ugh a dastardly chore but it gives me a chance to sit here in front of my computer screen perusing hard drives and long ignored files. in a way i get to see my images in a new light as it were. today i processed color images to B&W and found some pretty cool images of a young female artist i had the privilege to work with a few years ago.
Caught
well to you observant types yes you’re right…this is a male image i threw in because i thought this was pretty cool and had worked on it also to submit to SHOTS magazine which is a B&W mag.
but i’ll try and show the images in color then B&W so we may see the difference. first let me say the young artist didn’t seem too happy with my images. she had said she was looking for images to post for fine art modeling. heck i thought that’s right up my alley so it should be pretty easy. at least i liked some of them.
young artist portrait
a bit dramatic i guess but we went all over trying different looks in the same dress and some not.
B&W
it’s hard for me to be objective about my work, love it when the clients are ecstatic but to get nothing from them is hard. i do meet a lot of people that way, maybe it’s a generational thing.
another version
then B&W
B&W
but just so you don’t get the idea we lost our vision for what she said she wanted images for we did some of these
nude female
and then this
B&W
yes the lighting is a bit dramatic as i was using my lowel lighting tungsten package.
reclining nude
but this image works much better in B&W than it does in color unlike the others above, but then what do i know, i just pushed the button
B&W
do i think any of these images are prize winning? i’ve no idea but it keeps me from causing too much trouble out here in the world, although i did submit a complaint against con edison to the public service commission and another to my landlord for the conditions in my public hallways today. it’s raining too hard to be wandering around the streets of New York.
All are invited to participate in the 10th Annual No Pants Subway Ride. The event will take place at 3:00 PM on Sunday, January 9. Everything you need to know is in this post. Please read it carefully!
REQUIREMENTS FOR PARTICIPATION:
1) Willing to take pants off on subway
2) Able to keep a straight face about it
**THIS IS A PARTICIPATORY EVENT. DO NOT SHOW UP UNLESS YOU PLAN TO TAKE YOUR PANTS OFF. THIS INCLUDES THE MEDIA.**
DETAILS
When: Sunday, January 9 at 3:00 PM, Sharp! (Over by around 5:30) Where: Six meeting points spread out all over New York City. Details below. Bring: A backpack/bag and a metro card. Wear: Normal winter clothes (hat, gloves, etc) Facebook: You can RSVP to the Facebook Event
Complete logistics below:
HOW IT WORKS
There are six meeting points this year. Take your pick.
Astoria: Meet at Hoyt Playground – Google Map Brooklyn: Meet by the Old Stone House – Google Map Downtown Manhattan: Meet at Foley Square – Google Map Queens: Meet at the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Park – Google Map Uptown Manhattan: Meet at the Great Hill in Central Park – Google Map Williamsburg / Bushwick: Meet at Bushwick Park (AKA Maria Hernandez Park) – Google Map
Everyone should meet at their chosen meeting point at 3 PM. Please be on time. Feel free to be early.
At the meeting points, participants will be organized into groups and assigned a specific train car. Once everyone is divided up we will all head to nearby subway station[s]. Do not talk to others once you enter the subway system. No one knows each other.
Sit in the car as you normally would. Read a magazine or whatever you would normally do. Your team leader will have already divided you into smaller groups, assigning your group a specific stop where you will depants.
As soon as the doors shut at the stop before yours, stand up and take your pants off and put them in your backpack. If you’d like to use a briefcase, purse, grocery bag, or whatever instead of a backpack that’s fine too. If anyone asks you why you’ve removed your pants, tell them that they were “getting uncomfortable” (or something along those lines.)
Exit the train at your assigned stop and stand on the platform, pantless. You will wait on the platform for the next train to arrive. Stay in the exact same place on the platform so you enter the next train in the same car as you exited the last train.
When you enter, act as you normally would. You do not know any of the other pantless riders. If questioned, tell folks that you “forgot to wear pants” and yes you are “a little cold.” Insist that it is a coincidence that others also forgot their pants. Be nice and friendly and normal.
All train routes will converge on Union Square. Your exact route will be explained at the meeting point, and may involve a transfer.
You can wear fun underwear if you like, but nothing that screams out, “I wore this because I’m doing a silly stunt.” Wear two pairs of underwear if it makes you feel more comfortable. Don’t wear a thong or anything else that might offend people. Our aim is to make people laugh, not piss them off.
If you haven’t already, please take a moment to read about previous No Pants Subway Rides.
