Go To: http://rebeccahornephotography.com/

OK this is it! After months of hinting and false starts, it is now final. All The Works in Progress blog content has been imported to a new location and henceforth will live there at my url, Rebecca Horne Photography. I've just posted some new work, so I'll see you there!

Arty Party and Sale

Come and celebrate spring with us on April 22nd, Sunday afternoon from 3-7 pm at 873 Park Ave in Brooklyn. A large selection of my framed photographs will be for sale and priced to move, including the above. There will also be a fine selection of art books available, going cheap! Come mingle and imbibe, and admire the garden. Some photographs have already sold, so let me know if you have a favorite you want me to hold for you.

873 Park ave is close to the G lines (Flushing or Broadway stops) and the J and M lines (Flushing stop for local, Myrtle for express).

That Visual Science post I mentioned last week is up, hopefully you can take a look! This book and these images really have me thinking about all kinds of things, and maybe it will do the same for you.

My new Rebecca Horne photography website and blog is almost ready, I will post here with a link as soon as I can.

Very Good News: Announcement

After a hiatus of a little more than a year, Visual Science is back! I have missed it ever so much, and with the help of intrepid editor Amos Zeeberg, new posts are starting to roll out as of last week. As ever, I hope you all will find it absorbing and entertaining.

In a week or so I'll have a post done about the work of architect Thomas Greenall (image above) and his commission for Alain de Botton's new book "Religion for Atheists: A Non-believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion", a book that has moved and challenged me.

Sunday, April 1st. 2012

Today I marched myself right into the studio before even finishing my coffee, exercising, or even having breakfast. I had the morning to myself and I knew I had to make the most of it. The above image is from one of the scenarios I'm working on. I was trying out playing two parts, as two different characters. With these double exposures, hitting the right spot in the frame as I was able to do once or twice before is almost manageable when I can sit within arms length of the camera. However, if I have to take steps over to the camera to advance and forward the film, all is lost. My sense of placement is gone, even if I use markers to help me back to my spot.

In the afternoon went with Ollie to see a friend's band play in Coney Island. While talking to a friend I tried to answer a question about what I was working on in the studio today.."Well, I was kind of feeding myself" really sounded awkward, and I felt silly, but there you have it.

Floating

Trying to get the nerve up to shoot for most of the day today, but instead spent it on a writing job and some major surgery on my closets. What is it about Spring that makes me feel like throwing everything away? Will try again to shoot tomorrow, have some pictures I want to make with Ollie.

This week Chloe (Ollie's half sister) had her big show along with what seemed like thousands of other SVA students. Oliver's father is about to become the father of another boy, this one named Felix. This will be his third child, each from a different mother. We (the three mothers) were all there at the opening. Trust me when I tell you that it did not go well.

The good part of this story is that Chloe is a very talented photographer, and I'll show you some of her work here soon. This shot is from a few weeks ago when Kelly modeled for me. Thinking over the possibilities this one open up for me.

Johnna Arnold

Johnna Arnold's work was the most exciting I saw over the Photo Alliance weekend. This work is centered on freeways in the Bay Area. She places herself within all of the images. Unfortunately, this blog is not a good format to show these extra large images from Johnna's latest portfolio. Please enlarge these images by clicking and find her in the landscape.

She becomes a mostly faceless figure you can relate to, overwhelmed by or blending in with these environments. There is something frightening about seeing the human figure in these forgotten, in-between zones. I'm reminded of a repeating dream I've had of trying to rescue a horse from a busy highway--the terror of the situation, and the impossibility of this creature so far from it's natural habitat...

What I especially liked is the feeling of re-taking ubiquitous large format urban landscape photography that is mostly devoid of any people. Johnna's work puts us back into this world we have made, this time as actors, rather than observers.


Titles (t-b): Best Buy, I-580 & I-80, Oakland, CA; Under the Maze (I-80, I-580 & I-880, Oakland, CA) .

