Giants, prostitutes, transvestites and dwarves...

are just some of the things that Diane Arbus was famous for photographing.

Here's an example:

She lived hard, explored the fringes of society and then killed herself in 1971. She was 48.

This image is a bit more famous:

Arbus' Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, New York City (1962)

I had seen her work before but rediscovered it yesterday along with this super neat website.

Click through the other books, it's a pretty interesting concept...

Diptych

Taken in an abandoned parking lot just after sunset.

That's all...

Saturday

I woke up late, fully clothed from the night before. It went late...

Today was slow, and lazy. Omelets at Nicko's, a diner made famous for its claim to being "Tampa's last real steel diner.

Not very interesting but, I did see this...

Yes, that is 100 pounds of pure orange fury.


It is scheduled to be demolished soon...

Mixed media

Kim and Yoshi, 2007 Richard Renaldi

It's the tail end of my Friday shift at the St. Petersburg times. The desert of empty space before the weekend. I'm done with all of my work and I've resorted to perusing the dregs of the Internet and filling my ears with This American Life.

Aside: The new episode is excellent, listen to it.

Ira is doing his sign off, the show is over and I think that's it... and then this weird sad music comes on. I quickly cruise over to the website to figure out who is making this bizarre sound.

It's Antony and the Johnsons. I'm moving at Internet speed so I've clicked, looked and I'm already on to something else but I let his eerie voice keep piping through my headphones.

And then I come across this photo project. It's like 100Strangers on steroids.

Read the interview if you want but wait to click to his actual project.

When I scrolled through Richard Renaldi's work that Antony and Johnsons was still playing in the background.

The combination of the sound and the visual did something. It was sort of over the top but powerful none the less.

Give it a shot. Here it is in seven steps.

1. Find headphones and put them on.

2. Click this and listen to The Lake

3. Wait a second... maybe a few seconds... is he singing?

4. It's a little cheesy and weird I know but bear with me. Keep the music playing.

5. Open up a new tab or a new window or whatever. Now click this.

6. Scroll through...

7. Let me know what you think.

Surfing the Archive...

© Paul Gauguin

© Alessandra Sanguinetti

Magnum ran a contest where they asked readers to compare the past work of Magnum photographers to the work of other famous artists. Above is one of my favorites but all of the entries are pretty incredible. Check them out here.

Entry number 13 was selected as the winner.

Which one is your favorite?

Two more strangers.

This is Cliff. I was talking to his friend Sal when he walked up. He was a really nice guy. At first he seemed sort of confused as to why I would want to take his picture but after he heard that I had already photographed Sal he opened up.


This is Sal. He was a real sweet guy. He looked sort of tough so I was kind of worried about asking to take his picture.

He agreed immediately saying, "Go ahead I don't give a shit."

He started talking about Al Pacino and how he had just gotten a free 12-pack of diet Coke from some lady who bought it by accident.

He gave me a diet coke and made this tough face for me...

www.100strangers.com

More from Magnum

Odds are you've seen the above image before. It was taken by Thomas Hoepker on September 11, 2001. To me it's a gripping contrast to many of the other images that were taken that day.

Here is his advice to a young photographer:

"Avoid all photo schools and courses. Most will give you lofty ideas and twist your mind in one direction. Find your own way to photography, nobody will ask you later if you have a diploma. Visit as many museums as you possibly can. The images you see (painted, drawn, etched or photographed) will stay with you for the rest of your life. They will help you to discover good pictures in real life. Suppress any silly ambitions of becoming a great artist. Being a good photographer is difficult enough."

I like his style, it goes with my thoughts on the subject and the thoughts that I have heard voiced by peers.

Check his Magnum portfolio here.

A little inspiration in the morning...

CARL DE KEYZER ©
Men waiting in front of film theatre. HYDERABAD, India, 1985

Applicable to more than just photography I think.

"Give it all you got for at least 5 years and then decide if you got what it takes. Too many great talents give up at the very beginning; the great black hole looming after the comfortable academy or university years is the number one killer of future talent."

- Carl De Keyzer
Magnum Photographer

Take a look at his Magnum portfolio here.
And his website here.

I learned about him from this post on the Magnum blog. It's worth checking out.

The old camera dilemma...

