It’s a popular thing in photography to say you are documenting someone or something. But what does documenting really mean? For whom are you/we documenting? Documentation implies an audience, and one with a critical eye. However, I think that most documentation these days isn’t intended for an audience other than social media, where each image might get a few seconds of attention. Does it make documentation less valid to change the audience?
Read more...I often stop to wonder what the point is. Why do I take photographs? What benefit is there to me or others from my practice. I think this is probably a common question for artists of every stripe. When you spend so much time and effort making something, for little reward, that almost no one will ever see or care about the way you care about it, it’s natural to wonder… why?
Read more...The view from the Literati Bookstore, with a new-to-me Leica M3, my 50mm Summicron, and Kodak 400TX.
I recently had my first real darkroom print session. I’ve made a few prints here and there, but struggled with the technical aspects (e.g., expired developer, bad masking). This time, I made some contact sheets and enlargements that I feel really good about. The motivating force was to produce Christmas gifts for my family. I unearthed some hitherto unseen Tri-X negatives from a family trip in 2019, and got to printing.
Read more...This set of photos from Iceland popped up in my feed reader and I really liked it so I wanted to link it on. I really like the grainy and dramatic images.