So I've decided to start selling some of my photos over at Imagekind. Right now I only have one photo available, but in the coming weeks/months I do plan on adding more, so if you don't see something you like now always check back for other photos.
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So it's been awhile since I posted a written non-daily photo blog and I thought it was about time that I remedy that. So I thought I'd let all two of you in on a blog that I've come to make it a habit of checking out daily and wasting some time with. The blog is called ISO50, The Visual Work of Scott Hansen. This blog was suggested by one of my professors at school and as you might of guessed, it's run by this guy Scott Hansen who is kind of a jack of all trades creative person. You know the type, the individual that can do just about everything extremely well and makes you sick with jealousy about it. He does photography, graphic design and music. Although he does his music under a different moniker and is featured on another site called; Tychomusic. His blog features lots of his photography and his design work which has a minimalist retro feel to it. He also features alot of other designer's work on his blog, every thing from print design, package design to industrial design, that he enjoys. On top of all of that he also likes to include music on his blog that he enjoys listening to. So if your a designer, photographer or musician there always a little bit of something that you will find interesting on his blog.
Last Saturday, my girlfriend received a frantic call from our friend who had given us the CMJ passes. She couldn't find any photographers to photograph a movie screening at Tribeca Cinemas, of the new Joe Strummer documentary by Julien Temple and supposedly a few celebrities where scheduled to show up for the event. (I'll review the movie at a latter date.) She asked if I would be able to do it. Now event photography isn't really my thing mostly because I'm not much of a people person and I've never done it before. I'd much rather go out to an open field and photograph a blade of grass blowing, in the wind. She did get us the free passes and you should always help out a friend in a jam, whenever possible so I happily agreed to do it. So she sent a car to pick us up since we wouldn't of been able to arrive there in time if we took mass transit.
Well when I get there, I'm told that Steve Buscemi and The Beastie Boys are scheduled to show up to the movie. This is going to be interesting, I thought not only would I be photographing The Beastie Boys but also Mr. Pink. So it's getting closer and closer to the start of the movie and no one has showed up yet. Finally, just as the movie is starting I'm told that it doesn't look like either one of them will be making an appearance and I should just go in and watch the movie. Fifteen minutes into the movie, I see a silhouette of a skinny guy with an afro walk into the theatre and I instantly recognized him as MIke D.
After the movie, Mike D is cajoled into standing in front of a CMJ backdrop and having his pic taken, by me of course. When I looked thru my viewfinder I couldn't believe what I saw! Mike D looked like an old man, he looked way older than his 42 years of age. Now granted this wasn't a professional photo shoot, there's no retouching done to smooth out the lines and the flash I used was a bit harsh but still. Gone was the image of the beer swilling, trucker hat wearing young punk hip hopper that I first saw when I was 14 years old during the Licensed to Ill tour. I know that they've matured and have grown out of that phase along time ago but for alot of people that is the image of The Beastie Boys that they hold in their minds. Yet for me, the moment I looked thru that view finder it was washed away for ever. 
Now I had wanted to somehow tie in some Neil Young lyrics "It's better to burn out than fade away" and The Who lyrics "I hope I die before I get old", but I just wasn't sure where I wanted to go with that. It's just at some point should musicians and actors just fade away from the public spotlight when they reach a certain age and appearance so as not to destroy the fans image of them. Take for example Jimi Hendrix, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and Kurt Cobain(who unfortunately took Young's lyrics to heart) . As tragic as their too soon deaths were and the fact that they will never be able to create more art for us to enjoy and to enrich our lives, we will forever have these lasting iconic images of these artists when they were young and in their phyisical prime, burned into our psyche. Now don't get me wrong I'm not saying that when artists reach a certain age that they should stop what they're doing. There alot of older established musicians still making great music, but maybe they should do it in seclusion so as to not destroy the public's iconic image of them. Am I just being selfish and shallow in thinking this way? Maybe I should stop here so as not to have my argument misconstrued and dig my grave any further. I guess what it comes down to is that I prefer young Elvis to old fat bloated Elvis. I'd love to hear your views on this topic.
Related Posts: CMJ Music Marathon, Brad @ Highline Ballroom
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This post is a bit on the depressing side but when I came across this person's Flickr profile(Verbatim2006) and saw what he was doing, I knew then and there that I needed to blog about it. Since March of 2007 he has been posting a photo of every American soldier who has died in Iraq. Yes we hear about the death toll on the news every night, but they report it like it's a statistic, the majority of the time they don't even list the names or a photo of who has died. Seeing these photos of the faces of the soldiers who have died over in Iraq is a very sobering thing, maybe these photos should be emailed to all our politicians. With that said, I really urge you to go check out Verbatim2006's Flickr page.
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Anoush Abrar & Aimee Hoving are a photography team who joined forces to start taking pictures together sometime after finishing art school in 2004. Their work can be seen in various museums, galleries and fashion magazines. I never really understood photography teams. A photographer is generally a control freak and to have to give up part that control and give it to another photographer must be a scary yet freeing thing to a photographer. I certainly don't think I could do it. They make it work though and come up with some interesting photographs. Although they do do commissioned fashion photographs, which are good in there own right. I would however recommend checking out their personal work. There are some pretty interesting themes going on in their personal work from the status of women as symbols to the influence of MTV on the young.
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If your involved in photography you might want to check this out:
The NYC Mayor's Office of Film , Theater and Broadcasting are considering some new rules in regards to photography and filming in the city. As it is and has been for some time you do already need a permit for any photography and film shoots, in which a tripod/camera stands, lighting and rigging equipment will be used. What the Mayor's Office of Film , Theater and Broadcasting are trying to do is to formalize the existing policies in order to cope with large increase and often chaotic aspect of filming/photographic work taking place in NYC. The problem that alot of people are having in regards to these new rules however is with the vagueness of the way the rules are written.
The new rules that are being consider however are stating that any group of two or more people who want to use a camera in a single public location for more than a half hour need to get a city permit and insurance. The same requirements would apply to any group of five or more people who plan to use a tripod in a public location for more than 10 minutes, which includes the time it takes to set up the equipment. These new rules could in effect with the way they are currently worded, depending on whether a police officer or not wanted to enforce it, pertain to tourists, amateur photographers or some people just filming the next YouTube hit. So when a family of 4, visiting NYC for the first time stop in Times Square or Rockefeller Center to snap a few pictures could be in violation of the new rules.
You can read more about it here in a NY Times article and also on the NYCLU's web site.
There is also a petition you can sign if your against these new rules.
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If you've heard of Alec Soth(ryhmes with both) at all it probably has to do with the fact that your interested in photography. Alec seemed to burst onto the photography scene with the publication of his book Sleeping by the Mississippi and has since gone on to publish a couple more photography books. The other day I went to go check out his website and while there I noticed that he also had a blog. Well once at his blog and after reading a few posts I was hooked. His blog is a great mix of, well as he puts it photographica, miscellanea, etcetera. If your interested in photography, film, art and philosophy then I highly recommend checking out his blog. If your not interested in any of that stuff well maybe you should check out his blog any way, you never know you just might like it.
Alec Soth - Blog
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