Parting Shot - 2007

Flag Decal On Forklift, Truckstop, Niles, Michigan

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Above: Canon EOS-5D, 28~105/3.5~4.5 Canon EF Ultrasonic lens, ISO 100

Highpretension Is A Disease?

In the aftermath of the recent dust-up over Richard Prince's exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum I found myself at the Whitney Museum, just a few blocks away, viewing, "Danny Lyon: Montage, Film, and Still Photography."

If you're not aware of the controversy over the Prince exhibit you should click the link to the NY Times article about it. In a nutshell, he's copied another photographer's (Jim Krantz's) work as seen in a cigarette ad, enlarged it to mammoth proportion and hung it on the wall of a major museum. His other "appropriations" have sold in galleries for more than $1.5 million each.

I'll tell you: that's really art! No, not the picture on the wall, but being able to copy something and sell it for more than a million dollars, is the art of pretension, and pretension is the currency of the art world.

Anyway, there I was at the Whitney, and Danny Lyon's photography had been a big influence on my photography during my formative years. His art is unpretentious (or so I thought) so seeing his exhibit was a high point of my weekend... until I discovered one of his lesser-known images. It was a very small image, nicely framed, and had one of those little ID tags next to it.

You've seen those tags. They tell you what the title is and then the medium. Typical to see something like "gelatin silver print," a/k/a plain old black and white print. What I saw, the thing that ruined it for me, was: "Internal Dye Diffusion Transfer Print." English translation: SX-70 picture.

I think this is the beginning of a new affliction I'm calling highpretension. And, hey... as soon as I can cultivate a suitable amount of grandiloquence, I'm going to be a millionaire!

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Above: Polaroid SX-70 Alpha, 116mm/f8.0 lens, Polaroid SX-70 Instant Film

Nobody's Perfect

I've been known to be a pack-rat all my adult life, I save everything..... well, not literally, I do get rid of some stuff but I've been tempted to save everything. Needless to say, I've come under some small amount of criticism for this practice, but not lately.

Of all the stuff I'm tempted to save, and this is in addition to all the cool souvenirs I've collected over a lifetime making pictures, the most notable are old articles of clothing. There's a couple of shirts I've had since 1995, for example, that still look good and that are so comfortable I'm loathe to discard them. My favorite things to save, however, are old shoes.

I have big feet (I'm a big guy) and finding comfortable shoes is a big problem. I could drink three black cherry sodas contemplating the liquidation of a pair of shoes... that's how long it takes... but I've found that the perfect way to save things is simply to photograph them and save the picture, then discard the item. This is especially helpful when you're talking about old shoes. Nobody (but me) really wants to save old shoes.

The other day I was talking to my friend Dave Johnson about Polaroid. I happened to mention that I liked to shoot with Polachrome and Polapan instant films, when they were available, and that made me nostalgic and I started pulling old instant slides out of the file and scanning them as a preservation method. One of my favorite Polapan images is the one above, a picture of a particular pair of old Puma basketball shoes I was deeply fond of.

Just thought I'd share it with you.

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Above: Nikon F3, 10.5cm/f2.5 Nikkor lens, Polapan film

Back Me Up, Scotty

Editor's Note: This entry was written November 2, 2007 for the current issue of Exposure, the quarterly magazine of ASMP New Jersey Chapter.

There’s no doubt in my mind that I’m a true professional when it comes to my work as a photographer. I take excessive pains to be certain that whatever picture I’m commissioned to make gets made and delivered as expected, “no IFs, ANDs or BUTs.” I learned professionalism during my apprenticeship at the feet of several masters, and my favorite lesson is the one that could have been the most catastrophic failure had it not been for a back-up.

In May of 1980 I was first assistant to Klaus Lucka, a photographer who was shooting a major ad campaign for Raleigh Lights (cigarettes). The ads revolved around a truck driver and were photographed against the dramatic and magnificent backdrop of Washington’s North Cascade Pass. The mountain locations were exceptionally beautiful and we were well into the execution of a finely crafted campaign which involved three weeks of location shooting.

One Sunday morning, about a third of the way through the shoot, we allowed ourselves the luxury of sleeping-in rather than our usual 4:30 AM call, but it was not to be. I was, somewhat rudely, awakened by a loud and urgent-sounding pounding at my motel room’s door just before eight o’clock. I hurried to the door and opened it, fully expecting to find that my idea of sleeping-in and Klaus’s idea of sleeping-in were not in synch. But instead of seeing an impatient, frowning photographer at my door I looked out upon a parking lot, empty save for all the cars in their places. I stood in the doorway, in my underwear, surveying a surreally quiet, peaceful, serene motel parking lot with nobody in-sight. Despite the fact that I was mostly naked I stood there a minute, trying to decide if I’d been dreaming or if I actually heard something. I went back to bed.

