Tag: photographs

Pandeminomicon

March 31, 2020 / Rick / 0 Comments

To say 2020 is off to an interesting start would be, by many measures, an understatement. As a nation we’ve been treated to a presidential impeachment (voted for in 2019) and trial, a change in provider payment rules that severely affects my livelihood, and a pandemic which has infected, as of 4 pm EDT on 29 Mar 2020, 140,904 people in the United States. 2020 is also an election year, which makes everything even more interesting, perhaps even surreal. I’ve been seeing a lot of memes regarding 2020 and how much people think it sucks, but I am trying to stay positive about the whole thing.

The county where I reside is currently under a stay at home order. As such, we should only venture out for essential activities and only those who are essential workers should be reporting for work. My spouse is a Licensed Physical Therapist who specializes in home care for the elderly. For many of her patients, she may be the only one who is able to check on their wellness on a given day. I worry about her every day she goes out.

For me it’s been business as usual during the day given that I work from home supporting my wife’s activities – paperwork, phone calls, billing, etc. The only thing that really impacts me now is the lack of choice in what I can do with my day. I can’t run normal errands and there is the matter of my client agency employees now working from their own homes. That makes customer visits and getting paid in a timely manner an interesting prospect. Again, it’s time to stay positive. I just need to stop posting YouTube links to songs about disease on Facebook.

As part of the stay at home order (and I believe under the orders of the Governor of Texas), bars in my county have been forced to close their doors. This, of course, makes it impossible to photograph concerts. I do miss going to the local shows right now. The people in the metal community (both the musicians and employees) in Houston are near and dear to me. I can only hope they are weathering the storm and can hit the ground running on the other side.

The dearth of concerts right now isn’t such a bad thing. I mean, I am saving a little bit of money on cover charges, drinks, and CD’s. It’s also rekindling the creative flame in me. I thought about it earlier today – I’ve spent so much effort on concert images over the past 6 years that some of the other ideas floating in my head are being pushed away. In fact, one of my started projects has been on hiatus for the last 3 years due to my efforts on the Houston Metal Project. This would be a good time to achieve some balance in my creative efforts. The only problem with the hiatus project is that it’s portraiture. That isn’t very conducive to social distancing right now.

But hope exists because lately I’ve been rediscovering my macro lens. The panic buying in the run up to our current state of affairs in Texas left the shelves of most retailers rather barren. It appears to have calmed down since then, but it got me thinking what it is that people are seeking for the end of civilization (I know that’s hyperbolic, but I strongly feel things are going to change; whether the changes are positive or not remains to be seen). I’ve seen images arranged as formal still life compositions, but that’s about it. I’m using the macro lens because I want to really get to the object and to see what it is about the object that has people making obsessive purchases. This is what I have so far:

These are by no means final images for the series. I have more objects I need to photograph. I am also going to explore different ways to capture what I’ve already done.

Has anyone been able to resolve why there’s been such a run on toilet paper in response to a pandemic involving a respiratory illness? My wife’s sisters in the Philippines told her they are laughing at Americans over this particular phenomenon.

I read somewhere a few days ago a blog post title that encouraged creatives to write about their “quarantine” experience. I didn’t read the post as I was trying to get something else accomplished and, unfortunately, forgot to bookmark it. Going off that headline advice, this is my first foray into that. We’ll see if I write more in the coming days, especially now that President Trump has extended the social distancing guidelines to until 30 April 2020.

As for now, my faithful and not-so-faithful readers, I do need to sign off. Stay safe, practice your social distancing, and for those of you stuck at home – avoid naps, make sure to get dressed in more than your pajamas every day, and stay in contact with your friends and family. These are all mental health tips provided by one of my local news stations. I will be writing again sooner rather than later.

The Next Step

September 6, 2019 / Rick / 0 Comments

I always had an “endgame” of sorts for my work on The Houston Metal Project. My original vision was for a book. The biggest thing holding me back was deciding on an insertion point. My plan is to continue to photograph these shows until I am no longer able, which made the decision harder. To put together his book, True Norwegian Black Metal, Peter Beste spent 7 years photographing the black metal culture in Norway. At the time I first saw his book (2015), I had been working on my own stuff for just over a year. I didn’t know if I could wait that long.