Please leave your cameras at home and resist the temptation to snap photos with your iPhone, etc. while the event is happening. Take as many as you like before and after the event, but during the ride we really want people to enjoy the experience of participating rather than documenting. It detracts from the mission if everyone is taking photos of each other rather than keeping a straight face. Don’t worry, we have photographers assigned to every meeting point who will take great photos.
This is always a blast, and we look forward to seeing you there. You may bring along friends if you like, but make sure they get a chance to read all of these instructions.
Be aware that by participating, you recognize that Improv Everywhere is not liable in the event you are injured, arrested, or worse. By choosing to participate you are still responsible for your actions.
Thirty-five years ago—in December 1975—an engineer named Steven Sasson snapped a photo with the world’s first fully digital camera at a Kodak lab. It took 23 seconds to record a 100-by-100-pixel image to cassette tape. Not until the early 1990s, however, did digital photo technology take off, launching an attack that would conquer the consumer camera industry in less than a decade. In the slides ahead, let’s examine some highlights of digital camera history.
1st digital camera
if this interests you then you might want to go to Wikipedia’s ‘history of the camera’ web page for some pretty cool cameras and history. the article shows my first camera, the Kodak No 2 Brownie, actually it was my families camera that i decided to use on my own, always an interesting experience seeing grown ups reaction to what kids do.
but the article misses my first real camera purchase during my stay in Munich with the US Army. i couldn’t afford a Lieca so i got an Exakta made in the USSR Germany. it had a 1.8 zena lens on it, whoooo.
exackta IIa
i loved that camera and kept it for years. when i lived in Greenwich village i found a sign in Cambridge camera that said ‘We fix Exakta’s.’ that’s where i first met Norm who took care of my baby for years until it couldn’t be repaired anymore because of the film advance gears being stripped beyond repair.
he swapped it for a Canon AE1 and lenses. i went on to purchase an F1 and an AE1 programmable but now i had to get use to a right hand film advance. this was a turning point in my photography but i didn’t know enough then to realize what was going on, sometimes i wake up in the morning wondering what i know now as i stumble to the MR Coffee pot.
this morning, writing in my journal, about what to do this year i looked up at 8 shoe boxes of film i could begin scanning into computer and a shutter goes through my body. oh how i dread scanning film and slides into computer. but i know i’ve some lovely stuff in the boxes and in the chrome archive books. but the though crosses my mind maybe i’ll call the dentist and see about some root canal work instead.
i look on my book shelf and pull out my Exakta camera 1933-1978 book by Clement Aguila & Michel Rouah from years ago and flip through the pages looking for my IIa and Zena lenses. i love German lenses. that’s why i’ve a Contax Nx and a Hasselblad 503 but i have kept my Canon F1 just to shoot infrared film as the Nx is an film auto loader which won’t allow infrared film to be used it confuses the auto reader in the camera. it was a shame that Kyocera discontinued their Contax N Digital so soon after developing it. i was heart broken.
i guess i could buy on of those N mount adapters and put my Zeiss lenses on my 5D MII and see what happens. would it improve my photos? well since no one is buying them right now why bother?
some roman church statue
this is taken with a Canon 20D, so it’s not so much the camera that makes the picture more about time & place and vision.
the chore on hand right now for me is to gather my Diablo rojos notes, which i did yesterday and separate them in to categories. i also found on amazon a dvd video about them which i ordered. today i’ll do more research, which is right next to film scanning on the list, but discovery can be exciting. after all we need to put down a date for our next Panama trip, find housing and schedule interviews.
as always, i am waiting to hear back from people today. things could be worst with the boiler not working or no hot water, all the comforts of new york city living.
as dorothy said to toto, ‘i don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore’ but we are here at the end of the road for Kodachrome.
dwayne’s photo lab has closed it’s processing plant today. That celebrated 75-year run from mainstream to niche photography is scheduled to come to an end on Thursday when the last processing machine is shut down here to be sold for scrap.
In the last weeks, dozens of visitors and thousands of overnight packages have raced here, transforming this small prairie-bound city not far from the Oklahoma border for a brief time into a center of nostalgia for the days when photographs appeared not in the sterile frame of a computer screen or in a pack of flimsy prints from the local drugstore but in the warm glow of a projector pulling an image from a carousel of vivid slides.
Instead of making the same ho-hum New Year’s resolutions you break every year, consider these resolutions specifically for photographers. It’s easy to fall into photography ruts. This year, make it a point to try new things, break old habits, and push your gear and talent to new limits.
