When I have some extra time I like to scan the Internet for items of photographic interest. Once I weed my way through the chaff and misinformation I occasionally learn some things and can even be entertained. Sometimes I stumble across some tidbit that reaffirms my own thinking and lets me know I’m not alone.

Here’s something I found that hits the nail on the head concerning large prints of mediocre work. I know, I’ve talked about this problem a number of times here, and have even shown this once before, but I liked this so much I couldn’t help myself and just had to show it again along with another quote that together hopefully make a point. Georges Fevre, HCB’s printer, used to say “If you can’t make them good, then make them big”. Damn that’s good and how true!! Doesn’t matter about technical quality, print quality, larger negative size or anything else. Crappy, boring large images will never be good, despite what the powers that be want you to think.

And here’s something else. I’ve quoted this before too, but it is so good I want to show it again. And why not? It’s my blog after all! Like the previous quote, it touches on something I’ve written about before … photography as a journey and what’s really important to me in my photographic life …  the love of the work … and the experience to be lived. It comes from Daniel Milnor and his great website Shifter … “What did I do with this work? Nothing. Where was it published? Nowhere. For those of you who don’t know me you need to understand how selfish I am. My primary reason for making pictures is to live the experience of making them. This is a greedy, solitary pursuit. My second reason is to record. Data. Visual data. Record it, preserve it, move on, and hopefully have it utilized for historical purposes sometime long after I’m dead. Lastly, I don’t care about being known as a photographer, or building an audience, or selling shit. I’m in heaven simply by being there, talking with people, attempting to understand their course through the obstacle course of life, and from time to time, hearing the occasional thump of the Blad’s shutter.”

I include this great quote from Milnor as I think it fits nicely with the first one about image size and junk pictures. Look, there’s a lot of folks in the photo art world that are so obsessed with exhibiting and selling their pictures even if the content is suspect at best that they’ll print them supersize. And why not?  It will be promoted as “new” like repackaged detergent, and the gullible and naïve will think it’s great and buy it.

Ok, what about you? Think about what is really important in your photographic life and be true to yourself. Make your picture, and make your statement about what is important you … what you really care about. Your work will stand on its own and won’t need to be blown up to be any good. And while you’re at it, and most important of all, just enjoy the journey that can be yours in your photographic life.

Stay well,

Michael

Lately I have been going through all the blog entries written by the recently late, great Tim Vanderweer which appeared on his Leicaphilia website. Tim tragically passed away in January, but his site thankfully lives on. I highly recommend you visit it!!!!!

There I found a reference to Sergio Larrain (1931-2012), a photographer I was not aware of and a copy of a letter he wrote to his nephew who had asked him for advice on how to become a photographer.

The letter is so profound I am presenting it here in its entirety and will let it speak for itself!

Now that I have discovered Larrain I want to learn more about him and his great work. If you like Cartier-Bresson you will love Larrain! I now have to track down his books as my library will not be complete without them!

Here’s the letter:

“First and foremost, find a camera that fits you well, one that you like, because it’s about feeling comfortable with what you have in your hands: the equipment is key to any profession, and it should have nothing more than the strictly necessary features.

Act like you’re going on an adventure, like a sailing a boat: drop the sails. Go to Valparaiso or Chiloè, be in the street all day long, wander and wander in unknown places, sit under a tree when you’re tired, buy a banana or some bread and get on the first train, go wherever you like, and look, draw a bit, look. Get away from the things you know, get closer to those you don’t know, go from one place to the other, places you like. Then, you’ll start finding things, images will be forming into your head, consider them as apparitions.

When you get back home, develop, print and start looking at what you’ve done, all of  the fish you’ve caught. Print your photos and tape them to a wall. Look at them. Play around with the L, cropping and framing, and you will learn about composition and geometry. Enlarge what you frame and leave it on the wall. By looking, you will learn to see. When you agree that a photograph is not good, throw it out. Tape the best ones higher on the wall, and eventually look at those only (keeping the not-so-good one gets you used to not-so-goodness). Save the good ones, but throw everything else away, because the psyche retains everything you keep.

Then use your time to do other things, and don’t worry about it. Start studying the work of others and looking for something good in whatever comes into your hands: books, magazines, etc. and keep the best ones, and cut them out if you can, keep the good things and tape them to the wall next to yours, and if you can’t cut them out, open the book or magazine at the good pages and leave it open. Leave it there for weeks, months, until it speaks to you: it takes time to see, but the secret will slowly reveal itself, and eventually you will see what is good and the essence of everything.

