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Saw Man on Wire last week in New York. It is one of the most beautiful, moving films I've ever seen. But it took me a while to figure out why.
It's just a guy on a tightrope, walking back and forth. Big deal. But the passion that he brings to his craft reminds me that pleasure in life quite often comes from simple, frivolous things.
To see 60-somethings talking about crazy stuff they did when they were 20-somethings was very emotional. Phillipe Petite's love for his craft is a reminder to pour ourselves into the people and the things we love.
Just got back from New York -- 3 days of subways, walking, and meetings with Art Buyers. It was a lot of fun, although it felt weird to be looking for work when the economic meltdown is on people's minds.
People seemed to like the new book edit, and they also liked the China / Blurb book. I think I'm sold on using Blurb, or something like it, to present a separate body of work.
The print quality and color is ok, but with one round of proofing, should be easy to correct.
Really enjoyed meeting Amber Terranova at PDN, who just moved to NY from the Photo Department at Outside in Santa Fe, and also worked at Review Santa Fe. Another thing that I am hoping to check out.
So I've been following this guy's work in the NYT Magazine. I love his approach to putting elements together in clever, conceptual ways. No fancy lighting or crazy styling. Just good ideas. Even his website is no frills. What's up with the rust brown background?
Clearly he is a fan of this guy. (I am too)
I'm coming off 8 days of work. Highlights include: Shooting at Google with Peter Birch of Google Maps, 2 days of street shooting in SF for Sony PSP, Espresso from Bob's fancy new machine at Oliveto, and wasting Rob Prideaux at indoor Kart Racing in San Bruno.
But the fun is over and I am now under a massive pile of digital work. I'm also updating my book, making a new one on Blurb with work from China, and hanging a show in 2 weeks.
Needless to say I am on lockdown in front of my computer for a while. This is the part I don't like. I already feel like one of those little old hunched over ladies from Chinatown.
On another note I just got a new typewriter. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. But it's from 1940 and it's awesome. No plugs or wires, just a beautifully made machine that works. No correction ribbon or anything. If you fuck up, you start over. I love it. Maybe more than the mystery photo.
I shot this image last weekend and I can't stop thinking about it. I am totally in love with it and I have no idea why. The light is interesting, but nothing out of the ordinary. It's a pretty typical street corner and there's nothing special going on. I haven't even retouched it and I already love it so much I might not even do anything to it, just leave it as a crappy jpeg.
What is it about this picture that has me so obsessed? I have absolutely no idea.
Maybe because it feels so real, or something about the colors, or the shapes, or that thousands of people have walked by this place, and chances are that no one has ever taken a photo of it?
This was a pretty strange shoot for Fast Company that got me really confused. This woman Joni West (human version, center, avatar version in foreground) has created a marketing company within Second Life. She works on behalf of Colgate to give away smiles, among other things for other large companies. The avatars in this image belong to (or represent) other people that she knows through Second Life.
So, she had to pay them real money to send their virtual avatar to her virtual photo studio to do a virtual photo shoot with a virtual camera. It's crazy -- they have virtual lights, and you can move the camera around and shoot different angles and focal lengths. She then sent me the real digital images, and we put them into the real image, that I shot at a real art gallery with a real camera.
Joni (who used to work for Irving Penn a long time ago - !!!!) is and artist and also very involved in Second Life and believes that in the next five years, everything will happen there -- business transactions, social encounters, real estate, education -- everything.
The virtual photo shoot alone was weird enough -- when I try to imagine what that would be like it just makes my head hurt.
Back when I was working as a full time assistant, I remember helping on shoots for Goodby and feeling like they did better work than everyone else. The art directors were really smart. I also remember thinking that it would be a long time before I'd feel good about taking my book there, let alone shooting a job for them.
Well, I was there today to meet with art buyer Suzee Barabee, who couldn't have been nicer. I think she liked my book, but I was so distracted with actually being there that it was hard to focus on the meeting. Sometimes I struggle with selling myself versus just letting my book do the talking.
Anyway, they didn't hire me on the spot. I think they're using some guy named Nadav or something. But it was good to be there.
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