Turn off Auto: Try venturing out of your safety zone and experimenting with your camera’s manual settings. Start small by turning the exposure compensation up or down for a moody or blown-out effect.
Edit your images: The problem with giant memory cards is that you can end up with too many images. After each shoot or adventure, take time to sort thorough your photographs and mark your favorites. The star systems in Bridge, Lightroom, and Aperture are great for this task.
Back-up your images.
Work the subject: Don’t just take one picture, move around and shoot every angle and perspective you can think of.
Fill the frame with your subject.
Pay attention to your camera position and associated focal length. These dramatically change the sense of space and proportions in your scene.
Learn to always note shutter speed, and to take action to prevent camera shake when shutter speed is too low.
Bend your knees—don’t shoot every image from eye level.
Stop thinking that a new piece of gear is going to make you a better photographer.
Commit to practicing. It’s the only thing that will make you a better photographer.
Study the work of other photographers.
Choose a long-term photo project.
Remember that you don’t have to go somewhere exotic to take good pictures. Your own life makes great subject matter.
Don’t use a regular flash outside at night. Instead, use your camera’s slow sync flash feature.
Learn to use your camera’s flash exposure compensation for better flash results wherever you are.
Try packing only an unfamiliar and limited lens and shoot with it all day. A 50mm or macro lens, for example.
Narrow your comfort zone. For example, if you’re comfortable street shooting with a telephoto, use wide angle and get in the face of strangers.
Shoot (literally) from the hip.
Shoot as if there was no Photoshop.
Switch your camera to black and white mode.
Load your camera with the most limited memory card you can find. Recall what it’s like to shoot with only 12 exposures, knowing every shot counts.
Resist using a flash in low light.
Break the habit of leaving the moment to examine every shot you take on the LCD screen.
Share your shots: Don’t keep all those great new photos to yourself. Post them on Flickr, Picasa, MobileMe, Smugmug, or any other sharing site. Join a photography group and get feedback.
Share your own photography-related resolutions in the comments. Happy New Year!
trying to finish up this years work by editing the last shoot i & mary did with a visiting couple from out of town who contacted me. i thought it might be a way to finish my adam & eve pictorial. it’s really hard to begin working with people you don’t know, they don’t know what i am looking for and i don’t know what they need direction wise to express what i need.
sort of a rock and hard place for everyone. but i did like the fact that they were a couple and felt intimate with each other. thought that might help project what i was looking for. my direction might have confused them more than helped. oh well
but we begin with the basicsthis is a different lighting setup from my usual as i like to try different setups to see what happens if ? my basic work ethic. so we started out doing singles. mary handheld the 580 as the couple weren’t use to ‘finding the light’ so i had to figure something out fast.
adam
eve
then together
adam & eve
actually the couple like these pictures but it’s so hard making selects, doing the time consuming retouching work on the background then finding this or that that i am not pleased with. ugh the creative process. but i say if i get one or two outstanding images from a shoot i am happy. well i’d love them all to be outstanding but that’s not how it works for me.
semi nude couple
what i did notice was the male partner was beginning to get excited by kissing and touching his wife. a pretty normal reaction i’d say. it happens to me. i always wonder how far it would go but not what i was looking for at the time. i am not opposed to doing an erotic shoot just not then. we all wanted to go to dinner as it was late.
resting head
i like the way she is touching his head here. very soft intimate feeling. but so far my favorite image is of her is below
what is seen is not all
well it could just be me and my fantasies but i like how her body seems to be interconnected yet we were going for her ‘being born out of ‘ the rock at this time.
after all what i am trying to do is capture the emotions either of a single person or a couple. i think this couple would like to go farther from what the’ve said. i am happy with some of what i got, it works for me
nude couple
so if you’re ever in the new york city area and would like to participate in some intimate pictures of yourself with or without a partner drop me a line at www.jeneyoutt.com. i am sure we could work something out as i am always interested in interesting ideas.
but you take what you get and enjoy life. as they say when life gives you lemons make lemonade. well i’ve got to go and make my christmas banana breads. no lemons today
i am personally appalled at the Smithsonian secretary G. Wayne Clough’s censorship by pulling a running exhibit ‘Hide/ Seek’ by David Wojnarowicz from the National Portrait Gallery. it again makes me wonder what kind of country do i live in and do i want to continue living here?
there must be some nice island that isn’t going to be swamped in the near future by the rising global oceans, someplace we can drive our XR 7 convertible around in peace and not worry about some narrow minded person being upset by our art work.
