Alec Soth’s Broken Manual
I just came back from the opening of Alec Soth’s exhibition Broken Manual at the Sean Kelly Gallery. It’s not like it makes me better but… Well actually it does. When you see the work and the artist that are important to you, that make you think, learn, struggle, be surprised, fell in love with Photography again and again, I believe it does make you better and does make you grow. Another thing - it seems to be very important to BE there, to see the exhibition and Alec Soth talking to people and singing his books, to see the installation of the special edition of the Broken Manual book (amazing Alec!) and have a possibility to open one of those found cases and flip through some pages of text and photographs… All this makes me feel so happy! Of cause I will go to see the exhibition again when it is not crowded, and think, and see the film Somewhere to Disappear about Soth’s travels while photographing the project. But for now I just feel this excitement and happiness because I got to see something very important today.
The Lonely Christmas Tree Picture Album
Have a look at The Lonely Christmas Tree Picture Album featuring pages of lonely Christmas trees. It came out of a Facebook group created by Andreas Schmidt. Many thanks to Andreas for spending his time making the book. It is fun!
To Be Close With Polaroid?
I found this Polaroid close-up kit in a flea market and finnaly tried it today.
The kit consists of a lens, a view/focus attachment and a flash diffusion shield.
I don’t have a flash for my Polaroid Land camera so I didn’t use a diffusor.
I put the lens and the veiwfinder attachment on.
The lens allows to take pictures with the distance of 9-15 inches/23-38 cm from the subject. I found that focusing were tricky - a focusing window showed the area above the actual frame. If there are no objects at the same distance and above your subject, you are forced to change the camera angle while focusing - that makes difficult to focus and shoot from the same distance.
Another surprise was an exposure metering mistake. The manual for the close-up attachment says that most pictures will be exposed well without any additional corrections. After getting a very dark print I put the correction +1 and it still was not enough!
More questions than answers but I finished my Instant Film pack for now and hope to make more experiments with close-up lens later in better light conditions. Stay tuned!
Photography Is a Profession
I receive this kind of letter quite often: ”Would it be alright to use your photo for … ? Unfortunately, I don’t have any money to give, but I can absolutely include a credit and link back to any website you wish.”
My answer is: NO! Why? Because, I have enough credits already. Because, I am 30 y.o. and I have bills to pay. Because, I consider photography my profession. Because, I spent three years in college learning photography and many years practicing it. Because, I invest in my equipment and my craft every year. Because, I believe that a magazine or an organization has the money to pay for my work.
As John B. Mueller wrote here: “Next time you’re at dinner, tell your waiter you’ll tell all your friends how good the service was if he gives you dinner for free.” Try also negotiate you price at your doctor’s office or at your grocery store.
I live in the same world as you do, not on another planet where people do not need money to survive. So next time you have such a question, please think about what you are requesting.
Thanks a lot for understanding!
Scanning Instant Film
I scanned some of my instant film pictures. I think with a simple flatbed scanner you can get files acceptable for preview and online posting. 
It’s All About Jazz
AllAboutJazz published photos of Jazz singer Chris McNulty. It was a pleasure working with you, Chris!
Polaroid In Winter? Why Not?
Today, we had our first winter snow storm in New York City. I couldn’t resist to go out and take some Polaroid pictures in Central Park. The Fuji Instant Color Film I use (see previous post here) needs temperatures that are at least in the 50’s to develop properly. Today, it was about 25-29F. So how do you shoot outdoor Polaroid pictures in cold weather? The main idea is to keep your camera and film warm enough to make it work. The simplest and no-cost way to do it is to use your body heat. The instruction says: ‘Whenever it’s cool enough so that you must wear warm clothes, use the Cold-Clip for all color pictures’. The so called ‘Cold-Clip’ is a pretty simple ’device’ that helps to keep your film warm while developing.
I didn’t have an original Polaroid Cold-Clip so I created my own using two pieces of cardboard connected with adhesive tape.
Armed with my clip and a lot of enthusiasm I went to Central Park keeping the camera and my Cold-Clip warm under my coat. I set the L/D control of the camera one mark toward lighten (that meant + 1/2 stop) and took a picture. Then as quickly as I could I pulled the print out and put it in the Cold-Clip. The Cold-Clip with a developing print went to my inside pocket for three minutes. I believe you should adjust exposure depending on your subject but basically the picture has to be slightly overexposed. After the developing was over, I lifted off the print to find that the colors were low saturated with a purple or brownish tone. I have to mention that the day was gray and gloomy. I kind of liked those low saturated images - something in between b&w and color. After spending some time in the park, I came back home and looked at my images again. The purple/brown tone had gone and the colors became more saturated and ‘visible’. Actually, I thought the pictures came out pretty nice and moody. Despite the chill I still feel, I love how my winter Polaroid pictures turned out!
My First Book Cover
Vijay Iyer ‘Selected Compositions 1999-2008’. Mel Bay Publications, Inc. 2011
