October 11th, 2008
About a month ago I got an email inviting me to submit a polaroid image (just one) for Light Leaks: Low Fidelity Photography magazine for their special Polaroid issue. Being that I had hundreds to choose from and was only allowed to send one, I asked for Jeff’s help in narrowing it down. I told him that he should submit one as well just for kicks. And a few weeks later we both got an email that congratulated us on having our photos selected by the guest editor and letting us know that we would be published.
Intro to the Gallery section called Polaroid: Your Last Best Shot:
“A few months ago, when this issue was planned, the future of Polaroid film looked pretty dark and dismal. I won’t say that the sun is shining again, but attempts are being made to bring back certain films and other manufacturers are entering the market, and that’s a good thing.
That being said, it was a cloudless day in terms of submissions. In fact, it’s the most we’ve ever received, and unfortunately, way more than we can fit on to these pages. Bravo to everyone for such interesting and varied work and thank you for taking the time to submit.”
In my complimentary issue there was a note from the publisher on a separate piece of card stock that congratulated ambiguous me for being published in their mag and that I was chosen among hundreds of submissions so I had a lot to be proud of. The note also happened to be bookmarking the page that had my photo on it so I don’t know if that’s coincidental or if they actually took the time to go through and personalize where these card stock notes went.
Anyway.
Jeff and I are published in the same magazine, together in the same issue, with photos that we took of each other. And to put the cherry on top, they included our images on the same page in the layout which I later learned was something that Jeff had requested, however, he got a response saying that it probably wouldn’t be likely that they could make sure our images were on the same page because the layout had already been decided. So I wonder if by chance the magazine was already layed out with our photos on the same page or if they really were nice enough to honor his request. Either way, it’s pretty fun stuff.
I learned today that I know the man who operates the world’s largest polaroid camera by three degrees of seperation. It’s housed here in NYC and a friend of a friend of mine knows this person. With the demise of polaroid though, she’s not quite sure what the status of the camera is, but I’m on a mission to meet this man and see if I can pick his brain or better yet, get a live tutorial on that beast.
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October 11th, 2008
Last night I had the absolute pleasure of attending the opening reception for Counterpoint, Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison’s newest body of work. They. Are. My. Absolute. Favorite. And. Inspiration, Really. (stealing this format of periods between words from Mackenzie to annunciate my seriousness). I felt like a child in the gallery, all wide-eyed and in awe of seeing these beautiful works of art in front of me instead of the usual form of prints in books. They really are my inspiration. I think after seeing their work those who call me weird or think my work can be bizarre might understand why.
“Abandoning the tightly closed narrative format of their earlier photographic works, the ParkeHarrisons continue to pursue, with the same absorbing psychological and sensory effect, the ever-bleakening relationship linking humans, technology, and nature. This time the works feature an ambiguous narrative that offers equally compelling insight into the dilemma posed by science and technology’s failed promise to fix our problems, provide explanations, and furnish certainty pertaining to the human condition. Strange scenes of hybridizing forces, swarming elements, and bleeding overabundance portray Nature unleashed by technology and the human hand and uncontrollable.”
These are a few that I saw last night:
And just for kicks, these are a few photos from the Architect’s Brother series which first got me hooked on them and that I have always admired and been inspired by:
[ALL PHOTOGRAPHS © ROBERT AND SHANA PARKEHARRISON]
My hope is that I can be a part of a successful fine art husband and wife photography duo such as the ParkeHarrisons and be able to make a living that way. Or at least enjoy our free time in that manner. Which I guess we already do.
Success!
I actually saw them last night (Robert and Shana) and danced around (literally) trying to get the courage to introduce myself. Robert and I made eye contact but then I shyly walked away because I wasn’t 100% sure if it was actually him or not. But then I was 100% sure. And still didn’t have the courage to say hi. I’m such a loser.
If you’re like me and like to sometimes hang out in bookstores for hours on end, I highly suggest spending that time looking through Architect’s Brother and their new Counterpoint books. The entire series is not on their website but you should still visit it anyway.
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October 11th, 2008
photos by Monte Isom
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October 7th, 2008
photo from jennylewis.com
This past weekend I had the chance to see Jenny Lewis at the historic Apollo theater in Harlem. It was gorgeous. And this was the second time I’ve seen her this year, the first being when she performed with her band Rilo Kiley. Rilo Kiley/Jenny Lewis are totally the tops for me and I probably wouldn’t be bored seeing them perform every weekend if I could. Sarah Silverman was the surprise (to me) opener with her dirty little jokes. She had me laughing. But she most of the time kind of had me awkward. Jenny and boyfriend Jonathan Rice did a cover of “Love Hurts” as part of their encore which can be seen in part here. And if you love it just as much as I do, you can get the actual track here. I’m a sucker for cover songs. I’ve linked the youtube clip because she sounds absolutely amazing live and you can get a taste of that from the clip. It’s not from the same show that I was at and it’s not the entire song either but if you’re a fan it’s worth listening to. Video quality is not great but it was the best sounding of what live footage I could find.
Ashely was in town this weekend for the concert and we had the chance to spend a day at the MoMA and see the Van Gogh exhibit. It was amazing. Starry Night was the most inspirational iconic painting to me when I was younger, mostly because I had an odd affinity for stars and also because the painting is of course amazing and to able to see it in person was a little bit surreal. And it wasn’t as large as I thought it would be. I’ve seen it a hundred times in print or brochures, posters and mouse pads, and I’ve seen other real paintings and works of arts from other artists, but I spent a good amount of time staring at Starry Night and kind of thinking “so this is it.” Not in a disappointing way but in an introductory kind of way. During one of my trips to Vietnam I had purchased a replica of Starry Night that an artist had painted and as far as I knew from my art history books it looked pretty darn accurate. They had to take the canvas off the frame and roll it up so that I’d be able to bring it back to the states because it was fairly large and my dad promised that he’d “frame” it for me when we got back. Well, what he did instead of stretching the canvas over the wooden frame was he put the unstained wood on top of the canvas and cut off the excess that was around the painting where it should have been stretched and stapled. I was totally bummed. But it was a total rip off of Van Gogh anyway so it wasn’t meant to be.
Things that always interest me in exhibits are learning what inspired the artists. I love seeing hand written letters (and Van Gogh of course had lovely penmanship—by the way, he signed his paintings with just “Vincent” which when I saw, made me smile because it kind of made him more of a normal person and reminded me of a quote I saw in a photo of a piece of paper that’s taped on a wall in Yoshitomo Nara’s studio that reads “Never forget your beginner’s spirit.” And by reading Van Gogh as just “Vincent” to me, put him on a level of a guy who just loved to paint at one point and happened to become famous afterthefact).
An excerpt (translated) from a letter he wrote to his brother, Theo, with a description of a scene that inspired him:
November 2, 1883
When dusk fell — imagine the silence, the peace of that moment! Imagine, right then, an avenue of tall poplars with the autumn leaves, imagine a broad muddy road, all black mud with the endless heath on the right, the endless heath on the left, a few black, triangular silhouettes of sod huts, with the red glow of the fire shining through the tiny windows, with a few pools of dirty, yellowish water that reflect the sky, where bogwood trunks lie rotting… The day was over, and from dawn to dusk, or rather from one night to the other night, I had forgotten myself in that symphony.
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Yesterday we continued work for Madison Square Garden HDTV network but this time we were shooting the New York Knicks. It was a good time and everything went smoothly which is all you can ask for.
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