hey but i wanted to see the actual video that caused all this furor so i did an google search for ‘A Fire in my belly’ and of course a YouTube link came up which i clicked on that took me to a safety link that wanted me to sign in in order to view the piece, Huh. so i went back and clicked on Vimeo which brought me directly to Fire.
after watching the video i don’t really see what this is all about. what are all these people trying to protect me from? a dead homosexual or the watching of an edited down version of the artist almost 21 minute video that was edited down to 4 minutes for the exhibit.
isn’t the Smithsonian a public funded organization? yes. then why does it react to just one or two complaints no matter who they are from and not allowing the rest of us to be heard. talk about terrorism and the fear it creates in the community isn’t this the same thing?
i think all artist care about is to be able to create, although it’s nice to have the money to put food on the table, unless you’re dead, then you don’t need much. but hey who am i ?
if you remember i’ve written about DNA before when they were being threatened with a rent increase that would drive them from their downtown location. well negotiations are continuing so when and where DNA will be is still up in the air. Maybe writing to Mayor Bloomberg asking to preserve this dance institution might help, it couldn’t hurt, and might be the right thing to do.
i always feel a kinship with dancers knowing how hard their lives are in creating such an ephemeral art form as dance.being a member of a dance company in the 70’s i saw how hard they worked. believe me it’s not an easy life but young people are drawn to it everyday? one wonders why?
why does any artist create? a question i ask myself every once in a while. i’ve yet to come up with a definitive answer except to say it feels right and makes me sleep better.
dance seems to be in the air this week what with the movie Black Swan opening this week. see the NYTimes article which begins with ‘ TEN years of serious training and then five more toiling in the ranks. That’s how many years of dedicated study it takes on average to become a principal ballerina at a top company.’ a quick rise to the top.
but back to our subject of Griselda Healy art exhibit ‘Figure in Motion‘ in the upstairs gallery of DNA. There is no charge for admission to the exhibit. Figure in Motion is a series of figure movement sequences; working from life with DNA founder Laurie De Vito’s company of seven dancers as models; it consists of drawings and oil sketches with graphite and charcoal materials on horizontal scroll lengths of paper.
Image: Sarah, Dance Sequence graphite and charcoal on paper 2010
Griselda Healy was born in St. James, Long Island, New York. She studied still-life and landscape painting with Paul Russotto before moving to Europe, where she studied and worked as a musician and artist. Healy recently relocated to Manhattan and now has a studio affiliated with the NARS Foundation in Brooklyn, NY. She is presently continuing her work with figure and context.
i am always amazed by the positive energy dancer students exude and DNA is full of that. it fills the air around them even when they are sitting still.
this picture reminds me of a conversation i had with a Radio City Music Hall Rockette during a time we both worked the Christmas Show. She told me of her husbands friends in Atlanta reactions upon hearing she was a Rockette as being so ‘glamorous’ to which she smiled and nodded. she had thought of this conversation while sitting in the rehearsal hall floor dressed in sweaty tights, a t-shirt, eating an orange and dog tired. what a glamorous life. she couldn’t imagine her husband’s business associates siting on the floor. but that’s what dancers do when not dancing.
so go see this exhibit when you are downtown to see how drawing, painting, photography and dancing are all part of the human experience. enjoy the rich cultural offerings this city has to offer. hey check out DNA offerings and see one of their shows.
it’s a wonderful space it would be a shame to see them lose it after all the work they’ve put into the space.
EMERGING ARTISTS and EMERGING CURATORS Deadline: January 15, 2011
Note: Applications will only be accepted through an online process starting
December 1, 2010. Deadline is 11:59pm, January 15, 2011
Proposals are accepted annually from Emerging Artists and Emerging Curators for Smack Mellon’s Summer Show. The selected Emerging Curator will review submissions from the Emerging Artists. The Curator will be expected to select half of the exhibiting artists from these submissions.
The exhibition will be presented June 18 – July 31, 2011.
An Emerging Artist is considered to be an artist without commercial representation who shows significant potential; has some evidence of professional achievement but not a substantial record of accomplishment; and is recognized as emerging by other artists, curators, producers, critics, and arts administrators.
An Emerging Curator is defined as an independent curator who is beginning his or her career as a curator. Emerging Curator proposals must show history of at least 3 examples of prior curatorial projects successfully presented to a public audience.
Emerging Artist guidelines are here and Emerging Curator guidelines are here.
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