The Babysitter

The Thanksgiving extended weekend is always a hard one, and this year was nothing different: it gets dark early, kinda looks like nuclear winter outside, no school for the kids or work to hide from. This year my wife is sick and I feel like I just am absorbing the children. Not enjoying them. Not sharing time with them. Just absorbing their energy , keeping them out of the house and counting down the hours until we can shut them down for the night. A bright spot on Saturday when we get word from our babysitter May Garson. She can take the kids, we can escape and try to relate and solve the problems of contemporary everything. A hike in Northern California when the sun is low and it is still warm outside can help you see so many things clearly. Revelations! They came! Gotta write this stuff down so we remember in the morning!
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After bidding goodbye to the babysitter, I saw that she left these two drawings of our kids taped to the wall. Her interpretation of Eli ( subject of Echolilia ) and Wilson were so right on I didn't know what to say. She grabbed a design on Eli's shirt and allowed it to be a metaphor for his inner state and Wilson's colorful imp-ish qualities are captured perfectly.
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Enjoy.























all art copyright May Garson, 2008

Coloring Book

When Irish Eyes Are Smiling

TA and AH, Cafe Bernardo, Davis, CA. Photograph by AH

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Popular blogger and accomplished photographer Andrew Hetherington of Whats The Jackanory fame was headed west. He summoned me via email for a meeting. The dates, times and locations, neutral territory of course, were worked out before hand.

Here before me on the sunny sidewalk of Davis, California is The Jackanory. His elfin presence is offset by bright eyes and a polite and formal manner. He seems cleaner and friendlier than the character on his blog. This is the man who can photograph bloody noses, black eyes, celebrities and politicians and make them all seem human and real. The stories of openings and partying that appear on his blog have faded. I realize this guy is a photographer first and foremost. The Truman Capote-esque, toast of the town persona he has created is really a tool to help him make photographs, meet subjects and deliver the goods on assignments.

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What is the word from NYC, the photography capital of the free world? Not good. Andrew seems to be happy and optimistic, but obviously the layoffs and budget cuts in the industry are on everyone's mind these days. Layoffs at Time Inc, budget cuts at Conde Nast, magazines closing shop. It'd be nice to avoid this stuff but it is present...and all the more real for NYers than us out here in the west. Myself? I'm in denial. Can we talk about gossip or something? Isn't anyone having an affair or something? I try to see if they want to take a walk...get some sunshine amidst the darkness. His assistant Andrew Dolgin is sitting there, taking it all in. Can I slit my wrist with the butter knife? I can't imagine what is on his mind. I inquire. He responds:

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I don't really care about the economy. What I do care about is my photography growing and advancing. That's all I'm really concerned with right now. It's all I can do anything about.

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That felt good to hear. So good...I had to write it down.
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Amen.

LR: Hetherington, Dolgin at Cafe Bernardo, Davis, CA

Outake

Talent Buddy Keaton waiting for direction. 10/08

Snapshots From Automania

Bill Silveira lives and works in a place called "Automania". He seems to own an entire city block in Oakland in which he has cars, art, props, trailers...and lots of beautiful natural light. What more could we want for our shoot? The crew, above: Shaun Fenn, Veronica Sjoen, Jamie Thomas, Bill Silviera, Shannon Amos and Rachel Styer taking the snapshots.

Robert Bechtle / Commercial Photography

Alameda Gran Torino, 1974 by Robert Bechtle

I had been putting together a shoot for the past month that somehow involved children and automobiles. I didn't know what I really wanted to say, but I liked the juxtaposition of children...not old enough to drive, with large, epic, gas guzzling cars of an earlier era. I liked the sculptural qualities of the cars...I liked them as big objects that had their own personalities and I wanted them isolated on white. And the kids...? Well...I have been into photographing my 6 year old son, and I thought it would be neat to try to tap into the kid brain again...but packaged as a commercial photograph.

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Shannon Amos and Veronica Sjoen are the stylists that I use as often as I can on all of these productions. Shannon calls me a few days before the shoot sounding like she just had a revelation: I realize what our reference point should be for these shots. It is the work of Robert Bechtle. The cars, the families, the body language and the clothing. His work is where we should be steering this project towards. I want to dress the kids in our pictures like the kids in his paintings.

I hadn't seen Bechtles work in a while...it didn't trigger and immediate image in my head. A quick google search delivers the painting of the station wagon "Alameda Gran Torino, 1974 " and it all comes back. I think his work was stuck in my sub-concious...and this was it's commercialized cousin bubbling to the surface.

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Shannon hunted for the props and wardrobe of a Bechtle painting. I hunted down the cars and the kids and we shot the pictures on Saturday. The images here are Bechtles paintings. I'll share my images in the days ahead.

all images copyright Robert Bechtle

American Photography Party in NYC

American Photography 24, the annual juried anthology had their party last night. Nah...I couldn't go...I had to take my kids out to a picnic in the redwoods of Marin while my wife went to Thursday night meditation class. Good bud Jonathan Saunders snapped an i phone shot while in attendance and sent it to me in real time...so as I'm in the redwoods I get the shot and it's almost like I am there! Well...not exactly. Blue Nailpolish, 2007, an early image from Echolilia made it into the book and up on the walls of the show. See all the work from American Photography 24 HERE.