E.A. + T.A.

E.A. and T.A., 2008

Last Day Of Xmas

Grandma's Reindeer, 1972

3-D Jesus Christ, 1989

On The Third Day Of Xmas

Sun City Tucson Santa, 1989

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Eli and Wilson, 2007

Fourth Day Of Xmas

Reindeer, 1997

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News Solicitation, 2000

The Five Days Of Xmas

Graceland Ticket Tree Ornament, 1989

Just wanted to share some home made ornaments from the T.A. Christmas tree for all of you to enjoy....

Drip That Looks Just Like A Leaf

Drip That Looks Just Like A Leaf, 2001

HMAb

Heather Morton of popular blog HMAb has always seemed to be curious about my work and of course I appreciate the attention.

In a post titled Taboos in 2008, HM first discussed the pros and cons of Echolilia and it really made me think. The project was at an early stage, the tone was really just forming. This quote from her stuck in my head:

I think there is something voyeuristic about the work without a doubt. We are seeing very private moments laid bare. I see an obsession here and maybe more so in Timothy’s case a reluctant and volatile partnership between him and his son.

I read that and I kinda felt a mix of emotions. A little guilty and a little psyched. I liked the idea that relationships can be complex, and I thought she was seeing it that way.

Today in The Lounge she opens a dialogue with Echolilia and the intimate photographs of Daniel Peet.



"Evidence" by Daniel Peet

Q & A with Jeff Lansing

Last post we got into the photographs of Schenectady, N.Y. shot in the 1970's by photographer Jeff Lansing.

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I'm interested in the creator behind the images. I just don't want to see someone's great photographs....I always want to know about the life...what were they doing at this point in their life when they were doing this work? I sent him a note about what he was up to during the time period that he did this project. He responded below:

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TA: What were you doing at the time you shot the Schenectady series? Were you teaching? Shooting commercially? A student?

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JL: I was a photographer working for a company called Tri-City Photographics back then, shooting truckloads of GE plastics parts. A fun job and I learned a lot. In my free time I wandered around Schenectady shooting with an old Yashicamat and an even older Canon rangefinder. I think everything I know about photography I discovered on those walks around the old neighborhoods of Schenectady.

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TA: Whose work were you looking at...like who do you think was influencing you?

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JL: I was a huge Edward Weston fan in those days. I lived in Monterey for a year and would drive down to Pt Lobos as often as possible to photograph. Seems obvious to me now I was channeling Walker Evans in the Schenectady photos. Beyond that I pretty much worked in a vacuum. The New Topographics is cutting edge to me.

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Eventually I realized how ill suited I was for a life as a professional photographer (I'm not nearly aggressive enough) so I did the next best thing: I became a state worker. 30 years as a photographer for a state agency- paid the bills and helped me raise a family but kind of boring. I have always continued to work on personal projects, these are the things that keep me sane I think.

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TA: What are you up to these days?

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JL: The Schenectady project is a trip back. I tried to scan as much as possible before I retired since I don't have a film scanner at home. I was surprised at the results. Pleased really with how well the images held up after all these years.

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Now that I'm retired I'm more involved than ever. I try to work close to home and make images of the world I live in. Currently I'm working on a similar project on the city of Rensselaer which has the same feel of an old city with established neighborhoods. I'm fascinated with what people do with their little 70 x 150 lots, and I love to witness how they make it their own and how their personality shows though their property.

Looking back (although I'm not done looking ahead yet), in a subtle way I suppose photography has been the thread that has tied it all together.

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Photograph copyright Jeff Lansing. See Jeff Lansing's photography HERE.

Jeff Lansing / Schenectady

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I lived in Rotterdam N.Y. which was on top of what we called Broadway Hill.

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Schenectady N.Y. was the city, and it existed on the bottom of the Hill. Rotterdam held the suburbs and the supermarkets. Schenectady held all of the secrets, the real life, the things I only glimpsed from the car windows when I was growing up. As a young student of photography, riding my bike into downtown Schenectady was like entering every Dorthea Lange photograph, every Walker Evans photograph...the entire Farm Security Administration project could have been photographed there...or so I thought. It was a wonderful place to learn how to photograph.

