Landscape artist Jeremy Harper and I have a space at this weekend’s art walk at the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum. I will have a few of my framed prints for sale as well as posters, a couple limited edition books, cards, t-shirts, etcetera. Hope to see you there.
Published in 1959, Robert Frank’s The Americans is still one of the most influential photography books of all time. To make the book, Frank took a series of cross country road trips over a two year period in which he shot 767 rolls of film, yielding about 27,000 photographs. That’s a lot of photos, even by today’s standards. What’s interesting is that he didn’t see any of his work until he was completely finished with his travels, when he processed the film and made 1,000 prints of his best shots in his apartment in New York City. Yes, of course, this now anachronistic approach was the only way for a photographer at the time. But for those like me with a decidedly slow, non-digital approach, living in a more-is-better, instant gratification age, the influence of Frank’s book—and it’s shelf life—offers a glimmer of hope.
Here’s another interesting quote regarding the creative process coming from one of my favorite photographers:
“I don’t know what’s important to the people who look at my photos. What’s important to me is to make them. I work all the time, but there are only a few of my photos that I find really good. I am not even sure that I am really a good photographer. I think that anyone working as I do could do the same. But my purpose is not to prove my talent. I photograph almost every day, except when it’s too cold for traveling the way I do — as in this time of winter. Sometimes my photos are OK, other times they are not, but I think that eventually something will come out of my work. I don’t worry about it.”
– photo and quote josef koudelka, via a photo student
Good news coming from the Impossible Project today. After being discontinued in 2008, polaroid film has been resurrected …
“As the last quantities of carefully stored original Polaroid films are currently melting like snow in the sun, it is about time to introduce a new chapter of analog Instant Photography.”
– photo and quote from The Impossible Project
Interesting quote from director Jim Jarmusch about encouraging people to steal ideas. Jarmusch made Down By Law and Deadman, two of my favorite films. The quote was taken from an interview on www.moviemaker.com. Not sure who made the graphic.
