Back In SF.

Back in town after working on the Sci Fi story and I realize I lost hold of the blog.
m
I really don't know what to write about.
m
I was looking for something I could quickly throw under the scanner or some old photo and came up empty handed.
m
So....more soon...but nothing right now.

Last Day Of Summer

Last day of summer yesterday, first day of school today.
m
Let's see...what to say? Packing up to work on a story in Texas that I pitched from a variety of angles to a magazine over the past few months...something I've been describing as real life science fiction. Well, I guess it's not fiction if I'm going to photograph it....but it may be fantastic.
I guess it better be interesting seeing that I promised the editors it would be so rich. So...the pressure is on.
m
The magazine is essentially trusting me to go down and come back with a story. The photo editor was a strong advocate for the project...really none of this could fly without her efforts. That feels great, but I was a little shakey on how to approach it. After talking it over with a friend she gave advice: Oh...this is your story : just you, your camera gear, and a tape recorder. I think thats all you need.

Magazine Work

m
Travis Ruse is a great photographer who also works as the photo editor of INC magazine. Best known for his long term project on the NYC subway system...you can dig into that work HERE.

More on his work in a future blog...today it's all about me.

He sent me some issues the other day of some stories I shot for them...here they are, above and below.

Not More Pictures Of Kids

Aline Smithson curated a group show for Fraction Magazine titled Fathers And Sons. Two weeks ago I had a contest of sorts on the blog titled "Everybody Else Week" that focused on parents photographing their kids. After looking at the submissions and then checking out the Fraction show the other day I had this sinking feeling. This genre of photographing one's kid is really, really challenging. When it's done badly, its painful to view. When its done badly, it makes one feel that the genre is really just not do-able.

m

When its done badly by me, it makes me feel like I suck. And I don't mean it makes me feel like my work sucks, I mean it makes me feel like I'm a bad human being. How's that?

m

It is just hard territory. If the work is too warm, it looks cheesy and easily dismissible. If it is too un-emotional, it looks like a potential crime against humanity. Trying to make a photograph, of your own kid, that speaks to people who don't have kids and transcends the genre...it fails more than it succeeds by dramatic proportions.

m

Mocking a kid in a photograph? Letting your biases and negative subjectivity direct a photograph of a kid? Can't you pick on someone your own size? And then those who have been honest about their emotions in their photographs of children have always run into problems for their honesty: Jock Sturges, Lewis Carrol, Diane Arbus. Tierney Gearon...and even the mother-of-all Mom photographers Sally Mann has been criticized.

m

Maybe my defenses are up, but I feel like as soon as an image shows the least hint of sentimentality, I immediately write it off as treading too closely to the Family Of Man genre. And if its harsh....I like it but become suspect of the photographer's intentions...where is this darkness coming from? Is this emotion real or sensational? Was this picture necessary? I wonder that when looking at my own work. In this genre no one can win.

m

Oh...but when it is done well...the resulting image can mean everything. And really the argument is futile, because you gotta do what you gotta do. In this genre, you didn't really choose the subject. The subject chose you.

m

See the Fraction Magazine exhibit Fathers And Sons HERE.

Russian Esquire August 09

Russian Esquire called a few months back looking to access images from The Nerd Convention for use in a story with the working title of "The Future". Just got the issue today with this minimalistic layout resembling something like the Weekly Newsletter my Dad would bring home every friday when he worked at General Electric.

Family Meal

November 2007:
m
Doug Adesko comes by to photograph my family for his project "Family Meal".
I had just started blogging and write about it HERE.
Last week I caught up with Doug and he surprises me with a print of the image. I like it.
m
This is our life: nothing matches, no aesthetic decisions made concerning interior design. We aren't even trying to try to impress anyone. I appear to be attempting to keep it together, maybe just resigned to the whole situation. My wife had been away that weekend...so there was this added tension to the scene. In my head I know that once the photographer leaves I'm going to have to put these kids to bed myself and keep it running smoothly.
m
This was almost two years ago. Already it looks like a piece of history. I like it more.

