The framed 12″x12″ prints from the show taken home for $125 each. If you are interested in purchasing any, contact me and I’ll set up a transaction.

A few images from the exhibit:

Related posts:

1. Still Remembering Winter
2. Remembering Winter
3. 100 Prints, Vol I

If someone likes my work, great! If someone hates it, that is fine too as I’d never believe that any artist can achieve universal acceptance. But don’t just tell me I need to do something different to make it fit into your view of what is acceptable.

“You should(n’t)…
     … have obeyed the rule of thirds.”
     … have shot this in color.”
     … have printed this high key.”
     … wait until people press their cheeks together and smile.”
     … have taken this image with that camera instead.”

When I hear any such statements, I can’t help but wonder what they really are saying.

“I know I’m better than you because…
     …I own the latest digital camera, and use fancy words like ‘bokeh.’”
     …I’ve religiously read Ansel Adams.”
     …my arrogant nature demands it.”
     …I have a BA in art.”
     …I’ve sold more prints than you.”
     …know how to read MTF charts.”

I feel that to tell an artist they need to do something different, is to assert that the artist is completely inexperienced and is in need of guidance. I’ve been to art openings where I thought that the work was absolute amateur crap and walked away looking like a zombie since the blood rushed out of my face due to the sheer fright I just experience knowing that what I had just seen could be taken seriously. Even in such a situation I would have found it horribly out of place and disrespectful to have approached the artist and say “You should paint with more realism. [Then maybe I'll like your work]“ They appeared to happy as a pig in mud over their work. Who am I to take that away from them?

And now to risk being a hypocrite, I do believe that artists shouldn’t give a shit what anyone else thinks of their work. If my choices aren’t good enough for someone else, too bad, that is their hang up, not mine.

Being a non-religious sort of person, I often feel that photography is my replacement spirituality. Instead of hoping that my soul will live on forever in heaven, I hope that it’ll live forever through the imagery that I’ll leave behind. My fear is that if I ever cared too much about what other people’s expectations for art are, and follow all of the Shoulds and Shouldn’ts out there, that I’ll end up doing nothing but selling long exposure photos of waterfall at local arts & craft fairs. At that point, I feel my soul truly would be lost.

Related posts:

1. Philosophy from a tea bag
2. The Vivian Maier Cache
3. Bang! I just spent a dollar.

The burning building photograph is the one that kicked off this hobby for me. I never had any thoughts about collecting non-fine-art photographs until this print was in my hands back in 2003. I even put it back and almost didn’t purchase it. I remember almost leaving the store when I had an overwhelming feeling that I was making a mistake by not purchasing it, so I raced back to the box of prints it was in and made the purchase.

Whenever I start thumbing through a stack of photographic prints at an estate sale, or antique store, I think somewhere in my subconscious, I am secretly hunting for photographs that I wish I had taken myself. I also end up imagining a scene in the far future where someone is flipping through a stack of prints that I created. A few of those prints strike the right chords and they end up taking them home. Not because of a famous name attached to image, but just because they love the image. A sad, romanticized, zero-gratification aspect of my own photographer which I’ll almost certainly not be aware of if I succeed with it. Yet, I’m cool with that.

I’m going to embed an interesting conversation with Robert Flynn Johnson that I found via citysnaps.net on the topic of anonymous photography. Robert Flynn Johnson is the author of Anonymous: Enigmatic Images from Unknown Photographers, a photo book about collecting vernacular photography.

Related posts:

1. I don’t purchase fine art photography
2. The Vivian Maier Cache
3. Absence of Ego

The more that I look at the Vivian Maier images, the more I feel the urge to do something that I haven’t done in quite a while – street photography with a Twin Lens Reflex camera.

If you’ve only ever done street photography with a range finder, or SLR type camera, doing street photography with a TLR is quite a different experience.

The most significant difference while using a TLR is the waist level viewfinder. When I shoot with a camera that needs to be at eye level to compose, I often feel that the motion of bringing the camera up to my eye to compose the photo is extremely unsubtle, and highly noticeable to anyone who may be a subject. There are even times where my weakness as a photographer shines through as someone will make eye contact with me before I raise the camera for the shot. In this situation, it is very likely that I never bring myself raise the camera and pull the trigger.

With a TLR, the motion of bringing a camera up to my face is replaced with the much more subtle motion of glancing downwards. The eye contact that would often make me hesitate to take the shot is eliminated. I find that it is very liberating when all of the camera operation can be done without having to do anything but appear to be staring at the ground.

