Walker Evans & Zoe Strauss.....




Jacob Holdt & Zoe Strauss...


On Friday night I had the pleasure of attending Between Frames, part of the ongoing Conversations with Photographers series at Project Basho. What a pleasure to listen to two deeply mindful artists discuss their craft, and it was another reminder that what is going on at Basho is the best thing that is happening to the photographic arts in Philadelphia. Get on the mailing list and commit to attending an upcoming lecture or discussion... I guarantee you will be back for more.


Koichiro Kurita: After leaving the field of commercial photography at age 40, Koichiro Kurita pursued fine art photography concentrating on landscapes. His landscapes are quiet and serene, almost meditative. He photographs with an 8x10 camera and makes large platinum/palladium prints on hand-made Japanese Gampi paper. His photographs are part of the collections of notable museums such as George Eastman House, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris.\





Stuart Rome: After shooting a series of cultural and sociological photographs in Haiti in the 1980's, Rome developed a keen interest in the connection between individuals and the natural world which ultimately led to his focus on landscape photography. His photographs are part of the collections of notable museums such as The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Tokyo Institute of Polytechnics, Yale Art Museum, and The Philadelphia Museum of Art.


Onward '09 A journey for Emerging Photographers
Why Can't Us??.... Wrong!!!



I just heard this today for the first time... and it's supposedly the new hot slogan for the Phillies World Series run. It is wrong in so many ways... completely incorrect Philly speak. The correct slogan should be....

Why Can't Wheeze?
A friend of mine recently commemorated the tenth anniversary of his father's death, and was saddened at the fact that he hadn't been able to visit his dad's grave in many years. He lives in Arizona and his dad is buried in a small town in Wisconsin. Hearing this I mentioned to him that I would soon be driving across the entire length of Wisconsin and the small town, Ixonia, was more or less right along my way up to Superior, and I'd be happy to try to get some photos of the site. (what those shots would be I hadn't the slightest clue...I only knew that I didn't want to simply send him a photograph of a grave stone) I ended up using Polaroid film and only took two shots after driving through the tiny cemetery a couple times. I digitally cross processed the color and then printed them on rice paper. I'm really happy with the results.





Glenview Memorial Garden
Ixonia, Wisconsin (2008)
Go Phillies!

The more things change the more they stay the same. The Phillies have broken my heart so many times over the years and yet they remain my true sports love. I've lived here in the Philadelphia area all of my not quite 50 years. I was 5 years old when I first became aware of Johnny Callison and Dick Allen. I can vividly remember driving through Mt Airy and my dad pointing out Richie Allen's house every time we would pass by. (And I still think about that when I pass it today. It was a big deal back then for a black athlete to have a house in that section of town, and yet today it is almost laughable that the star of a major league baseball team lived there)




In the late 60's and early 70's I attempted to play catcher for my local little league team and Tim McCarver was my idol.I can remember a game at Connie Mack stadium on bat give away night and being ecstatic because I got a Tim McCarver bat.(Can you believe they gave away actual baseball bats to thousands of kids ?)



A good friend from High School was the team bat boy and throughout the late 70's and early 80's I would sometimes get a last minute call that tickets were available.The highlight of those days was getting Bake McBride's unused tickets way up in the nose bleed section of Veteran's Stadium for the final game of the 1980 World Series. To this day that is the single greatest sporting event I have ever attended.




With all of the changes in major league sports over the years, one thing remains constant in South Philadelphia, and that is the post game celebrations that occur after a major victory by the Phillies or the Eagles or Flyers. Zoe Strauss took these great shots last night at Broad & Tasker Streets. As soon as I saw them I was struck by their timelessness as they relate to Philadelphia sports. These could just as easily be mid-70's or 80's celebrations... they are even break dancing for gosh sakes!





More of Zoe's shots from last night are on her Flickr site.
Images from a week in Minnesota....



I'm back in the darkroom for the first time since high school in the late 1970's. I am taking a basic Black & White class at Abington Art Center and it is intoxicating. The smell of the chemicals on my hands and the pleasure of watching a print come to life in front of my eyes.... intensely satisfying. Photography is becoming real again.



photogram 10.15.08
Road trip photography.... chocolate polas taken from inside the car.


Pennsylvania Turnpike...



Ohio Turnpike...



Chicago Skyline...



Sears Tower...

What's your Color IQ ?

I usually hate it when people email me links and say "you have to check this out!"... mostly because nine times out of ten they are links to videos and since I don't have speakers hooked up to my computer and I almost never watch anything that requires sound on my computer, I just typically ignore the links I get.

Today however, a friend sent me one of the coolest links I've seen in a long time. It's a color IQ test... 100% visual.... no sound required! It's probably a good way to test your monitor and your color IQ at the same time. And not to brag or anything, but this morning I was in a rush to get to work and I did the test as fast as I could, spent no more than ten minutes on it, and scored 8. I'm pretty sure I could have gotten a perfect score if I had spent another 10 minutes on it. See if you can beat me!

Color IQ Test

I will be spending the next ten days in Northern Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness... with a good friend, three dogs, and about a dozen cameras between us... everything from a Holga to a 4 X 5 View camera.
Ten days away from politics, financial disasters, internet, emails, TV, cell phones, etc. There is absolutely nothing up there but trees & water.... endless numbers of lakes and woods... just spectacular beauty, the darkest skies, and pure clean air.