Here we are now, 5 years after The Houston Metal Project began, and I feel that this is a good insertion point for my first book. There are a lot of things to be decided aside from the images. Those decisions will come further in. My biggest constraint right now will be how much to include as this will be made through a self publishing service. Books from self-publishing services can be a little on the expensive side, and additional pages can really force the price per unit up.

With that constraint in mind, it’s only fitting that I begin the editing process now, even with Year 5 still in progress. This first edit is based mostly on technical grounds, with some subjective thought (e.g. composition) applied. To begin, though, I had to wade through over 2 years of images that were organized in ways that did not reflect any organizational discipline. Once I found those images and gathered them up, along with images from 2016 – 18, I found that I had published 2622 images to Facebook. All I did was sit there for 15 minutes, staring at that number, and ask myself what I got myself into with this stupid idea. Once that wore off, I started the initial edit.

At first I was a little shocked at what was published. There were images where the subject was slightly out of focus, underexposed images, ones with more digital noise that I would normally tolerate, and some that were just poorly processed. That isn’t to say there were no “good” images in there, they were simply a lot more far and few between then I realized then. Here are some of the gems I found in those early days.

This is just a small sampling from the keepers of the keepers of 2014 (I’m rather proud of the King Diamond image). 2622 images over 4 years is a lot to sift through, so those images are still being examined. This year, 2019, is still in progress in terms of making images, so after 1 January 2020 I’ll be full bore into that editing process. Help with the conceptual edit has been enlisted, but it will still be a while before I get to that point. What I want to say is going to have to be decided before I can think about that. Of course, these first keepers of the keepers are going to have a lot to say in that department as I start thinking about them. I’ll leave any commentary about that stuff to the appropriate time, i.e. when I come up with my own answers on those questions. My friends were more eager to help than I initially thought they would be, which is welcome because it shows they believe in what I’m doing with this project.

Moving along through these images, I have noticed a change in them and it can be seen in this image from 2019. I think this phase of the project is going to reveal a lot about my own practice to me, which is always welcome. To my faithful and not-so-faithful readers, I bid you goodnight. And as always, comments are welcome and encouraged.

PS – “Endgame” is in quotes because I plan to continue this project as long as I’m physically and mentally capable. This is just too much fun to not do.

Detail of the ceiling of the Florentine Baptistery

Sources

November 10, 2014 / Rick / 0 Comments

A big part of what I like to do regarding photography is to draw elements from other sources and work them into my own art. This commonly goes by the name appropriation. The subject itself can be a thorny one. There are issues of originality (think Sherrie Levine) and also, even more importantly, issues of copyright. I tend to draw from things I know are in the public domain, such as Renaissance art and publicly available graphics (such as NASA or CDC photographs. Even this gets a little thorny at times. I read somewhere that Microsoft owns the rights to digital representations of the Mona Lisa. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but if it is really does negate the concept of Public Domain. Carrie Mae Weems ran into trouble with her “From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried” series. To construct that particular body of work, she borrowed prints (that were at least a century old) from Harvard University and made prints of her own from the images. She was subsequently threatened with copyright lawsuits if she displayed the work publicly. I can understand Harvard being nervous about the physical prints, however, in my recollection of the law they had no copyright claim to the latent images contained within the print. Copyright law is a gray area, indeed.

And how I’ve managed to go off on a tangent in my opening paragraph. I actually intended to make this about stuff I find.

There is a place here in Houston called “Texas Art Asylum.” Inside this nondescript building is a veritable treasure trove of castoff items. One can find post cards, cassette tapes, rusty nails, processed film, slides, photographic prints, old electronics, little green army men – let’s just say there is a lot of stuff contained in that establishment. I mainly go in and purchase the prints, the processed film, and the slides. It’s a good day indeed when $2.00 will yield you 155 frames of 35mm color film. In my most recent visit, I acquired the aforementioned film, along with some medical school CT scan slides and a rusty spike (which will be used in an upcoming photo project).