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The other day photographer Jeff Lansing shares his images with me via the blog. And here it is, directly downloaded from my brain: Schenectady N.Y. in the 1970's, photographed by a photographer with a true appreciation and inner sense of this place. It's as if I found this photographer and asked him to interpret my memories of this town. And here are these memories handed to me in silver prints in the photographs of Lansing.

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I've tried to thank him for sending the link to his work and haven't been able to reach him...so I respectfully hope it is ok with him to share his work in this manner.

See more of his work HERE

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all photographs copyright Jeff Lansing

Schenectady N.Y. / Rotterdam N.Y.

6/2000

I Really Do Kind Of Look Like This.

Sorry everyone....I realize my spamming company launched the Xmas Spam twice, possibly making me more enemies than friends this time....again, I am sorry.

Xmas Spam

I forgot to mention in the post below that the book will not be mine in a matter of days, so I'd like one of you out there to buy it for me...if you really enjoy the blog, you know?

Above is the holiday spam being launched to creatives everywhere in a matter of moments, stealth programming allowing it to avoid all spam filters. If you can get some joy out of it, please do. My apologies if you see these things as an annoyance.

Buy Me This

I bought This Disturbed Land by Arthur Tress from Blurb as and Xmas gift for a friend but had it delivered to my house so I can check it out. First Blurb book I ever bought. Just wonderfull. I think Blurb got better, the paper got better, something happened...its just feels totally there. If I saw this in a museum bookstore I'd buy it in a second.

Why is there no Echolilia book? Oh, I just can't deal with it...I just can't finish it. But this makes me want to revisit the Blurb version again and work out the details.

Buy This Disturbed Land HERE.

White Space

Early In The Shoot, 8 ft Kino Flos
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We did this massive photo shoot, but I think we were all so busy once the subjects showed up we don't have images of the masses we had to photograph...we only have shots of ourselves in the big open whiteness of Left Space Studios in SF.
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Truth be told I had no idea how I was going to execute this massive photo shoot involving 45 people, but the photo editor seemed to trust me to come up with a plan.

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So what was my plan? I think it was to essentially hire all the people that I always do who are so good at what they do and let them do their thing. Amos, Sz, Sjoen,Wong, and master of light, the new secret weapon Shaun Fenn.

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Rocky start of the day, when our assumptions on how to make this image were not really working out. It just wasn't looking good. The masses are coming...they are in the hall....we just don't have it nailed down yet....a kind of panic seeps in. But I have this crew...they know how to do things. Maybe I should just keep my mouth shut, let them do their thing, and I'll go socialize with the subjects and try to get them comfortable with me. Will that work? It did.

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With these large complex shoots, it does make me wonder: is it really just about hiring the people who know how to do the work? Is it that easy? You are the photographer, you do something as insignificant as push the button on an electronic device, as everyone else is doing complex and elaborate technical and social engineering to pull off the shot! Can I really take credit for this image? It really took everyone.

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End of Shoot, The Large Whiteness of Left Space

Note The Boom Microphone

AAU Crew, 12/2/09

Let's see. I thought I had a "crew". Here in my 2 car garage office we have 3 cameramen, a sound guy, a director and photographer Jason Langer. And outside in the driveway we got the Academy of Art University van complete with a 1 800 phone number in case you gotta call urgently for an art education or something? 1 800 544 ARTS?

But of course these guys were super to work with. Got to talk about the trying to get the Sex Machines book deal and got to show Echolilia prints. J.L. did the asking and I did the anwering. Also got to view Jason's current project which was great to see as well. Good dialogue with an interesting artist and the sun was shining and then there were bagels...I think it was a good day.

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The AAU Crew Van
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Jason Langer 12/2/09

Wed/Thurs

What is going on?
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Fun few days ahead: Wednesday artist and educator Jason Langer coming to visit and create an educational video on the making of Sex Machines: Photographs and Interviews for The Academy of Art University.
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What will he think of my home? My kids running around screaming?
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And then we are producing a very ambitious...um....group photograph...that we got the dream team and then some on...and we are shooting that on Thursday at Left Space Studio...above.

