Who doesn’t love a favorite diner breakfast? Mine, is called Snacktown. It’s local and in close proximity to the Clean Max Laundry Center, so you’ll often find me here on Mondays, my day off from the camera store. My only big plans for the day are finishing my laundry, cleaning my apartment, and finishing a DVD slideshow project for a client.
That’s sort of what it’s been like for me lately, which makes me feel like I’m not doing enough for my ultimate goals, the idea I started this blog to complete. Applications for graduate school aren’t due until January and my meeting with a favored professor isn’t until the end of November. Life has taken over somewhat. I’ve been cooking with my girlfriend, shooting more snapshots than projects, and gearing up to settle a credit card debt I incurred from some camera purchases.
It feels like that, but it’s not all like that. One needs to remind one’s self of the little accomplishments that are adding up. I’ve entered contests, finished minor projects, centered in on a grad school I can afford and is local. I’ve done what I can around the time I have. Plus I’m pretty happy. I just got a raise at work, my girlfriend and I are moving in together, and I’m enjoying the time I spend with my friends.
Photography is a journey, not something that needs to get done before I turn 30. This is something I need to remind myself every now and then when I get down on myself about where I’m at in life.
I took the time recently to enter a couple of ‘Open Calls’ for work. One being from a university art gallery and the other being a pretty well known, PDN and 3rd Ward sponsored One Life Competition. I’m basically trying to find a home for the series I’ve finished recently in Brooklyn. As you may imagine it kind of sucks to work for two or three years on projects only to post them on your website and forget about them. I want to see these pictures on a wall somewhere, so I’m actively promoting them for once.
Open Calls can be a double edged sword. It’s something like playing the lottery. To enter the 3rd Ward competition I paid $95.00 just to show 5 people 15 images, and in all likelihood I’ll just be rejected. The open call from a mid west university gallery was a little bit more reasonable, asking only a modest $20 dollars for 3 images. However in total I’ve spent $115.00 just to show some strangers my pictures. I’ll really only be able to afford to do this once a month. And were I to do this every month (which I probably should) averaging $100 per month on self promotion I’d be spending $1,200 dollars a year on the hope that even one of my photographs is selected. It’s a frustrating process because its so rife with rejection, and even more so because it’s costs so much.
Other ways I intend to get this work out there is to make a couple of blurb books of two of my most recent projects, the Brooklyn series, and my NYC street photography. I’d like to edit both bodies down to 25 images and consider them a pair. Ideally I would send these out to local galleries as self promotion. This too will take time, and cost me roughly $20 per book (so really $40 dollars a set). I could probably afford to make 3 or 4 of these, and then I’ll send them off to strangers. Again, just hoping something comes of it. There may be a better way of promoting one’s own work but at this time I’m unaware of it.
If you know of such a way, please inform me.
Otherwise please rate my portfolio to increase my chance of getting noticed.
Things have slowed down for me by a fair margin. After some weekends out of town in the past few months my girlfriend and I are trying to settle in to a more restful lifestyle. Last Saturday this included but was not limited to laying in bed watching Netflix and eating cookies. Even in the hallowed halls of photo materialism the few(er) masses had less snap in their slightly irritated steps. I was not once harassed when asking for a customer phone number, or for looking bored when showcasing a G.D. Cornucopia of point and shoot cameras.
Think about sentences like “This one has 12 megapixels and a three times zoom, and this one has 10 megapixels and a fives times zoom.” And then being met with the question “well which one’s better?” I’ll go on record right now and publicly apologize for my lack of enthusiasm on these matters. In all honesty with very few exceptions I consider point and shoot cameras a scam on the consumer. Oh and by the way, many of these transactions are multilingual, meaning they’re speaking Portuguese at me, and I’m speaking English back at them. It’s a joy.
