My Old Flame

These are two details from the big scans I recently made from my negatives. I was excited to see these so big on screen. Since my gallery closed I have sort of given up on printing- what is the point of having a lot of big prints around taking up space? This means that I'm never seeing the images full size, and I don't know what kind of detail is there, and therefore can't really make final selects. These are an example of two images where the texture and focus is important. So far my favorite is the one with the candle out of focus, and the curtain behind in focus. It leads the eye deeper into the picture.

Justine Reyes

I stumbled upon Justine Reyes's blog last fall. It was the inspiration for the creation of my own blog. I had never seen a blog anywhere like hers, and the format was revelatory. At that time she was in residency at the Center for Photography at Woodstock, and was working on and blogging about a series of lovely still lifes that incorporated objects that had belonged to her grandmother. Above are some of my favorite images from that series. I recommend taking a look at the rest of the series and her other finished work.

This past weekend Justine very generously helped me scan some of my recent work, and showed me all kinds of useful tricks. It was very exciting to see the images up close. This summer I've just been shooting so much, I can't even remember the last time I was in the darkroom. I realize I am going to have to spend some time now with post production- committing to seeing the images though, not just stockpiling contacts and negatives.

Why Is Black Hole Art So Shiny?

You would think, that with something that no one can see, there would be more variety in the visual representations. Apparently there is consensus, at least at NASA, about what black holes look like. Here are two that show black holes with gravitational waves.
Images courtesy NASA

Zachary Zavislak

Now that I've mentioned Zachary Zavislak, this seems like the time to post some of his gorgeous images. I'm a huge fan of his work, and hope to hire him to shoot something for Discover soon.

Collaboration

Zachary Zavislak emailed me the above version of my own image today. He cleaned it up and added the line as a continuation of the idea of the tension or connection between the hands. He says:" For me the hands were trying to contain/suspend something. Photographing the forearms/hands floating on black continues to support this idea. The magenta line represents a liquid pour..... couldn't do the real thing. liquid always taking on the form of its container...The hands can't suspend, or contain the liquid in that position."

This is the first time anyone has ever done anything like this with my images. He clearly understands what I'm after. It feels like a spontaneous collaboration. I am going to think about the idea of a vertical line inserted, instead of horizontal ones. I will work on refining.

Toto

Took these photos of my friend Toto a few weekends back. I shot these with the idea of adding in some hokey lines between the hands, but I'm not sure if they are better with or without. Any comments?
I realize I may need to work on the look of the lines between the hands- maybe something softer looking would be better than the scratches that you see here. Her hands and arms were really perfect for this scenario, and she even had a ring on that could plausibly have been worn in a parlor of spiritualists.
Part of what made Toto such a happy model is that she is an artist, too. She understands my work and has seen it over many years- and I think she had fun being an actor in these photos. I also tried to take some portraits of her, but I wasn't as happy with how those came out. Check out Toto's work here.

Whole Milk

You could say I'm milking milk. I'm just going to keep on shooting it until I'm done. I shot this a few weeks ago, and the memory of the smell of rancid milk still lingers. It was a hot day and my studio got stinky, and my equipment got funky, too. During the freezing the fat separated out and was congealed around the top and sides of the ice. It was a lot like shooting a butter coated popsicle.