There Is This Place

There is this place in our town that takes care of things. You have a piece of furniture, a white elephant of sorts that you need to get rid of? You wait 'til nightfall, drag it to the place, act like you know what you are doing...leave it and head home. The next morning...it'll probably be there. But then....the hours start counting down...there is anticipation....everytime you check for it...its still there. But the moment you forget about it...it's gone.

m

The place has solved your problem. Your problem is no longer yours.

m

Wilson Archibald with futon couch sacrifice, 9:00 am

Notes From The Lecture

Andrew Hetherington Lecturing At Apple Store SF, 2009

Anonymous said...
how'd it go ?
August 14, 2009 2:13 AM

Timothy Archibald said...

It was an exciting evening. AH kind of told his life story- how he got interested in music, magazine culture and photography...all the things that shaped him and led him to move to NY to be a photographer. The most interesting part for me was to see this evolution: his fashion work, which he was able to take pretty far and then pull the plug on and then how he came to eventually find the voice that he currently has and has become known for. I could have listened to a lecture about that chapter alone, really, because I think it is an important part in being a photographer...the shifting of gears and moving to the next level.

Its so important.

Anyhow...he then got into the power and importance of blog culture and how he cultivated that as a form of community. That was good stuff as well...but less about photography and more about this other thing. There was a message in there some where about how suddenly...with blogs and the net...the barrier of accessibility is gone. Everyone seems to be able to reach everyone...and the power and equality that has given us.

So...it was deep.I'd have enjoyed a lecture that was simply about his work, but that is for another forum. This was more on a grand scale...lots of topics covered.I gotta do a talk there in October...so I'm kind of taking notes and trying to figure it out myself....its a noisy venue and there is no easy way around that.He gave out free gifts which really seemed to turn people on...so I may bring a pinata or something.

August 14, 2009 10:08 AM

Bird Went Home And Wrote This Note:

Drinks were flowing after the Hetherington lecture. S.F. photographer Michael Keeney of Keeney + Law went home a little buzzed and wrote me this note:
m
Well well...
m
By now you know for sure who I am. Altho I'm pretty sure you had it figured out before.
m
It's me. Bird.
m
My wife and I were talking (she being the Law, me the Keeney), and she suggested that maybe I step out of the shadows and stop being the creepy blog lurk with the aviary name. The guy that anonymously is a smart ass every once in awhile, but who tries to contribute in a genuine manner from time to time also. So, here I am. Flapping wings-- the works. And you thought the Dodo was extinct.
m
So, what is the point of this email, you ask? Well, I guess there is no real point. I was going to finally introduce myself tonight at Hetherington's little thing, but I chickened out. I know, I know. "But you're a Dodo, not a chicken." Yeah, well, there were lots of people around, and in a weird sorta way, I guess I was shy. I'm usually not, but when it comes to all this photo stuff, I dunno. It's like my kryptonite. Maybe it's just the insecure artist thing, who knows.
m
So that's it. Don't think that I've had my swan song as Bird on your blog ( and others. . . TB, APE, etc, etc, etc). I'll be back to roost.
m
And sorry for the horrible bird puns. I can't help myself.

Ahh...so now we know. The curious social network of bay area photogs gets more complex...
m
Check out the work Michael Keeney and Jasmine Law create together as Keeney + Law HERE.

Visit their blog and read the familiar voice of Bird HERE.

Andrew Hetherington Lecture Tonite

Tonight, 7pm, popular editorial photographer and sticky photoblogger Andrew Hetherington of What's The Jackanory fame lectures at the Apple Store, One Stockton Street, San Francisco, CA. Word has it that A.H. has put time into this event...it first premiered in NYC, so arrive early to get a seat.

Of course there is a pint fueled blow out after the event at Johnny Foleys, 243 O'Farrell Street.

