“Mostly just random stuff. Looking for color, and more complex black and white scenes. Not much candid people type stuff. I want to just shoot for a long time and start to build up piles of photographs….black and white, color, medium format, just a big mix of stuff. I’d like to make some portraits but I don’t know how.”
From my chat with Blake Andrews. Read the rest on his blog.
Brooklyn, New York//
I finished scanning a bunch of roles the other night. The first glimpse of what you think you’re photographing is always interesting and equally filled with disappointment. Psychologically I’m certain I’ve made a clean break from the NYC series I’ve been working since I arrived here, but aesthetically I’m not sure there’s much evolution.
My objective for 2012 is to tie up the series from the last few years and simply make new photographs. I’m shooting black and white and color film and don’t really have any sort of project in mind. I just want to collect photographs and evolve aesthetically.
But for that to happen I need to put a few of these series from the past into print. Doing that will give me some semblance of orientation. After, I can go back and think up new ways to assemble this mess of imagery I’m leaving behind….
Occupy Strangers Vol. 4
“I knew I wasn’t going anywhere for awhile, so I started taking some photographs. I was forced to work from this spot, this perspective. As I snapped away, I felt at ease about straddling the line between protester and spectator. After all, this movement to me was one that avoided simple labels and classifications. I was there in the middle of it, that’s all the really mattered.
“All day, all week, Occupy Wall Street”
“All day, all week, Occupy Wall Street”
(Source: strangers-old)
Los Angeles, Calif.//
A nice thing about New York is there’s no shortage of photographers to hang out with. In the last few months I’ve found myself chatting with more photographers over coffee or drinks more than usual. It’s a welcome development. I enjoy communicating over the web and most of the friendships I’ve developed in photoland have started there, but nothing really beats sitting down and having a free flowing conversation face to face.
In Los Angeles it was much more difficult, for a variety of reasons. First, I was just starting out and didn’t really know much about anything related to photography (still don’t honestly) but LA is also just a much more difficult city for casually socializing.
One of the few people I was fortunate enough to hang out with frequently was Raoul Gatepin. At the time we met we were both just starting to really investigate photography seriously which led to some interesting discussions. I still have very vivid memories about the mutual ideas we had for organizing and collecting our work. Both of us were thinking about how we could organize our work into chronological chapters.
I’m not sure if we were talking about those ideas on the night the photograph above was made but I remember having a good time in that booth at Tom Bergin’s, making pictures, sipping on beer and chatting about photography and the internet.
I can’t recall his name but the guy posing for Raoul was a friend of Ludmilla’s who was in town for a few days. Raoul commandeered his DSLR for a few minutes and started to snap away, much to our amusement.
From the series ‘Medicine,’ Los Angeles 2006-2007
Los Angeles, Calif.//
A-mart sent me a proof of the ‘Medicine’ zine the other day. It was cool to see his interpretation of the series. I didn’t have any complaints. It was a good mix that captured the vibe of the series….I think.
I feel like I’m retracing my steps, going back and finishing the work I started a few years ago. What’s nice is that I don’t feel rushed to get the work (self)published. I want to take my time and put it together at my own pace.
The web can make you dizzy and disoriented when it comes to photography. Sometimes it makes you want to vomit and avoid it like bad Chinese food, other days you feel like Godzilla, ready to destroy and devour it.
As of right now, I prefer to sit back in my chair, letting most everything drift by as I focus on putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
From the series ‘Medicine,’ Los Angeles 2006-2007
Los Angeles, Calif.//
I have an organizational problem when it comes to scanning and editing. I spent hours upon hours scanning negatives and minutes upon minutes deleting the resulting jpg’s in the name of editing.
This ebb and flow has left me with a few photographs that exist online but not on my hard drives….because I’ve deleted them.
When I think about it now, it really came down to storage. I was worried I was running out of storage, and not just in the physical sense, but mental storage. I figured deleting a bunch of jpg’s would make the photographs disappear from my mind. But that hasn’t been the case, and when these random photographs seep back into my consciousness I become really upset I don’t have the scanned file readily available so I can tweak it.
Most of my negatives are still back in Minnesota but I’m thinking it’s time they made the journey to Greenpoint.
From the series ‘Medicine,’ Los Angeles 2006-2007
Los Angeles, Calif.//
I’ve never really considered this photograph for any edit but have always liked it for some reason. Abe Lincoln is sort of a weird icon to find in Los Angeles I think. At least I thought so when I found his image used in a window display.
Honest Abe in the land of fiction.
