Cat and Maus.

Summer vibes are coming fast. There is that spring scent on the wind that tickles ones memory and in an instant calls up flashes of lacksydasical days spent over past summers. Moments devoted entirely to whim, broken down with no structure, moving on pure instinct. These flashbacks often come oversaturated and washed out, that moment before your eyes fully readjust from the battery of a camera flash. This feeling is of course probably aided by the fact that many summer photos turn out the same way. It is as if the film was swimming in the same summer daze as the memories. These photos from Maus. are a glimpse into that haze.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! Here are some Easter inspired photos from Jordan's photography blog.

Symmetry yrtemmyS

Symmetry is something that I've always loved to use for composition. I mean, supposedly its natural to be drawn towards symmetry, right? I thought it might be interesting to take some of the photos that I've shot and flip them to make symmetrical images. I think the results are kind of interesting, and it affords a new way to look at my photos. While in some the mirroring is quite obvious, in others, I chose more abstract images, so that the mirroring might be more subtle.

The Indecisive Moment

I'm starting a new movement in photography. I feel like alll of my work recently has been pinned down in relation to Bresson's concept of the decisive moment. Now, from what will follow, it may seem that I am against Bresson's method of street photography, but this is not the case. Don't misenterpret my words here. I love the dramatic tension and lively narrative that Bresson's work captures, but to only love one form of photography seems quite dull to me. From here on out, I am interested in exploring the indecisive moment. The stillness, the relaxation of spaces that exist unmoving. The innanimate spaces that stoicly accept the atmosphere cast upon them day, after day, after day. The languid pace at which these scenes transpire affords a more medatative image, one that gives the illusion of relying not on timing, but rather simply on ability to see and mechanical skill. Of course, this appearance is false. The actor is simply one which we do not recognize immediately. It is the aforementioned atmosphere that takes the front of the scene here. The repetative nature with which the atmophere acts is the core of its indecisiveness. It is a moment that only happened once, yes, but due to the lack of agency that we afford the actors we are unable to recognize the moment's individuality. Through affixing this title of the indecisive moment, the viewer is forced to question whether or not the image being presented is in fact indecisive, bringing about inspection of the seemingly mundane with renewed vigor. To begin exploring this concept, I thought I'd look into the work of Andreas Goroncy. Of course the thought I presented above are my own, and as the creator of these photos Andreas Goroncy is entitled to apply meaning, I just thought they would present an interesting illustration of my ideas.

Powerhouse Museum

When I saw that there was a Powerhouse Museum commons on flikr, I instantly (and foolishly, I'll now admit) assumed that it was in some way related to Powerhouse Books. I went to build this post with a totally awesome story about how I worked under the guidance of a few people from Visionaire to help create a book of Time Square photographs from the 80s for Powerhouse as a Parsons class. Unfortunately, these two Powerhouses don't seem to be related. I was fooled by similar logos (although, to be fair, how many ways can you format a lowercase ph?). Still I enjoyed looking through their collection, and made some interesting finds.

Joeri Bosma

I really like the idea of a picture a day photodiary. Over the summer after my freshman year in Parsons I undertook a project where I was taking one picture every day. While it wasn't really that successful, I learned a lot through the process, and the structure of the system gave me a reason to really concentrate on image making.
I was reminded of this while looking through the flickr account of Joeri Bosma, who is posting a photo every day. Having never seen his work before, I can't say if the project has been useful for improvement, but it certainly has produced some interesting results.

Artefact

This morning, I saw that a book I had been reading and left out was sitting on a table with perfect light on it. In that moment, I had the idea to make some photos of some of my favorite things in my apartment in that light. Unfortunately, as I didn't work quick enough and the light changed before I got a chance to take many photos. Still, I turned on a light and finished the job.

This is partially one of the favorite things in my apartment because of the story behind it. I was told to read it by a friend of Mariel's after visiting his apartment some time around 5 AM. The spontaneity of the event combined with the interesting content of the book makes me particularly interested in it.

Have I written about this before? Its possible, it seems a familiar subject. Either way, this Operation Doomsday re-release from Stones Throw was a gift for my birthday this past year. MF Doom being my favorite rapper, and Operation Doomsday my favorite of his solo albums, any copy of this album on vinyl would be prized to me. It is only made better by the alternate cuts included in this release, as well as the amazing packaging that it comes in.

I found this book of matches in the street one day and liked the design so much I decided to take them. I took a picture of them when I first found them and put it on my photo journal, Mindless Carbonation. I wanted to take a picture of the whole outer wrapping at once, but they've been folded for so long that making the package lie flat is impossible. There was once a name on the inside, but it is gone at this point, so I'll probably never know the source of the book. I like that though, my mysterious, strangely artful book of matches.

Every year I attend a Channukah party at which these glasses are distributed. Although they may not have been procured at one, they are generally referred to as my prize bar mitazvah glasses. This is probably the most fun item on this list. When wearing them, the lenses cause the light to diffract, forming a Star of David around any concentrated source of light. You can see an example of them in action below.

I don't know where this last item came from. It provokes a lot of questions that I'm completely unable to answer. It appears to be the smallest from a set of matryoshka dolls, with the word "Malevitch" hand painted on the outside. Where did it come from? What did the other dolls in this set look like? Who or what is Malevitch? Things I'll never know I guess...

Transported to Stockholm's Past

These images are brought to you by the Stockholm Transport Museum's Commons. I have often felt trouble connecting to historic photos. Their content may be beautiful, but the creation of a timeless photograph is obviously difficult, particularly when you are documenting a moment. Still, every once in a while, such as the case of now high acclaimed street photographer Vivian Maier, the photos are able to transcend the bounds of time and reach out to me. It probably doesn't hurt that the images displayed above mirror some visual themes that I enjoy employing in my work today.
I've questioned before whether or not Bresson's idea of the "decisive moment" constrains the photograph to the time it was created. His work is has an obvious lasting quality, but is it because of this moment of action? This is probably a question for another post.