Follow PHOTO/arts Magazine.... win a book!

I'm going to take a couple weeks off from doing any blogging. I need a short hiatus while I organize my photo projects, catch up on some reading, and sort some new ideas for the fourth year of PHOTO/arts Magazine.

Here is a little contest to keep you occupied during my short break. Simply use the gadget on the right hand column to follow this blog. On January 15th I will randomly select two followers who will win their choice of one of the books shown below. Click the links below each book to find out more about them. All you need to do is follow this blog between now and January 15th. That's it! Oh, and if you recommend a friend to follow PHOTO/arts Magazine, please let me know by commenting to this post. If your friend is one of the winners, I'll send you a book too! And for those who already follow PHOTO/arts, no need to do anything... you are already entered!

Happy New Year!


Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans




The Jazz Loft Project

Best wishes to all for the Holidays and a Happy New Year!

Decade of Deception...





Has there ever been a decade full of more deception and disappointment?

Enron
AIG
Baseball on Steroids
Eliot Spitzer
Credit Default Swaps
Weapons of Mass Destruction
John Edwards
Wall Street
Larry Craig
ACORN
Ted Haggard
Balloon Boy
Freddie & Fannie
Bernie Madoff
Bin Laden still at large
Tiger Woods


read... Tiger Woods, Person of the Year

The Big Zero

blizzard economics

Nothing left on the shelves except the $5+ per dozen Organic Free Range eggs on the morning of the Christmas Blizzard of 2009

Observations....

1. The demand for milk & eggs is directly proportional to the predicted amount of snowfall.

2. No one will spend $5.49 for a dozen eggs, even on the morning of a major snow storm.

2009...

The year of driving around suburbia. By year end I will have logged over 14,000 miles in my car, driving in circles around the Philly suburbs. Always with my camera. Always watching with the photographer's eye. I see the same architectural facades over and over from day to day, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day. Borderline obsessive compulsive fixations on particular buildings and strip malls. Suppressing rage and anger at the mindless uniformity of retail architectural style and signage.

I am slowly noticing in my photographic work from the past year a context not just to the visual evidence of economic recession , but also to cultural trends and elements of the changing tide of American consumerism. The illusion of greater value for the dollar, the seductive promise of all you can eat. The inescapable allure of the going out of business sale. I am bombarded with these messages every day and every mile.




Dollar General. 2009


Buffet. 2009


Goodwill. 2009

Hollywood Video. (Lansdale, Pa.). c.h.paquette 2009



Hollywood Video. (Warminster, Pa.) c.h.paquette 2009

These Traumatic Times

Continuing the study of words and music of Gil Scott-Heron, the following is from Notes from First Minute of a New Day, written in 1975. These words are eerily pertinent to the present times, not just in their perfect analogy to Wall Street cannibals devouring their own, but also in their strident call for self sufficiency and family unity as a source of strength. In 1972, Scott-Heron wrote, "We do not need more legislation or more liberals. What we need is more self-love and self-respect. By every means necessary!" It seems clear that the revolution of change that Scott-Heron refers to has little to do with government assistance, and I'm certain his world view was/is for the most part based on a general distrust of government.(To say the least!) I would love to know how he would edit or change these notes if he were writing them today.

"There is a revolution going on in America/the World; a change as swift as blackening skies when the rains come, as fresh and clear as the air after the rain. We need change.

The seeds of this revolution were planted hundreds of years ago; in slave ships, in cotton fields, in tepees, in the souls of brave men. The seeds were watered, nurtured and bloom now in our hands as we rock our babies.

It is mid-winter in America; a man made season of shattered dreams and shocked citizens, fumbling and frustrated beneath the crush of greed of corporate monsters and economic manipulators gone wild. There are bitter winds born in the knowledge of secret plans hatched by Western Money Men that backfired and grew out of control to eat its own.

We must support ourselves and stand fast together even as pressure disperses our enemies and bangs at our doors. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. We must all do what we can for each other to weather this blizzard.

