When I was an undergraduate student, just over 2 years ago, I didn’t know much about what I was going to do with an art degree, but I knew one thing; I was never going to be a commercial photographer. Now, 2 years later, and faced with the reality of a struggling bank account and a shelf full of photo gear ready to use, I find myself shooting commercial jobs here and there. If only the New York Times were calling me every day, and I had to fit them in between shoots for GQ, in addition to shooting all my lucrative personal work, then maybe I’d be telling a different story.
The interesting part is how much I enjoy it. I just got home from a shoot for an insurance company, and I’m already going through all the pictures. I can’t let my true “lens brah” gear head side show too often with my art friends, unless of course we are discussing Schneider 4×5 glass or Mamiya 7 lenses, so I let it out on these shoots. Caitlin Arnold assisted me on the shoot, and I told her about this new insider-y and hilarious site made for assistants. I’m going to upload this one I think:
I’ve been talking to a new friend a lot about dance lately, and subsequently have become increasingly interested in the history. Like every other art student, I learned about Merce Cunningham in school, who of course did some famous collaborations with John Cage. Did you know John Cage was an “avid amateur mycologist?”
Anyways, while wasting my work day YouTube-ing, I found the above video, which I haven’t seen in a few years. I remembered why it was one of my favorite moments in contemporary art history. It demonstrates the perfect collision of mainstream culture and the avant-garde. The audience doesn’t know how to respond to all the weirdness in front of them, and the nervous laughter ends up really informing and reinforcing Cage’s ideas about music and audience participation. His body posture, voice and mannerisms in the beginning are amazing. Read a little bit more about the video and context here.
Here’s potentially the most eloquent sentence I’ve ever written on this blog: I like Ahorn Magazine a lot. Combining both an interest in defining how past greats influenced the art form with a look at contemporary practices, Ahorn has a little bit of everything. Throughout a given issue, the editors Anya and Daniel definitely allow their poetic sensibility to influence the work and essays displayed, but they still allow a more scientific, periphery-like engagement to take place. Thus you’ll find TJ Proechel’s Dreamhouse and my essay on the influential Evidence, coupled with an essay by Amy Stein on Doug Dubois’ recent monograph and Jessica Backhaus‘ personal narrative about Gisèle Freund. The content is definitely varied, which makes for a wholly interesting read. The graphic design is stellar to boot.
An excerpt from the essay I have featured in this issue:
And yet, almost strictly due to the sequencing, the pictures take on a cryptically ethereal feel. If you spend a few seconds with each image outside of the immediate context, you can realistically see the scenes as normal activity, industrial or otherwise. Again, the cropping, use of flash, and the foreign objects hint at a deeper psychology that decentralizes each element in the photograph into the equivocal whole.
This post is inspired by all the MFA program’s that actively get the word out on their graduating students. All of the school’s listed below have websites that promote their current students’ work. While I was a BFA student, my school was depressingly behind on this front. It’s seems obvious enough- have a dynamic website where students can update their work regularly as well as bring attention to their program. It’s dually beneficial! If you know of any other programs that have similar sites, please comment with a URL! I’m particularly looking for a site that serves as a “digital postcard” for the MFA show.
I’m happy to be included in the newest book release by MA’s The Exposure Project. I have work from Untitled (Baltimore) in the book, as well as a cropped version of a selected photo gracing the cover! The design looks great and I can’t wait to see it in print. The book will be released in two editions. From the press release:
The Exposure Project Book - Issue 4
July 2009
Includes photographs by Chris Bentley, Rona Chang, Daniel Farnum, Elizabeth Fleming, Lee Gainer, Matthew Genitempo, Inka Lindergård & Niclas Holmström, Natascha Libbert, Bradley Peters, Carlo Van de Roer, Daniel Shea, Manuel Vazquez, Jens Windolf, Susan Worsham and Bahar Yurukoglu
With an essay by Brian Ulrich
Regular Edition
70 pages, Softcover
Edition of 100
8 x 10 in.
$45
Special Edition
70 pages, Hardcover
Edition of 25
8 x 10 in.
$100
The special edition comes with two (!) prints, and I’ll have a print being offered as part of that package.
“Shot,” 2008 from Untitled (Baltimore) will be offered in edition of 10. The image is 6″x6″ printed on 8″x10″ paper. It is a digital C Print. This print will only be available once at this size, it is being editioned at a larger size in the near future, but this will be the cheapest way to get it!
Note: I will be making no money on the sale of this book or print, so all proceeds go to support The Exposure Project!
Daniel Shea wrote to let me know that he just updated his life with work from a new project titled Back From His Road Trip. He also expressed interest in letting the blogosphere know that many new pictures will be posted regularly to the photo collective Dreamboats’ website, in addition to resuming regular posting on his own blog, Digressions. Have a look.
Jake Stangel, my venerable host while I was in Portland. Photo by me.
I’m hitting the road this afternoon for an entire month! Itinerary:
-Stop by NYC for 2 weeks! Go to NYPH, check out all the current shows, and slug my portfolio around town to gallerists, photo editors, and agencies. Also, I want to meet everyone I know only on the internet. Give me a call! (708 560 6882)
-Drive down to Baltimore for 5 days and work on my Untitled (Baltimore) series. Hang out with all my old friends. Go to punk shows and drink National Bohemian.
-Back to Appalachia to visit the raging mountain warriors, and a little extended stay in Williamson, WV to do a mini-series.
-Drive a bit North to Southern Ohio to do some preliminary work on my next major project. I’m finishing up some grant writing now, I’m hoping to see this project come to life by the end of the year.
I’ll continue posting by mid-June, when I’m back.
Also, if anybody wants to be added to my mailing list, shoot me an email: dsheaphoto@gmail.com
I have another essay in Ahorn Magazine, for their follow-up issue. I wrote a review on Robert Adams’ seminal The New West, reissued by Aperture recently. The online magazine looks great as always, Daniel and Anya do a great job. Also be sure to take a look at the feature on Ben Alper’s work (who has just updated his website with a selection of new images).
As an audience looking at photographs of suburban sprawl, we tend to forget that uniformity has been a staple of housing developments throughout history. What has changed (or perhaps more accurately, what has varied) is the materials being used, and subsequently their construction quality. Also, more importantly, what varies the most significantly is how the architecture and its planning propagates prevalent social orders.
The default book-introductionist of this era, John Szarkowski, states “Adam’s pictures are so civilized, temperate, and exact, eschewing hyperbole, theatrical gestures, moral postures, and espressivo effects generally, that some viewers might find them dull.” A few pages later, Robert Adams states “We need to watch, for example, as an old woman, alone, is forced to carry her groceries in August heat over a fifty acre parking lot: then we know, safe from the comforting lies of profiteers, that we must begin again.” He meanders back and forth between a by stander’s passive relationship with the world around him, and, contrary to Szarkowski’s strong neutralizing claim, an artist suddenly aware of the moralistic responsibilities burdened upon himself by the camera.
ad the eschatological chaos of signs”
To read the rest of the essay and view 6 high resolution scans of the book, take a look here.
ABOUT DIGRESSIONS Digressions: A Blog is run by Daniel Shea, a photographer/artist living in Chicago, IL. The blog has taken a new face and purpose. Digressions will be used to primarily showcase relevant art work, in addition to the cultural conditions that shape the environment artists work in. Guest bloggers are being worked on. Occasionally I will still post about my personal work, but tastefully, I promise.
Get in touch! My portfolio.
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