 4x5 and better at approaching strangers for a portrait as I seem to find such work most satisfying.
Photograph tonight is not of a person but marks left by one. I like the reflection in the right corner from the frame in the windshield of the old architecture while down below are some old cars and a modern mark of spray-paint can. This was taken in Krakow in a very old Jewish section which is full of beautiful old buildings and a very active nightlife full of best pubs I have ever found in one city. Krakow’s nightlife is absolutely phenomenal.

I’ve been lost in thoughts for the last two weeks on various subjects. But I think it might be the weather for one thing being 70F one day and 28F 2 days later for highs of the day.

Street photography has always been a favorite of mine. Ever since I was a child I traveled a lot which built my imagination and understanding of places as needing to understand for the atmosphere of it. Whenever I look at street photography of a place in time I try to remember how they fit into the topics of history or someone’s biography I might have stumbled upon. The photograph, in most cases black and white, closes the gap of imagined and real to some degree. Of course I am talking about many photographs of many photographers who contributed in the documentation of that atmosphere.

My photographs tend to be a reflection of where I was. A document to myself of a place. It is not necessarily an interpretation or an explanation of the location I have traveled to but a given instant from where I was. Since I shoot film the frames are scarce. Whether it was the best picture of the moment is not true either. I don’t believe there is such photograph in street photography. There are photographs that include a decisive moments but sometimes the everyday scene can put a memory or a thought in perspective and at the same time serve as a universal moment that’s not uncommon to our everyday life when we look around.

This is Krakow. The little car has some pull I assume. The billboard that’s attached to the car is advertising real estate.

‘..I used to care but things have changed..’ so goes my journey to find what is it all about from all different ways it can mean something. Whatever it is and how it means that life follows it. The suburbs, the work ethic, the loosing of oneself in the mundane and refusal to see that there is more color to a shade of grey. Sports is that grey in the suburbs. The glorification of the athletes over a thinkers or a writer who puts it on some sort of rails toward a better understanding of ‘it’…. Oh well, ‘I used to care but things have changed…’ As Mr. Dylan sums my pursuit so well…

Tonight a photograph made yesterday afternoon. A re-visit a baseball field I shot over the summer. This time between the fences you can better see the overturned soccer goal post and the houses behind it.

After attending a lecture mid week I realize how conservative my photography and my thinking of photography has been. I can’t seem to get into abstract use of the medium just to break away from the norm. There is some from of order that a photograph requires in order for the viewer to take notice of it. I’m referring to multi exposed and visually complex images that go beyond showing much of what we could see in the real world.

Tonight I am including photograph I shot earlier today on a 4x5 sheet using all the tilts and swings of the camera that I could. I find this to be the true advantage and pallet of Large format photography. The image is of a piece of metal fence left behind on the sand around a Baseball diamond. Around the fence are fresh deer tracks. This is my abstract photograph in the afterthoughts of breaking some boundaries.

Suburbs are a compromise of big cities. I live some 45 minutes by train from Midtown Manhattan. There’s no convenience here of walking out of the house and within a block finding a grocery store. There is no pub that could be reached on foot. So life without a car is limited. I’d love to get a Vespa scooter. It’ll probably look strange riding around town among the Harley and sport bike crowds but so what! Going to a coffee shop or even picking up few grocers is all reachable little faster then walking in the suburbs. The winters here limit this somewhat. Motorcycles are of course the next level up. I will get back to them in the future.

So the photographs tonight are from NYC walks within last week. The 36 exposure rolls are hard to get used to after Mamyia 7’s 10 frames per 120 roll. For any future 35mm work I’ll be switching to 24 exposure rolls.

To be honest I believe the Mamyia 7 is a wonderful street camera but not concealable. For fast paced action a camera that is slower and all manual might seem as the last tool but I honestly think the very fact of knowing your equipment and having the limits of getting ready to shoot prepares you better how best to blend these elements in composition. I find to have more productive 10 roll exposures then analyzing 35mm film for 2 or 3 good ones. Well, I don’t know how good these choices are but I am including them after looking though at the negatives without a contact sheet. Larger format allows you to see the negative details. I’ll try to stick with the 35mm for a little longer. Some 4x5 soon to change the pace but the 35mm will be around.

I'm behind few things but did not want to let tonight go without a post. I started a roll of 35mm last week and finished it yesterday. All of was pretty much shot in NYC.
I forgot how much work there is with 35mm. The small reels to load the film, the lengths of the film, and the tiny spaces between the frames for cutting are a big change coming from 120 and 4x5 film. But the challenge is cool although I don’t know how long it will last.

The photograph is from walking though Times Square while standing by the crosswalk. A NYC cab pulled right next to me with newlywed couple sitting in it. Amidst all the chaos (there was some anti-war demonstration a block away) here was a couple who's limo probably never showed. But what was striking is how calm it looked inside the car. This is where 35mm shines. It’s quick. No polarizer filter to get thought the glare but the flowers inside came out somewhat in focus.