Now more than ever all the family must be together, to comfort, to protect, to guide, to survive because... there is a revolution going on in America/the World."

from Now and Then... The Poems of Gil Scott-Heron

Too Arrogant to Fail

Here's a new twist on TARP. This version is the Troubled Artist Relief Program. Seems Annie Leibovitz is in deep financial doo doo. She failed to meet a $24 Million loan payoff last September to Art Capital Group, who sued Leibovitz for "boldly deceptive conduct".(How dare they!) The whole mess was sorted out with Annie regaining control of her copyrights and her homes in exchange for a new balance due of $30 Million. The entire balance is due next summer. $30 Million. Not till next summer (whew!)

Leibovitz is taking stock of her inventory to try to figure out how to sell some stuff between now and next summer,and consulting with art experts who have urged her to avoid seeming "too desperate". (aka Bernie Madoff Reverse Psychology Sales Method... when the shit is about to hit the fan, act as if you really don't need any more investors, but "ok, if you insist...I guess I'll take your money... I mean, it's hardly worth the paperwork involved... sigh... yeah... no, make it out to cash")...

...and/or fall back on the old Price It So High That It Must Be Worth It, Right? method of selling art. (see Hooverville by Powhida & Townsend)

In a brilliant combination of all of the above, we are pleased to announce

The Not-At-All Desperate, Sure-Fire Investment, Limited Edition Master Sets By Annie

157 Glossy Photos, you heard it right, 157!!
Enough to decorate your entire vacation house, and still have some left over
to give to those hard to shop for friends & relatives.

Only TEN sets are planned*

All for just $3.5 Million per set!

But wait, there's more!!

Act Now and you can get in on Pre-Publication Super Special Pricing of only

$ 2.5 Million per set!

That's less than $16,000 per photo !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Operators are standing by

Void where prohibited by law. Read prospectus carefully. Consult your attorney. Investment is NOT guaranteed by the Federal Reserve Bank. Actual results may vary. Frames not included. Cash or Paypal only. No personal checks accepted. All sales are final. No returns. Official "White House Portrait of 2009" is not included in the set. You can get that one for free off of Flickr.

(*) "Planned" only means "Maybe" ten sets. There could be hundreds more.



Annie Leibovitz Tries to Regain Financial Footing

How Could This Happen to Annie Leibovitz?

Naturally, Goldman Sachs is involved

I'm honored to have Value City chosen to be included in the 2009 juried show at Abington Art Center. I am always impressed with the way AAC puts this annual show together with a subtle and seemingly deliberate connection of themes between independently submitted art works. Achieving a curated look from a random pool of submissions is an art form in itself. The show opens on Saturday December 12 with a reception from 3-5PM, and then runs through January.


Value City is part of my ongoing series In These Hard Times. Five images from the series are currently being displayed at The Painted Bride in Philadelphia through the end of December, and the photograph Goodwill has been chosen to be exhibited at the Missoula Art Museum in early 2010.



Value City by C.H.Paquette 2009

“We don’t have genes for reading. It’s an activity we invented, and by doing it, we show that our brain has the capacity to go beyond itself, to take all these circuits that were created for oral language or vision, and do something entirely different with them — deduction, critical analysis, imagination, contemplation.”

Dr. Maryanne Wolf
author of “Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain”

The Endless First Chapter

ABMB. Hooverville By William Powhida & Jade Townsend

“This is about how out of touch the art world is with economic reality.”

William Powhida


Tweaking the Big-Money Art World

Monk. photo by W. Eugene Smith

Jazz and Photography are inseparable for me. Jazz music has influenced my own artistic style for longer than I have consciously realized. Black & White photographs and Jazz were made for each other. Smokey, sultry, grainy images. If I close my eyes and imagine being in the darkroom, I will hear the barely audible sounds of Coltrane or Miles playing on the radio in the background. Temple University's WRTI hosted by Bob Perkins... "BP with The GM"... Bob Perkins with the Good Music. Goes back so many years it becomes part of my soul. I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately.Last month I saw Gil Scott-Heron perform at B B King's Blues club. Thirty years after seeing him perform for the first time in North Philly back in the late 70's. His music and lyrics have inspired me immensely all those years, and I have embraced them again as fully relevant to these hard times. Pieces of a Man. We Almost Lost Detroit. Winter in America. etc. etc.

