A different angle

Frequently, I get stuck in one way of doing something that when I finally get out of the rut, I feel like it's the first breath of air in a long time. I don't realize sometimes that my imagination gets stuck. Most of the time it's called lack of inspiration. Sometimes you need to look at things like an alien to realize how cool they are.

but then random things happen, like your parents come to town. They don't walk past the giant architectural wonders, or over the rivers, the bizarre amount of people taking wedding photos in the same places. They see things in very different ways, they see things as the unusual. Which, if you're around people seeing the unusual enough, you can begin to get inspired by it. I need to go out shooting. this weekend made me want to go out shooting.

so mom and dad were in town and we had a really good time!! we went to the gallery, did an architectural tour, walked around millennium park, went to taste of chicago, saw a movie, went to chicago pride festival, ate at COOBAH (YUMYUMYUM), ate at NIU (YUMYUMYUM), and saw my appartment. all this in about 3 days. I was sooo tired afterward, but it was worth it. I especially enjoyed the architectural tour, our guide was funny and it wasn't too much information at one time.

this week at the gallery i don't have a lot of days i'm working...but i do have some really interesting things i'm doing!
David, the owner of the gallery, has me working on scanning in his old family photos, some dating back to late 1800's early 1900's. COOOOOL. (something else that's cool - this idea where you do fashion photography, but like a victorian photograph)also on thursday 2 of the other women i work with and i are going to do some funky test modeling for this infrared portrait photography idea. i'm so excited about it!!

lots of things comming up!
1. this weekend, i'll be with sylvia, bruce, tricia, the kids, and jason for 4th of july in wisconson! hopefully i'll take lots of pictures
2. after that, on july 11 (which is also the last day of the golden ratio show), andrew comes until the 22!!!!!!! I'm seriously excited to see him.
3. very shortly after that, on the 25, Jasmine is coming for a few days! hopefully she'll keep me from being too sad.
4. then i'm done! this summer went so quickly already!

what's up with you guys?

On capturing the unusual

Since photography is about the moment, often what one chooses to photograph is that which is unknown to them. While this brings about a lot of controversy in terms of isolating the "other," it can also be the most interesting form of photography to look at and take. For examples, see Diane Arbus' work, which i think i've mentioned previously...getting hard to remember...

so lots of things have happened recently...been cooking a lot, and adventurous enough to buy a small bottle of sesame oil! it is making me make yummy things. It's one of those ingrediants that i'm kind of intimidated by, but i decided to really give it a shot. so far, the results have been delicious...like a peanut chicken i made last night, and the sauteed spinich i made with it.

but one of the big things that happened....my friend that i met in france, Jacquline, came for a visit! (she lives about an hour away). While we were walking to get groceries downtown, we saw a huge crowd outside a big movie theater. apparently, it was the premier of Johnny Depp/Christian Bale's new movie!!!! we got to see both of them so close up. So close that if i had reached a little bit i could have kissed johnny depp as he passed. no kidding. check out the photo we got!


the photo you see at the top of the blog is my new stuffed animal!!! I couldn't resist...mustache bunny was so cute and huggable and soft. also, just completely bizarre.

on saturday, work was pretty slow and for the first time in weeks it was warm and sunny out! (all you east-coasters look forward to a day or two of sun!) My friend matt stopped by the gallery ont the way to the beach, and ended up convincing my boss (it wasn't hard. she more convinced me) to let me leave early and head off to the beach! We watched all the human drama going around and walked in the water a bit. After that we walked around in a few stores, tourist watching/shopping for matt. that was the day i adopted my lil' freak of nature (mustache bunny), and also a sketch pad and some drawing markers.

