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Home…and back to work…

By on June 20, 2009 in Uncategorized
Roma boy from an encampment in Belgrade, Serbia 2009

Roma boy from an encampment in Belgrade, Serbia 2009

I have been home for over a week.  My trip back to the Balkans seemed quick.  I was there for a month-and-a-half but it felt like two weeks.  I was able to improve some great friendships and build some new ones, especially in Austria, where I connected with some musicians and graphic artists.

I used up 14 rolls of b/w film and am now in the developing process in a darkroom across the river.  I am there this morning and most of the day.  We shall see.  I have been slowly looking through the digital stuff.  Although I have combed through the Roma images, I still have the Breast Cancer shoot to address as well as my “tourist” images, mostly train stations, bus stations and transport of different varieties.

I am also writing my thesis on possible unification in the Balkan Peninsula.  Laugh if you will, but I think there could be a solution.  I also hope to be able to do a shoot next week with a professional model for some figure studies before I head to Woodstock for the weekend workshop on the same subject.  I have the images in my head that I want, I just need to make them happen.  I think I am using a male model, so I am going for a sense of heroism, almost like propaganda images from the Cold War, but I will also look for the vulnerability of the human spirit as well.

Here ‘s a small b/w image of a Roma boy from Belgrade.

John D.C. Masters

Interview, Part 2

By on April 2, 2009 in Uncategorized

Railway station platform, Florence, Italy 1993

Railway station platform, Florence, Italy 1993

I can remember being astounded by the Cartier-Bresson’s  “Michel Gabriel, Rue Mouffetard” — the photograph of the young boy carrying the two bottles of wine.  I realized then that there was more to just snapping away at whatever you wanted.  That’s when I began to see a new world through the viewfinder.  My father’s good friend and mentor, Wright Morris, was another influence.   He was a writer and photographer who photographed the Midwest and America at roughly the same period as Walker Evans.   Many times over the years Morris’ calm eye has resurfaced in my mind, guiding me.

I like this view because it lies in between arrivals and departures, which are always exciting points when I travel.  The station is all but empty.  It was during this 1993 trip to Europe that I began to search for my voice.  Unfortunately most of the images from that journey are lost.  I only have a handful of negatives left.

Interview, Part 1

By on March 25, 2009 in Uncategorized

kodak1I had the good fortune to grow up in a very artistic family, surrounded by art and literature.   Painters and photographers and artistic people were fixtures at my parent’s cocktail parties. I was one of those young kids you see running around art openings in New York, Provincetown and Wellfleet while their parents schmooze.  And, of course, they made sure that I learned how to look at a piece and talk about it intelligently. It was not enough to say I liked or disliked it but to explain why.

There were always cameras in the house.  I think my first was one of those Kodak Instamatic things with the cartridges.  In the beginning, I wasn’t concerned with ‘taking pictures’ – it was more about liking the feel of the camera in my hand. As a little boy, I enjoyed the winding up and ‘click’ of the shutter, plus the little flashcube that you stuck on top. When I began to shoot, I suppose it allowed me to step back and think about the world as a ‘subject’ of sorts.  So I took pictures of friends, summer camp … whatever I came across.