Peter Frykman

Oh...we had so much fun photographing Peter Frykman of Driptech for Business Week magazine last month with a backdrop created with the Driptech materials by Shannon Amos.

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Family Portrait

My son Eli turns 8 this week. He is the kid that Echolilia is all about.
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My sister hired him to shoot the family portrait this year using the digital camera's auto timer function...he chose the backround, set up the shot, ran around and jumped into the shot before the timer went off. As we've said before...there really is nothing like taking direction from a child to kinda make everyone look good. Of course he's got a blog. See it HERE.

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Hayden's Ferry Review #45

D. Bryon Darby, arts editor of ASU's Hayden's Ferry Review approached me a few months back about featuring Echolilia in their Fall/Winter edition. Amidst the process I asked him why he was interested in the project and he brought up the concept of "Memory" that was a theme of the edition. He writes:

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I was particularly struck by the way you described Emmet Gowin's family photographs in the 100 eyes interview. You said, "It just had this sense of hauntedness that made it seem like a childhood memory." I feel this is the same way I respond to your Echolilia project, and in particular to the four images I've selected. There is something so strange yet so incredibly familiar about them - like my own distant and fleeting memory hiding in my subconscious.

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Of course when an editor says something that kind and perceptive, you will then do anything he says, right? Pretty much...m
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The issue arrived yesterday with a fascinating piece by Hong Hao stretching over the front and back cover titled "My Things No. 1, 2001- 2002" and other great collections by Beth Dow and Mark Klett. The favorite spread from my chunk of the book is above.

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Buy/Subscribe to HFR HERE.

Hayden Ferry Review #45, cover detail from "My Things #1" by Hong Hao

Artists In Residence / 1911.

How do I apply for the TA Artist In Residency program?
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Well just stop by...um...better call first...I have kids and stuff and you never know when they may be freaking out.
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And then come over over and hang out and help solve the issues of contemporary photography. It is as simple as that. Above and below it's Ken Graves and Eva Lipman, busting out the 16 x 20 fiber prints from their current project.



And Justin Wilson and Brian Holliday stop by to do some heavy lifting of a SEAL 200 and also put a little time into solving the issues of contemporary photography.

Atomic Age

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Atomic Age by Martin Benjamin is a great book I've been living with for the past few weeks, trying to figure out what to say about it. A press release describes it minimally:

Atomic Age contains images from 1978 to 2007. The series is a lyrical set of pictures that include locations such as Alamogordo, NM; Three Mile Island, PA; Hiroshima, Japan; Oak Ridge, TN, as well as other photographs from around the world. The body of work is about life in the atomic age - from people to locations to lyrical photographs about love and life.

I can describe it as a meditation on life in the Atomic Age. That all sounds scary, but there is a sense of harmony and wonder in these photographs. The tone of the book is hopeful even though the viewer never forgets the threat is there. By the time one finishes Atomic Age, the vibe coming from these photographs is optimistic and empowering...it kinda feels like love and humanity win in the end.
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With a preface by Michael Hochanadel and designed by Nina Witschonke.
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See more of it HERE. Buy it HERE.
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Lazy Anthropology : Office Space

I cleaned my office last week and wanted to document it just as it was.
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Amidst a frustrating day of computer networking glitches I posted a note to Facebook with a camera phone shot of my office, asking for others to entertain me with shot of theirs. Borrowing heavily from really well done projects found on The Selby and WTJ, mine was a fast food attempt that resulted in a form of lazy anthropology. But it did feel like Xmas as everyone was sending forth their shots for me to see. A voyeuristic Xmas.

In this CraigsList times of ours, sometimes you can just ask and then receive...it can be that easy. The results....? Oh...they suffer. I don't know if these images are boring or just matter-of-fact documents. But here ya go, dig into it, all of you curious folk out there...I have to share.

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Thomas Broening



Lisa Mitchell


Melanie Skrzek


John-Paul Mountford



Rob Prideux



Shane O'Neill



Tony Fouhse




Erich Morton





Jeff Singer




Jackie Alpers




Shannon Amos