Cafe Sunday
Find Your Hustle
Another Bite at the Apple
Holding the Bags
Yet Even More Very Old Black & White Street Shots
Structural Black and Whites From Pre-DSLR Days of Yore
Previously Unseen Arbus – The New York Times
“Diane Arbus: In the Beginning” shows, among other things, that Arbus settled early on many of her major themes.
“Street photography was the advanced mode of the day, and practitioners like Lee Friedlander, William Klein, Helen Levitt and Garry Winogrand all claimed New York City as their turf. So did Lisette Model, a Viennese émigré with whom Arbus studied briefly. Ms. Model didn’t give her student much formal advice. Instead, she urged her to ease away from the stance of objectivity then considered requisite for serious photography and instead establish emotional relationships with her subjects, and see where that would take her. For Arbus, the advice was heaven-sent. It gave her permission to be the artist she was ready to be.”
“Diane Arbus: In the Beginning” runs through Nov. 27 at the Met Breuer, 945 Madison Avenue, at 75th Street; 212-731-1675; metmuseum.org.
Source: Previously Unseen Arbus, Unearthed Years After Her Death – The New York Times
A Midlife Crisis Poem
My eternal dream
the taste of your tiger’s tongue
washing me in white fire
In the nape of your neck
my nuzzling face lost
Stabbing against
the give of your breasts
my tongue lives
But your nipples
aggressive daggers
Pierce my heart
I trace with my lips
the length of you
And in the most
tender of moments
slowly you open
yourself to me
My hands grip and paw
at your surrendering self
Your tiger thighs
your tiger’s heart
A diamond glistens
in the Chinese moonlight
Fearless your eyes flash and say
even the devourer falls prey
The seawall cannot hold
against the crashing thunder
The waves, a thousand
dying demons
sizzle in effervescent
liquid and mad, retreat
I bite one last time
at the high flesh there
Tasting blood, the moment
writes itself forever
on our souls
My eternal dream,
my eternal dream.
-1995
The Ladies Who Lunch
Rodeo Clown
That’s Rodeo (ro-DAY-oh) as in Beverly Hills. 😉
Photograph
Ev’ry time i see your face,
It reminds me of the places we used to go.
I want you here to have and hold,
As the years go by and we grow old
Live Deliciously
Forever Young
Notes on a Page
Picture World
Perchance To Dream
Great, Greater, Greatest 1942-2016
Tours of Hollywood
Echo Park Ave
Last Saturday in May
Remembering Ali
Ali was my idol growing up in the 1960s. He gave me the confidence to be who I am. And to fight, something I had to do a lot of as a kid.
I met him after the Oscars show in 1997 the night the film When We Were Kings won an Academy Award. My mom and I stood across the street from Mortons in a large crowd. Before getting into his limo, Ali crossed the street to the crowd. He wasn’t in good shape even then. When he got to us I embraced him and told him he was my biggest hero as a youth. I then asked him to shake hands with my mom. She stuck out her hand and he brushed it aside and stooped down and gave her a warm hug. We both were in tears. Much love to Ali. He will live forever.
I had a video camera that night. I recorded Ali and George Foreman from across the street in West Hollywood. I had taken my mother to a spot near an Oscar after-party just to give her a thrill. I had no idea that Ali would be there.
When Ali came across the street I continued to record him but when he got close I just let the camera drop. I only have audio of our encounter on tape somewhere. I call him ‘champ.’ I remember my mother is sobbing. She tells Ali, We always loved you.
A decade later I was in Phoenix, AZ. photographing a WNBA playoff game. It was an exciting night anyway. One of those unfortunately rare magic evenings in the WNBA. Incredible playoff atmosphere. I’m on the baseline. Suddenly there’s a roar from the crowd in the U.S. Airways Arena. Muhammad Ali and his wife are in the building. They are on the big screen. I look up and I’m just taken away. An already incredible evening has just gone through the roof.
I look around to see where he is. Where is this person who has meant so much to me in my life? How lucky I am to have crossed paths with him yet again. I look up to my wife (then girlfriend) in the stands. She points behind me. I turn completely around on the floor and there he was, sitting no more than six feet behind me. All I could do at that moment was raise my camera.
Swank
Empty Frames
Billboard Study
Weekend Forecast: More May Gray in L.A.
