Caffeine is a photographer’s best friend

You would think by reading our blog that Caleb’s work is really taking off and meanwhile I have disappeared from the face of the photo world. Not entirely true (about me), but close. I’ve been working a lot at my day jobs, which are almost all photo-related, but I haven’t been doing a lot of promoting my own work. The reality of having bills and day job get in the way of my photographic career is a big theme for me right now. But it’s not the worst problem to have. I used to worry about it more until a gallery owner who showed my work last year told me “You can’t make your work and do it well if you can’t pay the bills, so make sure you take care of yourself too”. I am actually working on 2 different projects. One is going very slowly. The other one is coming along relatively steadily but I haven’t told anyone about it yet — mostly because it’s the kind of project I expect to work on for a long, long time before it comes to anything.

But there’s good news! I have a solo show coming up at the Griffin Museum’s Aberjona River Gallery in Winchester, MA. The show will run November 12 to January 10, with both an opening and an artist talk in early December. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve been swamped with work, but I’ll post details shortly.

Photographica again

Last weekend was Photographica, and while Steph was off working for NESOP at Photo Plus Expo, I was scrounging through boxes of old photos for some gems to take home.  Here’s a few things I bought:

The 2009 PRC Benefit Auction

Tomorrow night is the Photographic Resource Center’s annual benefit auction.  I’ll be there running around like a crazy person to make sure everything goes smoothly, but if you don’t have any Saturday plans (or even if you do— cancel them!) I’d love to see you there!  We have some amazing pieces to auction off, great food and beer and wine, a raffle, lots of bidding and excitement…

Pelle Cass

So after I mentioned Pelle Cass’ image in a previous post, he was kind enough to mention me in his blog!  And then I find out that Aline Smithson of Lenscratch did a feature on him, too!

I really enjoy his work, both for its conceptual nature and for how visually exciting it is.  Seriously, go check out his website.

© Pelle Cass

Speaking at UMASS, Erik Levine

This afternoon I spoke at Erik Levine’s Sculpture class (with some students from another teacher’s digital media class, too) as a visiting artist.  It was definitely a learning experience for me.  All the notes I’d made for myself suddenly seemed to make no sense when faced with a room of expectant faces, and I did my best to talk about my work in a coherent and clear way, but I realized how much I still have to learn about what I’m doing.  Instead of being frustrated or embarrassed, I actually am happy to know that there is still more discover and a reason to keep on shooting.

I hope it doesn’t seem like I bombed because it actually went really well.  I found myself making connections out loud that I hadn’t made before and I got some great questions and feedback.  One student said something I hadn’t thought of in this particular way (and I’m paraphrasing)— that even as much as my work is about finding these people I imagine a place to exist, a place where they fit, the work is also about the experience of not fitting in, of me not fitting into the clothes or fitting into the scene, of me sticking out as something that doesn’t belong— that the project might be in part about me looking for a place where I do fit.  That gave me a lot to think about.

As Erik walked me back to my car we had a great discussion about teaching and speaking about art.  I really respect him as an artist and as a teacher, and he gives me hope that maybe one day I could be a good teacher and one day I will be able to speak more confidently about my work.  He reminded me that it’s a learned skill, one that you have to work at.

Now a few quick shots from the campus.

As I was waiting for Erik to help me find a place to park, I noticed this coyote decoy with the ubiquitous “NOT ART” stencil on it.  That’s like, the most perfect spot for it.

The studio I spoke in after all the blinds were drawn to prepare for my presentation:

Look! A flyer with my name and picture on it!

Sleep No More

Last night I went to an AMAZING a.r.t. show, Sleep No More, at The Old Lincoln School in Brookline:

Award-winning British theater company Punchdrunk makes its U.S. debut with Sleep No More, an immersive production inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth, told through the lens of a Hitchcock thriller.  The Old Lincoln School in Brookline, Massachusetts, will be exquisitely transformed into an installation of cinematic scenes that evoke the world of Macbeth . You, the audience, have the freedom to roam the environment and experience a sensory journey as you choose what to watch and where to go. Rediscover the childlike excitement of exploring the unknown in this unique theatrical adventure.

I honestly don’t really know what to say about it because it’s the kind of thing you have to see for yourself.  Part art installation, part contemporary dance, part silent play, part haunted house—- I can’t remember the last time I was so completely enthralled and inspired.  Experiencing Sleep No More was a great reminder that I’m not nearly dreaming big enough.  When you dream big, the art you make doesn’t just make people pause to think or amuse them for a moment; it has a profound affect on all who experience it.  I want to be a part of something that big.  I need to keep dreaming.

