2022: 17 Camera Work

I was going to give myself the day off today, chilling out with some non-photography related pursuits. A reward for spending the day in my studio yesterday, finishing off the next self-publishing project I’ve been working on. Hand-binding a stack of books was intense work, and I need a break. So, of course, I stumbled upon something too photographically relevant to avoid, and in the interest of sharing my obsession, I will let you in on this discovery.

Apparently a complete set of the seminal photo journal “Camera Work” is going up for auction. Unless you have about $200K burning a hole in your pocket, this treasure trove of early 20th century art photography will most likely be out of reach. Fear not, the entire collection has been digitized, and is available for downloading (as PDFs) from the good folks at the Modernist Journals Project. Enter this rabbit hole at your own risk. All I know is…there goes my peaceful, non-photographic Saturday.

For some background (thank you Wikipedia):

Camera Work was a quarterly photographic journal published by Alfred Stieglitz from 1903 to 1917. It is known for its many high-quality photogravures by some of the most important photographers in the world and its editorial purpose to establish photography as a fine art. It has been called "consummately intellectual" … "by far the most beautiful of all photographic magazines"… and "a portrait of an age [in which] the artistic sensibility of the nineteenth century was transformed into the artistic awareness of the present day."

2020: 34 (Words, Meaning, Titles, Thoughts, Feelings, etc.)

Words appear and float through my mind… and then disappear. Photography is obviously a visual medium, but I have noticed that words creep into my images. They always have. Subconscious manifestations or reactions. Found poetry. Found typography. Riddles to be solved. Statements to contemplate. Whispers from someone, unseen. Messages from forces unimaginable. Language, understood. Languages unfamiliar and unknown to me. A confusion of tongues. Contemplating the Tower of Babel.

A photo friend shared an intriguing text written by Frederick Sommer this week. This passage stuck with me:

“Words represent images:
nothing can be said for which there is no image.
Linkages between images exist a priori
and are the logic of display.
Linkages between words are the logic of grammar.
Images can be named; linkages can only be displayed.
Images and their linkages are states of affairs.
Words and their linkages are propositions.
Words occupy language structure as display of grammar:
what can be said can be seen as represented image.”

I often have titles bouncing around in my head. Titles for upcoming books or zines or other projects. I love book titles, sonfg and album titles, names of movies, names of poems. I like to make references through my photo work via titles. Maybe an obscure reference to an obscure indie rock band from the 90s. Maybe an obscure quote from an English poet that I don’t know much about. A line from Dante’s Inferno, a title from a song by The Cure. All fodder for me to play with. To bring context to a series of images. I may be a language charlatan, so sue me.

Here’s a list of titles for works yet to come:

A Year in the Cathedral

Anticipation of a Future Danger

A Century of Slang

Pictures of a Floating World

Status Quo

On The Verge of Mayhem

In Between Days

Broadway the Hard Way

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

Travels With Fellini

Lost Summer

2020: 25 (Talk About The Passion)

Photography has been a constant companion for many years. It started innocently enough with my first walk into a high school darkroom. Now it is an integral part of my life. It has been a hobby, an amateur pursuit, a release, a means of expression and a crutch through tough times. It has been a fleeting lover, a long-lost friend, a confidant. It has gone away but always comes back. It stays with me and goes places only I seem to go…so I guess I’m never really alone if I have a camera in my hand.

I have thought a lot lately about the professional vs. amateur approach to photography. I have dabbled in shooting commercial work; just enough to scare me a way from it, honestly. I have had my work exhibited and published. I have sold prints, books and zines. So I’m not quite sure what column that puts me in. I most often consider myself a “passionate” photographer. I do it strictly out of my passion for creating. I am constantly thinking of different ways of getting my work out in the world, connecting with other like-minded souls. I listen, read, watch so much photo-related content. It never gets boring. It is often inspiring.

I love the look of photos in print. I love the feel of paper with images printed on them. I love the fresh smell of ink when I receive a zine from a friend. I love leafing through a classic photo book from my library… it’s like spending time with an old friend. I love discovering work by photographers I’ve never heard of, whether they are young, new talent, or an old master, unknown to me until today.

When I think back on the harder moments in my life, and it has always been photography that has helped me cope.

Call it what you will.

I call it passion.

2019: 29 (Meditation)

Spend twelve minutes with Alec Soth. It’s worth it. “Coming out of the closet as a happy person.”