On the Next One

While I do love the Jay-Z + Swiss Beatz song of this title (and am not in love with their spelling…) this is actually me wondering about what is the next step for me in photography. I generally become obsessively interested in things, so that is not so unusual. What is unusual is the sustained interest and the drive I feel to externalize this interest (i.e. not just make things for myself). Given that, and my lack of interest in so many things that used to sustain me, I'm trying to figure out two things:

1. What is the next step for me and my images?

2. How do I keep the cat from standing on the 'f' key on my keyboard and then being secretly concerned that she's trying to communicate something to me as she stares at me and fills the screen with 'fffffffffffffff'?

The first question is probably more inherently addressable since I'm not sure my cat has any hope for reformation.

One thing I have noticed on Flickr is that some people are putting their photos in more than 1,000 groups and they are ending up with high number of favorites. So, I thought maybe I should do that, but then the question arose in my head: so what? What does it mean if you have 132 favorites on Flickr? This isn't exactly the 400 million views that What Does the Fox Say got on Youtube, there is no record contract that is going to be offered. Is it just a way of stroking my own ego? I can handle that. I think after a fair amount of rejection, seeing an image I created pass 50 favorites is good for me. I'm just not sure if there is some larger goal because if there is, I want to know what it is so that I am working towards it in an intelligent way. Maybe it's just continuous networking? 

Which brings me to this blog. I think of it more as a diary for myself in photography than anything else…and that is backed up by the fact that about 16 people click through to the posts (almost as many as used to read my diary…). That's fine because I think record keeping is important and writing is a way that I think, so it helps me process. However, I would like to be communicating with more people. I think I need to come up with a plan for why anyone would want to read this blog. After all, my struggles to understand social media are not exactly the stuff of movies. One blog that I really enjoy is CrochetConcupescience and it seems to have a fair amount of traffic despite being about something that so many people would never even think about. So, it hits a niche and it does it extremely well. Photography has a lot more competition in terms of people who are writing about it, so do I have a niche I would like to fill? Writing is one of my strong suits (the other one is kvetching…oh, and spades). 

Road to Medusa

In general, it sounds like I need to sit down and do some planning for a more focussed effort with goals and guidelines for decision making. This is when it would be great if I could just switch to a montage where I would develop all of the skills that I need (and lose weight and get in shape too, after all, if it's a montage, I might as well do it up.)

Yesterday I went to the Center for Visual Arts and dropped off two pieces for entry into their show Obscure. The juror is going to review everything on Monday and we will probably get notified on Tuesday and Wednesday. If they are accepted, the opening is Friday. Pepe built the frame for Road to Medusa, so I'm picturing them writing me asking me if I wouldn't mind removing the picture so they could hang the frame…

My moment in the limelight this week is Wednesday when I have my artist's talk at the Multicultural Resource Center about the photo exhibit I hung "This Is Not Wasteland." Barring snow, I at least know that my parents will be there (and Pepe). My fear is there will be 4 other people there. That kind of crowd makes a talk really awkward. It either needs to be more than that or nobody. It will be interesting to see if anyone from my department come to see it. I'll have to start doing some reminding/stalking among potential attendees.

HDR

I have been trapped inside all day; there is nearly 1/4" of snow on the ground outside. That's not what is trapping me, it's more that I haven't changed out of my pajamas yet because my kids' school was cancelled and since we're not going anywhere, why get dressed? I am planning on eating one of them later on though, just for effect.

In the meantime, I watched Harold Davis' talk about creative vision and digital photography another installment to my B&H education. HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography is apparently a sensitive subject among photographers. Of course, you have to remember that artists are a sensitive lot and so sometimes you can hit a nerve in discussions about socks, daisies, or candelabras too. I understand some of the debate though, some of the HDR images can look really gaudy, but that's really more a problem of bad craft that it is anything inherent in HDR. Harold Davis showed his work and I could really see how it could be used with care, intention, and skill. He has written a ton of books about PhotoShop and offers an online course on flower photography through Craftsy's Photography offerings. I've still got enough free stuff that is basic to run through before I'm ready for anything like that, but his flower photos are beautiful and he uses HDR to bring out all of the detail without it looking like a cartoon.