Photo Alliance Review 2012

This Review weekend in San Francisco has been a rush--I've re-connected with old friends and seen some great work. Also got to briefly catch up with my beloved former professor, Linda Connor. Attached is an image by an old classmate of mine from my undergrad years at the San Francisco Art Institute, Cynthia Rettig. It was so fun to hear about her life since leaving school. It turns out she makes a living handling estate sales, and makes some amazing images along the way of the belonging that displayed for sale at auction, or left behind.

It is late after a long weekend so I'm checking out, but will be back with some more favorites to show.

Spinning

Went to a spinning class with Kat today at a place in Manhattan called Flywheel. I have not worked that hard since doing the New York Marathon before Ollie was born. I felt lightheaded and nauseous in the shower. Eggs benedict and lots of coffee afterwards cured my shaking. I can see why people go to classes to work out, it really ups the ante.

Ollie comes home tomorrow afternoon, and I hope to get some shooting done before that. I've been experimenting with some different website hosting services, and I think I found one that will work for showcasing my final work. I will also probably migrate this blog to the new web address as well, but I'll be sure to let you all know in advance. This is another final image that I'll be showing on the new website.

Take My Hand

I've finally got some final or close to final scans done of some of the images I have managed to finalize over the past few years, and I am checking out different options for a website to host them on, so you all can have a look. One is above. I remembered that I am a person who knows how to make realized images on film. It really has been exciting to see these high resolution film images all sharp and tough looking. No sweet and fuzzy Polaroids here.

Ollie is away for the week so I've been literally working solid for three days, what an amazing luxury. It feels like a residency, only I'm in Brooklyn and no one is bringing me lunch in a basket.

Sunday February 19th, 2012

Today was a day totally dedicated to art. After my run I spent the morning sketching, setting up and prepping props. Sometimes it is a challenge just thinking through how to actually make these images happen in real space. All this extra careful prep was needed because I had a model coming over, my old artist friend Kelly. She was a most patient model. She levitated, she put foreign objects in her mouth, she reached for the moon, and she never complained. Above is a test from one of the shots.

It was so great to have Kelly over--not only did I get to work hard on shooting, but we caught up on art.. Kelly is brilliant and her comments about my work are still in my mind.

Shannon Taggart and Sam Comen

So happy to announce that out of three recent awards for excellency in photography, two of them went to some of my favorite photographers, Shannon Taggart and Sam Comen. This also includes me, as the photo editor, in the Photography/Single Photos contest from Society for News Design (SND).

This is a great affirmation, as I love these two and consider them some of my best collaborators. It is really nice to see the work acknowledged. Above are the photos that won-- Shannon's image (bottom) is of a magician, Mark Setteducati. Both were done for the Creating section of the WSJ weekend edition.

If you can't trumpet your achievements on your own blog, where can you?

Powerhouse Review 2012

Maciej Markowicz, a young Polish photographer, was my hands-down favorite from the review. I was impressed by the way his projects combined disciplined consistency and clear, engaging ideas. The projects reflect a kind of humanistic inquiry. Often work that is idea-driven, or dominated by technique can be one dimensional and boring. That was not the case here.

The above image is from his recent ongoing series Families. The images are super-impositions of family members. The photos are laid over each other digitally, after the images are made--these are not double exposures made in real time. In some cases, as in the image here, "Son, age 13 and Father, age 49", a third face seems to emerge from the blending of the two.

Another Beauty from Caleb Charland and Friend

This image is from "Artifacts & Particles," an exhibition that is the result of a collaboration by Caleb Charland + Peter Gruner Schellenberger. I don't know how this was made, but apparently Schellengerger likes to expose his images using uranium (how does one get the stuff?). From what I can gather, Charland and Schellenberger started images individually and then traded them with the other to finish them..

