The Flower Cure

After declaring what my blog is about in the previous post, I find myself almost immediately compelled to rebel. A week into my vacation in Santa Barbara, California, I'm thinking this blog's topic can be all the things about California that drive me mad.

As I was buying an expensive chocolate bar at an upscale grocery store in Santa Barbara, the words "Emotional Eating Support Kit" sang out at me. I irrationally examined and photographed this item. The box claims, among other things, that "rock water helps when you push yourself too hard trying to set a good example." Now all those SUV drivers with environmental stickers on their bumpers could ease out of the parking lot thinking "rationally and clearly and calmly" while feeling better about any physical imperfections.

I noticed that the bottles contain 27% alcohol. At .35 fl oz per bottle, it would be an expensive way to get drunk, but you could be the most rational and sanctimonious drunk ever, telling anyone who would listen that you were "protecting yourself from change, and that you had learned to observe your mistakes objectively, etc. etc."

Soul Searching

After almost a year of keeping this blog and looking at other blogs, my ideas have crystallized somewhat. Rebecca Horne Photography is mostly about the creative process. This includes sources of inspiration, where ever I can find them. It includes the thinking, looking and repetition that goes into making successful images. So far I've avoided the sometimes overwhelming impulse to post about photographers I've hired in my role as Photo Editor who have been spectacular disappointments. Or to write about work or trends that I am exclusively critical of. By now some kind of Internet halo should have formed around my blog, to encourage my good intentions.

The photo/artist blogs that I find most interesting are ones that share my interests in the art-making itself, and those that are engaged with the world of ideas. My latest favorite is Critical Terrain, by Alan Rapp. Don't let the weighty sounding name scare you off. His sharp looks at wide ranging topics so far include Norse Black Metal, surveillance and other zones where the meaning of photography is contested, like the recent Edgar Martins dust-up. Alan also happens to be the new Associate Director of Hey, Hot Shot!

Carolyn Drake's Watershed Moment

I'm sad from saying goodbye. The super talented photojournalist Carolyn Drake, who is also my good friend, just headed off the airport. Luckily, she stays at my house on her biannual trips to NYC from Istanbul, where she is based. These visits are always great for me. We get to catch up and talk about photography, look at each other's work, and my young son gets to bask in her attention. Also I get a running and swimming partner- Carolyn is a bit of a jock, just like me.

Of her new projects, one is a ravishing series that traces the rivers of the Great Pamir watershed. The photos here top to bottom are from Tajikistan, Turkmenistan (2), Uzbekistan, and the last one is Tajikistan. The woman in the photo is a bride, dressing in her wedding clothes. On the wall behind her are her wedding gifts.

Carolyn Drake's own words about this project:
"While working in Central Asia for the past few years I've been drawn to the Amu Darya and Syr Darya - two rivers that flow from the mountains of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, crossing ragged borders until they dwindle at the Aral Sea.

By using the rivers as an organizing principle rather than roads taken by foreign travelers or political lines separating nations, I hope to place emphasis on the region's topography."

To see more of Carolyn Drake's work click here.

Kerze

Two more tries with the candle. The shot in the window may be the kind of thing that is too subtle to work onscreen. I think the slightly brighter white of the flame in the sunlight will be dreamy as a big print. The candle on the bed shot is in an entirely different direction, and may or make not make it in the final edit.

Jackson Patterson

I met Jackson at the Photo Alliance portfolio review in San Francisco, where he showed a solid body of work about horse racing in the Bay Area. His recent work really caught my eye- as a photo editor I am always on the lookout for images that can connote hard to visualize concepts like being in two places at once, notions of time passing, and the layering of time. I responded to the narrative about place, home and family. Also perhaps from a feeling of homesickness I've been having for the big spaces of the west. Jackson made the above image, and the others in the series, on a trip tracing his family's migration.
Here are Jackson's words about the above image:
"Pictured are two modern day photographs. The inset photo is of a barn in Buffalo, Montana and the Fork Road image is on a ranch in the Little Belt Mountains, Montana where the barn was built (circa 1920's) and eventually moved from. The barn was caretaken by my grandmothers family. When the owners of the ranch bought another ranch in the next town over, they moved the red barn. This image to me speaks about the transference of place and time and the journey of migration".

To see more of Jackson Patterson's work. Or stop by the Togonon Gallery in San Francisco to see his work in the exhibit "Liberating Landscape" through August 27th.