kathmarie/ 6

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kathmarie/ 4

simply photo

i've been having some trouble with my "a flickr a day" series. nothing serious, i've just found it increasingly difficult to find strong images. i usually start by looking at the favorites pages of photographers i've already posted about, but i just haven't been having that much luck lately. or maybe i'm just getting pickier; more than just posting good images, i want to post images by talented photographers. i feel like i keep coming across the same photographers which is crazy considering the probably millions of people who use flickr, or maybe after browsing through image after image for what feels like hours at a time i completely lose the ability to differentiate between good and bad photographs.

but i experienced a renewed excitement for the project upon seeing simply photo’s flickr favorites page. i don't know weather she intentionally arranged the images into the above sweet looking grid (i kind of doubt it), but she managed to compose a grid that could probably hold it's own as a photographic print. i think this makes an interesting idea for a project for several reasons: 1) flickr crops photos into square thumbnails, effectively creating a new image that may or may not be as successful as the original (adding to my difficulty in finding good ones), 2) the painstaking difficulty of arranging all those little thumbnails in a specific order exclusively on the flickr favorites page (it would clearly be cheating to do it in photoshop) kind of blows my mind. this sounds like a fun idea to make my endless browsing less stressful, although it’s probably just as likely to have the opposite effect.

jen (of simply photo) also takes her own pictures. she seems to favor a soft pastel color palette, coupled with a soft focus, in both her own work and the work of others. her pictures, like the one below, are for sale on her etsy shop. only, oddly enough, i prefer the shots she takes of her pictures, more than i like the pictures themselves. i hope that's not mean. i don't mean it to be mean. i just really love the delicate piece of masking tape, and the subtle texture of the paint on the wall. i wonder if i ask her very nicely if she would specially make a limited edition of that available so i could think about maybe buying it. although i can’t say i’m really in the habit of buying other people’s photographs. i don't know if i'm interested in that kind of commitment with anyone's photos other than my own, or maybe my friends. maybe.

amy winehouse

i'm currently obsessed with amy winehouse's back to black cd and this video of the single "you know i'm no good", and since it looks rather aesthetically interesting, i figured it related to photography enough for me to post it. i even watched it with out the sound just to be sure.

kathmarie/ 3

day dreaming

i've been in the middle of building a studio for myself since at least september (maybe you remember i posted about it in mid january?). i made the decision about a month ago to start moving some of my things into the room even though i hadn't painted yet, or actually spackled for that matter, or cleaned the walls even.

it was a decision made more for my sanity than it was for practicality's sake because as it was i had stuffed four years worth of photography matter along with all of my clothes and personal things into my rather small bedroom, and i couldn't find anything i needed or walk through the space without maiming myself. the sense of relief upon organizing my things was beyond words, or frankly i would have posted about it, but of course now when i go to paint i'll need to figure out how to deal with the colossal bookcase i moved into the room and immediately filled to the brim with my things. in the meantime i've been shopping for furniture both in my basement, where i found the perfect worktable (something i've been searching high and low for for months; it just needs a good cleaning and a new paint job), and ikea, where, let's face it, i can almost always find something i need. okay, want.

i've been coveting the above table for what feels like forever, but i just spotted this swivel chair today, and i might have to get it. instead of the more practical stool that i was planning to purchase (obviously). for the record, i was in search of a rug today, not a chair.

five and a half

it's hard to believe this journal is a journal; it looks like a well designed paperback book. only there isn't a title. or an author. the very talented people at five and a half leave that part up to you. for $28 it's a very giftable photo find. via poppy.

the nonist

this post at the nonist perfectly sums up everything i wish i could express about blogging. i'm just much newer to it than he is.

kathmarie/ 2

jason frank rosenburg

i saw this photographer, jason frank rosenberg (with thomas | treuhaft artist representatives), on kat heyes blog a few weeks ago and i've been sitting on it ever since. not for any particular reason mind you, i just didn't feel like dealing with it until now, and even still i'm having difficulty mustering up the energy to write something. suffice it to say i love the natural light in these images.