Gil Scott-Heron. by C. H. Paquette (2009)



Two highly recommended items for Jazz and Photography/Film lovers...

The Jazz Loft Project

Thelonious Monk & Band. by W. Eugene Smith

In the late '50s and early '60s, photographer W. Eugene Smith made approximately 4,000 hours of reel-to-reel tape recordings, and took nearly 40,000 photos, in his lower Manhattan loft apartment. His was a building where the era's top jazz musicians stopped by for jam sessions at all hours of the night. In a series of four reports on NPR's Weekend Edition, culled from a 10-part series on WNYC, Sara Fishko explores the stories of The Jazz Loft. This is an incredible look into not only the world of the highpoint of the New York Jazz scene, but the fascinating voyeurism and obsessive nature of W. Eugene Smith.


The Jazz Baroness

Nica & Monk. unknown photographer


She was a beautiful British-born heiress from a powerful Jewish dynasty. He was a quirky African-American musical genius who helped pioneer the jazz revolution known as bebop. They met in Paris in the 1950s and were inseparable for the next 28 years, as she became a loyal friend and fiercely protective patron of some of the era's greatest musicians. THE JAZZ BARONESS chronicles this unlikely, controversial relationship. This very interesting documentary has been showing on HBO in recent weeks.The film weaves together archival footage and interviews with family members, friends, jazz historians and luminaries, among them Sonny Rollins, Quincy Jones, Thelonious Monk, Jr., Roy Haynes, Curtis Fuller, The Duchess of Devonshire and Clint Eastwood. THE JAZZ BARONESS also features footage of the groundbreaking Thelonious Monk Quartet playing such classics as "Straight, No Chaser," "The Bolivar Blues" and "Nutty," including a 1965 BBC appearance, when Monk finally began to get the recognition, if not the financial rewards, he had worked for. Historical documentary about a unique love story.

Jazz Baroness Website

Very interesting auction of photo books currently on iGavel

Charleston, South Carolina by Robert Frank 1955


Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans


This exhibition celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of The Americans, Robert Frank’s influential suite of black-and-white photographs made on a cross-country road trip in 1955–56. Although Frank’s depiction of American life was criticized when the book was released in the U.S. in 1959, it soon became recognized as a masterpiece of street photography. Born in Switzerland in 1924, Frank is considered one of the great living masters of photography. The exhibition features all 83 photographs published in The Americans and will be the first time that this body of work is presented to a New York audience.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
through January 3rd, 2010

Happy anniversary PHOTO/arts Magazine !...

Three years ago today I started this blog with the photograph below, which remains one of my favorites. A huge thank you to all who read this journal/magazine on a random or regular basis. I have tried very hard to maintain a balance between the unavoidable self absorption that all blogs inherently are, and topics beyond that myopia. I am very happy with the way this project has evolved in a short three years, and look forward to the road ahead. I hope you will continue to journey with me.


seed fury. 2006

Two of my favorite photographers from Flickr just happened to post independent images that work perfectly together as a strange diptych.

The top photo is by There's a Ghost in my Backyard

The bottom photo is by Salva Lopez

Let us first say what photography is not. A photograph is not a painting, a poem, a symphony, a dance. It is not just a pretty picture, not an exercise in contortionist techniques and sheer print quality. It is or should be a significant document, a penetrating statement, which can be described in a very simple term- selectivity.

