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.

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.

I am realizing that I am in my photographs and somehow having a strong feeling that this is only the beginning. The varied subject matter becomes more organized with time and I am beginning to do things with the camera more naturally [as opposed being all technical]. I am beginning to pursue what I have been bothering all those around me which is the aim of my work. The more I give up pursuing an answer the more it becomes clear that photography is a personal tool I can record and observe where I happen to find myself.

Tonight photograph is of NJ. I took this and few others few weeks ago from the window of a train ride home. Despite the motion blur I think this best defines [until I shoot some more] the Elizabeth area (15 mile radius around Newark Airport) which is cluttered with homes among industrial parks.

No matter where you came from you can blend into the everyday life here without much interference. You can exist from anywhere on the Web and make your voice heard to those who listen and if you look thoroughly you’ll find your clique. And from there you can go into the mainstream [media] if you choose to. But Artist is a broad term. I read an editorial in the Saturday’s Wall Street Journal of Mr. Kasparov’s (The famous Chess Champion) taking on Vladimir Putin from his NYC residence. Van Morrison speaks truth of the commercial weight that art is effected by in USA but still seeks out his influence in USA. If it’s not on the East Coast then it’s on the West Coast. The politics come and go and lives get better and worse. But at the end of the day you can probably find it easiest in the States.

The photograph today is from 3 weeks ago walking by WTC site that not is under construction of the new Freedom tower. I am including the second photograph because it moved me. The coins and a rose left behind remind all that pass by here though the PATH station that some 5 years ago this was a site of total devastation. I am more amazed that 6 years ago I walked out of the WTC twin towers where the PATH station stood. Religious fanaticism is another topic but by no way should it ever be a reason to destroy a human life.