Anyway I’m going to enjoy this time away from big plans. I haven’t photographed in ernest in weeks, beyond some snaps on my travels. So today, after we closed our camera shop, I walked to another camera shop (because we the employees are not really allowed to shop at our own store, shrug), and asked for 15 rolls of film! Some medium format for my aforementioned Mamiya 7, and both B&W and color for my 35mm cameras. Buying film is a big part of all the fun of being a photographer. All those possibilities that don’t exist yet…very exciting. For anybody wondering, I chose Kodak’s 160NC, and Plus X 125, simply because they were out of Ilford’s FP4.
So anyway I have my on going series about the street I live on in Brooklyn, and I think I exhausted everything I could do with my Hasselblad, in the square format. Still though, I think the series lacks some really killer pictures, the kind with a little bit more oomph for lack of a better term. So tomorrow i’m planning on filling myself up with a diner breakfast, and then hitting the streets with my rangefinders. I’m bringing both my Mamiya and my Bessa R4a with me to try some ideas I’ve been tossing around my noggin. I’m hoping to supplement the pictures I have now with those done in a slightly different style. A lot of this has to do with me just needing to stay active, I gotta keep making pictures while I can. I’ll hopefully update tomorrow after I’m done!
I have a bit more to say about Gallery hopping with my lil Lady, but I’ll save that for another night.
I just want everyone to know that I’m not writing this post on my new iPad. That is to say that this post is not “Sent From my iPad.” Saddened as this makes me, I will press on, physical keyboard under fingers. I used it all weekend, and through much of last night. It was a wholly irresponsible purchase. I convinced myself not to make it again and again, and yet there I was, staring into an Apple Store employee who knew less about the product than I did. My girlfriends eventual conclusion was something along the lines of “even though I don’t think you need this I can tell how badly you want it so you should have it.” YES! How brilliant a notion? The product itself is luxury in tablet form. As a desktop computer owner (27″ 2009 i7 iMac), it filled the void that simply not having a laptop leaves. Most of my friends have laptops, and none of them understand the iPad. But I do. It’s a beautiful way to access the internet, and a doubly beautiful way to showcase my pictures in a casual setting. For me it’s price meets it’s performance.
I hope that’s true of the next owner of a Klein Pulse Race bicycle, stolen from Union Square last thursday night. The stealer can burn in hell fires for eternity, suffering beatings from bicycle messengers and intense verbal harassment from all Hades hipsters. But eventually if it’s not ripped for parts it’ll find its way to someone who just wants a bike. So enjoy it, whoever you are. I am now faced with the task of finding a replacement. Price vs Performance.
At the camera store I see this decision making process happen all the time. Leica men lusting over cameras and lenses who’s reputation far outpaces any real world performance, and so so many moms crushing the artistic aspirations of their 13 year old son; “$300 dollars? We’re going.” The most obscene showcase of vanity inside the hallowed walls of my shop are of course the jewelry on display so proudly. $7000 dollar camera (bodies) thunking against 15,000 dollar cameras around the necks of shutterbugs hang heavy like The One Ring. I watch in wonderment as to the mode of production that allowed their owners to own such rare gems. Oil tycoon? Investment banker? These international men of mystery wield cameras most suited to photographing Nike shoes in the studio like great canons of self expression. The pictures these men are making are bigger than yours, period. Performance < Price.
Enter the Surly Cross Check. A Minnesota made cromoly steel Cyclocross ejaculation. I want it. I sighted one in Manhattan the other day, it looked worn but well secured to a sign post, a good omen. 10,000 lakes of pure pride were emmenating from it’s spokes. (After I sampled a stylish Linus bike I saw many hipsters riding the streets with such models, furthering me from my desire to ever look stylish, and French.) It’s a big expense, but I can afford it. I can’t however, afford to have it stolen, wherein lies my dilemma. I could get a lower grade, but acceptable Motobecane for nearly half the price. It comes with decent parts, performance, and a low level of stress over theft. I consider it the Minolta X-700 to the Surly’s Nikon FM. I always encourage the young bucks coming into the store to skip the Rebel…
…and opt for full manual.