The waist level finder also has the awesome advantage of allowing you to shoot, and still compose your photo from angles where composition would be left to luck with an SLR or range finder camera. Ground level, overhead to peer above a crowd, and at right angles from the direction which you are facing are all significantly easier with a TLR.

Hell, even if you found yourself pinned down under gun fire and were willing to risk a few fingers for a photo, the handy TLR has you covered as well.

*High res image of the zombie drawing in the background can be found here.

While I think the disconnect of using a waist level finder is an advantage, I have noticed at least one big disadvantage to using a TLR in modern times. The disadvantage is that the camera looks like nothing most people have ever seen. Shooting with a TLR in the twenty first century results in good number of photos where people are staring directly at the camera, often with a confused look on their face as they don’t know what exactly it is that they are looking at. I’ve seen it on my negatives, and I’ve seen it on contact sheets that other street photographer’s have posted on various web forums after taking a TLR out for a spin. Being able to move into position while remaining inconspicuous is a big plus when shooting with a Twin Lens Reflex camera.

I also happen to think that the vintage appearance of TLR cameras results in a lot of images weakened by people starting directly at it, there is also a plus side to the appearance. Even though the snick of a TLR’s leaf shutter is one of the quietest I’ve ever heard, I still get busted while shooting with it from time to time. It seems to me though that the old fashioned look of the cameras does take the edge off of people who have just gotten their photo taken. From my experience, people either appear to not really take me seriously, or else it intrigues them into an honest discussion about the camera. I’m yet to get any sort of hostile reaction, but that could always change.

Finally, TLRs are also quite compact for their film format. The weight of the twin lens reflex cameras that I own is only marginally heavier than my Nikon FE with lens, while not being much larger in physical dimensions. And being fixed lens cameras, I never will feel the need to bring a bunch of different lenses with me to take up space and add more weight to my camera bag. The savings in space & weight I can then allocate towards the storage of more rolls of film. I see no reason why a TLR couldn’t be a camera that I could carry with me every day. Perhaps I’ll do something like choosing one day a week where instead of slinging my Leica M6 over my shoulder as I do my daily three mile round trip to work and back, I’ll grab one of my TLRs instead. I can then call it something cute like TLR Tuesday.

I’ll finish off this post with a couple of TLR street photos I’ve never published before. Thank you Vivian Maier, you’ve inspired me to start wielding my twin lens reflex cameras once again.

Related posts:

1. Using Side Mount Range Finders on Press Cameras
2. Yashica!
3. I feel like a tourist.

The images that I’ve browsed though so far have been excellent, and I can’t wait for more to get posted. I highly recommend going to the blog to see photos.

With the discovery of these negatives fresh in my mind, I can’t help but relate back to a few ideas I wrote about earlier in the year.

The first was Philosophy from a tea bag where I took to heart a fortune from a fortune cookie that said The purpose of life is to do something that will live forever. With the discovery of Vivian’s negatives, and the images from them being viewed by a wide audience, I can’t help but believe that she has successfully achieved this purpose of life. I’m already convinced that if I never get famous doing photography during my lifetime, that I’d be cool knowing that someone else discovered all my work postmortem and got it into the eyes of many.

The second was my plea to future proof your photography. I can’t imagine that if the cache was in the form punch cards, or 8” floppies, that they would be as accessible as they are. I stick with film for its ease of archivability. The Maier negatives, along with the tale of Robert Capa’s missing briefcase only helps to confirm in my mind that I’ll be more likely to achieve the goal of doing something that will live forever by sticking with film.

External References

• Vivian Maier – Her Discovered Work
• Robert Capa’s Lost Negatives

Related posts:

1. Philosophy from a tea bag
2. Should, Shouldn’t.
3. Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) Street Shooting

Related posts:

1. Thoughts on Street Photography: Gluttony of Big Cities

“Don’t worry about a press card. Your B & J Camera will get you through any police or fire line. That’s what the boys on the papers use and you will be one of them.”

Stating that the brand has to be Burke & James is simple marketing. However, if we apply this statement to any model of the giant 4×5 press cameras that news photographer’s used back then, it probably held some weight.