Just about the time I fell asleep, and it wasn’t long, I heard the pounding on my door again. I got out of bed once more and went to answer the door again. This time, everyone in the motel was standing in their doorway in their underwear. What was that noise?

That noise was the sound of a volcano erupting 300 miles away. Mt. Saint Helens had blown her top and our plan for that Sunday morning was to head in the eruption’s direction for another week of shooting.

Unwillingly wide awake, we all headed for the restaurant and, over a breakfast of blueberry pancakes, a very nervous account manager was losing his composure in the face of impending disaster. We had purchased a new, custom-painted in the brand’s colors, Kenworth tractor and a gleaming white Frauhauf trailer (about $160,000 +/-). We were one high-priced photographer, two assistants, two stylists, three models, a real truck driver (to drive the tractor-trailer), art director, account manager, brand manager, a couple other tobacco company execs, five other vehicles, wardrobe, props, etc, etc. All that investment was at risk. The account manager was about to come completely and totally unglued right there at the breakfast table and he was looking toward Klaus for a viable solution.

Klaus calmly looked at the second assistant, Mark Scott (now a photographer in Los Angeles), who had also been the location scout and he said, “Mark, get the alternate location files from the car, we’ll go east instead of west.” Klaus had a back-up... priceless!

I approach every job I do the same way. I make sure there’s always some other way to make whatever picture I’m supposed to make. Failure is not an option. I always have a back-up.

Being generally fastidious, having a back-up is a pre-occupation of mine. When someone sends me out, at great expense, to make a picture it’s likely that their job as well as my good reputation is on the line. I won’t allow myself to fail, I always deliver. Not one of my clients has ever been disappointed.

Back in the here-and-now, I’ve disappointed myself: I failed to have an adequate back-up in place for some critical business data. What went wrong?

By the time you read this it’s likely to be old news, but Apple had just released it’s latest version of the Macintosh operating system, code named “Leopard.” I like to be at the leading edge of technology so I went to the Apple Store at Short Hills and bought a five-pack of upgrades for all my computers. I took it back to my office and prepared to install the new software.

The first step in upgrading a computer’s operating system is to insure the integrity of your data by first making a back-up of your computer's hard drive. It’s a best practice. In fact, you should always have a recent back-up of your important data, typically once a week.

I sat at my desk and set-up the copying of data files to an external hard drive. I went into the kitchen for a black cherry soda and, though I was only gone for a minute, when I returned something was terribly wrong. The little colored pinwheel icon was spinning but the progress bar was not expanding. Something had stalled.

I clicked on the “stop” button, figured I’d start over. I reselected my files, dragged them into the folder I wanted to transfer to and again the pinwheel spun and nothing happened.

I restarted the computer, heard the tone, saw the Apple logo, got the spinning wheel icon and breathed a sigh of relief, everything seemed to be okay. The good feeling didn’t last very long. The pinwheel kept spinning and spinning and the computer never restarted.

The next step was a no-brainer. I took my computer to the Apple Store and had the Apple Genius run a diagnostic test. The result: my computer's hard drive was toast... well-done... burned to a crispy crunch. My precious data was unrecoverable.

The bad news: I hadn’t done a comprehensive back-up since June and I spent the better part of that week’s downtime re-entering data... and Photoshop still isn’t working properly.

The good news: Leopard has a feature called Time Machine which automatically backs-up your data, I’ll never (?) be in that situation again. It’s embarrassing for a guy who takes pride in being professional. It’s like standing in a motel parking lot in your underwear.

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Above: Nikon F, 20/4.0 Nikkor lens, Kodachrome 25 film

Another Christmas Dinner

I'd like to start, today, by wishing all of my Christian friends a Happy Christmas. For most, this Christmas will be topped-off by a really wonderful dinner with family. A veritable feast with traditional foods and everyone goes home stuffed to the gills and ready to make a New Year's Resolution to lose a few pounds, most likely those pounds gained tonight.

A great dinner has to start with great ingredients. In the past year I've become a convert to organic foods. It just seems logical to me that organically grown food is healthier and so I've been shopping at local farmer's markets.

