On the evening of June 11 we parted ways with Texas and headed for Florida via New Orleans to rephotograph some of the places we’d shot 18 months after Katrinna while on our way to Florida.
This would be the shake-down trip.
We made it with little difficulty and only a minor problem or two.
So here we are for the summer, just a bit east of Sarasota, watching over an Arabian horse, taking care of a nice swimming pool and cutting some four acres of grass!
Loading the trailer
Security guards responding to photographers
(Image used with permission from Discarted.com)
In LA a group of photographers began photographing the US Bank building and were immediately free video poker how to play backgammon no deposit bonus online casino 888 no download casino play roulette craps game black jack download american roulette play video poker baccarat free casino game no download online casino free money on line casino wagering roulette online online casino betting free online casino slots free craps best casino roulette gambling internet casino gambling uk best casino online full pay video poker no deposit casino code best craps game black jack tournament best online casino site craps online game newest online casino free slots no download play blackjack online free dueces wild video poker black jack gambling online video poker game free casino cash no deposit video poker tutorial play free video poker how to win at black jack casino roulette casino guide how to win at roulette distributed raman amplifierrules of craps casino game online real money backgammon baccarat casino online free video poker game play free video poker video poker odds video poker tournaments confronted by numerous security guards. There’s a video on their website and numerous comments, one of which includes a quote of California law specifically stating it is illegal to interfere with the rights of citizens to photograph in public places. Take a look.
Donald W. Eddy at 103
September 10, 2008. My brother, Paul from Nevada, and I drove to Sarasota, Florida to see Dad. Our sister had called a few days earlier saying that Dad was most likely on his last legs and the inevitable would probably happen within a week or so. He’d been in bed for about two weeks not wanting to get up, not wanting to shave or eat. He’d said he was tired . . . (more)
Being a photographer within Eastman Kodak Company’s research facilities in Rochester, took me to many areas of new ideas being hatched by the many young scientists working a great variety of projects. Each staff member was required to sign a non-disclosure agreement that basically said nothing could be revealed about the work being done within a one year period of leaving the company. (article)
Laser lab at Eastman Kodak, ca. 1970
For whatever small reason, a sidebar link at the New York Times site Kodak Article, I took a short trip back in time via the Net to see what was going on at Kodak Park today, August 2008, especially in research where I’d spent five years in Building 59 from 1966-71 at the experienced ages of 27-32. Maybe this was triggered because my boss at Kodak, one of the very few creative and future thinking people I’ve ever known at Kodak had recently died, Earl Kage.
Earl, Director of the Motion Picture Research Studios, as a supervisory person, did not play the power game as so many at large corporations do. He was dedicated to having his photographers, seven including himself, produce the finest output of images possible.
I was the most recent hired photographer having been offered the job and lured away from the George Eastman House where I’d been on staff for three years. I was also the only college educated photographer having studied at Rochester Institute of Technology and had considerable knowledge of the chemistry, physics, and processes that Kodak used.
The studios main objective was the testing of every Kodak produced film product for still and motion picture cameras. This also included all competitors’ products for comparison. In between testing assignments Earl would have us use the studios or to go out and shoot whatever we wanted just as long as the images were excellent and creative. These would be used to present at various times to Kodak employees showing everyone how excellent were the Kodak films as well as promotional and recruiting.
This is the first installment of the power games supervisory people play as they have occurred to or been witnessed by me over the past forty years. The NY Times article quite infuriated me because of the truths contained within it! The arrogant viewed superiority and narrow mindedness of those in charge of research, and no doubt many other departments, was a direct, as I saw it, impediment to Kodak’s future. It probably continues to this day and is certainly a major reason for Kodak’s decompression. Check out the NY Times link above.
Here’s an example that took place many years ago.
A typical corporate chemistry lab during the 1960s. Unknown person.
Sam Campanaro, my immediate supervisor and first under Earl Kage, and I were assigned to do some photography in a newly built research building on the banks far above the Genesee River a block or so north and across Lake Avenue. We loaded Sam’s car with lights, 4×5 and 35mm cameras, ancillary items and lots of film. We expected to be shooting for about three full days. The photos would be used in a variety of publications and displays.
We set up in one or two of the many excellent labs in the tall, newly constructed building. Break time came in mid-morning and so with our hosts, the lab researchers, headed down to the excellent cafeteria. It was, as I recall, on the first floor and in the southeast corner of the building with window looking out over the river’s gorge to the east and south. It was light and airy with high ceilings and many tables and chairs. The scientists were filing into the room lining up along the long serving area where snacks and refreshments were readily available.
