Boxes are currently clouding my vision. Moving, as I somehow always forget, is a very stressful thing to do. Next Tuesday, I move to Chicago, IL.
In the meantime, I’m packing, saying my goodbyes (lots of these), and working. Life as a freelance photographer is great, but non-stop work. There’s the actual work to be done (once you’re hired by a client) and then the constant search, promotion, and attempts to get new work. I miss the security of the 9-5, but I don’t miss the repetition. This weekend I’m going to the Telluride film festival for a W magazine editorial shoot, and I’m beyond excited. This is perhaps my “highest-profile” gig yet, despite how stupid that sounds.
Also new in my life is the latest addition to the holy trinity. The holy trinity are my three most used cameras, a digital, 6×6, and a 6×7, which are continually being upgraded as the wallet allows (which means each has been updated 0-1 times, ever). I bought a Mamiya 7 II and a couple lenses, and I’m excited.
And finally, as I’m on my technical “2 month hiatus” from this here blog, I’ve been thinking a lot about the direction Digressions is going to take. I have some really neat stuff in the works (at least I think so), and the blog is going to have a nice new make over in the coming month. This’ll be both physical, and content-wise. I plan on having monthly “themes” that will dictate the content posted for that month. Expect some practical real-world based advice for new photographers, conceptually-oriented thematic months, and a lot of guest posters.
In the meantime, I hope you all in the e-world are doing swell.
In 2 weeks I’ll have been on 12 flights. You can see why I need a break from the blog. I’ve now started doing editorial and freelance work full time, let’s see if I can handle the stress. West Virginia this weekend, San Diego next week, and then to Chicago permanently in 3 weeks. Chicago people, shoot me an email, I want to meet you.
So, I love blogging, and I sort of like when other people have blogs, but I’m unfortunately going to need to slow down my postings over the next 2 months. I’m about to head out for two weeks of shooting freelance jobs all over the States, then I come back, and move across the country to Chicago. I’ll definitely need September to settle in. And so, this blog will be quiet for the next two months. I’ll post sporadically, maybe once a week, but I wouldn’t check back frequently for any real content (plus, aren’t you using some sort of rss-feed reader at this point??). Also, I just really, really need a break from the internet (only over-privileged Westerners can ever type sentences like that out).
I promise to come back in October with new pictures, new anecdotes, musings and shenanigans, plus a slew of posts about interesting work being made. There will also be some new features on the blog, as well as, hopefully, a site make over.
In the meantime, I’ll post pictures over at dreamboats, and, um, flickr.
This morning on the way to work I was listening to NPR. They previewed this afternoon’s “Week in Review.” The stories being covered by Diane Reams are as follows:
-The indictment of Alaskan senator Ted Stevens.
-The prospects if domestic off-shore drilling.
-Record deficits announced by the White House.
-The latest record profits from oil giants.
And finally the presidential race towards the White House, which, evidenced above, is in just tip top shape.
Christopher Williams is a Los Angeles-based photographer of international reputation whose project is to instruct conventional ‘commercial’ photographers to create carefully composed and conceived images, many studio still lives, that resemble the most neutral and inexpressive product shots. These are not still lives whose purpose is to seduce by creating flamboyant objects of desire but to provide information: indexical images that suggest a modest industrial catalog of rational products and objects.
So about 4 years ago I used to build sculptures in remote places in Baltimore, mostly industrial wastelands. It was a way for me to understand space and structure, while combining an admittedly naive yearning for interaction with neglected urban spaces. I would then photograph the result, as seen above, with the hopes of transcending photography as strict documentation.
I’m not sure how successful my attempts were, but I started to think about it when buddies Mike and Al Flemming sent me a link to some images of their latest performance art:
They were flown into Scotland as part of a national performance art fest, one with a catch. The artists selected had to perform for unknowing commuters on trains, and in this case, passing through the country side. I can only imagine how amazing this project was when realized in that time and place, but as a photographic document they are extremely successful. I immediately thought of Michal Rovner, which goes to show how limited my scope on art is, sighting a photographer when looking at performance art stills.
So what do you make of photography that attempts to provide tangible insight to artworks that are time-based, or more interesting, works that are almost solely contingent on a specific time bas?. In this case Mike and Al’s work depends on the fact that the commuters were not necessarily aware that a performance piece was being executed with them as the audience.
An unpublished outtake from Removing Mountains, from when Sean and Mike took me to the Slurry Pond:
Mike and Sean, West Virginia, 2007
I ended up not getting a lot of workable image from this trek, even though Mike warned me at the end “You better have gotten some good fucking pictures!” It was a hike, and a risky one at that.
a blog dedicated to everything photography. there is an emphasis on issues related to the appalachian region, where i made a significant body of work, removing mountains. in addition to updates on my own work and ideas, i post about work i find interesting and general observations on the social and political conditions that shape the contemporary world.