(krista i really think you should look at the thomas | treuhaft site because i think you would like the photographer tim walker that i saw on there.)

kathmarie/ 1

maditi photography

i've said it before: i'm picky about polaroids. for me, a polaroid's charm lies in its physical nature; a polaroid is inherently an object meant to be held, a thing, forgiven its technical flaws and enjoyed mainly for its immediacy. viewing a polaroid online, be it on flickr, or myspace, or wherever, automatically takes it out of context. many scan the polaroid in its entirety, including the borders and minimally adjust the color to recreate the experience, but still once the polaroid loses its physicality the flaws in the image become increasingly evident.

yet, there are always exceptions. like maditi photography. i think one of the reasons i like maditi's polaroids is because of her consistent control of the image itself. she uses the polaroid to reveal unexpected everyday objects, through a controlled color palette and an understanding of the polaroid's limitations.

but most interesting to me is how she rechristens the polaroid as another kind of object that has a similar position of reverence and nostalgia in our society, the postcard, an object that can be handled, mailed, or even framed.


finally, i'm not the hugest fan of her black and white images, but she has a great eye for color, not only in her polaroids, but also in her medium format images, like the one below. you can view more of them on her website in the portfolio section. she also has a blog. and an etsy shop.


via poppy

yawnshire

pocketcharmz

saturday is my friday

i'm creating a technorati profile. that's what happens when i'm bored on a saturday and no one else is posting to their blogs.

tuffig/ 3

laurie roberts/ revisted

a young woman came into my work today and told me that one of our artists, stuart rome, used to be her teacher. and since stuart happened to be my teacher, we got to talking. only to discover that she is the laurie roberts i posted about in december. such a small world.

she graduated from drexel just before i started so our paths never crossed in the halls nor did we ever bump heads in the darkroom, but it was exciting to put a face to her photographs anyway. the image below was hanging on the wall by the cage the entire time i was at school, which basically makes laurie a kind of legend in my mind.

kirin & co

i found myself at kirin notebook this evening, which led me to her shop, kirin & co, where i spotted this print, 'crafttree,' for $35.

the applicant

when lt. saw my post on the photobooth book a few weeks ago, she suggested i look at the applicant by jesse reklaw. the book hilariously pairs the pictures submitted by phd applicants with snippets from the recommendations that accompanied their applications. as one back cover review explains, "the combination of the photograph and the often-ruthless summations by their former professors and employers makes you want to simultaneously laugh at and pity them" - sean stewart, the new pages.

i think it's only $4, if that's any more incentive to check it out.

tuffig/ 2

does anyone know who i'm talking about?

a few years ago alissa and i saw a photographer in a magazine at school who composed these really narrative shadow puppet scenes using only a few props. we found her again recently but neither of us can find the e-mail exchange that has her name and link in it. ironically neither of us really liked her work when we saw it the second time around, but the fact that i can't remember her name is really irritating me now. the images look similar to the shadow puppets i posted about yesterday, but they tell more of a story. this is really obscure so i don't actually expect anything to come of this plea, but i'm pretty sure she has gallery representation so i feel like someone might know who she is.

tuffig/ 1

shadow puppetry

i know this image isn't exactly high photography, but i thought it to be rather charming and it reminded me of abelardo morell's childhood series, if only in a really superficial way. for $10, you can get a 5" x 5" print from tiinateaspoon's etsy shop.

they also remind me of this woman photographer i looked at for a project i was working on two or three years ago. she takes shadow silhouette pictures but i can't remember her name for the life of me (alissa, i know you know who i'm talking about!).

cool/hunt

tina sent me a link to the site thecoolhunter.net maybe because i posted about coolhunting? i don't know. i don't even know who tina is, but i thought i'd pass it along anyway.

suzannasugar/ 3

doron gild

i read an article in philadelphia city paper on red heart the ticker and when i subesquently looked them up on the interweb, i found some really great photography by doron gild inspired, i can only assume, by gregory crewdson.