I think it is reasonable safe to assume that back in the 1940’s, every Joe Bystander didn’t have a 4×5 press camera in their trunk, or hung around their neck at all times. If Joe Bystander did have a camera, it was probably a much smaller portable consumer grade camera from the period. Large Format Press Cameras are heavy, bulky, and take a lot of concentrated effort to use on a daily basis. If a police or fireman were to glance over the crowd of bystanders, it was probably safe to assume that the man holding the camera which was larger than his head, was probably the professional journalist of the bunch.

I started to think about Weegee’s statement, and how it would apply in modern times.

Swap out ‘B&J Camera‘ with ‘Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III’ and I think this statement would fall flat on its face. A professional journalist may show up with a top of the line dSLR, but so will the local gearhead who has never shown his work to anybody outside of his Flickr followers. Side by side they’ll probably appear identical to any safety officials. Then add to the crowd any other amateurs who can’t afford the top shelf camera, and any tourists who may be in the area and there is a strong chance that they are using a prosumer camera which will look nearly identical to what the pro and the gearhead are using. I doubt anyone them will be identified as being a journalist without showing some credentials.

But, what if we keep the statement the same as Weegee’s spoke it, and applied it to modern day situations? Could the simple appearance of a large format press camera still influence people, even though they are considered obsolete? I think so.

While out with my own 4×5 press cameras, I would never assume that I could just up and walk past police lines. However, I have noticed that when I do use my press cameras in public, they tend to still have an influence over people which has resulted in me doing things that I’ve never have experienced with my other cameras. I’d like to share with you three short case studies on incidents where I felt something above and beyond happened, thanks to the influence of a large format press camera.

The Burn

Spring 2003. I ‘d only owned my Burke & James Press for about six months at this time, and was still green to using it. I was driving towards the small Wisconsin town where my family lived, and seen a plume of smoke on the horizon. I got close to the smoke and discovered that the town’s old feed mill had been torn down, and the rubble was being burned as a fire control exercise.

I attached my Burke & James to my tripod and started shooting the events. It wasn’t long into the shoot when the man who was funding the burn approached me. It turns out that he wanted some photos of the event, and was taking some snapshots of it himself. He looked at my press camera, figured that it would create much better images than his own, and offered to buy a set of the prints right there on the spot.

So, thanks to my Burke & James 4×5 Press, without even trying, I managed to make prints sales from some free lance work. A sale made before I even had finished shooting the event!

The Carnie

Summer 2004. The carnival was in town. I was planning to go to the carnival once it got dark to shoot some flash photos of the rides with people on them. I ended up running late that night and didn’t actually get to shooting until the carnival rides were starting to get shut down.

I approached the one ride that I really wanted to use in a photo, and nobody was riding it. The operator informed me he was done for the night. With my press camera in hand, I asked if he could give some people one last ride so I could get the images I wanted. The discussion went back and forth a few times, and ended up with him loading up some women for a free ride.

Now, In all the years that I’ve attended small town carnivals, it was a pretty much set in stone rule that getting anything for free from a carnie just did not happen. Thanks to my Burke & James Press Camera, I got two women a free ride from a carnie, and a killer photo to boot. The most I ever got while using my Leica in a small carnival was a questioning by the carnival management to make sure I was taking photos to expose unsafe rides on gossip sites like perezhilton.com.

The man with no pants

Late Summer 2004: I had just purchased my Anniversary Speed Graphic after breaking my Burke & James, and was heading out to meet some friends at a bar. I thought “What the hell. I’ll bring the Speed Graphic along and show it to them.”

Long story short, thanks to the influential power of my Anniversary Speed Graphic, another patron of the bar was running down main street with no pants on. You know, for the camera.

I hate to say that the gear should ever makes much of a difference, but sometimes, it just does.

Related posts:

1. The Burke & James 4×5 Press, Endorsed by Weegee
2. Using Side Mount Range Finders on Press Cameras

Burke & James 4×5 Press Manual
9 Megabytes

Here is a treat for any Burke & James 4×5 Press owners out there, a remastered pdf version of the original Burke & James press manual which I own. I’ve had a copy of this manual on this site for years, but the quality of that one was rather bad. The new PDF that I created for this version should be much better.

The manual should be able to answer any question you may have about the Burke & James press, and uses some awesome mid 20th century terminology such as Rugged Aeroplane Metal Body. But, as far as I’m concerned, the best part of this manual are the endorsements by the legendary photographer Arthur “Weegee” Fellig that appear throughout it.

The best one of these being a letter written my Weegee which appears on page 5. After some marketing blurbs about the B&J Press, he provides some personal tips on how to being a freelance photographer.

