On The Rocks

I have no idea where this photo was taken. I found it at the flea market.

Lost and Found: The Kiss

I don't have many photos of public displays of affection. I wish I had more. This not quite like the famous Doisneau photo, but he had Paris for background. This one's looks more like the Hoover Dam. Not quite as romantic.

Lost & Found: Odd One Out

I adore this picture. It should be in the dictionary next to the definition of "contrast". It's a fairly large photo, so it comes to no surprise that it practically leaped out at me from the pile. All that sea of severe solemnity and in the middle of it the cherub-faced child. And that's not all; everyone of those ladies - and few gentlemen - have character, and hat to match! I just wish I knew what was the occasion.

Lost & Found: A Bird In A Hand

This image is a minor vernacular masterpiece. When I fished it out of the pile of old photos at the flea market I went "now, that's interesting". It would've been easy to miss, since the actual print is quite small.

Lost & Found: Tall Man

Whatever happened to Fred Green?

Square America: Christmas

It's almost over! Just another week of stressing, wrapping, spending too much, crowned with a glorious weekend of stuffing yourself till you pass out, and then we can finally get back to normal.


Lamp!


Back in the days when second-hand smoking was good for you. It built character.


Lovely Do, lovely tree.


I have nothing.

Hot!

We are having a heat wave here in LA. In The Valley the temperatures went up to 95ºF (35ºC). So I feel it appropriate to post some some summer themed vernacular photography.


Despite of hating to sleep with the AC on, I like summer. I like the hot sun bleaching out the landscape.


I like going on local road trips in summer time - taking the long way down to the coast. I take windy little roads that land me far north of the popular beaches of Santa Monica and Malibu.

I don't care a whole lot about the beach itself. The Ocean is an alien thing to me; it smells funny and it's frigging cold. Thanks to the giant clockwise current of the North Atlantic the waters along the West Coast are always frigid. I guess I should be thankful for that, because with warm currents LA would probably be hot and humid like Florida.


Temperatures are supposed to go back down to very manageable low 80's by midweek. At least that's what my phone is telling me, and my phone rarely lies, though occasionally has an alternative interpretation of reality. Existential stuff.

Square America: Winter - Part 2

I really haven't got much to comment here. Enjoy the pictures.

Square America: Hunter and Hunted

I couldn't meet Dive's 500 Word Challenge two weeks ago, but oddly I have some found photos that relate.


The Quote was about Dall Sheep Hunting. Is this a Dall Sheep? I couldn't say. It's a sheep of some kind.


Maybe this one?


Well, at least I'm sure this is not a sheep.

By the way, Dive has a new challenge up. I started a new blogger page for my fiction, since my newest one didn't quite seem to fit here. It's awfully presumptuous of me of course, since it implies that there will be more. We shall see. Meanwhile I had guilty satisfaction of turning an Edith people-not-having-sex Wharton quote into a bawdy little fluff. Go me!

Woof

I got nothing. Brain is dry as yesterday's toast.


So let's look at some doggie pictures. Why not?


When you look at photos of strangers it's often "whatever..." But sometimes you get the feeling that you know the person. Like this guy - I'm convinced he was funny, friendly, kind. He is certainly good looking. 1948... probably too young to be drafted into the war. Good for him.


Pictures of people with their heads cropped off are fascinating.


Sometimes it's not the subject matter, but the environment that's most interesting. Gotta love 60's interior decoration.

Square America: The Beach

LA has been hit with a heat wave, so let's go to the beach!

I like this photo a lot. I like the bluntness with which the pair of shoes draw attention to the absence of their owner - assumedly the photographer. We are rarely this aware that we are peering over the shoulder of someone when we look at a photo.

The collector of found photographs does not just pick up anything at random. It's a deliberate, meticulous search for the accidental art. What makes the collector salivate can be a number of things; an artlessly artful composition, odd subject matter, unintended social commentary, an innocently staged cliche.

These square format color - and sometime BW - photos were common in the 1960's, but disappeared in the early 1970's. Some have date stamps, some don't. They must have been connected to a certain type of process or equipment, but I have not been able to find out anything about it.

If anyone can enlighten me on the subject, it would be greatly appreciated.

Slice of Time

"...photos have always been the Model T of the arts. The man who wants to be buried with his five hundred-dollar Ford because it has pulled him out of every hole so far also wants a five-dollar photo of his wife so that when she passes, he can pull her out of her hole and place her firmly on the dresser."
(Richard Powers, Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance)

At the end of grad school we all had to write a lengthy thesis paper. I was quite happy with mine, I thought it came out quite well. I talked about the functions of photography, memory, history, narrative and fictional landscapes, quoted Baudrillar, John Berger, Richard Powers, Wim Wenders, Salman Rushdie, Susan Sontag.

When I showed my first draft to my professor, he had hard time believing I wrote it. It's understandable, I was never very forthcoming or articulate at our regular critiques. Truth to be told, I never liked talking about my work. It made me feel like a giant phony. I'm also just not intellectual enough to get a handle on all the (post-)post-modernist art talk.

In grad school there were a few students who could talk the talk, and make the art. The majority though was just talking. However, it carried more weight with the faculty than their actual work.

I still don't know if going to grad school was a good thing or a big mistake. On one hand, not going would have been three years less of eating ramen soup and baked beens, and selling plasma to buy art supplies. On the other hand, I got to try my hand in print making, actually learned a number of things, and became more articulate, even if only in writing.

On the definitely positive side, it cured me from all my naive ideals of being an artist.

Fun with Photos

I love these 60's color photos, but sometimes the color shift in them - usually towards magenta - bothers my photographic sensibilities.

I recall my college days, when it took a color photo around 12 minutes to wind its way through the developing machine. Many hours were spent in the photo lab inhaling chemical fumes. Fortunately it's all Photoshop now.


After adjusting the color I also punched up contrast, saturation and sharpened the image a little. It looks more realistic, but to be honest, I prefer the softer middle image.


Some images are so far beyond repair, that you might as well just go nuts with them.

The main feature of this photo the identical green dresses of the girls, so I made them extra saturated, while desaturating the flesh tones.


Here you have it. The leprechaun family got a new home.

Bunny

I'm late to the party, aren't I? I just realized I had an Easter themed photo in my collection. C'est la vie.

Three Blondes

This is sooo California! This photo to me is like million year old insect encased in amber.