“Imagine a 3-mile-long elevated linear park and trail running through the heart of Chicago, connecting neighborhoods, the river, and Chicago’s great park system.” Its time has come.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNzr7g8FQgk
An OCD Darkroom Dream
In my dream on Friday night/Saturday morning, a student at the huge school (from H’s roster, not mine; sort of like Kayleigh, but more reserved) asked to be allowed to “straighten up” the facilities during one of my classes. I said OK, and she disappeared into the dark. When she was (photo-) finished, she showed me what she had accomplished, laid out for display on the film prep table. Small items were sorted; there was a row of eight-ounce containers, each labeled “B,” and after I asked a few questions about them, I came to understand that she had pre-diluted some sodium sulfite. The rest of the work surface was filled with 8×10 paper distributed into 25-sheet boxes, stacked neatly. One package was shy a couple of sheets, she told me, and the last four boxes had no top piece (but the black bags were sealed).
Exorcise Class
It’s been a while since we’ve addressed the rostromedial prefrontal cortex. This time it’s own fault: I drew attention to Lou Carter on Friday, in third hour. (At least it’s somewhat picture-related.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnAEawgg02g
This is an example of a human biocomputer’s file that should be put on the “to be deleted” list in order to make room for newer, more useful stuff. Of course, the only reliable way to nudge this along is to replace it with something worse. Here’s a suggestion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC96LE9KhIU
“…sometimes always…”
Phil Toledano says, “Here’s the secret about starting a project. START THE PROJECT.”
Be that as it may, everyone confronts a sort of writer’s block from time to time. Things can seem far less natural when one needs to meet the deadlines of an academic calendar. Read, and then follow the links within, http://www.fototazo.com/2013/02/how-to-start-project-susan-lipper.html
“Sometimes it is just abstract. There is no exact process. Ever. But these things are happening and circulating in my head all the time. That is the ignition process.”
“When I was a kid my mom taught me to make mental pictures and after all the rolls of film I’ve gone through, the mental photos still endure as a kind of living, invisible sketchpad. Many times before going to bed I run through all the things I saw but didn’t photograph. So when I actually pick up my camera, the real pictures are rooted in a kind of abstract place, like a distilled fantasy.”
‘You cannot want the pictures to be a certain way or the idea to be what you thought it was going to be, you have to let it unfold and show you what it is.”
“Even now, however, I still don’t know precisely what I am looking for when I go out to photograph. This situation can be either liberating or frustrating depending on my point of view at that moment.”
W. o’ W.: Duane Michals
“If you look at a photograph, and you think, ‘My isn’t that a beautiful photograph,’ and you go on to the next one, or ‘Isn’t that nice light?’ so what? I mean what does it do to you or what’s the real value in the long run? What do you walk away from it with? I mean, I’d much rather show you a photograph that makes demands on you, that you might become involved in on your own terms or be perplexed by.”
You Never Write Any More.
Once again we observe the Month Of Letters Challenge by sending a postal missive every darn day for all of February. True to (my undiagnosed) ADHD form, I sent my first two on the 2nd, and the third will make it to a mailbox… certainly before the Monday pickup, so I can justify the first three as having been sent in some sort of a timely fashion. The next trick is to include alumni who are in a cyber mode, and who rarely think to share their snail addresses.
I’m tellin’ ya: sending and receiving genuine mail releases endorphins second only to developing film, and mailing your own photo postcards can come close to balancing form and content.
http://ttpatton.com/2013/02/01/henceforward-shall-be-free-a-forever-stamp/
https://www.facebook.com/LetterMo
Update: Ms. Patton has verified that there still is a mailbox in her shop. Use it in good health.
Malleable Work Flow
Last Saturday I developed a roll of film I’d labelled “7+7.” I couldn’t remember what that meant; this happens often (cryptic labeling, or forgetting? both, actually). It was group portraits of the AP class in May, and the clock reminds us that these exposures were made in the final moments of the exam period.
Lauren made a proof sheet and Nikki took it home overnight; I obtained this image this morning from Sam’s Facebook page (!).
Creative Camerawork 