FREE LANCING with the B & J PRESS CAMERA

— by ARTHUR (Weegee) FELLIG

“I use a B & J Press Camera in my work as a free lance Press Photographer. It will photograph anything from a crying baby to a roaring 5 alarm fire. It’s the best all-around camera I know of — and I ought to know as I’ve tried them all.”

“If you too want to make money free lancing with a camera, get a B & J Press Camera — and after you get it, study it thoroughly at your leisure. When you are at the scene of a story you have to work fast furiously — and sometimes at a fire at night, while people are screaming and being rescued, the best shots are made the first few minutes. That is why you must know your camera and be able to work it in the dark or by sense of feel. I find the B & J Camera wonderful for working in a hurry as it has no useless gadgets to get in the way.”

“Here’s how to get tips when a good story is breaking. One of the best sources of information nowadays is a midget radio tuned to the police alarms . . . also I would go around to the press room at police headquarters. That is where all the police reporters wait around for a story to break. They’re a good bunch of fellows and will welcome you . . . and besides, they can always use an extra hand at their card games. When a story breaks, they’ll take you along with them. The newspapers are always short of cameramen and will welcome a free lancer to give them coverage — especially at night when their staff men are home. They’ll always be glad to use you, rather than wake up their own men and break the next day’s schedule.”

“Here are some helpful hints which I hope you’ll find useful:

Don’t take a picture of someone just looking into a camera. Editors don’t like stiff, posey shots. Catch your subject doing something to give it the human touch.

At auto smash-ups don’t throw lighted cigarettes near the scene of the wreckage. It’s apt to ignite the spilled gasoline and start a fire or explosion.

At fires, don’t drive over the stretched hose lines, as you may break them.

If you promise a cop or a fireman personal prints, keep your promise. This will make everlasting friends.

At the scene of a story, don’t wait around for something to happen with your camera in its case . . . have it out and all set. You never know when something will happen.

If one of the crowd asks you a question, don’t give them a wise crack flip answer. By being polite you’ll be tipped off to good exclusive pictures.

Play ball with the other cameramen. If they should miss a shot, offer them one of yours. This will make friends.

After you sell the photo to a local paper and if you think it has more than local interest, offer it to the big syndicates like Acme Newspictures, etc., and also send a copy to Life Magazine as they pay well.

On pictures with lots of property damage, offer them to the trade magazines also.

And in conclusion, always act like a Gentleman. Don’t worry about a press card. Your B & J Camera will get you through any police or fire line. That’s what the boys on the papers use and you will be one of them.”

Some external Weegee Resources.

• Weekend Explorer – Crime Was Weegee’s Oyster – Make sure to watch video included in the article.
• Weegee Speaks
• Photographer of the day: Weegee – Nice small collection of Weegee photos.
• InfraWeegee – Infrared photos by Weegee.

Related posts:

1. The Influence of Large Format Press Cameras
2. Large format must be the slowest format.
3. Using Side Mount Range Finders on Press Cameras

One of the “illegal” photos taken that night.

I had taken a picture near a women, not of her, just near her and kept walking on. An hour or so later we crossed paths again and she chased me down to ask why I had taken a picture of her. It just so happened that there was a beat cop nearby when she caught up and he overheard her questioning me. He came over to see what the fuss was about, and things started to get ugly once he injected himself into the discussion I was trying to have with this women about photographic theory and why I work the way I work.

He started by firing off a steady stream of questions at me, and I answered them as honestly as I could.

“Why are you photographing here?”
“It just happened to be where I strolled tonight.”

“What kind of camera is that?”
“It is an Olympus XA2 from the early 80’s.”

“You know that people may consider this weird?”
“I am well aware of this, and comfortable with it. It is what I have to deal with to make the art I want to make.”

“You have any history with police encounters?”
“Just parking tickets. Alternate side parking rule gets me from time to time.”

His basic questioning continued on. Eventually it led to the beat cop making up laws that I knew not to be true, and to letting me know that he wouldn’t hesitate to arrest me if I didn’t cooperate.

“It is illegal to take pictures in this area.” (while making a swooping hand gesture that would indicated to me all of the tourist and downtown sections of the city)
“Every piece of literature I’ve ever read says else wise. If it is in public, I can take its picture.”

“And what kind of literature is that?”
“There is a very popular flier put out by a lawyer who is also a photographer to help educate people on photographer’s rights due to the ever growing harassment we are experiencing. As well as countless newspaper articles on incidents photographers who have been falsely accused of crimes.”

