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Untitled, (Chelsea), Feb 2009I’ve decided I want to focus on making portraits this semester. Good, solid, polished portraits. Weird. Lonely. I feel a lot like that lately: weird and lonely, but only on the weekends, strangely enough. So I’ve got to channel all of that into my images. It’s a good thing my weekend starts Wednesday afternoon.
Azabu Juban, Minato-ku, Tokyo. October/November 2008.
For my birthday this year, I think I want two pro packs of RPDIII and a ticket somewhere, anywhere in the world. I can handle the rest quite nicely.
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Patrick Tsai
Patrick Tsai (or Pat Pat) of My Little Dead Dick fame and a friend, Coley Brown, have started what looks to be a very promising collaborative project. Coley and Patrick met in Tokyo but now Coley has returned to NYC. Growing Up shows two views of the world, from two different people; it’s really wonderful and I’m looking forward to keeping up with the blog and seeing how the project progresses.
CAN I GET A OH YEAH!!!??Filed under: Photography | Tags: female photographers, photographers of color, photographers to watch
I caught wind of Lauri Lyons work thanks to A Photo Editor posting a great documentary of Lauri at Current. Lauri has the type of resume I’d like to one day have: freelance photo editor for Magnum Photos, assisted for National Geographic photographer David Alan Harvey, first black female photographer to be signed to Getty Images (how long has Getty been in existence? 15 years? That’s awful lot of time to let pass by before signing a woman of color…but anyways), worked for Vibe and the Fader among other publications. Shot in Brazil, Europe, Mexico; the list goes on.
It’s always good to be aware of the path others are carving out for you. To know someone else has achieved a lot of what I’d like to achieve just makes me feel that much more committed because I know it can happen for me and there aren’t a lot of those assurances when you’re a brown girl trying to make in phototopia. Outside of that Current is a great source for news you’re probably not getting via your typical news outlets. And it’s chock full of documentaries! I for one plan on making it a habit to watch Current more often.
“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery — celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from — it’s where you take them to.” — Jim Jarmusch
(Stranger than Paradise is currently on my ‘Films I Need To Watch’ list!)
“Try live something intense, at home, abroad… it does not matter. It has to be passionate. And once you know the basics forget about photography.” — Thomas Dworzak
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”— Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The best things I’ve done for myself as a photographer were: watching movies more critically and really paying attention to cinematography, not taking photography courses for five months and just shooting, living in Japan and throwing myself into experience, surprisingly, with great amounts of courage, and maybe just learning to just be the best camera welder I could be.
What has helped you to grow as a photographer?
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The Phone Always Rings on Sunday Mornings, Yijun Liao
Yijun (Pixy) Liao has some really great work on her site. I particularly like her tribute to all the films she hasn’t seen, Still from Unseen Films. (found via Shen Wei’s blog)
Noriboribetsu, Hiroshi Watanabe
Hiroshi Watanabe’s Japanese Studies is ridiculously beautiful. Having just left Japan, his rich black and white images capture the details I find myself nostalgic for at the moment.
Xteriors XI, Desiree DolronDesiree Dolron’s Xteriors series combines photography and traditional painting by means of photomanipulation (from what I can tell). Dark, mysterious, beautiful.
from Close (Family), Carmen Winant
Carmen Winant’s Close series is serving as a great source of inspiration for me as I am working on a project of my own about my aunt. The portraits of her family members are so great because I think it’s easy to see your own family in them, in someway. I like the accessiblity of that.
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Digging through rolls of film I shot over the summer, and I am very happy with what I’m getting back so far.
New work, new goals for new year. I promise!
After you’ve done a thing the same way for two years, look it over carefully. After five years, look at it with suspicion. And after ten years, throw it away and start all over. ~Alfred Edward Perlman, New York Times, 3 July 1958
It’s very hard for me to express in coherent words how excited I am to be alive right now. I feel filled with a sense of purpose I haven’t had in a very long time. When I return home in the next six weeks, I will hit the ground running in a way I’ve never done before. And I will carry in my heart that idea that, no matter what challenges come my way, I can do any and everything.
Mr. President, thank you. I look forward to doing my part as a citizen to help bring change to our country.
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(I don’t have words, but I think a picture will do.)
I really love it here.
