Mr Thinking Wrong & The Gummy Tape Spots

In the last century, there was this stuff called film. You shot it without really knowing what you we're going to get. You had to bring it home, attach it to these metal reels and run it through three chemicals. A roll of this film had enough room for 36 images but if you didn't obey your camera's counter, you could squeeze a few extra images onto the roll and just keep shooting until the advance winder stopped or until you pulled the film free of the spool it was taped to.

If you pulled the film free of the spool, you had a couple of problems. The first was that you couldn't rewind the film back into it's light tight canister and now had to find a perfectly dark place to unload. The second was that you were making images on top of that gummy tape spot. Many photographers would call me an eskimo-pie-head to take a chance on this. But I always enjoyed the happy accident:

click image for bigger view of gummy tape spots

Which brings me to last night and Thinking Wrong.

I attended an inspirational slideshow at the Waterfall Arts Center last night given by Mr. John Bielenberg. He uses a technique called Thinking Wrong to invoke the creative juices and is a designer and educator and founder of C2 in SF, CA. He is also the founder of the 5-year-old Project M.

For their 2007 project, Project M went to Sam Mockbee's Rural Studio in Greensboro, Alabama and worked on a project to bring clean water to the 25% of Hale County, Alabama that had never been able to afford the $425 it cost to have a water meter installed. They've raised over 30k for this cause in just a few months. See the finished project here

Tell me that's not using communication and design for a worthy cause.

Big Marble Heads and New York City

Big Thank You to my hosts Bryan and Mecka for letting me sleep above the bathroom in their ultra-comfy loft last week. Bryan even sent me a portrait of me and his recent work with big marble heads.

Thank You Andrew Hetherington

The veritable guide to all things photo Mr Andrew Hetherington aka The Jackanory had Sandi and me tuned to Ovation Network's Photography week. Watching tv for us is quite a rare event and in fact Lucy had to watch Ms Montana on the fuzzy old Sony in the basement and Rufus had to fall asleep freshly-bathed but still in a towel on the couch.

We're busy this morning tabulating the results but really only for third place as Sylvia Plachy and Cindy (why does Cindy need only a first name?) are true artists with cameras. Art shouldn't be a competition; I should change my words to say Sylvia and Cindy were by far our favorites profiled last night and Greg Crewdson's profile reinforced our belief that his work should stay filed in eye-candy.

My favorite quote was Crewdson talking about making images genuine to your vision, true to yourself as the camera pans across his image of tons of grass sod spilling out of the trunk of the car or Gwyneth in her underwear.

I'm getting out the tv trays and can't wait to see what's on Ovation tonight:

A Photo Editor and Anonymous Blogging

I'm curious how many of you have been reading the anonymous blog entitled "A Photo Editor"

I think the word "blog" is quite unfortunate and have reservations about anonymous blogging but whoever has been doing this is consistently putting out information I find interesting. Whoever is writing it is a Photography Director in NYC and talks about themselves with this:

"While I don't care if you know who I am or what magazine I work for, I would like to remain anonymous so I can keep my job and blog."

Some of the writing is a bit pedantic when he or she is discussing things like how new photographers get on the radar of photo editors. But overall I'm intrigued enough to read on.

The other photo industry and also anonymous blogs trying to keep up with the popularity of "A Photo Editor" are the Bitter Photographer and a NYC Photo Agent's whose site is called
"A Visual Society."

A fourth anonymous blog by a NYC Art Director seems to have ceased: "The Cruel Visual World"

The 40 OVER 40 AWARDS

Today We're Announcing A New Contest:

The 40 OVER 40 AWARDS

Let's Get Out Those Old Rolls of Film and Hit The Darkroom!
You Must be over 40 ( A Geezer) to enter and be well-established.
We're not looking to discover the next hot photographer here
or even the ones with so much promise.
We want well-seasoned image makers with years
of experience and well-resolved bodies of work.

Seriously, I spent the weekend with Alison Langley's
Nikon Coolscan (thank you, Alison) and a box of tri-x I shot with my M3 from 1987
for my new book entitled:

Old Work!



Submit your "Old Work!" today to Me At RussellKaye Dot com

Two Hundred Dollars Bought Three Beats

Fred McDarrah Could Kick Some Ass

Here's to Fred and all the young photographers he Rabbi'd at the Village Voice

We're sitting Shiva for Fred.

Here's to Adam, Linda. and Sandra-Lee Phipps for introducing me to Fred.

here's my favorite part of the NY Times obit:

Mr. McDarrah, who by this time knew hundreds of Beatniks (a few scrubbed and all needing cash), happily complied, and a going concern was born. Shortly afterward, he placed the following advertisement in The Voice:

add zest to your tuxedo park party ... rent a beatnik. completely equipped: beard, eye shades, old army jacket, levis, frayed shirts, sneakers or sandals (optional). deductions allowed for no beard, baths, shoes, or haircuts. lady beatniks also available, usual garb: all black.

Calls flooded in. For $15, The New York Mirror reported in 1960, the client got one Beat and a half-hour of poetry. Two hundred dollars bought three Beats, who read poetry, answered questions, played the guitar and, of course, the bongos. Mr. McDarrah, who took a small commission and let the artists keep the rest, supplied Beats for school groups, photo shoots, meetings and catered affairs in and around New York for about two years, till the early 1960s.

full obit here

Paul Isn't Dead

A little clue for you all about the mysterious disappearance of the King of Photo Blogging....click