Remember when we directed your attention to a print sale designed to help Devendra, last December? Here is another project worthy of our support. “Digressions: A Blog” is produced by Daniel Shea, lately of Chicago. Look at all his work and consider acquiring a print or two.
I thought that a good reply to “How’re you spending the summer?” might be “I’m directing a community theatre production of the life of Gene Pitney.” Pitney was a serious pop composer and successful performer with a longer career than most people are aware of (it survived the British Invasion, and actually thrived in England into the ’90s). After two days I realized that Pitney’s “It Hurts To Be In Love” was still stuck in my head. It must have come over me in EuroFresh, because the oldies station is always on the PA system in there. I seem to have exorcised it by picking out the melody, the higher Sedaka-ish harmony part, and the voices in the bridge on our “Bastardo” grand piano.
Watch him sell a song using only his jaw:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7BRraVMZzc
(Pitney was quickly replaced by Henry Mancini’s theme from “Two For The Road.”)
Chuck Close copes with his prosopagnosia (inability to recognize faces), and sits for an interview that cannot easily be reduced to a Words o’ Wisdom post, here:
I ain’t no boycotter (plenty of our fellow citizens get their paychecks from international corporations), but here comes another story of shooters being shat upon. Follow the link to the link.
http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/2010/07/images_bp_doesnt_want_you_to_see/
http://www.saikatbiswas.com/web/Projects/Holga_D.htm
I’m pretty much at a loss for words. The only appealing improvement is the option that accommodates the 15% of us.
The good news is that everyone in the 2-D Design course scored well enough to qualify for AP credit.
The less good news is that, as usual, I have a beef with at least four of the scores. (I’m probably too close to the work to be objective.)
The best news is that Ann Marie LeVerso, Katie Thompson, and Brennan Zwieg received top scores for their portfolios. Click on each of the following to see ’em better.
Ann Marie:
Katie Thompson:
Brennan Zwieg:
The average score was 3.875. Congratulations to all sixteen Photo Devotos! It was a very good year.
Q. What qualities must an artist bring to her work regardless of the era, medium or technology?
“I would just say one word—openness. And you could also say awareness. That’s what I treasure in other people’s work—when they create something that makes you go, “Whoa, I never saw that.” In a way, what artists really do is extend your senses and your awareness of things. For me, the making of stuff—the creation of artworks—is not really to the point. The point is to experience things more intensely. I hear people commenting that culture is dying, but it’s not true. People are making lots of fantastic things. You don’t know about it, that’s all. It’s really hard to squash artists. They keep appearing and making things.”
“I’m not on Facebook. I’m a miniaturist and a confessional writer, so it seems like it would be a natural form for me. I also like that the writing is meant to be conversational. But I like to work on things six different ways before I put them in a public situation, and the immediacy of the Web is not conducive to that. I also find it tyrannical. I’m not sure yet whether it encourages people to be more creative or to mold themselves more carefully to fit into the clean design of Facebook.”
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Laurie-Anderson-on-the-Sounds-of-the-Future.html
“…followed by a BP employee after taking a picture on a public road near the refinery, and then cornered by two police cars at a gas station… had the right to look at the pictures taken near the refinery and if he did not comply he would be ‘taken in’ … released after officials looked through the pictures he had taken and took down his date of birth, Social Security number and other personal information… turned over to the BP security guard who said this was standard procedure…”
Oh, I know, you’re probably standing on public property somewhere in the United States, but what’s in proximity? Are you carrying ID?
https://photodevoto.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/4-to-15-eh-only-in-amerika/
https://photodevoto.wordpress.com/2010/04/10/bust-card/
Are you shooting… film?
“Chance extends the boundaries of my imagination. I try to set up a framework to allow this to happen: I choose where I stand; I determine the tonalities; I select the forms; I look for the right light. Then I give chance a little room to perform for me.”
Marvin Heiferman’s mini-essay puts things into perspective a little bit:
http://blog.photography.si.edu/2010/06/09/picture-perfect-not-all-the-games-we-play/
(I suppose I could find out for myself [perhaps by familiarizing myself with the rules] why, when soccer games end 0-0, one team advances in the tournament and another might be eliminated.) I (and, I daresay, we) have enough on our plate (I’ll let that potential pun slide — that one as well) with the baseball rule book. I just like Mr. Heiferman’s conclusion.
Creative Camerawork 