Sunday I was alone most of the day, and decided to check out "time out chicago," a website/paper that lists events in the city. they even have a whole section dedicated to free events! As it turned out, last night was the first night of summer dance - a free dance lesson in grant park followed by about 2 hours of live music to dance to! this week it was swing dancing, so i took my sketch pad out to practice some gesture drawings. Apparently, as a photographer not many people will bother you when shooting, but when drawing people feel the freedom to just come up and talk to you, make comments on your sketches, start conversations. it's almost like having a dog! people come and pet you. I got asked to dance twice, got given a packet with quotes from the old testiment, cheered on by the grannies i was sitting with, flirted with by a very hairy tango instructor, and complimented (on gesture drawings?? they were super sketchy quick draws). it was kinda funny...people feel freer to observe you if you're observing them...but not really when that thing is a camera. it was really funny.

other things i'm looking forward to this week...apparently, wholefoods sponsors free yoga classes on their roof garden followed by a discussion about nutrition on wednesday nights. i think i'll go :-)

even though i don't know as many people in the city this summer, i'm really making an effort to go out and explore the moment i'm in. there are so many things, unusual, unexpected, or even the norm, that i'm getting to see!

Appreciating a photograph

Many people refuse to believe that a photograph is art. The fact that the comparative time it takes to make a photograph (anywhere from an hour+ to 1/1000 of a second) to a painting or a drawing (hours, days, months, years) makes people think that there's nothing to it. Also the accessibility of cameras "makes everyone an artist." This, to me, sounds like a really dangerous notion. while i believe it's important that anyone who feels a call to art explore that call, to believe that one is an artist just because they own an artistic utensil is a little ridiculous. I own several pencils, but i would never assume i can draw like Michelangelo, you know?

Like I've said many times before in the blog, it's the moment you choose to press the shutter - the decision of what's in the frame, the instant, or instants, captured. What you choose that you want to remember...photographing a happy moment as opposed to a sad one, taking a photograph of the souffle that made it as opposed to the 3 failures that preceded it.

France, like many told me it would and liked i expected, is starting to fade out the bad memories. I remember being upset, but i'm now thinking only about the people i met and liked, Marie-Claire, the (seeming) several million patisseries and boulangeries that i ate in, my trip to italy...it's nice. It seems that my brain is choosing the moments to take pictures of for me. it's nice. less things i have to think about.

one thing i would like to have a photograph: when i succeeded in unclogging my toilet with dish soap and almost boiling water. twice. Another thing i would have liked to photograph is the dinner i made tonight: tofu with peanut sauce, neatly cut cucumber and carrots, sprouts, cabbage leaves, and rice with rice vinager. my friend matt came over and shared it with me.

gallery world is still amazing. check out the website i'm helping to maintain! www.davidweinberggallery.com

(shot at the top of the post is from a shoot i did last friday!)

in other random news - i participated in my first gallery opening on friday. I think i poured over 15 bottles of wine in the course of like...3 hours. whoopie! it was really fun. I think for this show that we're doing, "Golden Ratio," my fav artist up is Carter Hodgkin. She simulates particle explosions and creates art out of them. Art and math in happy union!

if you guys do check out the sites and have any questions (even if it's: why would anyone make something like this?) please please please leave them in the comments section. Art is so much more enjoyable when you know about it!

Technology

Photography is all about technology. From its inception in the industrial revolution, the development of photography has been about refining the camera and the film's technology. All this refining has led to sharper, more exact images, faster film (ability to shrink shutter speed from minutes to 100's of a second), digital cameras, photoshop and other types of digital post-processing...the list goes on and on.

in case you didn't know yet, my internet is finally set up. yay technology!

not having the internet has made me feel so out of touch with the city - now i can go online and search for cultural events happening, stay up-to-date with my friends, make plans...all this was possible without internet of course, through phone calls and newspapers, but newspapers can get out of date, people don't always pick up the phone, time differences, etc. The internet is a really important tool (and time waster extrodinare!) for me, and I'm glad to happen. Like taking photos in film and digital...it's like comparing apples to oranges. they're both fruit, but very different types.

hopefully this means that I won't be hit on by the argo tea guy anymore ;-)

more updates when I have some :-p