This week I started my second year of documenting a local high school wrestling team.

Wrestling Series



Garage Window...
(2007 Polaroid SX-70)
Archival Ink Jet. 6" X 6".
Matted & Framed. Signed on back
$300.... all proceeds go to
Little Abington Meetinghouse restoration project

Read about Little Abington
The Year in Review.....2007

It is December 1st, and I am writing my year in review because my Photography year is over. I’m wiped out and need a short break. I have busted my ass this past year, and worked harder on my Photography than just about anything I have ever worked on.

I just submitted two framed photos to the last juried show of the year, and there is nothing else left on the photography to-do list. I am also having surgery in two weeks, so there will be little going on for the rest of this month. Therefore, the Photo year is finished, and it is time to reflect and analyze.

My goal for 2007 was simple. I wanted to have something exhibited. I had a very loose definition of what exhibited meant, but unless my work is accepted into the juried show I entered today, I will not accomplish my goal.

While disappointed, I am very satisfied with my efforts and the things that were accomplished this past year. I started thinking about everything I did in 2007 and it is amazing…..

1.I started the year off at the Mummer’s Parade, and had one of my photos published on the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Blog… Blinq

2.I followed my son’s Wrestling team throughout their season, taking hundred’s of photograph’s at every match, created a blog for the team, and produced a slideshow set to music for the team’s year end banquet.


3.Did four more Nude shoots, one high key, one in an abandoned farmhouse, one in a motel room, and one outside in sub-freezing weather.

4. Drove at least three thousand miles on Photo road trips
· Lancaster County
· Complete length of Route 6 from Scranton to Erie
· Drove the back roads all the way to Pittsburg
· Chincoteague, Virginia
· North Carolina

5. Went to New York City three times for Photo shows and saw at least 15 different photography exhibits, including Zoe Strauss, Steven Shore, Robert Capa, Andre Kertesz…

6. Submitted work to:
· The Sun Magazine
· JPG Magazine
· Aperture Photography Competition
· Hey, Hot Shot! Competition
· New York Institute of Photography Competition
· f-stop Magazine Competition
· Curatorial Review at Abington Art Center
· Suntory What is Zen? Competition
· Project Basho Juried Competition
· Abington Art Center Juried Art Show

7. Began doing some photography related writing:
· Had a Polaroid story published in JPG Magazine (issue 12)
· Had two articles published on Fallon & Rosof’s Artblog
· Started my own Photo/Literary blog…. Wabiblogi

8. Had some photos published on websites:
· Flak Photo of the day
· Metroblogging Philadelphia
· Blinq (Philadelphia Inquirer)
· Qarrtsilini
· Schmap

9. Spent an enormous amount of money on Polaroid film, photography Books,vintage cameras,custom framing, photoshop classes, seminars, etc etc. etc.

10. Cared enough to keep track of everything I did, and I’m so glad I did that, because after the umpteenth rejection or non-response from a photo competition, it is really easy to feel like a failure. This list proves that I worked very hard and accomplished many things this year. It was a very good year.
Woo Foo... Potatochips....and Diane Arbus


ShowHistory.com

This is a photograph of Charlie "Woo Foo" Lucas and Andy "Potatochips" Patoachess, at Huberts Dime Museum & Flea Circus, sometime in the late 1950's. In 2003, Philadelphia book dealer and African-Americana collector Bob Langmuir purchased a pile of old papers that contained the documents and records kept by Lucas during the years he managed Huberts. Charlie Lucas was a one time side show performer known as Woo Foo, and Potatochips was a singer, dancer and comedian at Huberts.

Turns out that among these old papers were at least 21 rare and early photographs taken by frequent Huberts visitor, Diane Arbus. (Other frequent visitors to Huberts included Tom Wolfe, Bob Dylan, and Lenny Bruce)


This is the first photograph in Aperture's 1972 Diane Arbus Monograph, titled Russian Midget Friends in a Living Room on 100th Street, N.Y.C 1963 In this Monograph Arbus is quoted from lectures and writings, including....