Go on with your life, draw a bit, take a walk, but don’t force yourself to take photographs: this kills the poetry, the life in it gets sick. It would be like forcing love or a friendship: you can’t do it. Take a new journey: go to Porto Aguire, ride down the Baker to the storms in Aysén; Valparaiso is always beautiful, get lost in the magic, get lost for days up and down its slopes and streets, sleep in a sleeping bag, soak in reality – like a swimmer in the water – and let nothing conventional distract you.

Let your feet guide you, slowly, as if you were cured by the pleasure of looking, humming, and what you will see you will start photographing more carefully, and you will learn about composition and framing, you will do it with your camera, and your net will be filled with fish when you arrive home. Learn about focus, aperture, close-ups, saturation, shutter speed. Learn how to play with your camera and its possibilities. Collect poetry (yours and that of others), keep everything good you can find, even that done by others. Make a collection of good things: like a small museum in a folder.

Photograph the way you like it. Don’t believe in anything but your taste, you are life and it’s life that chooses… You are the only criterion. Keep learning. When you have some good photos, enlarge them, make a small exhibition or put them in a book and have it bound. Showing your photographs will make you realize what they are, but you will understand only when you will see them in front of others. Making an exhibition is giving something, like giving food, it’s good that others are shown something done with seriousness and joy. It’s not bragging, it’s good for you because it gives you feedback.

That’s enough to start. It’s about vagabonding, sitting down under a tree anywhere. It’s about wandering in the universe by yourself: you will start looking again. The conventional world puts a veil over your eyes, it’s a matter of taking it off during your time as a photographer.”

Stay well,

Michael

The opening reception for Monalog’s show at Penn State was a resounding success and I was asked to do a radio interview with Maxx Foxx, who has some rather innovative programming on several radio stations in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.  Of course I said yes! Then I had to think about the reality that I’ve never done one of these before!

Turns out Maxx has spent a good part of his life making photographs and was incredibly knowledgeable of all things analog black and white. We talked about Monalog and its mission, what makes black and white images so special and then strolled around the gallery and discussed the photographs in the exhibit.

I couldn’t have had a better time and apparently didn’t make a fool of myself. I guess when you are passionate about something it’s easy to express it. And expressing it made me feel even stronger about what Monalog is about … what I am about.

All this self-affirmation makes me want to work harder this year, and that’s a good thing! Funny how unexpected little opportunities can result in outcomes that can make large impacts.

Stay well,

Michael

Just pulled up Google to check on the price of roll of Tri-X 36 exposure and saw this from B&H: “Tri-X 400 Film – Hurry, Price Subject to Change”.  At $12.99 a roll I had to take a deep breath. I think the last time I looked several months ago it was $11.99

#$@%^&*!

It was then that I started hunting around on eBay and found some recently expired rolls for $7.99 with the same dates as what was in my freezer. Guess what … I grabbed it fast!

How about the cost of 100 sheet box of Ilford Classic Multigrade 8 x10 fiber paper? $139.90.

Ok, I think you get the point.

The cost of black and white analog materials has become pretty expensive. On the other hand, so has everything else. An era of high inflation, combined with the cost of manufacturing products for a somewhat small market is not a happy combination. Nevertheless, that’s the hand those of us dedicated to this wonderful medium have been dealt. We’re not alone. Photography is my avocation, but my very serious hobby is listening to vinyl.  I buy a lot of records. Just ask my wife about my habit. A typical audiophile grade gatefold reissue of say a classic 1950’s jazz title now costs between $35-$40, but more deluxe offerings can cost over $100. When I first started buying records in the Sixties they cost about $3-$4.

And while the vinyl resurgence together with digital streaming has helped to push aside CDs as a major media source, the record market is still a relatively small one like that for film. At least with a CD you get a plastic container, a little paper and a disc. With streaming you get nothing except greater convenience. And that’s what all of this is about for those that live in the digital world, be it photography or audio … convenience.

So you can let rising costs and all that digital convenience give you all you need to push you over the edge and embrace the dark side. But don’t be too hasty. The superiority of black and white analog photography and vinyl notwithstanding, do you really want to get onto the digital equipment merry go round, as new cameras with more megapixels and “features” make the shiny plastic model you just purchased obsolete? Just get the new one, but don’t worry, in two years you’ll want the new, new one. And on and on.

