An anecdotal thought based on comments made by Robert Wright, by way of Rob Haggart (whose blog you really SHOULD be reading, even if discussions of signal-to-noise ratio lead to moments of doubt).

I was basically told during the Photo 101 phase of my schooling that the professors had 'seen it all -- empty swings, pictures of pouty friends, and the roll of film taken in your dorm room an hour before class,' and that 'those things are OK, we aren't going to judge you on that content, and you need to get them out of your system so you can go on and do REAL work.'

To this end, Robert Wright writes,

...The confluence of technologies of digital photography, the www for sharing, a boom in consumer credit allowing amateurs to purchase gear that only professionals would have bothered with in the analogue days, all of this has brought an unprecedented number of photographers into the arena at exactly the same time and often at the same phase, that early discovery phase that used to go by fairly unnoticed in art schools around the country.

It's true that you're always trying to grow through your work, but at the same time I like to think I managed to have my most larval development out of the public eye. Those pictures are embarrassing.

They Only Played To A Few Hundred People In Their Lifetime, But Those That Heard Them Immediately Formed A Band

Greetings to those of you visiting through the Flickr back door. As part of my value-added content, I would like to point out that the additional photos of The Mighty Handful from the 17th of May, 2008 are below. However I encourage you to read the following notice to discover how you, the reader, might be able to impact the life of a misguided youth for the better.

With the possible exceptions of cash paydays and booty calls, there's very little pleasure in finding something out on short notice, and with that in mind I am happy to report to you (a week in advance!) that The Mighty Handful (my favoritest) are playing The Big Stage at the Knitting Factory on Sunday the 25th. Now, the Knitting Factory -- shitty lighting aside -- is a brand-name venue which leads to its own level of fun-ness. Amplifying the fun-ness further is the fact that this show is a Battle of the Bands. Great. Boosting the signal to tsunami-like levels is the promise of a trip to Ireland for the winning group and an invitation to an international battle of the bands.

SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU?

If you care at all about the fate of these young turks (and you should at this point, especially seeing as how I won't shut up about them), then you will purchase tickets, go to the show and support them with all your might. For just ten (10) United States Dollars -- that's just $1.68 USD a day from now until Sunday -- you could change the life of a poor, Park Slope youth whose debaucherous promise is held back by a sensible Park Slope upbringing. If you have any questions regarding this matter it is in your best interest to contact the band directly as my details are sketchy at best.

Tickets are available through Ticketmaster, which is no longer an issue because the 90's are over and Pearl Jam lost.

But don't take my word for it. Let them tell you, in their own words, why you should go:

So we won that random battle of the bands.

TURNS OUT THE FUCKING PRIZE WAS
A SHOW AT THE KNITTING FACTORY.

If we win, we will go to ireland to compete against other high school bands from all over the world.

COME AND SUPPORT US
MAKE US FAMOUS
WE LOVE YOU ALL<333

SAME RULES APPLY:

BRING INSTRUMENTS
BRING CONFETTI
BRING GLITTER
BRING ANYYYTHING.

Neko Case, 4/6/06, Webster Hall

Even as I tool around with the new 5D, I'm still trolling through my negatives -- the recent ones -- and re-scanning them myself. As with anything worth doing right, it's best to do it yourself, and it's sort of astonishing just how lousy the lousy low-res lab scans are when compared to a high(er)-res scan done to your parameters. I'd written off these pictures from last April (April 6, 2006) as an example of poor lab-processing wisked together with my rustiness with film stocks, but further noodling shows them to be basically what I intended. Of course, I always say that it's no longer whether my pictures 'come out' or not, just whether they're 'any good' and as I struggle for constancy it's nice to find that I've kept true to that idea of goodness winning out over a base-level outcome.

I've linked to this post and this version of the picture off the Flickr site because my aversion to having larger images swiped or manipulated is suddenly less important than having the image seen at a viewable size. The idea of a proper viewing distance isn't new, and I'm discovering that dimensions 500px by "X"px at 150 dpi aren't going to get the job done, even at a viewing distance of 1'-2' on a computer monitor. Add 'Vanity' to the post labels.

Unhappiness Is An Invented Thing

Dominique



Dear Dom,

So sorry. You've become one of my favorite people to photograph. I should have warned you that this might happen.

--RG

I've Been Holding Out On You

So the gallery that was my one best (easiest) shot at a show was passively interested, so for the time being the fate of the Museum Project (lame working title) is in my hands... and I don't know what that means. I have a good 40 or 50 photos laying around that I was withholding for exclusivity's sake, holding off Flickr and the Daddy Site until I got word back and now that I have the word I have, I'm sort of torn as to whether I should unleash them all or not. An alternative to a show involves self-publishing, which is something I have a similar level of advising-access, but also a similar limit to help that that implies.

There is no conclusion to this thought at present.