I try to relate what I know and see about the camera buying experience to all areas of my life. My Weber is the Hasselblad of grills. My turntable is the platinum/palladium print of all things audial. And I want my bike to be the god damned FM2N of my urban/athletic experience. And so this week I will sit and wonder. Ponder the stars as to the machine best suited to my spandex shorts.
I had a chance to go home to Minneapolis this past weekend which was a welcome retreat from the madness of the city. I brought my girlfriend Erika home with me and we both had a great time. She saw the bright new Minneapolis. Rental bikes, Grain Belt Sign, 10000 lakes and all! It was lovely.
I brought along my Voigltander Bessa rangefinder system and my Canon 5D 2 system. As of last week I only had one lens, but before I left I added a new friend to my camera bag. Cosina Voigtlander makes a very interesting lens for Canon and Nikon slrs called the 40mm Ultron. It’s an f2 lens so its nice and fast and manual focus only. Also, its a pancake design so it sits slim on the body. Also includes a nice close up filter that isn’t quite macro, but is useful in a pinch. What I love about the Voigltander lens is it’s classic rendering, and by classic I mean I mean imperfect. It vignettes, it distorts somewhat, and its prone to flare, however it does all these things in the loveliest way possible. I was also using Canon’s 50mm 1.2, which is one of their premium L lenses, and honestly I preferred the “cheapo” 40mm. Win for me.
Well now that I’m back I wanna get back to work fast. Tonight I’m going to seek out some sitters for my current portrait project, which deals with online dating, and then do some post processing on the images I shot over the weekend. I posted two from my the wedding to my flickr and after that I received some of the highest view numbers ever. Apparently I should post some more!
Before I get to all that fun stuff I am doing some serious vegging on the couch. I’m watching some 24, munching on some trail mix, and writing this post. Best of all though, i’ve been writing this whole post on my BRAND NEW iPAD! I impulse bought one in Minnesota. It’s wonderful. Truly wonderful. Don’t listen to the neysayers. This thing is solid dope.
I included two pictures from the wedding this weekend and one shot of a totally awesome lens shaped mug I saw for sale. I’m seriously considering that one. Lord knows I don’t have enough adornments that say “photo nerd.”
I recorded a short 7 minute video blog tonight. Sorry if I look like a homeless man but it was a long 10 hours at the camera store and I do bike to and from work. Please enjoy my little introduction to me and what I’m trying to do with this blog.
My name is Mark. In 1984 I was born. Probably around 1990 I became reasonably sentient. In 2003 I graduated high school. In 2007 I graduated from college. This is the most important part, or at least most relevant in this case. Or, maybe it was important once and isn’t now. I’m not sure anymore. I studied photography. It was the first thing I was good at (at which I was good). That’s another way of saying I pretty much sucked at doing everything else until I started taking pictures. Once I found photography it was pretty simple. I was going to do this for a living, and I did it all the time. I did it all the time and I didn’t even do it enough. Photography gave me a better explanation of the world around me than I had ever been able to express.
I ended up in Brooklyn and here I am. The freelancing I had done in Minneapolis meant nothing in New York City but I got by for a while. Eventually though the economic realities of our time caught up with me. Rent needed to be paid (apparently EVERY month). I took a job at a major New York City camera store, in the used department. It’s a good job. I get paid a lot for what I do, I’m surrounded by my favorite things, and I have health insurance, dental insurance. Everything I need.
But nothing I want.
I have described my situation to my friends as “the nowhere man of photography.” I am here in Brooklyn making all my nowhere pictures for nobody. I have had no shows, no pictures published in any real way. My few clients have been small time. I have made less than a splash, no more than a trickle into our ocean of media.
I intend to correct my status and use this blog to track my progress. It will be a venue for my actions toward better goals, inspiration, and thoughts on tools used to help me on my way. Please read, comment, and enjoy.
