Resurrection, Polaroid Style

YES!

I hate to admit it but it's true. When Polaroid sianara'ed back in December 2008 I lost interest in my 5, (yes five) various polaroid cameras. I even have film left. I now realize my aloofness was a defense mechanism, saving me from the pain of facing my loss.

BUT! Today the company that bought the Polaroid name (The Summit Global Group) announced they'd be manufacturing instant cameras again. Perhaps Polaroid should never have swayed from it's biggest hit.

Huge props to "The Impossible Project" who for the last year have been relentless in their effort to restart production of film for vintage Polaroid cameras.  Apparently The Summit Global Group took notice and plan to have new instant cameras out and about sometime in the middle of 2010 ... and are having the The Impossible Project people manufacture the film. W00T W00T!

Landscapes Ain't So Bad.

I taught this lighting class at the DeCordova this winter.  DeCordova, for being a smaller sized museum (and sculpture park), has a rather sizable photography collection.

As part of the course, I was encouraged to include the museum's collection in the "curriculum," as it were. Which I was pretty ecstatic about.

In Paris I had a class called "Museums." It was awful. I had to go to a different museum every week and see fantastic photography and learn about all the greats. Just awful.

So needless to say, this brought me back there and wishing .... well ... wishing.

Saw some amazing photographers and their work - not behind glass or in the pages of a book:

• Doc Edgarton (incidentally, the first place I ever heard of Edgarton was at a DeCordova show in the 90's)
  
• Walker Evans
• Larry Fink
• Charles "Teenie" Harris
• Jacobi Lotte
• Arnold Newman
• Edward Steichen
• Eugene Richards (heard him talk at an agency VII conference in London once)
  
• Arno Minkkinen
• Brad Washburn
  
• And a few others ...

We got to go up and close personal and had a discussion on light, subject, mood, composition, etc.

One thing I learned out of teaching this class that blew my mind was that perhaps I do like landscape photography after all. They bored me. I'm not afraid to say it. But seeing Brad Washburn's stuff, up close and personal, was amazing.

I understood for the first time how hard it is to take a picture of a mountain. I'd been spewing on and on to the students the importance of light -- creating it, taking it away, shaping and molding it. Well holy smokes! Imagine if you had no possible way on earth to "strobe" a mountain and / or "flag" it!? Jesus. That's some serious talent. Props brah.

Bruce Davidson

The first time I saw work by Bruce Davidson, a member of Magnum, was February last year (2007). the Fondation HCB in Paris was displaying his harlem east 100th street (black and white photos here) series and his civil rights movement series time of change.  Two emblematic visual testimonies of 1960's America.

I recently joined CIPNE. you know, to "network" and be "a part of community" and such. I have no idea how they did it, but they got Davidson.

He stood in front of a screen that projected his various series (the dwarf, Brooklyn gang, time of change, coal miners, east 100th street, subway, central park, stills from movie misfits, Paris nature) and chatted. He shared stories. There are things that I would like to remember from his talk. I will put them in a list with bullet points.  Because if it were me reading this, I would never pay attention to paragraphs.

From the mouth of b. davison:

• dude shot 100's of annual reports (note to self: stop being too proud)
• he shot the harlem series over 2 years, and his central park series over 2 -3 years (note to self: photography takes time)
• worked for LIFE magazine, then quit, looking to work on the things that mattered to him (note to self: you can be proud sometimes)
• his early career he shot with a leica.
  
• the harlem series he shot using a 4x5 ending up with over 4,000 negatives.
• he was asked why he used the 4 x 5 for this series. it affected me, his answer:
  
• the 4 x 5 is not a camera you can be quick with. you cannot escape the presence of the camera. the use of the 4x5 must be methodical, and requires complete collaboration from your subject.
• when the 4 x 5 came out, it was called the "miniature camera."

And the number one thing b. davidson said:

"To edit is to face your truth."

That quote deserves another blog. Loooooook out.

b. davidson himself:

From the view of a photographer

I didn't take this picture, my mom did. It's a picture of Christmas dinner at my grandparents house. I look to be about 5 or 6.

I sent it to my mom after my grandfather died to highlight the sad fact that 4/7 people in it are no longer with us.

She responded that she was sad that it was a family picture and that she wasn't in it; thus making her not important.

I told her that in fact, she is the most important person in this picture. Everyone (except me) is looking at her. She is the focal point. And actually, the biggest point to be made here is that the photo wouldn't exist at all if she hadn't taken it; making her absolutely the most important person to this photo.

So the phrase "from the view of a photographer" is facetious. Just look at their pictures.