Looking up the mineral falls at Hierve

I went back through some more of my photos from Mexico and worked on a couple more from this place called Hierve el Agua in Oaxaca. I find more and more that I like black and white in almost all cases over color versions of the same image; even when I thought I was taking the picture because of the colors. After I look at the black and white version of an image, the color version almost always looks gaudy. I don't know if that's because I'm really into structure or if it's because I'm not skilled enough at controlling color and so it's better when it is removed. After all, it's yet another variable to factor in and simplification is, well, simpler. It also could be because I am so accustomed to looking at black and white photography as the 'art' photography that I feel like my work looks more like art if I do it in black and white. In that case, it would be more akin to pretending that just because your writing doesn't make sense, that it is poetry rather than just acknowledging that you need to improve your writing. It is probably the case that these things are true for different photos to different degrees.

One challenge I am confronting now is how to find a link between my passion for photography and my progress through the PhD program in Geography at UNCG. I think I've had a bit of a break through in that area - I am exploring the idea that photography has played a certain role in geographic exploration and in its popularization (National Geographic for example) and that there might be something to look into their regarding attitudes about geography and its processes that would give me the opportunity to look at photography in depth in terms of the history of geographic thought. It seems like this would be an excellent way to combine these two areas, now I just have to figure out something a bit more specific (like a question I'm trying to answer, for example…) although maybe that requires a lot more familiarization before it becomes apparent. 

Looking out over the site of Monte Alban in Oaxaca

Now, back to checking my email every 4 seconds to see if I've been notified about acceptance/rejection to the Positive/Negative Exhibit at East Tennessee State University. The juror's notifications are supposed to be sent out between the 17th and 22nd of January, so I can't tell if I should already give up hope or if there is still a possibility. My batting average is pretty below par at this point and I know that I'll be pretty bummed if I get rejected. However, I'm sure I will turn it into a moving testament of my endurance…right after I have several martinis to help me remember to endure...

Exhibit Prep & Stalking Adam Marelli

Okay, I haven't written in the last week because I've been hauling tuchus (thank you to obsessivejew.com for confirmation of the spelling) getting my photos ready for my exhibit at the Multicultural Resource Center (MRC). It was a longer, more complicated process than my brain was prepared for. It never would have happened without Pepe's help - I'm just not sure what people who aren't married to him do in order to get things done. Without his assistance I probably would have just thumbtacked stuff to the wall at odd angles. 

Pepe built 25 frames. Actually, I built 5 of them, but since Pepe had to be present to make sure I didn't remove a finger, I'd say he gets the credit sort of in the same way that I baked the cake, my daughter just dumped in the flour, but we all say that she baked it because she's trying her best. He does fantastic work, such attention to detail, he sanded and painted the frames and in general was wildly productive. Meanwhile, I was measuring and cutting the mats. Doug Leckie in my department lead me through the mat cutting on the laser cutter. It was a pretty cool way to cut stuff, it did leave some singe marks (I can't remember the technical term for it) around the cut area but those sanded away fairly easily. I could see that becoming part of the overall aesthetic. Unfortunately, I didn't do all of the measurements with what is known as 'any degree of accuracy' and so eventually we did what I had been avoiding: went to Michaels and bought an expensive mat cutter. Then Pepe cut mats and I taped the pictures in place. The final step was to go to my office and use the commercial mat cutter to cut the cardboard to fit in the back of the frames and tack that in with nails. 

MRC Exhibit Wall

When those were all done, we took them over to the MRC and hung everything. They have some adjustable track lighting and if I could offer one piece of advice to anyone else who might hang in this gallery in the future, it would be: don't grab the adjustable lights by the metal backing of the halogen lights because you will immediately burn your finger to the point of blistering. That's the kind of advice you can expect to find here, regularly, on this helpful blog. All for free! Then, to relax after the hanging, we went to Taekwondo practice where I dislocated my pointer finger by upper-cutting a dummy. Once again, Pepe the helpful stepped in and re-located it. It felt wonderful. You can't kick my ass…I'll kick my own ass.

In the meantime, I've been watching more the B&H masterclass/event space talks. They are really fantastic. The best one that I've seen so far was Adam Marelli's "Bridging the Gap: Classical Art Design for Photographers" - I was both impressed by Morelli's fluency in classical art theory and history and by his ability to clearly explain and demonstrate the ideas. His work is also very impressive, he has been working on projects to document artisans around the world, places like Japan and Italy, and the quality of his images is superb. Definitely someone I am interested in emulating and learning more from. If I were young and pre-family, I would sell everything I have and apprentice myself to him (I can't imagine why he wouldn't want me following him around??)