Berenice Abbott
Photography at the Crossroads

weegee at a murder. 1942


Subway Killing Captured by a Photo Student

macy's parade. 1929


more fantastic Macy's Parade images can be found here

charis . edward weston 1941


model, muse, lover..... Icon

Charis Wilson, Dies at age 95

Church of the Nazarene. by Walker Evans 1936

empty retail . 2009

Walker Evans (on himself)

On April 8, 1975, two days before his death, Walker Evans spoke to a class at Harvard about the course of his life and work.

"I am self taught, and I still think that is a good way to be. You learn as you go and do. It is a little slow, but I think that's the way to work...

I have had a good number of years of more or less compulsive photography; I am devoted to it, and still get a great deal of excitement out of looking at things and getting them the way I want. However, you won't find me overly intellectual about what we are all interested in doing.

I work rather blindly, and I don't think an awful lot about what I am doing. I have a theory that seems to work with me that some of the best things you ever do sort of come through you. You don't know where you get the impetus and the response to what is before your eyes, but you are using your eyes all the time and teaching yourself unconsciously really from morning to night.

There are several tenets that go with this craft of ours. One of them is that the real gift and value in a picture is really not a thought; it is a sensation that is based on a feeling. Most people in our tradition are basically rather scared of feeling. You have to unpeel that before you can really get going and not be afraid of feeling".

from Inside the Photograph by Peter C Bunnell

mountains. Lansdale, Pa. 2009

”The main reason that artists don’t willingly describe or explain what they produce is, however, that the minute they do so they’ve admitted failure. Words are proof that the vision they had is not, in the opinion of some at least, fully there in the picture. Characterizing in words what they thought they’d shown is an acknowledgment that the photograph is unclear- that it is not art.”
Robert Adams
Why People Photograph



I love the following essay by Zoe Strauss explaining her approach to student critiques. I love it because I am right in the middle of writing an essay to explain my own project Random Ghosts, and her down to earth advice here will no doubt shake loose much of the conjectural bull shit that has been floating inside my head. I also love it because not once does she mention the word form, or composition, or subject. No discussion of vision or creativity. Zoe doesn't even use the word photography. This essay could be used generically for any artistic medium, and by any artist who struggles with the fears associated with the overtly revealing nature of making art; what Steiglitz calls the "severe mental process".. of discovering "what you have to say and how to say it." Zoe's entire approach is about getting to the core of exactly that.


The Zoe Strauss Guide to Crits by Zoe Strauss (2009)

In the last 2 years I've found that I do a lot of student crits, which is a kind of odd thing to be doing because it seems a little crazy that people want my opinion of their school work. But I've come to like it and really look to do a good job. I'm not slacking, friends. One thing that seems to be different from my talking and talking about someones stuff vs. the critiquing style of other people is that I am unremittingly positive. It doesn't mean I'm not honest, I think that as a person coming into someones space to look at their unfinished work is about the process and less about the product. This is because I don't give a shit if I "like" the work or not. I think these critiques have nothing to do with one's own aesthetic sensibility and is about the intent, skill and thought process of the person making the work and how they can get to where they want to be.

I seem to have a loose formulaic structure at this point... if the work is close to done I tell the student what I see in it. I try and read it as it is with no input or description of the piece from the student and then I tell them my immediate reaction and reading of the piece. I have a tendency to read metaphor into a lot things where there was no intent, but I think that if I'm thinking it someone else must be as well. The biggest question that needs to be answered is whether someone is getting across what they want to convey. And then, depending on where the work is at, a billion things need to be answered. Who is the audience? How do you see it presented in final form? blah blah blah.

And if the work is in the formative stages of being created I like to find out about the person and what makes them come to want to create this work. What's their interest in making the piece and where is coming from? Are they happy with the concept? What research are they doing to help move the piece forward? What about the logistics that goes into making the piece? And skill that goes into making the piece?