More old Nikon street photography. Not as old as most of the stuff from last week. These were from the Nikon DSLR days. D70, D2Hs, my favorite, the almost disposable (I had two) D80, the mighty D3, and the D700. Oh, and in there somewhere was a D200. 😉
My First Leica: M7 with 50mm 2.0 Summicron
Sunday Color Sundae
Fifty Shades of Gray In LA
Son of Even More Ancient Street Shots of Los Angeles
Yes it just keeps on going. I THINK all or most of these were taken, as were the rest in this week’s blast from the past, with the Nikon Coolpix 950. Trusty little devil. Between 2000 and 2004. Which is mighty trusty indeed for a first generation digital camera. Solid.
City of Night
I grew up in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. Aliquippa was the home of a giant steel mill; at one time it was the largest in the world. The entire monstrosity was near 11 miles long and employed close to 15k workers.
The town was like something out of a rust-belt boom-town dream. Or was it a nightmare? Aliquippa was in the Guiness Book of World Records for having the most bars per square mile. A recent article in our local newspaper put it this way. “Aliquippa was a dirty little town of 30,000 with more bars, bordellos and gambling rooms than most would care to admit. In 1918, a state Supreme Court justice offered the following assessment of Aliquippa:
It is said that the region is largely peopled by uneducated foreigners, who invariably carry concealed deadly weapons; that murders are common; and that when a quarrel ensues, the question as to who shall be the murdered and who is murdered is, largely, if not wholly, determined by the ability to draw such a weapon quickly.”
When I moved to Los Angeles I understood that this place certainly had its share of dangerous areas and situations. It was the 1980s and there was a crack epidemic and gang violence was a scourge in LA. So I resolved immediately to stay on the Westside and far from the bad areas of town. And I held onto that resolve for the first ten or so years that I lived here. But, you know, being a person from the place where I come from, the street has its attractions to me and after playing it safe for so long I longed for something that seemed more like home. Sounds weird to me now even to type that.
So I become somewhat familiar with some of the more interesting parts of LA. And at night. So when digital cameras finally became available with their convenience and the ability to experiment, check your results in real-time, and move quickly on, I had the greatest idea. Go out and shoot the bad parts of town with my digital camera. lol.
Well, ISO capabilities back then weren’t at all like what we have today on our digital cameras. And I didn’t actually, it turns out, have a death wish. 😉 So this project wasn’t something I devoted many evenings to. But it was an interesting time in LA. I think the LAPD had street crime on its heels at that moment. Or was it the exact opposite? I remember both periods quickly followed each other. Different police chiefs and different approaches. Anyway.
I had some tricks. I would go out on really REALLY cold nights. Nights that cold are really uncommon in LA so when the chill hits here, the streets can be very deserted. Anyway. Hope these images capture the imagination that I was gripped with when I took them. I would be the first to admit there’s probably not a single really strong image in the whole bunch. But they do capture something of the atmosphere of the city back then. The darkness and strangeness I was after more than anything else.
Faces of Ancient Street Shots of Los Angeles
More from the Nikon Coolpix 950. Probably from around 2000 to 2004. I’m like Vivian Maier Lite. Less calories. Less filling. Etc. Please enjoy responsibly.
More, Even Better, Ancient Street Shots of Los Angeles
Again, these images were taken with one of the first great digital cameras, the Nikon Coolpix 950. Probably from around 2000 to 2004. I had so much fun with this camera that twisted the part with the viewfinder from the side with the lens. Twisty little sucker. Like having a viewfinder camera and I don’t know why I remember it being ‘live view.’ Maybe I’m misremembering. Anyway. Yet even more images to come tomorrow.
My Ancient Street Shots of Los Angeles
All of these images predate even my first DSLR, the Nikon D70. These were, believe it or not, taken with one of the first great digital cameras, the Nikon Coolpix 950. Probably from around 2000 to 2004. Yes, I’ve been doing this a long time. More to come.
Find Your Way In LA
Viper Room
A Different Broadway
Holiday Party at the Beverly Hills Hotel
Happy Mother’s Day
My Paparazzi
Who are all these people? lol. Looks like… hmm. Maybe, maybe not. Who’s to say? A bunch from the Nikon days.
Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
“Tell Jackie to walk faster… ” – Repost
Former press secretary in the Kennedy administration Pierre Salinger told a story that shows the late president’s wit when the press secretary came to the Oval Office with a problem. “Mr. President. We’re getting into trouble with women’s groups over the fact that the First Lady is always seen walking three steps behind you.” (paraphrasing there.) The president thought for a moment, then said… well, I guess you can figure it out from here. 😉
Black and white night shots with the Leica M-E
The issues shooting the Leica M9/M-E sensor at higher ISOs are well documented. But it should also be well documented that, when shooting black and white, you can forget those noise concerns almost entirely. I very often will shoot JPEG FINE mode on the b&w setting when I make that decision to shoot b&w. I like the way they look and I always have since my first M9. I’ll tell the story of how I came to love shooting b&w JPEGs straight out of the camera some other time. But I love them. And at 18 megapixels in b&w, how much image data do you need? That was my attitude three years ago and it’s still my attitude today. Much more on that sometime soon.
Man stalks the urban jungle… (repost)
I always feel like somebody’s watching me
Wilshire Blvd Gatsby – Redo
Frappuccino Pirates – Reposted
Feeling the California Light – Repost
Girl Not on Bike – Repost
Have to be very careful what I call my blog entries lest I incur the wrath of the Internet. 😉
Nikon D70: My First DSLR – Reposted
I’m going through some archive realignment ordeals lately but the upside is I am relocating older images as I go. These were all taken the few months with what was then a really hot number, Nikon’s big splash in the consumer enthusiast DSLR market, a camera that was a true game changer, the D70. Anyone remember custom tone curves?
Here are some of the shots I’ve always remembered for various reasons.
I’m so embarrassed… AGAIN! (another repost)
For the longest time, I’ve wondered, ‘Why don’t any of the wonderful people who follow my blog and like my posts ever post anything to THEIR WordPress blogs so that I can like and support THEIR stuff?”
Yes I did. Wonder. Such a thing.
Probably not as many times as someone in the world wondered, “Why doesn’t this self-centered schmuck ever hit ‘like’ on any of MY WordPress posts?”
Wow.
I even said to some fine fellow who was incredibly supportive of this blog and after many messages had passed between us, something like, “Gee, I’d love to see some of YOUR stuff sometime. Do YOU have your own blog or website?”
That was actually the last I spoke to him. Nothing at all after that question. The line went dead.
So I’m on this thing called The Reader yesterday, I’m sure you’ve all heard of it, scrolling down and thinking, “Wow, WordPress does a really nice job of selecting material from its tens of thousands of blogs just for me. I really like all this stuff. Good job of curating, WP!”
Then I see MY latest blog post. And NOW I’m excited. I said to my more significant other, “Honey, look! WordPress is featuring my post in The Reader.”
I did say that. Yesterday.
She was like, really? What does that mean? And I said, “Well, it means that probably everyone interested in photography will see my post in their Reader, it’s like being featured on the front page. Or something.”
(I probably shouldn’t be posting any of this. Do my face palm in silence and move on.)
But then, sharp detective that I am, I sez to myself, “Myself, this is going to mean a significant increase in traffic. Gird your loins, brother. This is your moment.”
My ship had finally come in. I thought.
But then when I checked my stats… 😦
I won’t drag this out any longer. Yes, I am obviously a self-centered schmuck. And I had seriously conflated The Reader with, “Freshly Pressed”
Somehow.
I just want to say now to all of you SO familiar names who have hung in there, liking my posts, THANK YOU for your patience with me. Seriously, thank you. I would like to say that I’m just so busy, there certainly is something busy going on inside my head, but I don’t think that’s the issue. I’ve always been this way. Conflating. Confusing.
I’ll give you one very early example. First grade. Catholic school. 1963. Sometime after the Christmas break. I was sent to the principal’s office, I can’t remember what for. Sister Victor was the principal. Yep, that was her name and that’s who she was. I vainly tried to make an excuse … something about the 3 months we had ‘off’ for the Christmas vacation.
You see, loyal readers, I had conflated SUMMER with the 10 days of Christmas break.
Sister Victor was not generally known as a forgiving nun and she snarled at me that we didn’t get three months off for Christmas and then a few minutes later threw me down a flight of stairs.
True story.
Anyway. I am sorry, fellow, WordPress photo-bloggers. I can see now that most of you really are posting YOUR stuff to your WordPress blogs and I am blown away at the quality and breadth of the great photography and creativity you all are putting forth into the world… and… I’m LIKING it all as fast as I can. 😉
50'Lux 