So what to do? If you care about your art and have a real passion don’t give up on what makes it all possible. Same with listening to music. You do get what you pay for, and in the end with film you’re going to save on all that constant gear churn and keep your stress down.

Maybe with film the price forces us to slow down a little more and be more selective when we click the shutter, and that’s not a bad thing.

And don’t forget about eBay.

Stay well,

Michael

I read an interview of street photographer John Free on the Internet awhile back concerning the differences and challenges of documentary, photojournalism and street photography. I think what he said helped me to crystalize some of my thinking about my own work, interests and projects. Here is what he said:

“I think that the three most important and also difficult forms or types of photography, is social documentary, photojournalism and fine art street photography, which was called straight photography when I started. I think that the difference between them is rather simple to understand. In photojournalism, six photographs with captions might be required. Social documentary photography requires 25-50 photos, which are each supported by a caption or short story. In street photography, it all must be done with one photograph and with no caption to help explain what cannot be seen. No caption and no posing, make street photography the most difficult form of photography that I have ever been involved with.”

One thing though, when it comes to social documentary photography, I’m not sure you really need to have as many as 25-50 photographs supported by captions or a story for the work to be a successful and cohesive effort in conveying what the photographer had in mind. But let’s move on.

Wright Morris is one of my favorite photographers. Morris was a great writer and photographer who pioneered the concept of the “photo-text” in the 1940s, combining his photography with his writing to tell a story. His photo-text books included The Inhabitants, The Home Place and God’s Country and My People.

I am very interested in the photo-text idea and think I would like to give it a try. I have an ongoing project on doorways and a number of years ago I wrote an introduction for it.  I enjoyed doing that quite a bit and it was useful in helping me to better bring into focus my thinking about why the work was so important to me. And while I am thinking about other photographic projects that could have a written piece that accompanies the work, typically I have concentrated more on street related images that must stand on their own and tell their own story for me and the viewer. Reading Free’s comments makes me think what might be most interesting and rewarding would be coupling some written thoughts with individual photographs that must stand on their own. My feeling is that both the project and individual image work coupled with writings could go well in self-published monographs.

When I was instructing at Delaware Valley University and Temple University retirement programs I wanted the students to write about what they hoped to accomplish and then did, as well as what the work meant to them.  I felt this would help crystalize things, and writing about each picture would further help to tie their portfolios together. After seeing what the students accomplished, I was more than satisfied with my strategy and was convinced that writing could be a great tool in one’s photographic arsenal! Problem was I didn’t follow my own advice!

Now I hope to!

Hey it’s a new year! What do you think?

Stay well,

Michael

So, the end of another entertaining year and the beginning of what will hopefully be a better one. The last five or six years have been a pretty wild ride haven’t they! They certainly have been in the United States, but also all over the world. As bad as things have been here with ongoing challenges to our democracy, and more it could be much worse. How about waking up every morning in Ukraine, or in Afghanistan, especially if you’re a woman?

What will 2023 bring? Who the hell knows? So, what can we do as individuals? Continue to be aware and be ready to make a difference in any way we can … in small ways or large. Here, the beginning of the 2024 election cycle is about ready to start and already we have the former occupant of the White House running. With any luck, the creep won’t get very far, bogged down in a myriad of legal and other issues.

I’ve written in previous New Year’s entries that we live in strange and challenging times. That hasn’t changed! Along with family, my dog Sparky, and the values and beliefs I hold dear, my photographic life and all the things that are part of it – especially the friends I have made – are what matter most to me. As bad as things have been here in America, our lives are pretty damn good. Just turn on the news and see how much worse things could be! The worst is to sit around and become creatively paralyzed because of all the insanity. Better to think about all there is to be grateful for and get out there and photograph, or do something photographically! I continue to be resolved not to let the bastards get me down, to do what I can to make some kind of difference and continue to “live a photographic life”. That’s what I decided to do in 2022 and I’m rededicating myself to the same in 2023. I mean, really, what choice do I have?

What choices do any of us really have? Well actually we do have choices, but the other ones are useless copouts.  If you became a photo bozo in 2022, weighed down by the all the bad politics, the economy, the damn virus and all the other crap, don’t be one in 2023. Okay?

So there!

Best wishes for a happy, healthy new year filled with creativity, meaning and purpose.

Stay safe,

Michael