There are definitively times where I've been like, "what the fuck is this?" because the kid is trying to get over with some total bullshit by couching a description of the piece in completely unrelated academic jargon. I have no qualms with terrible work where someone is really trying. It's up to me to help them think about ways to refine and rethink the piece, even if I think it blows. And I have no problem with folks having no idea why they're making something. I think that kind of exploration is healthy and in graduate school what an amazing time to use the unconscious and just be like "Holy shit, so that's what I've been thinking about!"

This thing about these crits is that it's just my opinion... I hate a lot of art that people love, so, again, who cares if I "like" it? However, if you are trying to disguise a piece of shit by using language and unrelated theory... you're getting called out, no question.

Nuclear Waste to Pass Through Maryland. by John Wood 2002

Bruce Silverstein Gallery is pleased to announce John Wood Collages, 1955 – 2006. John Wood is known as an artist’s artist. He is one of the pre-eminent artists and educators of our time. A master of processes from straight photography, collage, cliché verre, solarization, mixed media, offset lithography to drawing. He has an incredible ability to work decisively across a variety of media with ease. Wood spent 35 years teaching photography and printmaking at the School of Art and Design at Alfred University in Alfred New York. His teaching, his art making, and his life are intricately entwined, each reinforcing the other.

This exhibit runs until December 12th, 2009

Bruce Silverstein Gallery
535 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011
212.627.3930

more on John Wood

fans by Jean Fitzgerald. 2009

Jean Fitzgerald is a sculptor and glass artist. By her own admission, she is not a photographer, (per se).
But that's what helps make this such an interesting photograph in my opinion. The surrealism and animation that presents itself here has nothing to do with being or not being a photographer.This is not a found scene that has been transformed into a composition. This is a documentation of pure folk art.

value city. 2009

Pieces of a Man

by Gil Scott-Heron


Jagged jigsaw pieces
Tossed about the room
I saw my grandma sweeping
With her old straw broom
But she didn't know what she was doing
She could hardly understand
That she was really sweeping up..
Pieces of a man

I saw my daddy greet the mailman
And I heard the mailman say
"Now don't you take this letter to heart now Jimmy
Cause they've laid off nine others today"
But he didn't know what he was saying
He could hardly understand
That he was only talking to
Pieces of a man

I saw the thunder and heard the lightning!
And felt the burden of his shame
And for some unknown reason
He never turned my way

Pieces of that letter
Were tossed about that room
And now I hear the sound of sirens
Come knifing through the gloom

But they don't know what they are doing
They could hardly understand
That they're only arresting
Pieces of a man

I saw him go to pieces
I saw him go to pieces
He was always such a good man
He was always such a strong man
Yeah, I saw him go to pieces
I saw him go to pieces

available.willow grove, pa. 2009

dune grass. new jersey 2009


east point.new jersey. 2009

black friday. 2008

Calls for Work: Picture Black Friday

Every year, Black Friday rings in the yearly holiday shopping season, with hundreds of thousands of people getting up before sunrise to queue for bargains and deals; when the doors are unlocked, the stores being besieged by their own customers. During Black Friday last year, security guard Jdimytai Damour, was trampled to death by crazed shoppers as he tried to hold back bargain seekers at a Walmart in Long Island . Unfortunately, the uproar in the media was mostly over by the end of the weekend.
Picture Black Friday is a photojournalism project that aims to revisit and analyze a combination of forces- a worsening economy, financial desperation, excitement, fear, and a distinctly American cultural tradition- that culminate the morning after Thanksgiving.
More specifically, Picture Black Friday is an open call for photographers throughout the U.S. to go out and produce images that document Black Friday- how you see it, on your terms

Picture Black Friday details

Jagged jigsaw pieces
Tossed about the room
I saw my grandma sweeping
With her old straw broom
But she didn't know what she was doing
She could hardly understand
That she was really sweeping up..
Pieces of a man

vintage thrift willow grove, pa. 2009

goodwill. 2009

The Huffington Post is featuring this photo as the cover for the current Capture The Recession slideshow.