I will be there, but need to run home to take the babysitter back home...so not too many pints. I'll try to keep everyone happy: solving the issues of contemporary photography, witnessing greatness incarnate, and dealing with childcare.

How Do You Know When Ur Done?

Constellation, 2009



Doing Everybody Else Week last week was great, and I thought of all this stuff to blog about myself, but right now it all escapes me.

A friend who never really looks at photography was looking at Echolilia and commented that it seems like The Age Of Reason has set in...Eli doesn't appear as feral or as fragile, he is older and solid. He just doesn't look like the same kid as he does in the early images. That might be telling me something...I might be near the end.


And then I'm haunted by the advice that came from Thomas Schirmboeck, curator at Zephyr Mannheim Museum in Germany: As a book, its a book without words. Present this with no words. None at all. You need to let the viewer find his way to make sense of the series in the same way the kid might be finding his way on his own terms.

The last comment seemed to fit and feel right on. I always felt the missing link in this project was some text that I'd write that would put it all together. Maybe that is not meant to be. Maybe the images need to do the work here and its a silent story. When I read his words...it seemed to ring true.

Nest

Eli and Wilson found a nest in our backyard after the tree trimmers left a few weeks back.

m

It had that natural rhythm to it that a nest can have, but still was chaos: a mess of strands and fibers. I ignored it.

m
A nest...a nest. Suzy had done an album of her music last year titled Radar and Nest....what did that mean? It brought to mind sending messages out into the atmosphere and then bringing them to a nurturing home. She told me what the title meant at the time but I can't recall as I'm staring at the thing. My brother had been looking at Echolilia prints one day and commented that the project kind of looked like our house looked: papers, kids drawings, pens and pencils, messy, all of that. And then it should. All the shots are done in the house, the backyard, the sidewalk...every time we go on a trip and shoot the images never really fit in.
m
A friend was in the process of adopting a nine year old kid from China. She was telling me about her kids making all these preparations for this new sibling's arrival: getting her room ready, setting up some email thing for her, buying her clothing they thought would be cool...they were putting the pieces together for this new kid to arrive and be welcomed. I wanted to look at this nest thing again.

m

I dunno...it kind of looks like tangled wires and thread. Very organic but there is some structure, some pattern. I think it looks like the curious wiring I always suspect exists in my son's head. Everything is connected and working but I can't make any sense of it.
m

I started pairing it with images and landed on this combination that seemed to do whatever I was trying to do:

mI

Everybody Else : The Winner!

m
Photographer Dan Connolly is the winner of the first annual Everybody Else Week competition!
m

Connolly submitted a selection of 3 images from an untitled series he is doing on his daughter Grace. He and Grace share that parent/child telepathy I always hope for my images to have. Looking through various portraits on DC's website you are always stopped in your tracks when a portrait of Grace appears in the mix. She delivers the power in the portrait and it really feels like Dan simply shows up to catch it on film. What more could one want?

m

DC offers this up:

m

You didn’t ask for an elaboration or statement, so I’ll leave it for now.

Suffice to say she’s 9 and there is precious little time left before she’s not.

m

See more of Dan's work HERE.

all photographs copyright Dan Connolly.

Everybody Else : Warren Harold

m

Warren Harold's project Alternating Weekends was something that resonated with me the first time I saw it. I had the feeling of recognition that occurs when someone is successfully doing what I was aspiring to do : his photographs were not of his kid, they were about the relationship with his kid. How do you photograph a relationship? It can't be taught, but you know it when you see it. Viewing Alternating Weekends you see it.

m

Here is his statement:

m

Being a child of divorce, my first and foremost concern when my wife and I separated in the fall of 2003 was my 3 year old son. As life moved forward and the divorce was finalized, I found myself almost 60 miles away from him. I make the three hour roundtrip at least twice a week to pick him up for alternating weekends. I've since remarried, and so has his mother.

