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A re-scheduled life…

With the end of October and the first week of November came a drifting ennui that left me feeling fat and lazy.  Granted I am not overweight at all (182#), but I was on the way to gaining a mental spare tire, so to speak.  Thankfully I was kicked in the ass by a friend, which is what I needed.  As a result I have re-scheduled my days to be more productive and directed.  I have a daily list of ‘to-dos’ which reads the same pretty much every day.  There is time for photography, at least 3-4 hours a day, either film, digital or both (this includes processing); there is time for a few hours of reading; and then I spend some precious qt with my family and meeting friends for coffee.  Social time, if you will.

My five years at SUNY gave my life structure and without it there was nothing to guide my life, just too much free will and randomness.   So I took a month off from thinking…

I am beginning some work (digital and film, abstract and realist) for a nearby hotel which will hang with a couple of other artists for a few months; I am currently printing a small series of snapshots from last spring for fellow students and my own records; my reading list includes some books on artistic aesthetics as well as technical dark room stuff.  In short, for the next three months I am understanding that I am still in school and traveling the academic path to knowledge.  What a relief.

I am always relieved to know that I find greater freedom in structure.

More to come…

JDCM

Re-focusing my energies…

Since my graduation from SUNY last month, I have discovered that I have become unfocused.  The last five years have allowed me to concentrate on a specific goal, i.e. securing my history degree, long overdue.  I have done this to the best of my ability.  I have written recently about setting new goals and have, I hope, been able to communicate how difficult a task that can be.  Sure, I have my photography, but I am slacking in some areas of that. There are rolls of film piling up that demand my attention; there are prints promised that have yet to be made, let alone test-stripped; I need to get back into the swing of things with a vengeance, as if my life depended upon it, which in a strange way it does.  If this is the path I am to tread, then I must get on with it and stop gazing at the scenery on the side of the road!  I need to focus and get the work done.  Maybe I should make a list of projects.  I’ll start here..

1. Develop all the rolls of 120 film from my trip to Provincetown.

2. Sort through the negatives of fellow students from last spring.

3. Choose the negatives I wish to print and get that done!

4. Sort through the “Lighthouse” negatives and print some of them.

5. Begin work on the “Beekeeper” project.

If I really apply myself, these labors could occupy much of my time.  That’s the issue, I think.  I have a lot of time on my hands and am not using it wisely.  I lack the discipline I have had in the past few years in regards to my academic work.  I need to think one word–

PORTFOLIO

–take it seriously and go from there.  This includes 4×5 contact prints, once I am more capable with that camera.  The most recent exposures are better, not so bulletproof.  I will make this happen.  No more hoping, no more dreams of completion.  I will do it and be happy because I will have worked hard to accomplish these tasks.

More to come…

JDCM

4×5 Crown….

Graphlex Crown, 4x5 camera

I am back in the darkroom these days, developing film and beginning to formulate a working model for a new project, one that I might engage in for many years to come, weaving it through my waking days and dreaming nights.  Beekeeping, I have found, is a fascinating subject.  The interaction between the Keeper and the hives, the product resulting, the need to allow the bees to keep the honey in order to survive and the recent onslaught of Colony Collapse Disorder are all intertwined for me.  Documenting this would be a fascinating adventure, one that I could pursue throughout the world.  I can use digital and film, anything, really.  I am hooked.  And its all because of Brueghel and his “The Beekeepers” lithograph.  With this inspiration comes the possibilities for a photo shoot this Wednesday in Harlemville with a Beekeeper and some of his handmade, sacredly-geometric hives.  I am ready to go.  The weather is supposed to be nice, with lots of sun which means dynamic light.

I have purchased a Crown Grafix 4×5, my first foray into large format work.  The film is not a problem to find and the development is easy.  I find that it is wonderful to develop the film in complete darkness although I have a small tank that can immerse 6 sheets at once.  I’ll be doing that this afternoon.  As of now I can only make contact prints, but I hope to be able to scan the negatives sometime and also find a 4×5 enlarger to do some printing.  This, by the way, is similar to the camera used by an inspiration of mine, the photographer and writer Wright Morris. I think he used a different model of Graphlex, but I feel like I am on a well-worn and honorable path.

