I love this photo. Came across it a while back on Tumblr. It was taken by Gerard Malanga, of Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe. I hadn’t known until I heard an NPR Fresh Air interview with Patti Smith, that the two of them were a couple at one point in their lives, and lifelong friends. The dress and the location are just perfect. The look passing between the two of them. Such an incredible confluence of art in one photo.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
“Faces” project off and running. Write a story describing the origins of what’s happening in a chosen photo. Open to anyone now – 3 weeks remain to contribute. Join us: http://www.strangeday.net/faces/?page_id=2
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Just had another photo chosen as Photo of the Day on DCist. And immediately — and not for the first time — received some comments about photoshopping.
I adjust things like the lightness and darkness and sharpness. In that sense, yes it’s photoshopped. But these are the same things photographers have been doing in the darkroom since the beginning. (Ansel Adams was probably better known for his darkroom work than his picture taking). But I don’t add or subtract actual items in the photo.
Occasionally I play around with things like cross-processing and vignettes and such, for artistic effect. But I never promised you an unadulterated photo. I promised you an interesting photo. Photographer Clayton Cubitt had a quote something to the effect that “When he photographs something, he kills it. He has to adjust the image to give it back the life as he originally saw it.”
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
I am impressed. I placed an order with Amazon yesterday. Well … one of the retailers who sells through Amazon. Because if this was Amazon, I would not be impressed. If this was Amazon, they would tell me “Your order has shipped”, and for the next 3 days, UPS would tell me “it’s sitting on the docks at Amazon”. But no… this company had it into UPS last night, and across the country by this morning. Not here yet, but a damn good start.
And I like the ‘new’ look of the tracking page on UPS. The page groups information by the order people typically want it. Colorcoding to show the status of your order. The number of days left before delivery, in big bold type at the top. I even like the progress bar.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Looking for people who’d like to participate in a (hopefully) fun project; writing a short piece — in any style — about a provided photo. To learn more, visit http://strangeday.net/projects/faces/faces.html
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
My New Year’s Eve Toast: to all the devils, lusts, passions, greeds, envies, loves, hates, strange desires, enemies ghostly and real, the army of memories, with which I do battle — may they never give me peace.
– Patricia Highsmith, New Years Eve, 1947
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Things like this are why I love Katie West’s work. Normally she’s known as a self-portrait photographer; but she expresses herself so well in any format she chooses. This appeals to me both directly if not exactly, and in wanting a woman who thinks like this.
I find them on subways reading books I have on my list of Books To Read. I find them at bars dancing more enthusiastically than anyone else; even if they can’t really dance. I find them in line at the grocery store on a Friday night buying cookie dough, milk and that’s it. I find them in the Canadian poetry section of bookstores. I find them at work, having great ideas and wearing seasonal socks. I find them on the internet, creating things that make me wish I had thought of it first.
When I sit beside them, they smile. They’re easy to talk to. Their intelligence surpasses my own. Their vocabulary makes me swoon. Their brilliance with words makes me start to imagine them naked. They make me smile at a frequency I feel is too much for any respectable person, so I bite my lip in an effort to stop. After half an hour in their presence, my lips are sore, and yet I still wouldn’t refuse their kiss.
The way they see the world is very different from the way I see it, and we can share our views and always our eyes get wider. They listen to me. (So very few people actually listen to me.) They make me laugh; I make them laugh. We are at a party and they say something so beyond everyone else’s scope with an ease that makes me lean into them hard. But they do it softly, and gently, so no one feels inferior, instead we all feel better for having heard it. They argue with a grace that moves me. Between their legs. They are collaborative. They are receptive to constructive criticism. They think honesty is the best policy.
They touch me gently in all the right places at all the right times in ways that only make me imagine them touching me roughly in all the right places at all the right times. I mean, they place their hand on the small of my back as I walk through doors in front of them, which makes me think of their hand on the small of my back as I’m on all fours in front of them. They lean in and whisper things in my ear that are completely inappropriate at the absolute worst moments because they know it makes me crazy. They hold my hand like they mean it.
These are the sorts of people I choose as my lovers. You see how so much of what you fret about is non-existent in my process? Believe it’s true for others. And love you how I love you, okay?
Katie has also recently self-published another collection of self-portraits. Definitely not safe for my family or work, but her work is always incredible. I have a print of hers hanging on my wall, (the only other photographer’s work on my walls is Dorthea Lange). It’s cheap, it’s filled with amazing images, it’s only a click away… buy it!
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