Oh, and PS, the show was followed by an intimate one-night-only set by the ever-entertaining Amanda Palmer.  Yeah, my night was pretty good.

assumptions about real/fake

Two images from this year’s PRC Benefit Auction have generated some really interesting reactions from exhibit attendees—

TRIIIBE’s Fine

and Pelle Cass’ Tree, Boston Public Garden

illicit similar and yet drastically different reactions.  Both really seem to captivate their audiences and spark imaginations, however most viewers assume that the TRIIIBE image is a Photoshop construction (one woman with different wigs) and that the Cass image is a very real moment in time where a tree is over-run with animal life.  What’s hilarious is that the TRIIIBE image shows identical triplets without digital manipulation and the Cass image involves the layering of multiple exposures taken over a period of time.  So the question is, why do most people assume the first image is manipulated and the second isn’t?  Is it that the TRIIIBE piece is done in a very controlled studio environment and with details that point out that it is a constructed scene?  And that conversely the Cass piece is set in an space that is recognizably real and familiar (at least if you live in Boston) and the image, I suppose, does not go out of its way to point out how it is made?  I guess I just find it really fascinating that most viewers don’t really question what they are looking at, that they immediately jump to the conclusion that one is Photoshopped and the other isn’t, based on reasons about which I can only speculate.   Thoughts?

If I could visit New York right now…

these are just a few of the exhibits I would check out:

Unseen: A Photographers Salon at Randall Scott Gallery

Robert Bergman: Selected Portraits at P.S.1

Amy Stein’s Domesticated at ClampART

Dress Codes at ICP

Robert Frank’s The Americans @ The Met

I’m sure I’m forgetting a few, too.

But what I really want to do is go back in time to Jason Lazarus‘ “Texting for Forgiveness” performance at Packer Schopf Gallery on October 11th.  Sigh.  I f-ing love Jason Lazarus.

Lenscratch

Wow.  When I entered Photolucida’s Critical Mass, I never expected such immediate and heartfelt feedback.  I don’t know what I expected, really— maybe my work to disappear into the void, except it hasn’t.  At least for some people, it’s spoken to them in some way and that is so amazing to me.

Today I received the best email (which I will keep for myself) and a link to a blog post featuring me in Aline Smithson’s Lenscratch Blog.  Lenscratch is one of Source Photographic Review’s 10 Photography-Related Blogs You Should Read, in case you aren’t reading it already.

This and a few bites for group shows and even a solo show have left me feeling really good and itching to make a lot more work.  Every time I start feeling like the odd person out, feel uncool or like I’m somehow not as deserving as a lot of the other artists out there, I need to reread Aline’s post and remember that different can be good.  I need to stop worrying and follow what excites me, because when I stop worrying about what other people think and just trust myself, what I make is much more honest and much more me.  I know this is what I’m meant to be doing.  Thank You, Aline.

The Fall of Photo

I feel like I start each entry these days with “So, I’ve been busy and haven’t posted in a while…”, which is basically true. But this season is going to be the Fall of Photo , I swear!

I started a new day job a few weeks ago, as Recruitment Coordinator at the New England School of Photography — which is where I went to school and also work part-time with Caleb in the Digital Lab. It’s been a great start and I’m excited about working to get folks interested in the school and the program. It’s fall college fair season, so I’ve been traveling around and talking to a lot of high school students. One student told me recently that her school needed to use their darkroom for storage space, so they don’t offer a photography class anymore. Heartbreaking!

I also participated in Jamaica Plain Open Studios — a weekend-long event in my neighborhood in which over 200 artists open their studios or join group spaces to show and sell their work. I sold a few small prints and talked to many, many people. It was energizing but also a little exhausting.

After working hard this summer on promoting my previous work, I feel a serious and impatient desire to spend more time making new work.

Also, have I mentioned that I finished the redesign of my website?

Marc Cote

This past weekend I visited Steph at JP Open Studios and while there ran into someone I met at the Danforth opening.  Marc Cote is the Chair of the Art and Music Department at Framingham State College and makes some really interesting works on paper and sculptural pieces.  Something about how simultaneously dark and yet fragile a lot of it is really speaks to me.  Here is how he describes his work:

The images that I create have their roots in snippets of stories that I cull from children’s tales, myths and fables, novels from past and present and my own personal experiences. Character development, the quirkier the better, has always fascinated me. I use physiognomy and gesture to depict characters in varying social stances.

I’m interested in our secret, rarely revealed egos. Often in my prints, I try to simultaneously show our inner feelings and the outer visages that reflect or shelter those emotions. I want to capture the temporal nature of the person: confident, magnetic, animalistic, materialistic, giddy, downtrodden. I want to show the objects we desire and describe the manner in which we seek them.

I scored this fantastic piece and it’s now hanging on my livingroom wall.