The Heirloom China

This is the first time I've put to use these teacups that belonged to my grandmother. From the shoot with Toto last weekend. I've got a model scheduled for this weekend, and I'm excited to do some more shooting.

"This Train is Bound for Glory"

The current Justine Kurland show at Mitchell-Innes & Nash takes its title from an old folk song.
This is an impressive show featuring western railroads and trains. Somehow Kurland has managed to sidestep making patronizing archetypes out of the people in her photographs, unlike many of the photographers that seems to be following a bit closely in her footsteps. The flat light that all the photographs share helps tie together images of different sizes that might otherwise seem random, including portraits of her own son, photos of drifters, and landscapes both formal and informal..

I loved seeing the van that Kurland was traveling with- and the bed in it that she and her son seem to share. There is a lovely photo of her sleeping child inside it that is absolutely gorgeous, without being sentimental. These more intimate images add a personal dimension to the story and make it all the more engaging, even while I felt the vulnerability of the mother and child all the more strongly for the indifferent surroundings.

One of my favorite images (above) is titled "Keddie Wye", a location in the Sierra Nevadas. Image courtesy Mitchell-Innes & Nash

The Necklace

Toto modeled for me again this weekend- it was great. She is really more like a collaborator than a model, and she is patient. Here is an image from the shoot.

The Put Down

I can't get enough of these landing images. Parachutes are some of my favorite things to look at- whether landing over the dust of Kazakhstan, in a splash down over the Pacific, or in a wind tunnel test, they never fail to wow.
Caption: View of main parachutes lowering Apollo boilerplate spacecraft BP-23 after successful Apollo Max-Q at White Sands. December 8th, 1964.

The Shake Up

The first issue I worked on at Discover was a special issue called the History of Space Travel. After working the news cycle for so many years, at Newsweek and elsewhere, it was eye-popping. The archive photos at the Russian agencies like Novosti and NASA are almost too good to be true. This vintage NASA image shows an astronaut training. The cosmonaut training images are even better, but I don't have the rights to show those here.

Rain

The weekend before last I took some absolutely terrible pictures. I actually might throw away the film and contact sheets. I tried something different, something new. It didn't work at all. I've been telling myself that sometimes bad pictures have to happen in order to get the good ones, but I'm not sure I'm convinced. I really hope this means there are some fantastic images coming next. This weekend in the studio I was still in the pall of those awful images. I was afraid to take photos again. So I drew in my notebook and planned some new shots, and thought over who might be willing to model for me next.
This photo is an older image, one from a series of talc shot moving in air currents.

Iceberg

This past weekend found me solo parenting round the clock, with my usual studio work day cancelled. I did find time to buy some props for a shot I'm planning that involves swiss cheese. It looks like I'm working my way through the dairy section here- I've done butter, milk, and now maybe cheese is next.
This shot is maybe my second favorite from the frozen milk shoot- it is a lot more restrained than my first pick that shows the slashed container. I get criticism sometimes that the work is too feminine, too subtle, too polite. I'm trying to respond to that criticism in a way that makes sense to me.