suzannasugar/ 2

suzannasugar/ 1

the happy camper

i haven't been camping in a really long time, but i was a girl scout for over ten years and the camping was always my very favorite part. i keep trying to talk my mom and sisters and friends into going with me, but i can't find any takers (although zia did say she would take me next time she goes *fingers crossed*). it's possible that camping won't be nearly as fun as i remember, but based on the pictures i saw on kat heyes and tess carr's companion website to their book, the happy campers, i bet my memories of campground magic are just about dead on.

these pictures remind me of the lifestyle photography of thayer allyson gowdy, a young california photographer that pdn featured a few years back in an issue about the west coast.

e j winter/ 3

no bowie after all

david bowie is still interviewing the artists, just at some other time and place which won't include me. i'll have to add this to the week's mounting list of total let downs and disappointments. and by the way, this week was way worse than i imagined it would be. it totally ended in tears at a train station waiting for my mother, who loved me enough to drive through a really bad snow/hail storm to come pick me up. she's the best. i cried any way. actually "cried" is an understatement. i was bawling.

e j winter/ 2

holy crap!

david bowie, the david bowie, is coming to gallery 339 to interview the two artists we're showing tonight. it's kind of a long story, but the important thing here is that i'm going to meet david bowie in just under half an hour. i'm not even that big a david bowie fan, in fact it's safe to say i'm not a david bowie fan at all, but and yet i'm having a surprising amount of trouble containing my excitement. i might even put my makeup on a little early. i might.

maybe he'll even be here for our opening tonight (21st and pine, 6 -8 pm)...

e j winter/ 1

wkmpellucid/ 1

a quickie

jaime just sent me a link to an online photography magazine called file magazine. i haven't really had time to explore it but it looks really good. in a similar vein, i also came across cool hunting, but again i've only perused it briefly. let me know if you read anything good.

akwells/ 5

busy bird

ever notice how everything in life seems to converge on you at exactly the same time? let's take a look at my week:

1/ we have an opening at the photography gallery where i spend my days, gallery 339, this friday (of guariglia + chen whose work i definitely recommend even though i don't really have time to devote a post to them just now). this means long days and lots of physical labor.

2/i have family coming in from st. louis on wednesday (who i haven't seen in i can't actually remember how long).

3/ which happens to be the same day as a once a month ladies business meeting i attend and since i had to miss last month's because i was in new york, i really don't want to skip again (even though both my family and the meeting are really a non-issue since i'll probably have to stay at work until at least 9 hanging the show anyway).

4/ plus, lt. and i have planned a weekend of printmaking (dubbed printfest07, for which i haven't fully finished preparing my sketches or mylars) with a tentative starting date of saturday depending on my level of exhaustion and the amount of time i have spent with the fam.

oh, and did i mention i'm dog sitting this week?

needless to say, posting will be a little limited in the mean time. i'll try to keep up with "a flickr a day," but i'm not making any promises. i hope to resume in full next monday, and i wish everyone a nice week.

akwells/ 4

the bruise magazine

i'm working with a fantastic new online magazine called the bruise that i came in contact with through myspace. their current issue, "the warming landscape," looks at contemporary issues relating to landscape and environment.

i was particularly impressed with krista connerly's work which "looks at the idea of the 'black forest' and it's corresponding language of fairy tales. the stories that have grown out of this landscape seem to point to the calibration of internal to external. for instance, swallowing the heart of a bird creates a kind of physical alchemy during sleep that makes gold appear under your pillow. fairy tales are filled with transformations like these and these activities are born out of the place itself; the forest as a density of desires and fears." i like that her work transcends the cliche imagery customarily associated with fairy tales.

i'm currently working on curating an issue around the idea of family in photography. if you have work related to that theme, please drop me a line (bluebirdphotography@gmail.com).

akwells/ 3

akwells/ 2

akwells/ 1

erin nelson

the website of the most recent "a flickr a day" installment was actually really fun. the artist, erin nelson, is a young photographer studying at cooper union. her website goes by ghost daugher.

not the fishes/ 3

not the fishes/ 2