Photographs Not Taken / Sneak Peek

A preview copy of Photographs Not Taken, the collection of essays edited by Will Steacy and published by Daylight came in the mail the other day. It does not disappoint....this collection is wonderful.

My essay is essentially boring to me...I lived it, there is no surprise ending of course. But I'm wedged in the Roger Ballen, Juliana Beasley, Elinor Carucci section and couldn't be more flattered.

Pre-order this book from Daylight HERE.

Joe Sullivan / Forbes Magazine

Spent an enjoyable day at the sprawling Facebook campus last month working on the story for Forbes Magazine on Joe Sullivan, head of security for FB. Have you heard of Facebook?

A fascinating story ( really) that addresses keen negotiations with the Russian hacker group Koobface gang, our own ANONYMOUS, as well as situations that were resolved by simply speaking to the offender's mom.

We wanted a shot that hinted at the bleakness of a police interrogation room amidst this very vibrant FB offices...and we kinda got it I think. Some out takes are below.

Read the story written by Kashmir Hill HERE.

This Week's Spam

The Butcher, The Baker email blast was sent forth this week. I realized I was so wrapped up shooting the Otto Bock campaign that I never actually celebrated it to the masses. At the time I felt the project was commercially handicapped a bit by being shot in B&W. These days I'm searching for commercial work that can work as a bridge to my personal work (such as Stereoscopy Photographs) and I felt this fit right in.

Enjoy images from the Otto Bock Relationships campaign HERE.

Green Felt for ZEIT Magazine

Setting up a makeshift studio in an opthamologist office was the first shoot of 2012.

Dr. Brien Seeley and his very ambitious flying hobby....preceded by a trip to Discount Fabrics in Berkeley, CA.

Out this week in Berlin for Zeit Magazine, Germany.

Ansel Adams Coffee Can

Ansel Adams' 110th Birthday Today.

Young Ansel was dismissed from several private schools for his restlessness and inattentiveness, his father decided to pull him out of school in 1915, at the age of 12. Totally ADHD before they even had a label for it, he blew up like no photographer ever before.

Embracing art and commerce like the best of us, AA licensed an image to Hill Brothers Coffee to be reproduced on a coffee can! Genius!

I have had mixed emotions about AA's work over the years. Loved it, hated it, made fun of it, and then stood in awe of it once again. Like anything that is popular and complex, there are going to be a full range of emotions. But today, his birthday, I want to celebrate the Hills Brother's Coffee Can, seen above, with reproduced Winter Morning, Yosemite Valley, California, 1969 on the can itself.

And then this quote from Ansel, about his Imogen Cunningham's accusations of him being a sellout:

"In any case, I know she disapproved of that Hills Brothers coffee can that came out about 1968 - the one with one of my Yosemite snow scenes on it. She made that very clear. She sent me one of the cans with a marijuana plant growing in it! And then there was the television commercial I did for Datsun. For every test-drive a potential customer took, Datsun would have a seedling planted by the U.S. Forest Service. I thought it was a pretty good idea to get some trees planted, and if you have to have cars, at least Datsuns get good mileage. But Imogen didn't see it that way."

Who knew the history of photography could be so awesome...?

Twitter / Follow

Follow TA on Twitter and learn his every thought!
As well as behind the scenes of all things related to commercial adventuring...
@timothyarchibal:

https://twitter.com/#!/timothyarchibal

Stereoscopy Photographs : More

A: Well, it’s just about the idea that we aren’t going to be in these roles forever. Someday I’ll walk past this rock and it won’t be a space for my little kid. There will be some other little kid there, and my kid, well, he’ll be studying a duck in a lab, rather than feeding one at a park. Or something!

Q: Um….clarify this?

A: It’s just that we aren’t forever going to be what we are right now, even though it sometimes seems we will be when we are in the middle of it.

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Follow Stereoscopy Photographs HERE.

Valentines 2012



My two kids each made a Valentine for their Mom yesterday.
Wilson made the top one, Eli made the bottom one.
Art will tell you things about the creator, whether you want it to or not!

Charlie Hess / POP

Many years ago I wrote a profile of Fred Woodward for Print. He said that in order to get good work you’ve got to give the artists a big safety net, so that they know they can take chances and if it doesn’t work out, they know you’ll still hire them again. That idea stuck with me. Take chances, go for it, or the work will always be expected and vanilla.- Charlie Hess of Chess Design

Photographers On Photography published a totally unexpected and inspiring interview with Charlie Hess of Chess Design in LA.
C.H. and I collaborated on one of my favorite shoots this year, and then he and JB Fitts came out with my favorite photo essay of the year. Reading the interview is what it is like to spend the day creating a photograph with him- true creative spirit flows thru this guy, and it's clear he enjoys every moment of the process. I was so glad POP was able to capture this all in the interview.

Read it HERE.

It's Coming...

Photographs Not Taken is a collection of photographers' essays about failed attempts to make a picture.

Editor Will Steacy asked each photographer to abandon the conventional tools needed to make a photograph--camera, lens, film--and instead make a photograph using words, to capture the image (and its attendant memories) that never made it through the lens. In each essay, the photograph has been stripped down to its barest and most primitive form: the idea behind it. This collection provides a unique and original interpretation of the experience of photographing, and allows the reader into a world rarely seen: the image making process itself.

Photographs Not Taken features contributions by: Peter Van Agtmael, Dave Anderson, Timothy Archibald, Roger Ballen, Thomas Bangsted, Juliana Beasley, Nina Berman, Elinor Carucci, Kelli Connell, Paul D'Amato, Tim Davis, KayLynn Deveney, Doug Dubois, Rian Dundon, Amy Elkins, Jim Goldberg, Emmet Gowin, Gregory Halpern, Tim Hetherington, Todd Hido, Rob Hornstra, Eirik Johnson, Chris Jordan, Nadav Kander, Ed Kashi, Misty Keasler, Lisa Kereszi, Erika Larsen, Shane Lavalette, Deana Lawson, Joshua Lutz, David Maisel, Mary Ellen Mark, Laura McPhee, Michael Meads, Andrew Moore, Richard Mosse, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Laurel Nakadate, Ed Panar, Christian Patterson, Andrew Phelps, Sylvia Plachy, Mark Power, Peter Riesett, Simon Roberts, Joseph Rodriguez, Stefan Ruiz, Matt Salacuse, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Aaron Schuman, Jamel Shabazz, Alec Soth, Amy Stein, and others.

BUY HERE.

The Lonely Doctor / CPW

Wow...we shot this series a while back.
Story was held, went quiet, then never saw the light of day.The Lonely Doctor was ideal for Commercial Photography Week. Originally commisioned for Smart Money Magazine, we wanted the scorched desert of daytime and the cool night light of closing time...and I think we got it. Killer tumbleweeds flown in by Shannon Amos and recently polished in post production by Laura Johnston.

See the images in all their splendor HERE.