Reviewed at the Powerhouse portfolio review today. It was a relatively short day as these things go, and I saw a few things I liked. Post about my favorite work from today to come. I also saw some stuff that was all gimmick and cliche...Which wouldn't be so bad by itself. What makes it aggravating is that some of these folks are making money selling the cliches--and they DO NOT want to hear that they can do better. They want you to know how successful they are already, doing exactly what they are doing, and they only want to hear praise or see if you can make a connection for them.

In the Gloaming

I've outsourced the cleaning of my house, after picking up some extra freelance work. Between the cleaning lady, and ordering groceries online I've been able to reclaim some time for my studio. However, so far the results have been mixed. Last weekend I was shooting something involving a mirror. Things were already not going well when suddenly the mirror exploded into shards under the pressure of the plastic clamp after an hour of shooting.. I gave up and went on a date.

Today I spent pretty much the entire day except for my morning run and eating lunch trying to make a good picture. It just didn't happen.. As the light was fading, I managed something more interesting. A test from that set above. (This post has been updated with an image from the contact sheet)

In other news, my first video interview for The Wall Street Journal is online. Taking the interview on set during our photo shoot was tremendous fun, relinquishing final creative control to the WSJ video team was not.

Report from behind the scenes..

Photo-editing has been interesting lately--a few weeks I had a shoot of bathing suit designer Malia Mills with four of her models, shot by Francois Dischinger. Which reminded me of why working in fashion can be so err..umm..time-consuming. Making small changes was like attempting to reverse the earth's orbit, and almost as complicated. I had to keep reminding everyone that we were making a portrait, not a fashion shoot.

On Monday I was at the Metropolitan for a shoot of third generation master florist, who was being shot by John Huba. The florist was a tall, handsome and articulate guy who is more comfortable on a ladder than anyone else I've ever seen. From the top rungs of the ladder he arranged the flowers in the alcoves in the Met's Great Hall. I had the pleasure of interviewing him on video after the shoot, and I re-discovered how much better an interview can be in person, rather than over the phone or via email. Incredible how busy it is at the Met even when they are closed to the public..This was one of those days where I again felt very lucky to have such and interesting job.

Holly Andres

Met with Portland-based photographer Holly Andres today--she has an exhibition opening tomorrow at the Robert Mann gallery in Chelsea. I feel lucky to have seen so many of the images that will be in the show in her book today..

Another photographer, Corey Arnold suggested I meet Holly, who's work I already knew, telling me she had assisted him on a recent shoot for the WSJ that I was very happy with. Turns out that the dry ice was her idea..I think Corey's ease and humor and Holly's attention to detail and color make a great combination. Will be following both of them with interest.

Feeling It

Worked more on levitating and some shots with a candle this weekend. Had some trouble staying focussed, but I didn't worry too much when pretty much everything I shot came out looking ridiculous.

I've been just incredibly happy since the beginning of the new year, and I'm thinking surely something must be wrong with me! I'm enjoying winter, work, my friends, my dates.. go figure.

Levitating Over Bed

Turns out levitating is hard, even when you are only faking it. After some experimentation with the 12X12 " backdrop, I think I've figured out a better way to do this. Will have to wait until next weekend.

On Saturday I saw Judy Chicago's Dinner Party at the Brooklyn museum--amazing to finally see this iconic work in person. It was somewhat hilarious to be perusing these depictions of vaginas on plates while on a date with a guy--but no matter.

Happy New Year. Welcome, 2012!

I had a real spirit lifting on the first day of the new year. My brother and I headed out to Coney Island for the annual Polar Bear swim. It was just amazing. Really. It made this homesick California girl fall in love with Brooklyn all over again. My brother filmed the whole thing on his waterproof camera-- grizzled guys smoking cigars, hipsters, triathletes, mobs of men in striped bathing costumes circa the 1910's, pirates, mermaids. Moms, pretty girls in bikinis with their boyfriends, kids in bathrobes, drunk dudes, you name it, everyone was there. Afterwards we had noodles with pork belly and a fried egg..

It was a profound feeling of renewal, and blasting out the cobwebs of the old. In with the new. Happy New Year, y'all!