From the series ‘Medicine,’ Los Angeles 2006-2007
Danny Bonaduce on Melrose Ave.//
I was at a party this weekend talking about photographing in Los Angeles, and at one point the topic of celebrities came up. It’s always a bit absurd to talk about it because in my four and half years there I can only recall spotting a few famous people while walking around.
I’m sure I passed several more but had no clue since they never look how they do on TV or in the magazines. Also, I didn’t care that much. Except for the time I passed Quentin Tarantino on Hollywood Blvd. That was interesting but the photograph I made isn’t very good.
It’s one thing to see the celebrity but trying to make a decent photograph is another story, especially while casually roaming around shooting ‘street.’
On one particularly sunny Los Angeles weekend afternoon I was walking around Melrose, the area around where I lived, when I spotted Danny Bonaduce from across the street. It was an odd moment of recognition. Not because I watched him on reality TV, but because I was working in Downtown Los Angeles at the time and had seen him walking around on several occasions. I have no idea what he was doing down there but it must have been obligation.
So, when he caught me eye walking confidently down Melrose I figured I’d take a shot at making a photograph. I caught a walk signal and crossed the street just in time to intersect with him. As I stepped up onto the sidewalk I lifted my XA and pushed the shutter. Initially I had a strong sense that he saw me and knew that I took his photographs.
But when I looked at the resulting photograph, I wasn’t sure. He just looked like he was in Danny Bonaduce land, oblivious to everything. I’m not sure that comes across in the photograph but I’ve always kept it in the ‘Medicine’ edit because it represents one of those strange encounters that just seems to fit with the vibe of the series.
Santa Monica, Calif.//
The main reason I’ve been digging through this series is because I’m planning on turning it into a zine. I have a rough idea about the edit but that’s never good enough. So I’ve enlisted my friend Alexander Martinez (zine maestro) to help me with the edit and process of turning it into a zine.
I might have said it before but I’l repeat it again. One of the best things about all this internet stuff is connecting with other people who have similar interests and ideas as you. It can be intimidating reaching out initially but I it’s worthwhile, especially if you think the person might have a similar sensibility as you do.
It’s been about five years since I made these photographs. I’ve made edits. I’ve thought about them. I’ve written a few words. I’ve thought about them again. I’ve posted them on Flickr and Tumblr. I’ve asked my friend for their opinions.
It’s all apart of the process. You make work and then struggle to finish it. The battle with this series is almost done. I have a few more words to write but I’m not worried about that anymore. The course is set and I can’t wait to put this work into print.
From the series ‘Medicine,’ Los Angeles 2006-2007
Featured in Urbanautica and The SIP Blog//
I answered a few questions for the guys over at Urbanautica about my work. They ended showcasing photographs from my Medicine series which I’ve been putting up on the blog the last few weeks.
I started making photographs about a year after I moved to Los Angeles from my home state of Minnesota. Initially the desire was very much just to document my California experience because I had a hunch that I probably wasn’t going to live there for more than a few years. So yes, it was very much this impulse and desire not to forget. And also to simply have some mementos to share - “Oh, I lived in Los Angeles many years ago. Here are some photographs.” But after I started studying photography and learned a bit more about the history, and especially the history of street photography, I slowly began to develop a more philosophical approach to the experience of making photographs. Much of my practice is rooted in the theory of Debord’s ‘derive’ at least as best as I can understand it, which admittedly is only superficially. Essentially I enjoy getting habitually lost in my surroundings and allowing my intuition to guide me through my urban strolls. I like to think that the photographs are the residue of these experiences. And that’s really all they can be. They can never really fully communicate the actual experience. Collectively, I guess I hope they communicate the feeling of drifting around the city and being open to what one sees on a day to day basis. I have a long way to go though, and plenty to learn. Often times your mind is about two or three steps ahead of your actual artistic ability. - Read more
The SIP Blog approached with an interesting idea. They wanted me to write some reflections on the American Road Ghost series I completed a few years ago.
Still, as I look back on the project I feel a great sense of accomplishment. I set out with an idea and explored it as fully as possible within a given period of time. Whether or not the results make for a compelling photographic series, I’m not sure. However, I do know that I’ll always look back on that series as a pivotal evolutionary leap in my photographic process. It represents an awakening to the power and importance of ideas in the photographic process. - Read more
It’s always kind of strange to have work you made a few years ago featured. Writing about it though has made me think a bit more deeply about what I’m doing and why which is always important. Once you start type, you really have no idea what’s going to come out of your head, sort of like when you leave the house with your camera, you really never know what you’re going to photograph.
From the series ‘Medicine,’ Los Angeles 2006-2007