OK.  It’s a sunny day and I have errands to run; the PO, the bank, the gym and then home until I skee-daddle out to meet friends for coffee.

More to come…

JDCM

Time for Phase III…The Next Five Years…

Much has happened in the past few days.  The 14th Colony Photo Show went up without a hitch and the six b/w medium format pieces I submitted look lovely on the wall.  To top this off, I have sold one which makes me very happy.  I am here to get my work out there, not make a million bucks.  By the way, if anyone ever asks you about the difference between “b/w photograph (non-digital)”, “silver print” or “silver gelatin print” make sure you tell them there is no difference.  The fancier name was dreamed up by museum currators who felt that “black and white photograph” was too plain sounding and the  “silver gelatin print” sounded more important.

There is one more group show this month that I am in and that will be it for me until next summer, unless someone invites me to be in a show, that is.  Plus, I am off to Greece in March for more work at the Aegean Center, so that will pre-empt any shows I might be in.

After five years of hard work and ceaseless toiling through a byzantine bureaucracy, I have graduated from the State University of New York with a BA in Historical Studies.  I am amazed and really don’t know what to do with the feelings: relief, joy, pride, etc…I also have pretty much visited most of the places on my to-do list.  This brings an end to my first Five Year Plan so I need to develop a new one.  What will it be?  I’m taking suggestions…Perhaps life will, as it does, show me the path to take and perhaps I am already on it.  “Keep going” my father said.  I will.

JDCM

Finally…an update…and ideas…

Forgive me Cyber Readers, for it has been too long since my last blog entry…

August 20th seems a long time ago, and I suppose in the minds of the Facebook addicted eejits, it is, but really it isn’t even the imagining of a drop in the bucket of time.  Let’s not even talk geological passages, here.  Face it folks…A lot has happened and not much time has passed.

The 14th Colony is swinging along.  I was well received in the first group show and both my digital pieces looked lovely on the wall.  I didn’t sell anything, but exposure is what I need these days. I have some misgivings concerning the co-op concept, however.  Granted, I feel that that if a person wants to hang their work, a space should be available.  This is regardless to style or skill.  If they need the outlet, it should be provided somehow.  But…should “naive” art be hung next to more skilled and professional work, thus diminishing one or both of the pieces?  In a democratic/anarchic co-op system, shouldn’t there be criteria when exhibition is involved?  I don’t know.

Right now The Photo Show is up.  This was a show conceived by the “leader” of the co-op and myself.  Originally it was going to be a documentary piece, but that was ruled to be too exclusive so opened up the event and I dropped any leadership role I had assumed.  Suddenly there were 30 photographers signed up.  I didn’t know the group had 30 photographers.  In the end about 20 delivered work to hang and it looks really lovely.  It is a very diverse group show illustrating the many talents of those of us looking through a viewfinder.  Some I like better than others, but that’s to be expected.  I brought 6 medium format silver prints to the show and they all went up, which was a great relief since I had shot, processed, matted and framed all 6 for this show specifically.  I didn’t want to break up the flow based on available wall space.  They are also priced to sell…

The concept of criteria brings me to my next idea.  Using the 14th Colony as an umbrella, I am going to start a small rebellion.  I am going to found what I will call “The Monochrome Collective.”  This will be a small group of photographers (digital and film) who work only in black and white.  Heavy Photo-shopping will not be allowed.  We will deal with fundamentals of b/w work, namely the Zone System. This criterion will weed out many people and, hopefully, allow for a professional edge to emerge.  I wish to keep the Collective small, allowing for more intimate meetings, shows, etc…Like the 14 Colony, it will be a place to exchange ideas, network and support each other’s art.

That being said, let’s clear something up about labels.  ‘Silver print’ is the same thing as ‘silver gelatin print’.  Exactly the same thing.  The idea was coined by museum currators who felt that ‘silver gelatin print’ sounded more important  than ‘black and white’ or just plain ‘silver’.  This is in the same vein as those who try to make a real difference between ‘giclee’ and ‘inkjet’.  They are the same thing, except that ‘giclee’ is used to make a statement regarding paper and inks, which are better, yes, but no different than commercial inks, i.e. more expensive.  Check the web, folks.  The illusion has been shattered.