“You can’t trust what a lawyer writes about the laws. ..”
Inside of my head: “Lawyers are not a proper means to get information about laws? For real?”

“… You need to provide me a proper statute number instead of something some lawyer wrote.”
Inside my head: Would there even be a statute number since nothing I’ve done is even against the law? Do they issue a statute number for every conceivable action that is legal? Bet he doesn’t even know what the statute is, or if it even exist either.
Outside of my head: I can’t provide any specific statute numbers.
“Not that I would know the statute numbers either.” While bumbling on his words in a way that I took to mean that he just made something up, and is trying to cover it the cop followed up with

At some point during the conversation I either convinced the women I was no threat, or she just got tired of the endless volley of questions that they cop was asking me which I would respond with long winded explanations using my knowledge photographic history and theory. I gave her one of my cards and she parted ways. She seemed very fair & reasonable to what I was saying. The cop, on the other hand wasn’t done with me yet.

“Why would you need to shoot in infrared? Is that so that people don’t notice?”
“It is because I love the aesthetic of full frontal flash. At this time of day people’s pupils will be wide open, so using a normal flash would be very blinding to them. I shoot this way mostly out of courtesy to my subjects.”

Throughout the entire conversation the officer kept trying to tell me that it was illegal to take photos of minors. I kept replying by telling him that everything I’ve read said otherwise.  So far I’ve answered all of his questions calmly, and with a verbose response that did nothing to self incriminate myself as doing anything wrong that night. Many of his questions felt like underhanded attempt to get me to confess to being a closet rapist or pedophile. I stuck to my ground and insisted intentions are based solely as being an artist. I could tell that he was starting to spin up like a freshly kicked beehive.

Annoyed Cop: “So why are you just taking pictures of women?”
I‘m not just taking pictures of women. Any one who passes by is fair game.

Annoyed Cop: “The two I saw you take were of women.”
“That is two out of a roll of thirty-six.”

Even more annoyed cop: “Have you taken any photos of minors tonight?”
“I don’t think so. I tend to take my shot, and mentally move onto the next one. I rarely recall what Ive taken until I process review the photos later. I’m not out creeping on women & children, but I won’t hold back if they are involved in something interesting.”

Visibly angry cop: “Then show me the pictures you’ve taken that aren’t of children!”
Cop proceeds to flip over my camera and is greeted to a plain black plastic back.
Me on the outside: “Olympus XA2. It takes film. I can’t review for you.”
Me on the inside: “Film win!”

Shortly after that last comment I was on my way home.

It is easy to read similar stories like this on th web and think to yourself “If I was in that situation I’d totally tell the cop off.” In reality, I found it much easier to just stay polite, humble, and 100% honest with all of my responses through the thick of his BS. Walking home that night was a much better outcome than getting stuck in jail on a non-existent charge, and then getting hit with something stupid like disorderly conduct because the cop felt I threatened his authority and needed to make an example.

Related posts:

1. Mr. Color, this is Mrs. Night. You used to be lovers.
2. Rudeness
3. I don’t purchase fine art photography

From the control tests taken inside my house, I made an assumption that my typical working distance, might not work so well as the illumination from the flash didn’t seem to extend much further than ten feet. The photos created during this photo walk backed that assumption up. Anything I shot where the subject was around ten feet away or more result in very thin negatives.

While working with this infrared conversion, I reasoned that in the end, it would be more about courtesy, then it would be about stealth. This outing proved that point to me. I didn’t get usable negatives unless the subject was closer than ten feet. At these close distances, the red pulse from the infrared covered flash is very noticeable, and many of the people I used it on did notice. At that working distance, a typical non-infrared flash pulse would also be very annoying to the subject, and outright blinding if it is dark enough that their pupils are wide open. So, don’t expect to do this conversion and be invisible ninja with a camera, do it because you love the aesthetic of full frontal flash and black zombie eyes, and don’t want to blind unsuspecting people in the process.

Of the few images where I was close enough to get a good exposure, these two ended up also having the benefit of not completely sucking.

Aside from the two for mentioned points, I also learned something else about infrared flash photography. Something which was completely unexpected. What I learned is as follows:

Infrared Flash makes the police believe that you are a rapist.

That’s right, read the rest of the story right over here.

Related posts:

1. The Infrared XA2 Experiment – Round 2
2. The Infrared XA2 Experiment – Round 1
3. Olympus XA2 – Infrared Blackout Edition