I've always liked the idea of vintage things. Growing up my mom owned a vintage clothing store called Strange Cargo so it's sort of ingrained in me. I don't know what it is exactly but there's just something about things from the past the strike a chord with me.

This passion extends to cameras as well but there always seems to be the same dilemma. I find these little gems at the thrift store. Small plastic beauties like this..

or this...

They call out, beckoning to be used. I take them home thinking of all the fun I might have with them and then discover the inevitable. They ultimately use some bizarre size of film that has either been discontinued or is only available by mail order from New York or some other far off place.

Short of learning how to process in a darkroom does anyone know of any sources for old film in the Tampa Bay Area. Namely 110 film and wait... while googling for a link I found this. I may have just answered my own question.

Arghh shouldn't post rambling posts after a night of Old Smuggler I suppose.

Keith

Photo # 2 of my series for the 100 Strangers project.

This is Keith. He was outside of the laundromat asking for change when I was leaving.

He said he was just trying to get on the bus and that if it was any other day he would be trying to get a beer.

I gave him what I had. He seemed fine with it. He asked me what I wanted to take his picture for. When I told him he seemed impressed.

Nice guy.

Something worth watching

This has been on TED for a while but for some reason I've never watched it.

Today, pajama clad with fresh Yuban running through my veins I decided to give it a click.

What followed was a wonderful journey through the origins of life. Frans Lanting has a funny accent which does not necessarily lend itself to dramatic narration but his pictures and words are inspiring.

Watch his work, it's a good way to spend a couple of minutes.

100 Strangers

For the past couple weeks the concept of familiar strangers has come up in conversation. The link defines it as "an aspect of urban anonymity."

There are so many of these characters in my life. Faces in crowds, repeated often and never addressed.

These people are often some of the ones I would like to photographic but self consciousness and fear of breaking social norms prevents me.

When I saw the 100 strangers project in a photo magazine at Barnes and Noble I was interested and thought I might try it out.

I was sort of nervous asking to take her picture but had a little extra liquid courage in my system. I asked her and she was completely fine with it. I was sort of surprised and happy because it was getting late and I was worried that I wouldn't get another chance that day.

Here's the beginning, it won't be the last.

Found Art

Found in walking in SoHo (South Howard). Beautiful, majestic, disgusting...

Panographs or how to turn your camera into a puzzle machine

Sometimes when I'm looking through Flickr I'll find these wonderfully fragmented, jagged edged images and I always wondered what they were. Here are some of my favorites.

I did a couple of quick google searches and came up with this great tutorial.

Inspired by what I saw I headed out into the world (by bicycle of course) in search of a worthy subject. With the sun low in the sky casting long golden shadows over everything I was hard pressed to find just what I was looking for.

I'm still not sure about what I've made but I think after I do a few more of these things I could really be on to something.

More than anything they are really fun to put together. If you're bored and have a camera that you can control manually I highly recommend it.

Let me know what you think...

This just in...

Vincent Laforet is a rock star of a photographer based out of New York City. He won the Pulitzer prize before he turned 30 and changed the business model of the New York Times in regards to how it contracts shooters.

He's also kind of a big deal in the lecture circuit and in the photographic community in general. PhotoShelter just released a widget to help photographers promote themselves. It basically embeds a gallery into whatever you want with the option to buy the prints you see. Really neat stuff if you're trying to make some money off of your work.

In an effort to promote this neat idea and help up and coming photographers Laforet has created a gallery of his work and the work of some other great photographers. In the next 30 days all of the money that the sales of these prints generate will go towards a scholarship fund. You can read the extensive specifics on Laforet's blog.

Anyway the first shot is an incredible deal, $75 for a signed 16x20 print. Something like this might normally go for $1,625. So if your looking for something fancy for your wall or business or whatever this could be it.

Look click buy or not either way these pictures sure are pretty...

Amateurs on the heels of lions

I keep seeing more and more evidence that the world of photojournalism is in for a big change with the release of the D90 and the 5D Mark II. Being a Canon guy myself seeing videos like the one below kind of gets me going. It'll be interesting to see what lies ahead.

Tokyo Reality (Canon 5D Mark II) Final
by lejapon

P.S.

I know I've been super lazy with my posts lately. I'll fix that in the next couple of days.

Keep an eye out.