Still summer in the city, but I’m beginning to sense a change of air. Must be my heritage that makes me look for scenes like this. Chelsea Piers, New York City.
Billy, from Bardstown /
As photographers, we tend to shoot a lot of frames. And with mass storage, a lot of what we have in the archives goes missing or becomes "invisible" in the hierarchy. They are retrieved only through search or serendipity. I was in Bardstown, Kentucky seven years ago for a workshop—this is one of the many characters inhabiting Boone's Butcher Shop, and I love the photo for Billy's reticence to be revealed, contrasted with the very public dressing of the meats in the back room.
Above Water /
This is a publicity still for northfrkd.com founder Joni Rentz. I’ve been spending a lot of time on the North Fork of Long Island—will be posting images of local color soon.
Mark Was Here /
UPDATED. Been exploring the East Marion Cemetery on Long Island’s North Fork, and I came across this article about the painter Mark Rothko’s gravesite there. His family has been petitioning to move his remains back to Westchester County. The Times piece is over a year old, and I couldn't figure out if he’s relocated, so to speak.
My last trip out confirmed it; Mark is still with us. Visitors have left their own calling cards, with crayon markings, some small stones atop his marker, and—as far as I could count—what appears to be about a dollar in change. View the Gallery.
Reflective Cities /
On recent weekend in St. Louis, Missouri, I realized I have ever been to an American city that fit my worldview so completely. A vast, time-traveled older Center, with layer upon layer of story, of rise and fall, rebirth. I’ll be returning with a bag full of NC160; a Nostalgia trip in realtime.
It got me thinking of a project (we all need projects) on how reflections add another layer of distortion to what we see—as if our daily vision weren’t warped enough, the cities we live in impose more layers of mirrored un-reality.
Instant Fun /
I love my Polaroid 320 pack film camera. It’s just so “iffy” and I never quite know what I’ll get. Since film for this beast—not to mention batteries—is getting scarce, I’m left with using a cool French shareware app to emulate the look of those craptastic emulsions. Poladroid is dead simple: drag your favorite images onto the icon of a Spectra camera and it spits out an instant film version, which takes about a minute to “develop.”
