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.

Gerhard Richter

Gerhard Richter came to mind as I shot my candle images. I love these candle paintings but not as much as the iceberg landscape painting. According the the sales history on the official Richter website, this painting "Candle", sold for $1,039,212 at Christie's London.

"Iceberg in Mist" is one of my all-time favorite paintings. I saw it in person in a vast retrospective at MOMA in NYC. This one was small, only 70 cm x 100 cm, but it had Presence. I stood in front of it sketching and staring, trying to put my finger on what I loved so much about it. It has something to do with mass and volume- and of course the fog that both defines and obscures. There was no sales history given for this painting, only its exhibition record.

Images courtesy of Gerhard Richter

Candle power

I shot quite a few images involving candles this past weekend. I started with the intention of making a photo of a candle flame burning in the sunlight. The idea was that you would barely see the flame, only after searching for it. I liked the notion of the futility of the candle against the sun. The candle itself has such an old world look, that it dignified almost any absurdity I could dream up. More to come.

Milky

I don't know if this is the right version of the milk photo I'm after, but I like it. Milk- the promised land, maternal plenty, nourishment..
According to this hilarious interpretation of dreams website

"If you dream of seeing milk in large containers you will have honor and riches, if your dream is of buying and selling milk commercially, you will have great business success. If you dream that you give your milk away, this denotes that you are too generous and could harm your own finances. If you spill milk, your friends will disappoint you, and if the milk is not pure, you will suffer many small aggravations. If you try to drink milk, and cannot swallow it, this denotes that you are in danger of losing the friendship of a person you have know for a long time."

Kat

My friend Kat came over this weekend and modeled for me in a slew of shots I had planned. It was great- I shot around 15 rolls of film, which for me is a kind of record. She was very kind and generous to give me so much time and effort- she endured standing on a table in three inch heels, having honey dripped on her, and lying on the hardwood floor wedged under furniture for the photos. My scary roommate finally has moved out, so I didn't have to worry about making a mess or any interruptions.

I tried doing some of these shots with a male friend modeling a while back, but it was not working at all. Turns out I really need a female model most of the time. Although I'd like to be able to include men in the work at some point.
This is one of the shots from this past weekend.