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

I’ve written several entries on Vivian Maier and then on another previously unknown great photographer, Jack Sharp. I’ve thought about all the other world class photographers out there making important images that will most likely never be seen by most of us, let alone get the rightful recognition they deserve … either because showing their work did not matter to them or they just weren’t recognized for the greatness they had. I’ve had the good fortune to come to know a number of world class photographers that most will never know about; they work primarily because of their passion and a rage to do what they love. My guess is that there’s a treasure trove of work out there waiting to be discovered. I hope it will be! Meanwhile though, we get bogged down by the dreck that’s out there masquerading for high art.

So how many Vivian Maiers and Jack Sharps are out there … past and present, waiting to be discovered or rediscovered?  The short answer is we will never know, but I know I will be inspired by their work and their passion for what they deeply love/loved wherever they are. Just this past week my neighbor saved an article from the NY Times he thought I would enjoy. It was all about another newly discovered/rediscovered black and white film photographer. Yet another Vivian Maier and Jack Sharp!  For all of you that know about this, yes, I’m behind the power curve on this one, but better late than never! The newest find is Zaharia Cusnir and I highly recommend you check out the December 12th NY Times story here https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/19/world/europe/photographer-moldova-soviet-cusnir.html.

Cusnir is yet another example of an individual that lived a complete photographic life out of sheer passion, and that passion drove him to do great work with the simplest of tools that most would sneer at today. He developed his film and created his prints in a small bedroom in his tiny house. One can only imagine his darkroom equipment! Born in 1912 and living in what was once the Kingdom of Romania, but was annexed and became part of the Soviet Union and is now Moldova, Cusnir photographed life around him primarily during the Fifties and Sixties. He was completely unknown, except to those who lived around him. He died in 1993, but it wasn’t until 2016 that 4,000 of his negatives were discovered by accident when a few of them fell through a hole in the ceiling of his old home and were discovered by a student researching to do a film documentary of the village he had lived in. They were hidden in the attic were Cusnir stored them prior to his death … and the rest as they say is history. Now there are shows throughout Europe, one coming up in the US and perhaps a tabletop book.

I’m grateful and frankly humbled by this important discovery, and beginning to think there will be more such discoveries/rediscoveries in the years to come as more and more people are tuned into what they are finding. Like Maier, and Diane Arbus, Cusnir used nothing more than a simple twin lens reflex camera, but in this case, it was not a mighty Rolleiflex, but rather a cheap and crude pre-World War II Soviet made Lubitel.  Maybe that is why his work is so good. One camera, one lens, always the same, and not the best quality. Because that was all Cusnir had access to or could afford, he was forced to learn how to get the very most out of it and force it to enable him to bring his wonderful vision to fruition. All of this while living in a repressive and stultifying society that was post World War II Eastern Europe.

For these reasons alone, he may be a more impressive a figure than the other new discoveries and is a lesson on what can be achieved if you deeply love what you’re doing and are completely dedicated to the fulfillment of your vision, no matter what the struggle or are.

The photographic world is a better place because of Zaharia Cusnir.

Stay well,

Michael

Thankfully I’m pretty much feeling back to my normal self. That having been said, I am aware that danger still lurks as we continue to deal with the trifecta of Covid, flu and the RSV virus. But wait, it’s that time of the year again … The Holidays. And yes, it’s another time to think long and hard about what we should be thankful for. Actually I think about that every day, but there is something about this time of the year that is different … at least for me. For one thing my business slows down. Basically, between Thanksgiving week and the first week of the new year there isn’t much going on in the consulting world. Most working people would dread that. Money stops coming in and you don’t have a lot to do … that is if you don’t have stuff to do … like photography!

So, my holiday season is a bit longer. Okay, this means less cash, but I have more time on my hands to do things that are meaningful to me. And that doesn’t include binging on Netflix or Hulu! Unfortunately, this year’s holiday season got off to a bad start with Covid and now I am spending a good chunk of time taking care of my wife post-surgery; schlepping her around, and doing a lot of things she routinely does that I’m pretty much oblivious to or take for granted.

No matter, because the holidays are a great time to make some time to get out there and photograph! There’s always something going on that could be photographically interesting. For example, the other day one of my neighbors mentioned there was going to be a public celebration of the first night of Chanukah with a ceremonial menorah lighting in downtown Doylestown where I live. Neato torpedo … this fits in well with a project I am working on! And like that on Sunday the weather cooperated, sunny and brisk; I grabbed my Leica M3 and 50mm Summicron lens and off I went. I had a lot of fun working my way in close to the little kids spinning dreidels, eating jelly donuts and just having fun. I know I looked funny to the parents holding onto their dreadnaught size DSLRs with the mega long zoom lenses, but no matter, maybe I got a keeper.

So, I hope to spend a nice portion of my holiday time living a photographic life, whether its making photographs, being in the darkroom, working with my Monalog Collective colleagues on projects and shows we have coming up, or just reading, studying and thinking about my avocation.

Look, I know everyone is busy, especially during this time of the year with all sorts of things that don’t remotely have anything to do with photography. But the holiday time comes and goes with a blink of the eye, and before you know it you are back to the grind. So, find some time, even if it’s just a little time, to spend on your photography. No pressure … make some pictures, or don’t. There is plenty else you can do. When was the last time you straightened up your darkroom (you know you’ve been meaning to do that for years!)? Then there are those pesky negatives sitting on your enlarging bench you need to develop. What about setting out some goals for the new year?

Whatever it is you do, have fun, and do live a photographic life, if only for a little while.

Happy holidays and stay well,

Michael