As I'm not making a Christmas dinner tonight, I thought I'd reminisce about Thanksgiving Dinner, the last special holiday meal I've enjoyed with my family. We all went over to my brother Stu's house to tie-on the old feed bag with the whole family, and everyone cooked something and brought it along. My contribution was a sweet potato casserole (with pineapple chunks and topped with apple butter) and roasted carrots and fresh garlic... and it was made with all organic ingredients.

Most of the farmer's markets around here are parking lot affairs where the local farmers come around and set up tables with their goods, and by Thanksgiving these makeshift markets are already gone as most operate from May to October. I suppose I could have gone to the local Whole Foods (supermarket chain) but Thanksgiving Dinner, like Christmas Dinner, has to be somewhat special so I felt compelled to seek out a more enticing venue.

As luck would have it, a good friend of mine mentioned that she knew of an organic farm in Orange County (New York) that she likes and so we hit the road and drove 65 miles to shop at Blooming Hill Farm in Blooming Grove, New York.

Wow! That's a great farm!!

We not only managed to buy everything we needed for our respective dinners, I bought all kinds of stuff to use later in the week and we had lunch at their cafe, too... made a whole day of it. I haven't had so much fun grocery shopping in a long time.

You know, all the men in my family are real good cooks (even my ten and fourteen year-old boys know their way around a stove). My little brother, Dave, can bake as well and his job was cakes and pies for dessert. I'm here to tell you that there's not much that compares to a large family dinner and I've made my New Year's Resolution already... last month!

Anyway, another great feed with the family and, naturally, there are pictures to go with it. I hope you all enjoy your dinner tonight, wherever and with whomever, your holiday or not, and please don't forget to give thanks for all the things we're fortunate enough to enjoy.

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All above: Canon EOS-5D, 28~105/3.5~4.5 Canon EF Ultrasonic lens, ISO 100

Pay The Writers!

CHICAGO IL -
I see the screenwriters are still on strike, they went out a few months ago in protest over the studios' refusal to pay for Internet broadcast rights, etc, etc. My friend Mark Beckelman sent me a video at the outset which really pointedly sums-up the writers' complaint, even though it was made some time before the current issue was thrust into the fore by the strike.

The video is an interview with a writer, Harlan Ellison, who's written scores of screenplays and some 70+ novels and other stories. In this video Ellison carps about Warner Brothers' refusal to pay him for an interview that they wanted to distribute..... well, I'll let him tell it.

The most interesting part, for me, is that if you substitute the word photographer for the word writer, you'd have hit on one of my pet peeves.

As the writers' strike is no longer front-page news, here's a little bit to remind you that we're all in the same boat. Pay the writers!

Long Time, No See

When we last saw our hero it was near about the end of September and he was en route to Chicagoland by car when, somewhere in Michigan, just after sunrise, along US Hwy 12 (westbound) his right front tire blew out causing a slight delay.....

Yes, I was driving to Chicago. I'd left home just around 6:30 PM the night before and I was making really good time. I crossed the Indiana border from Ohio and was headed west on I-90 when I had a great idea: exit the interstate and cruise north to US 12 and take it west. There has to be something a bit more scenic than the Indiana Toll Road. I was right.

It was minutes before sunrise as I drove north from Indiana into Michigan. I'd stopped to size up a cornfield just east of Edwardsburg and pulled off the road. Looking around for a decent image I decided to continue driving. A u-turn from the unpaved shoulder back onto the roadway and I inadvertently nicked the inside sidewall on the sharp edge of the concrete. Must have been a s l o w leak because it was about a half hour later, just east of Niles, Michigan, that another motorist at a traffic light was wildly gesturing at my right front wheel.

I crossed the intersection, pulled over, looked at the wheel and...

Just the week before, in preparation for this road trip, I took my car in for a wheel alignment and tires. Turned out that it was a wheel alignment, tires and a brake job. About $500 more than I'd been prepared to spend.

Fortunately (for me), September had been a good month. There was plenty of money in the checking account and it didn't hurt too bad but I was thinking: by the end of the month, roughly another ten days, I needed to get my car inspected and I knew my mechanic was going to tell me I needed shock absorbers. Didn't want to know what that would cost! Also knew that if I spent more money on the car it would be a good idea to paint it. Didn't want to know what that would cost, either!

I bought a new tire from the guys in the truck stop, continued on to Chicago (and back). Upon arrival at home I drove straight in to Wyman Ford and bought.....



In the three months since the detour I haven't written much here. It doesn't mean I don't have anything to say, just that I've been pre-occupied with a number of things.

Stay tuned, you'll get it all..... soon.