Photography by David Ondrik

Back in 2007 I saw Built to Spill for the 2nd or 3rd time. Aside from being amazed at how many balding hipsters were at the show (ahem…) I was totally blown away by a slower, stripped down version of Car, which was incredibly awesome. Although I know that everything is on the Internet, it took me 2 years to search YouTube, where I was able to find a recording of a similar performance:

Built to Spill will be playing at the Sunshine Theater in Albuquerque on October 27th.

Susan Burnstine's "Circuitous"

Although it may seem like my photographic aesthetic is firmly and narrowly grounded in Pictorialism, it seemed apropos to blog about Ms. Burnstine’s work because it’s awesome, and she’s one of three artists in a show opening August 28th at Verve in Santa Fe. I had seen her “Bridge to Nowhere” when it was featured on the Spider Awards a few years back, and so was aware of her work. She builds her own cameras, and I’m always happy to see images that fight the f64 aesthetic. But what got me really excited about her photography was Review Santa Fe 2009. I attended the Portfolio Sharing event with my (very patient) wife, and saw Ms. Burnstine’s prints in person.

I should state at this point that I’m a print snob. One of the (many) reasons that I still use a darkroom is that I maintain that a well-crafted gelatin silver print categorically outshines any archival ink jet print. Ms. Burnstine’s prints proved me wrong. I thought they must be printed on some sort of ultra-fancy silver paper, something Bergger makes that I can’t afford. Turns out that they are archival pigment prints on a very heavy stock, treated with what she calls “giclee varnish.” While obtuse media descriptions frustrate the techie in me, the end result is a fantastically beautiful photographic image and photographic object.

So check out her web site and check out the Verve show. She’s also doing a gallery talk, but her web site and Verve’s web site have contradictory dates and times, and I don’t know which is correct.

norway_160nc_1, originally uploaded by longauer_vladimir.

Vladimir Longauer’s got a great collection of haunting landscapes on his Flickr stream. It must be fun to live (or visit) places that have high levels of water in the air. Medium format film, poetic atmosphere; it’s all there.

colossus, originally uploaded by TommyOshima.

David Bram suggested I look up Tommy Oshima’s Flickr photostream, and I’m really glad that he did. There’s a lot of excellent work there, including some superb Holga images. After reading Mr. Oshima’s profile, it’s clear that he is extremely thoughtful about what he’s shooting, which is probably why it’s all so impressive.

I particularly like “Colossus” because of the moody atmosphere. Shooting in Black and White is a commitment to abstracting your photograph of the world, and this is furthered by using a Holga which adds the black vignetting and other optical distortions especially evident around the edges. The graininess is also especially effective in communicating the mood of this image. Shooting with a fast film was probably required for the stormy conditions, but it’s also a great aesthetic addition to the image, enhancing the mood rather than interfering with it.

See the entire, vast, photostream here.

road to nowhere, originally uploaded by lkaplan1.

Not long after I first joined Flickr, I discovered Lauren Kaplan’s Holga work. It was one of the first discoveries that led me to realize that Flickr isn’t only a collection of passed out college kids ruining their chances for gainful employment. Nope, Lauren Kaplan’s work really gets to the heart of what can be done with a toy camera and instant film. It appears that every image in her Strange Abominations series is a double exposure. The (much mourned) Type 85 film, I believe, created not only a positive, but also a negative with nearly undetectable grain and a lusciousness that is generally missing from most other photographic materials. It even translates to the scans.

I apparently have a lot to to say about the death of Polaroid, and its postmortem renaissance, but I think that’ll be another entry. So for now, check out Lauren Kaplan’s photostream. It’s a great experience.