Freaks was a thing I photographed a lot. It was one of the first things I photographed and it had a terrific kind of excitement for me. I just used to adore them. I still do adore some of them…. There’s a quality of legend about freaks. Like a person in a fairy tale who stops you and demands that you answer a riddle. Most people go through life dreading they’ll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They’ve already passed their test in life. They’re aristocrats.


During her visits to Huberts in 1959, Arbus was also studying under Lisette Model.
While the two photographers share similar styles, one of the biggest differences is that Model rarely made personal connections with her subjects, while Arbus made intimate and long lasting connections with hers. She had just ended 14 years of successful fashion photography, and yet she decribes her Huberts shots as one of the first things I photographed. She had discovered excitement and a connection to her art. She connected with Charlie Lucas and left him with these newly discovered prints, and she connected with Andy Potoachess,visiting him again years later for a portrait in his living room.

This collection of rare Diane Arbus prints and Huberts memorabilia will be sold at auction sometime next year by Phillips de Pury & Co. There will be a pre-sale exhibition in February at Steve Turner Gallery in Los Angeles, and a yet to be determined New York exhibit in Late March/Early April.

The fascinating story of Bob Langmuir's discovery and journey to authenticate the photographs is the subject of a soon to be released book by Harcourt Trade Publishers, Hubert’s Freaks: The Rare-Book Dealer, the Times Square Talker, and the Lost Photos of Diane Arbus, by Gregory Gibson )

Read this on Artblog


Andre Kertesz: The Polaroids
October 18- November 24, 2007
Silverstein Gallery
535 West 24 Street, NYC

My Review on Art Blog

Silverstein Gallery

Also saw.....

Robert Capa @ International Center of Photography
Taj Forer @ Yossi Milo
Andreas Feininger @ Alan Klotz Gallery
Close at Hand (Mariana Cook) @ Deborah Bell


Willow Grove Naval Air Station 11.11.2007
Happy Veteran's Day!


PASA Farm Images submission
Project Basho



Submitted 4 Polaroids to the Onward 2008 Emerging Photographers competition
Submitted to Suntory Limited What is Zen? photography contest...


Buried palm tree found on the beach in Vero, Florida. A completely natural and random Zen garden created by the sun, the wind, the water....
Curatorial review submission for a solo Polaroid show in 2008 has been submitted!
Hand delivered on the last day..... what else is new?
Impatience.... I am always trying to scan my polaroids before they are completely dry.Resulting in some interesting effects sometimes.
A whirlwind afternoon of NYC photography.....

Roberto De Luna at Halpert 511 W 25th
Evolution of the Digital Portrait at ClampArt 521 W 25th
Strange Magic at Luring Augustine 531 W 24th
First Contact at Silverstein 535 W 24th
Let You Motto Be Resistance at ICP 1133 Ave of the Americas
Stephen Shore at ICP 1133 Ave of the Americas

My new project will be learning how to tame this beast... on loaner from my trusting Mother.


Today I submitted six photos to The Sun magazine. I have loved the photography selections in that magazine for years now.
I think these two have the best shot at acceptance.


More Digital vs. Polaroid....

Polaroid version-


Digital version-


1977

I remember darkness and being the first driver
on the road behind them.I followed the curve to the left and
slowed down when I noticed they had not.I remember the front of their
car crumpled around the telephone pole, and the gurgling response
to my attempted conversation with the passenger.I can see the driver
getting out of the car and spinning in circles in his futile attempts
at running away.And the faces of the neighbors peering through the glass
of the doors they refused to open when I begged for help.I remember the
police finally arriving and telling me everything was under control.

And I remember being so afraid of the dark for a long long time.
Zoe Strauss closing party @ Silverstein Gallery in New York.

Konica Auto S-2....my first camera. Still have it and it works beautifully.

I am exploring Digital vs. Polaroid......

Digital Blue Wagon


Polaroid Blue Wagon
9th Street, Philadelphia's Italian Market

Digital Bimbo


Polaroid Bimbo