Goodwill for All

Pretzel Boutique. 2009

I can't pass by one of these Pretzel Stores without thinking about the classic Saturday Night Live skit from the late 70's, The Scotch Boutique. Here in the Philadelphia area, pretzel franchises are literally popping up all over the place and yet everyone I talk to about this phenomenon just shrugs their shoulders and says "I don't get it either!". How do you explain a store the size of an average 7-11 that sells only one product? Yeah yeah, I know... they sell soda and cheese dip too, but seriously... just pretzels?? I drive by this particular store almost every day. It's been open about a month now. I never see any cars in the parking lot. It's directly across the street from a Wawa, and if you are from the Philly area you know that there is never an empty space in a Wawa parking lot at any time of day. And yes, Wawa sells soft pretzels in addition to a thousand other items.

So if you can't remember the SNL Scotch Boutique skit, here is the transcript. It's from October 14th, 1978. Fred Willard is Walker, and Gilda Radner is Jenny.

Walker: I knew it. You don't believe in this place, do ya? You don't believe in me.

Jenny: [tries to be reassuring] Honey, honey, I do. I do. It's just that it's been two months.

Walker: [deeply serious] Listen, a business takes time to build. It isn't done overnight. Nobody makes money their first couple of months. I thought you understood all of that.

Jenny: [horribly conflicted] I do, I do, I do. I - I - I - I - I don't know. [Two men have entered and stand in the doorway - Jenny sees them and becomes instantly cheerful] Oh, welcome to Scotch Boutique!

1st Man: [to Jenny] Um, do you sell any recording tape here?

Jenny: [cheerfully] No, just the sticky kind.

2nd Man: [to the first man] See? I told ya.

[The 2nd Man turns away to keep from laughing out loud. The 1st Man, stunned, smiles broadly and looks around at the store in amazement. The two men exit.]

Walker: [calls after the men, cheerfully] Next time you need the sticky kind, you'll know where to come! [instantly serious, to Jenny] I mean, I thought you understood that this was my dream. You said it was a good idea. Do you think in a million years, I'd draw out every last red cent of our - our savings account and invest it in this business if I thought you didn't think it was a good idea?

[A woman enters but, by now, Jenny is too distracted to greet her.]

2nd Woman: Uh, do you have any recording tape?

Walker: [pleasantly] No, just cellophane. The sticky kind. If you need any of the sticky kind, you know where to come!

2nd Woman: Okay, thanks.

Jenny: [weakly] Come again.

[The woman exits. Jenny, on the verge of tears, can't look Walker in the eye.]

Walker: Well, I guess that does it. I - I - I can't go on surrounded by quitters and - and doubters. Calls for a team effort. ... I'll never forget a story my uncle once told me. My uncle owned a little restaurant in Pennsylvania. It was real famous for a long time for its chicken salad. [Jenny and Kevin, who sits on his stool with comic book in hand, listen with interest] Well, one day, they couldn't get any chicken to put in the salad. So my uncle, what he did, he called together the employees. ... [Walker pauses to light his pipe] And he said, "Look, why don't we put turkey in that salad instead of chicken?" Well, of course, everyone was real nervous at first because they didn't know what was gonna happen. But you want to know something? Not one person even noticed that it was turkey instead of chicken. Now, that's what I call teamwork.

Jenny: [completely won over] I'm sorry, honey. I'll give it another chance. I believe in you.

Walker: [takes her hand] Thank you, honey.

And just to clarify, this is the only acceptable way to sell pretzels in Philly!

movie theatre. Neshaminy, Pa. 2009

whee ! (work in progress) 2009

Folk sculpture assembled from scavenged objects. The little pebble with the face on it and the driftwood body were found on the beach in October. I knew immediately that they belonged together as a flying man, but it took several weeks to visualize the hoop, and my initial feeling was of a flaming hoop. I'm still working on how to represent the flames in the context of rustic folk art. I would like to replace the shop rag cape with an old piece of American flag or similarly interesting old fabric, and I am searching for the perfect little hat for the top of his head!

In These Hard Times


Employment Situation




State by State