I’m off to the showers and then getting ready for the opening of the show this afternoon at 3PM.

JDCM

Much to update…

Let’s cut to the chase…

The pro that I was hoping to work with/for never returned my calls or emails, so I am glad I did not hold my breath.

I have completed all the necessary paperwork for the end of my SUNY experience and have submitted it in the correct formats.  Don’t ask what those are.  It is far too byzantine to even describe, and non-sensical.  What’s done is done and I hope to have my lambskin in a couple of months.

The upside is that I have been invited to join a local arts group.  It is a very democratic, non-judgemental group of painters, photographers, sculptors and more who are all tired of the juried show routine.  We are an iconoclastic little clan and put on our own group shows.  They like my abstract work, so that makes me happy.  Also, as a result, the photographers are getting together to document a small farm-to-table food pantry in a nearby town.  In a way this will be like herding cats, but I hope to separate myself from that power structure and just take pictures.

I still have not dine any dark room work,  I hope to get in there after August when the end-of-summer house guests have all gone home and the temperatures outside have lessened.  More to come!

JDCM

Will I or won’t I…?

I had a great meeting with a commercial photographer near where I live the other day.  he is a real pro and his work is lovely. So far no call back and he promised to introduce me to a small round-table of photographers in the area who meet occasionally.  So far nix on that as well.  So will I or won’t I be working with him?  I have no idea.

I am writing up my evaluation forms for SUNY ESC so I can get credit for my work at the Aegean Center for the FIne Arts, on Paros.  We’ll see.  I have had very little luck with the ESC people since they changed  their tune and became a place for adults moving up the management ladder.  When I first went there, it was all about learning.  Now it seems to be about increasing the global cache of the place while taking in the dough.  Maybe I’m wrong, but the level of bureaucracy has grown and that almost always means more administration who need to put things in neat little pigeon-holes and fewer teachers who can think outside the box.

We shall see…

JDCM

Not for everyone…

Wedding photography takes a special personality and I don’t  have it.  Sure, I know my way around the camera, but my skills are best used elsewhere.  I guess you really have to like weddings in general, and I’m not the biggest fan.  This understanding comes on the heels of my first wedding shoot last night down in Connecticut.  I was the second camera, so the really good shots were taken by a pro who loves her work and does a spectacular job.  I was responsible for the pre-wedding groom’s pictures (dressing, etc…) and some other things.  I was, I hope, able to get those shots.

To be honest I was not comfortable in this situation.  It reminded me too much of street photography-that sneaky, candid spying style that I am also not fond of doing.   Other people can, and the best to them, but not me.  I was told that as the drinks flowed people would loosen up.  That didn’t cheer me either.  I wasn’t looking forward to seeing or even documenting that experience.  Still, it is better to know than not to, and now I have that knowledge.  Plus, the event reminded me that I left the service industry for specific reasons, not just because I didn’t like the business.

Still, experience is experience and I am glad I was able to work with Stephanie.  She’s a real professional and offers a wonderful service to her clients.  She knows her way around the machine, has a wonderful eye and a charming personality.  She is an asset to any couple’s wedding day.  Please check the link on my site, or go here.

Next up…More adventures in commercial photography.

More will be revealed…

JDCM

Back in New York…the future awaits…

The student show at the Aegean Center went beautifully.  A few of us almost sold pieces, but people can be so fickle.  I left the island with a lovely dual portfolio of silver and digital work and feel complete in that way.  I was able to spend a few days in Athens with my friend Kristina, and just generally chill out before I flew home.  Now I am back and my first wedding shoot is this afternoon.  This is pretty new to me, but I have done some portraiture and some candid work, so I think I’ll combine them both and be happy with the results.  I am the second camera, so it really isn’t my shoot, but I’ll pretend it is and do the best that I can.  Also, tomorrow I have an interview with a local pro who needs a studio/post-production assistant.  This looks promising as well and could open many doors to me in many ways.

I am bringing my Canon 50D with both 50mm and  35mm lenses.  I am also using a flash, which I do not usually use.  I’ll be judicious.  We begin at 2PM and finish at 10PM.  My boss doesn’t want hundreds of images, so I’ll be editing as I go along.  The weather is lovely, the skies are clear.  All is right with the world.

More to come…

JDCM