STAY HUNGRY. STAY BUSY. STAY ALIVE...

Fruity Net Curtain
California 2010
Ballet and Mustard
California 2010

SHOOTING PLEASURE..

I was talking with an old college friend the other day about the importance, and difficulty, of continually making pictures in these uncertain times. My issue was mainly the cost of shooting with film, processing, printing, travel. These were costs I may not be able to recoup for some time so I often found it hard to justify my camera outings. My friend on the other hand had gone the digital route some eight years ago had recently purchased a high speck digital camera for the same price as a small house. He was finding it hard to find the time to go out and shoot and had discovered that the processing and getting that image how he wanted took far too long. He also had to pay off his camera so needed some kind of return.

We both came to the conclusion that in the eighteen years since we were at college together our work had matured to the point that it was not just a case of going out and snapping away, but it was more about going out and producing something that could either be sold as a fine print, or it had to be something you were getting paid to do. In other words the days of shooting for pleasure were over...

				All Over the Map By Peggy Roalf Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011 The Americn road trip photo essay has been a mainstay in photography that goes back to Walker Evans in the 1930s, with Robert Frank, Stephen Shore, Joel Sternfeld, and more recently, Alec Soth updating the genre. Soul searching through closely observed, but not lived scenes of banality and hardship, combined with an "I drive ergo I exist" ethos, is probably the most American form of existentialism, with the ubiquitous crummy-motel-room-with-tv view outpacing the crossroads-with-gas-station in image hits per project. A visit to North South East West, an exhibition of road trip images by Richard Benson, at Pace MacGill Gallery, left me wanting to know exactly how he makes “multiple impression inkjet prints,” but little more. These formal compositions, often with an element such as a tree or a telephone pole in the middle of the scene, and more often shot under shimmering blue skies, made the few images with threatening gray skies seem more interesting than they are. But the color and the print quality is extraordinary, making this show a must for anyone who makes, appreciates, prints, or collects photographs. Left: Detroit, MI, 2009. Right: Dallas, TX, 2008. Copyright and courtesy Doug Rickard. Back at my computer, I immediately started looking at Doug Rickard’s A New American Picture, from 2010, which in book form is currently unavailable. The work, which was recently on view at Stephen Wirtz Gallery in San Francisco, has developed something of a cult following for several reasons. Rickard has subverted the road trip photo essay genre in particular, and photography in general, by collecting and re-photographing Google Street View images from down-at-the-heels locales across the country. Because there are people in many of the views, the work brings up some serious questions about the benign intention of the program as claimed by Google. The picture quality, not so good to start out with, is further degraded by being re-photographed, using a large-format camera, off a large-scale monitor. There should be nothing notable about these pictures as photographs, but they are mesmerizing and troubling. Selections from A New American Picture by Doug Rickard can be seen in the upcoming New Photography 2011 show, opening September 28h at MoMA.

Photography - New Documentary Forms

Akram Zaatari + Mitch Epstein + Luc Delahaye + Guy Tillim

Wednesday, 21 September 10:00 - 18:00

Tate Modern, Bankside, Southbank, SE1 9TG

Exhibitions: , Art, Photography, Gallery

How Much: £15.50 (Admission) , £13.50 (Concessions) , £0.00 (Members Free)

Five rooms at the Tate will house photographic works by five contemporary photographers exploring the power of the camera as a documentary medium.

Themes range from conflicts in Iraq, elections in Congo and power production in the US.

Until 31.03.12

Don't forget to check out the new Diane Arbus exhibition too...

Naked people standing around.

PRICELESS..

I am almost at the end of my photography shooting break and shall soon be dusting off the old battered 5/4 to venture out again in search of photographic treasures. Now that the days are getting shorter and the nights longer, darker and often more clear, I look forward to producing some new Night Visions, something I have not done for some time.
I happened to be in the gallery today delivering some prints when a couple walked in browsing the current group show of which I have a couple of pieces showing. It was clear that they liked my work and I offered to show them some of latest Doyles fresh from the darkroom. Its been a while since I talked passionately about my own work, my inspirations and reasoning for shooting this that and the other, but its something I always tune into if someone is shows a genuine interest.
Of course it will be nice if that lovely couple come back and purchase something, but the passion for my work has been ignited and that is simply priceless..