Scanning the film and slides, however, is the hard part. It just takes a long time. I also had a bit of a backlog from my last visit to Texas Art Asylum. Today I finally managed to finish the scanning of the new items and got to work on some of the backlog. The backlog consisted of slides from E-6 film. I don’t normally look at the slides before buying them (except for the medical slides). I find the discovery process during scanning yields some amazing inspirations. Imagine my surprise when I scanned the slides and found some to contain images of Renaissance Art. This was definitely a pleasant surprise. I even found one of my old favorites:

Detail of the ceiling of the Florentine Baptistery

I don’t know who painted this scene of Hell on the ceiling of the Florentine Baptistery. The detail in the film is amazing, and having this particular piece from which to draw inspiration is going to be fun. I even found one with an image of Titian’s “Venus of Urbino.” I have many more to scan, and hopefully I can find some more classic art pieces. There are only so many vacation pictures I can stand.

Anyway, I just thought to share this little tidbit with everyone. Just for grins, here are 2 pieces I created using elements from other works. The first is from my own photography as well as elements from items purchased at Texas Art Asylum. The second is a creative commons digital representation of the “Rokeby Venus” and a CDC micrograph of an Ebola virus.

Mhothainn na Spirid/Mhothainn an Phian (2013)

The Rokeby Virus (2011)

Rock and Roll Work pt II

November 8, 2014 / Rick / 0 Comments

The call for entry for the Rock and Roll show at the Minneapolis Photo Center has been answered. I submitted a total of 6 images to this show. In the end I chose 4 performance images, 1 of a stage set detail, and another of the equipment sitting on stage, waiting to be picked up. This was by no means an easy decision, as I have hundreds of good quality images in my archive (from thousands taken) and I had to narrow down to around 5. I say around 5 because the entry fee allows for 5 images, with each additional costing US$10 per image.

These images were chosen for what they represent in the heavy metal genre on the side of the performer. King Diamond, with his theatrical stage show, brings forth as much fury and power as any other more aggressive band. The inverted cross represents the adversarial nature of relationship of heavy metal (and all of rock music) and religion. Depravis Nocturna of Spectral Manifest brings forth his own fury while maintaining a strict focus. As the most important instrument, the electric guitar is easily the most universal symbol of rock and roll. Even when it is not being played, the potential energy is barely contained within. Jeffrey Nothing epitomizes the horrific nature of some of the subject matter of heavy metal. There exists a certain mystique to the rock and roll artist in everything from the lifestyle to the live performance. Aaron Meyers, with the lights seeking him out, maintains and projects that mystique from the shadows as he plays his guitar during an extended solo.

I want to greatly thank Stevie, Brenda, and Justin for their help in curating this entry. Without them, I would have had a very difficult time focusing (and even beginning). And Stevie gets an extra thanks for bringing this call to my attention.

I am under no assumption that all of these will get in, but at least 1 would be nice.

So I guess the waiting begins. It’s time to go live my life while the juror makes his decision.

Rock and Roll Work

November 2, 2014 / Rick / 0 Comments

I know this rare burst of blog-writing productivity may come as a shock to some. Every once in a while I decide something is worth sharing.

I’m in the process of answering a call for entry to a show in Minneapolis that is all about rock and roll. In fact, that’s the title of the show, “Rock & Roll.” The subject can be interpretive. It can be pretty much anything to do with the music, although I think promotion shots may not be welcome so much. On that I would need to ask, since one of the images on the website (taken by the juror) is what appears to be a promotional shot. This looks like it’s going to be an interesting show, nonetheless.

Currently I’m curating my images for the show, and hopefully will have a collaborator on that soon. Right now it involves picking through about 6 years of work in order to find the best images. I have come across some that I honestly forgot I took. I look back on some of these and can remember how I felt when I was in those photo pits taking those shots. I want to share some of them with you. These may or may not reflect the final images that I submit (I can submit up to 5, with the option for more should I choose to pay more). These aren’t in any particular order and is only a small sample of what I am going through right now.

Click on each thumbnail to view the larger version.