Since we were almost first to form the line our hosts verbally guided us through the procedure of getting coffee and doughnuts. Sam and I took our trays, selected a nice table close to the windows and sat down. Our hosts came over but would not sit down. They stood at the end of the table. Nor did anyone else sit down. Each took their tray and left the cafeteria! Sam and I didn’t know what to think of this but were informed that we could not sit in the cafeteria—we had to return to our assigned labs and partake of the refreshments there! It was, we were told, a directive from the Head of this research building.
Sam and I looked at each other, drank our coffee, ate our doughnuts and talked with our hosts while they continued standing at the end of the table. Every person in the line both coming in and leaving looked over at us but said nothing as they continued on their directed ways. It was obvious that we breaking the rules.
For the afternoon break our hosts sat with us at the table but were not comfortable at all. A few people stopped by momentarily to ask questions. Since the photographers in our studio were always sharing everything to do with supporting our in-house customers, we could come up with solutions to the problems given us. It was always the way and always a win-win situation. Together we bounced ideas off each other. Why in heaven’s name did the myopic director of Building 81 (as I recall the number) segregate so much knowledge and idea people. The break times would enhance the transfer of ideas, in our view.
By the completion of our work on the third day, the cafeteria was filled with conversation from the seated scientists at each coffee break! Ideas were flowing as well as excitement with the sharing. Our photographs took second place, as Sam and I saw it, to the new environment we had instigated. We later learned the directive had been withdrawn following our revolution!
More to follow.
The flight from Los Angeles to San Jose started fairly well along the coast and over the Pacific. A huge fog bank lay just off the land extending for miles to the north. Eventually we headed inland flying over mountainous areas. I saw no direct flames from fires but there were definite signs of smoke rising from localized areas. Some photos I took while over the Santa Cruz mountains prior to landing contain plumes of smoke, but no flames. Read the rest of this entry »
Visit to Monterey, California
During a one week July visit to Monterey and Carmel, California, scoping out the place to once again return to, I conducted a Sunday night photo workshop that was not only quite successful in image making, but a serendipity event took place during the first hour of getting to know and hearing needs and questions from the students.
Conversation about the previous night’s sunset at Carmel beach and the fact that it is so dog friendly brought up viewing some photos I’d made that very evening, which included people around beach fires, playing Frisbee, and walking with their dogs. From the bordering footpath above the beach I’d taken numerous pics. In several of them a couple and their dog had been walking in my direction. As two of the students, a married couple from Greece, he attending the Naval Post Graduate School, looked at the images on the computer screen they suddenly exclaimed, “That’s us! And our dog!” I went through several photos and in each enlarged them to full size. Sure enough, it was them!
??????BOOK REVIEW
The Cost of Power in China, The Three Gorges Dam and the Yangtze River Valley
Photographs and Narratives by Steven Benson
Introduction and Afterword by Dai Qing
Essay by A.D. Coleman
Interview by Jens Friis
Published by Black Opal Press, P.O. Box 405, Lake Orion, Michigan 48361, USA
Copyright 2006
224 pages; 162 duotone photographs
The pages are not numbered so I am taking Steve at his word in emails back to me. The first in September 2006:
“Thank you for your interest in the book. Your patience is greatly appreciated during the production period.
“The book is at the printer and you’ll be happy to know that since the time of your purchase, the book has grown from 144 pages and 90 photos to 220 pages and 158 photos! This is all at no additional cost to you.”
And again in February:
“The book grew a little more, 224 pages and 162 duotones.”
In some cases, growth is most appreciated!
This book is a precursor to a fate for a large community in south central China. The fate is in actuality taking place at this time but will enlarge many fold as the years pass by. It is a precursor in the same sense that W. Eugene Smith’s Minamata is the aftermath documentation of a community within a fate that in all probability had been known but ignored or deliberately hidden.
As I sat with the book leafing through page after page I became aware of subtle feelings—I was being introduced to a part of China that was 180 degrees from what I’d seen on PBS television specials of young couples visiting China. What I was seeing now were vast amounts of uncontrolled air, land, and water pollution. It was not until the middle of the book that I was almost startled by seeing sharp, sun-cast shadows! The captions and running commentaries certainly supported that but only rarely were there signs of sun or clear skies. One of Steve’s comments at the end of the book added to my growing feelings and thought it might have helped me as a reader if it had been at the beginning of the book.