m

Although completely different circumstances prevail, I can't help but compare and contrast my son's situation and environment to mine at that age. My mother was in the middle of an ugly divorce with my absentee father, and I had no male role model to speak of. My son has two. My dad would leave my brother and me alone on the intermittent weekends we would be with him. I struggle to find a balance with our time as a family for those bi-weekly 48 hours. And when he's not with us, we have our daily phone calls to catch up on the day's events.

m

Spending as much time with him as I can and making the most of that time is natural and a critical part of every day. I don't do it to compensate for my father's mistakes, but I see more clearly what I missed and I swear to myself that I will never let him feel that vacuum.

See his work HERE.

m


all photographs by Warren Harold from Alternating Weekends.

Call For Submissions Update

The entries are rolling in to be featured in Everybody Else Week.

Please submit 3 photographs from an ongoing project you are working on that relates to parent / childhood issues.
m
The more unknown you are the better.
m
Entries are due Friday at midnight.
m
Judging takes place that night!
m
Winner is posted on Monday morning.
m
Dig deep and enter...

Everybody Else : Dewey Webb

Dewey Webb of Phoenix, Arizona had sent me images from his project All My Channels a few months back. I loved the appreciation of the styles and sensibilities he grabbed off the ever flowing river of images the television provided. His statement is brief and self-deprecating:

m

Late at night I shoot photographs of images off the TV screen with my Kodak EasyShare C613. The stuff on satellite TV is always strangest at that hour. Admittedly, frame captures of bad infomercials, old game shows and forgotten movies beaming from outer space may not be the height of creativity, but it feeds my inner Olan Mills.

m

Everybody Else Week : Call For Submissions

Ok....this is my chance to see if anyone is reading this blog:

Taking submissions for Everybody Else week.

Please submit 3 photographs from an ongoing project you are working on that relates to parent / childhood issues.

The more unknown you are the better.

No submissions from friends of the blog: Colin, Tethered, Records, Thatcher, etc.

Submit 3 jpgs to tim@timothyarchibald.com

Deadline is Friday at midnight!

Everybody Else : Patrick Runte

Hamburg based photography student Patrick Runte sent me a note a few months back. He was looking to work as an intern over the summer for TA. One look at his work I could tell it would never work out...he was already a genius!
m

This is his series titled "Jump and Run". His note provided this as explanation:
m

The work is inspired by OSKAR SCHLEMMER and his idea of the "Triadic Ballett" and the Term "Streetplay". I wanted to compile old Videogames, which are based on simple geometric forms and make them able to be experienced/felt by the human body. Do you know what i mean? Videogames can not be experienced... they only make you feel like you are doing stuff. In my work the games transform to real "Jump `N` Run".
m

m

m

See more of Patrick Runte's work HERE.
m



Photographs by Patrick Runte. top to bottom: Pac Man, Space Invaders, Pong.

Everybody Else : Ken Graves and Eva Lipman

I was an Art major at Penn State University from 1985-1989. One of my professors there was Ken Graves. Ken was wrapped up photographing the subculture of Ballroom Dancers and bumped into another photographer photographing the same sub culture in a similar way. This photographer was Eva Lipman. Graves and Lipman starting shooting together and leading their lives together and then got a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1999 for their work on masculinity in our culture titled The Making Of Men.

Ken and Eva just moved across the country and ended up buying a house a few minutes from my home. Wtf? We caught up on Friday and went over the book dummy for The Making Of Men, with forward by Germaine Greer. Here are some excerpts...enjoy.

m

Dig deeper into their projects on the website HERE.

m

photographs copyright Ken Graves and Eva Lipman

Everybody Else Week Redux

After spending weeks discussing Echolilia and pimping various editorial projects, climaxing with a massive spam campaign referencing the Robots Are Real series, I'd like to spend this week celebrating the work of Everybody Else. I did this a few months back and it was a blast. I'll try to hit it every day, lets see if that works...k?