If it looks as if I have lost interest in this blog, I have…sort of. Spam got to be so bad that I had to turn off comments – meaning that you cannot reply to anything I say – meaning it is a one=way street.

I have in mind, a plan to create a new blog on a WP-hosted server with the idea, that they should have figured out how to keep out the spammers.I would try to move all of the posts here, to there.

In the meantime, I have been active on Flickr and post new, and old street photos there regularly. Until I figure out how to migrate this blog elsewhere, please visit Flickr…

     

In what is certainly a “undiscovered gem” story, Chicagoan John Maloof stumbled across a treasure trove of negatives from an unknown street photographer, Vivian Maier. While one is tempted to make comparisons to Diane Arbus (because of the Rollei connection?), the depth of Maier’s vision may be broader and deeper than Arbus. Exhibits and books are planned. See Maloof’s blog for more info including a video interview.

It has been a woefully long time since I have made a post here but unlike some other blogs, that does not mean I have lost interest and am abandoning ship. Quite the contrary…I have several good ideas to share, just not the time to share them
One of the reasons is that I have started back posting on Flickr. To make matters even worse, I have started a second account just for posting street photos. More on that in my next post but as my mother would have said, “you’ve got holes in your head”

She would have been right.

Seems like often enough when we are searching our local drives for a particular image, we come across something totally unexpected. I came across this gem today…

This photo was taken eleven years ago today with my SECOND digital camera: a Kodak DC260 with a whopping 1536×1024 (1.5mp) resolution. Despite its lack of all the features we now take for granted in a digital camera (WB for instance), it took decent pictures as witnessed by this mixed light interior. It was a funcamera and I came back with many excellent photos from this 1999 trip to the Pacific Northwest. I was so pleased withthe camera and had so much funwith it that I began “selling” the digital photography concept to all of my clients. Yeah right, I was doing some commercial work with the camera (it had a pc jack so I could plug my studio flash in). F-stops had to be set via the menu, there was no dedicated external control. I sold that original camera to someone, but ended up buying back a DC260 from another friend because I like the pixel pattern when blown up big.

"I was having so much fun with a digital camera that I had the chutzpa to send some photos to Kodak with word of praise. They featured me and a selection of images on their website at the time which is still online in Taiwan here, check it out!"

Those were the days !!!

Hold the edit!

A few posts earlier, I posted a comment by Garry Winogrand about saving your contact sheets for a year before looking at them. His reason was to separate the act of taking the photographs from the photographs themselves. This really makes a good bit of sense and I personally find that I have a hard time selecting images from a recently shot set, especially street photography.

Going back through an archive can often yield overlooked gems. The older the better? Street photos naturally aquire a patina with age…call it retro if you like. Naturally, because the depict a time gone by.

In 1974 after selling our photo studio, Valbuena and I went separate ways. I went north. That summer I packed much of my belongings into my 1967 red Volvo and headed for New England. I took my time and as many backroads as I could find. There ain’t much to photograph along the interstate! After heading north through western Georgia I found myself in the curious copper mining berg of Ducktown. It seemed to be a strange place perhaps because of the mining activities at the time.

A few weeks ago I came across this shot while looking through some boxes of contact sheets and negs for a specific photo. Somehow I had missed it 35 years ago. It had never been printed nor was the contact sheet marked for printing it. Today, I really like the image. The hat and the cigar make it, but he is also nicely joined to the lightpost by his shadow. I like the minimalist building which may be a post office, but I don’t recall. The final bit of humor that appeals to me is the exiting man with his bowed head. What else does one do in Ducktown but “duck”?

Although it is a UK website, it does address US copyright issues and there are useful active forums. Don’t let people take advantage of you…required reading.

http://copyrightaction.com

This posting consists of 21 “commercial” images from 1973 to present. Most of them were paying jobs, although a few were done as portfolio shots. Up until my first book in 1999 I did a lot of commercial work. In 1970, Joe Valbuena and I opened a commercial photo studio called Eye Studios in West Palm Beach. We ran the business for four years and being young and impetuous, moved on to other things. After a three-year stay in New England I returned to the Palm Beaches and have been practicing photography here ever since. The bulk of my work was product photography so this collection may not be truly representative and I admit to just choosing photos that I like. I feel as if I have photographed everything at least once and done everything from fashion to corporate executives to greyhounds to charter aircraft. Twenty-one images is a relatively small sampling and there are many that have been left out. In the future perhaps I will do a collection of say, products or fashion. For now though, this provides a brief overview of my commercial work.

If there were ever a 20th century Mona Lisa, it was Anita Gilbert (Senno). This particular photo has such compassion in her expression that for me, it has a mesmerizing haunting quality. I knew Anita casually and she modeled for me for a couple of ads for Mildred Hoit. Last year I was saddened to learn that she had passed away in 2007. Such a loss.

Click here for the gallery of commercial photography.