Steve, from the interview:
“. . . The other strategy at work here is what I call the ‘Beautiful Poisonous Snake Aesthetic.’ The images are gentle and respectful while the text is hard hitting and political. Actually, I would also add the way that I decided to print these photographs. The quality of the prints in terms of tonality function as a voice for the images and it is a soft voice. I spent a great deal of time on the prints, more than I have with other images from other projects and there seems to be a particular importance about ‘the voice’ of them.’?
I was seeing people living in a gray. There are three groups of people within these pages: the refugees to be; the workers constructing the project; and the invisible government people who pushed the project even after having been warned by world experts.
Steve:
“The disappearance of 36,000 square miles of our planet was not the result of an erupting Mt. Vesuvius—it was the result of the human decision making process at its most destructive. It is my hope that this body of work, in conjunction with the photographs and written records of my colleagues, might somehow function as a warning to future generations to never make this mistake again.”
This is a book that cries out to be seen and pointed to and learned from.
I first met Steve Benson at the Meeting Place during FotoFest 2006, Houston, Texas where he was showing to those waiting for portfolio reviews, both photographers and reviewers, his mock-up of his dynamic and thought provoking book. His work on this enormous project in China is reportage and documentary, a genré that to my eyes appeared lacking in the majority of photographs being brought to FotoFest. Few Magnum type photographers were present as the majority of reviewers represented museums and galleries, places where emphasis moves along the lines of fine art, design, and manipulations via processes. The reviewers had been reviewed by the attending photographers, which in and of itself determines strongly what images will be brought to FotoFest. Therein lies the irony of FotoFest. Some of this book’s very same images were in a featured exhibition at FotoFest 2004. Steve traveled the entire length of the proposed reservoir in 1999 thus a five year time frame from shoot to show.
For those of you who work in the documentary arena and have questions about getting into FotoFest, you might just contact Steve, purchase his book and maybe get some answers.
After I went through the images Steve asked if I had time to look at other photos he’d been working on over quite a long period. They were paradoxes—discoveries of everyday things we all see but then move on. Steve stops, ponders, and shoots. One of them is at the very end of his book, six pages from the end. It supports his last answer during the interview by Jens Friis. I can only report on parts of the two images, back to back—”NEW! HOT AND FRESH BAGELS” and “PRAY 4 OUR AMERICA”.
Welcome to this first page and, hopefully, many more. To get started I suggest you take a moment to read the “About” (top right) which will describe how this site came into being. It’s not long.
This site is not and will not become another of the hundreds, perhaps thousands, that present galleries upon galleries of photographs. It will, however, be relative to those seriously involved in visual imagery, be it through photographs, drawings, paintings, poetry, or prose—all of which create images in the sight and mind.
For starters I have included the cover to Second Image Volume 1 Number 3, which, as shown, is dated 2001, not 1992 as initially intended for. This is the first public showing.
Contributing artists: Thomas Ward, Carl Rhoden, Chuck Powell (deceased), Ronda Stone, Gary Maul, John Benjamin, Ron Lutz, Evie Hickman (deceased), John Sorbie (deceased), Don Eddy
The full publication is available only in PDF form, 864KB. Financing for ink on paper continues to be the main hurdle.
The first issue of Illustrated Light included photographs from Hal Gould’s Camera Obscura Gallery in Denver, Colorado that were being shown at the Illustrated Light Gallery in Fort Collins, Colorado. This issue is out-of-print but could be gotten through this site.
The second issue included a 1963 photograph of Minor White with RIT students in his class. Articles included: Should Photographs Be Manipulated? with supporting Polaroid in-camera composited images; statements by Minor White from the first Aperture quarterly, 1952; excerpts from Aperture by Nancy Newhall; book reviews and gallery showings including Shelby Lee Adams upcoming exhibition at the Illustrated Light Gallery. Less than twenty copies remain of issue two.
Serious photographers?
November 7th, 2009Where have we been, as photographers?
Needle in light bulb with reflector
This evening, Friday, November 6, 2009, as I sit at my small table, Max, my German Shepherd sleeps lightly on the couch a couple feet away. I’ve been going over the night photographs I’ve made during the past year-and-a-half. This past Sunday I conducted another night time workshop in a country setting with the full moon illuminating the different scenes. On November 15, another Sunday, the group will be downtown Houston to shoot various scenes without a moon. (more)
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