The book

Also, I am working on final revisions of my photobook. As soon as it is available I will post links, in case anyone is interested in procuring a copy.

Final Reviews

So as of Thursday I had my last review at MassART, it went pretty well. I'm really bummed that I won't have access to all that equipment (especially the printers) but all in all it's nice to be done.

Here's a mockup of how I hung my final review...
(most/all of these images are somewhere on the blog, this mockup is more to get a feel for the full hanging) I also posted these as an album on facebook.


I got some decent feedback from the review board, enough to make me feel validated to continue working on this project.

I hope to have new work here sometime early next month. As of right now I have christmas, new years, and moving to NY to deal with. wish me luck. I will return as soon as I can.

What is happening on Plum Island.

here's a newsclip about the erosion and apparently the house on the right in yesterdays post.

Pretty soon they'll be gone too.

So last week a house fell into the ocean on Plum Island, I was unable to photograph the wreckage, but I did find these three houses who lost their yards, their decks, and will soon fall into the ocean themselves. It's really shitty but this is happening to the entire island..


I have some other shots, the retouching is hugely time consuming as the lab royally fucked up my negs. I will get them up as soon as I can but this last week of school is going to keep me pretty busy. I will try to shoot plumb island more as I don't know what lies in the future for this place.

f.64, Direct Sunlight, a 150mm lens.

So through the past week(s) I've continued to check out the area I like to call roads to nowhere. I shot a bunch of film out there, somewhat arbitrarily from my main project, or maybe it isn't. I've just been trying to give myself a lot more freedom with what I shot so the images don't become overly formulaic. (and although much of my work of late has been successful, I feel at times it has become just that)

I'm really happy with the top 3 images, the bottom two feel a little too pretty the more I look at them, to be honest they're all kindof pretty but again, the bottom two are just a little too much.

So here comes a bunch of new stuff that I may or may not edit into my book!






Further Note, I shot most of this work at f.64 and really really overexposed to increase my shadow detail. Shooting directly at the sun became a little wonky but I am tempted to really like how this stuff looks. Also special thanks to Abe for letting me borrow his 150, it's nice to have choices of lens length when I'm shooting this stuff.

Not much time left in the semester, The book is really close to being edited (and needs to be finalized by the end of this week to be honest). next post will prolly be in 2 weeks. Happy Thanksgiving.

Longer Exposures...

Tried to post this the other night but didn't have time...

So, the days are getting very very short...I've kindof adopted this habit of wanting to shoot all my landscapes at f.45 so exposure time is rapidly becoming an issue...sortof. Last week I did a bunch of longer exposures, did several hour longs that were too thin to print, but these ones range from 10 minutes to an hour and I'm pretty happy with them.

These first two are a revisit to the rapidly disappearing woods behind my house, I'm much happier with the light and color here, a lot less contrasty and a little more appropriate.



I also shot this long kindof amazing little spot where marsh, concrete, and river come together. (whether or not the picture does this spot justic i'll let you decide.) I haven't shot anything at night in several years but I am pretty happy with this.

NPZ 800

So I had this roll of fuji NPZ 800, I've never really shot with high speed film, It's funny cuz a few years ago all this grain would have bothered me. But now with digital being so dominant I kindof like the grainy look of film, and it's flexibility in low light...now all I have to do is shoot the roll of Ilford 3200 I have...







I'm not sure how much I like this bottom shot (or the middle for that matter) but hey this is just a blog! It's kindof nice to shoot handheld, maybe it's just the freedom and the new format. anywho...

Family

I've had it pointed out to me that I use to shoot a lot of portraits with my 4x5, The subject matter generally being my family. This was back when I was shooting black and white all the time, I've been so caught up in landscapes for a while that I haven't really pointed my camera at a person in a while. I shot my mother with my 4x5,

also here is an older picture I shot about two months ago of my dad, shot it with NPZ 800 (for some reason it took me like 2 months to use it since I was saving it for low light hand held situations) so it's super grainy, but I do like it. I'd like to shoot him with the 4x5 soon.

Roads to Nowhere...(The Roads)

I feel like the project has been getting too heavy into "trash spots" and industrial leftovers. I've been hiking the hidden roads southeast of my house and finding this stuff to be less overbearing as evidence of man vs environment...Here are two images I just finished working on. My volume may slow a bit as I'm going to start focusing a lot on editing for the book I'm self publishing.

So I got my negs back of the roads that I have been hiking, two of them had some huge problems, my own fault...I really like the wind movement I got out of these shots. I prefer the muddy marsh road but this leafy path is nice as well.

reshoot

I forgot to post this last week, this is a reshoot of the overgrown sign, I like this version a lot more, you can see the older one here.

Roads to Nowhere...

So yesterday I packed up my 6x9 and my 4x5 and left my house, walking due south into the woods...I had planned on shooting out on the old dirt roads that are a mile or two into the woods, but before I got very far I couldn't help but shoot where they are clearing the woods here.

As far as I know this is supposed to be protected land but I guess these people just don't care.

Eventually I reached the old roads, they don't really go anywhere, instead you find them like a river, a dozen tributaries of small pathways converge into these old roads, most of which dead end in the marsh. I dig this location, but due to the gross factor of VC film I was really unhappy with a lot of my stuff I shot out there.

I did get these last two shots near the roads/lands end.

I'm pretty excited about working out in this area, I feel a few more excursions out here in my imminent future. Everything out there is pretty much untouched, all the old junk is sun-bleached, the pathways overgrown. I dig it.

some details...

The other day when I was under the Route 1 Bridge in Newbury I shot these...

So I'm trying to use the goose (6x9) a lot more now, It feels a lot like shooting with 35mm (obviously), which is nice. I got these detail shots, they're pretty not special but for some reason I like them.

So I decided to try to shoot the dump, Its kindof amazing how not so many years ago this was just a big pile of garbage. (now it's a big pile of garbage with grass growing out of it...and methane exhaust pipes) But I'm not sure if this compisition is too thrilling. However...




...I do like this lot, a lot. there's just the smallest amount of pavement remaining in this landscape, It's kindof got a lot going on but I like the amount of nature vs the amount of relic. Had shot some other 4x5 sheets this weekend but I will need to reshoot the other locations in a more interesting manner.


some medium format should be coming up soon have a few rolls to develop!

Newbury, Perspective

Two new 4x5 shots, I'm really happy with these and the top location has a few other gems to shoot but I need to catch the light early in the day... Who would throw away this perfectly good picket fence...?

So I've been rethinking my perspective a bit, maybe focusing down a bit more. Focusing more directly on the evidence of man and nature. I shot these in Newbury, both in empty lots near a bridge, but in these I've tried to obscure the location a bit and focus more on the land at hand.

I like them, hope you do too.

More Medium Format!

So I figured I'd post this stuff separately. I found this poor dead pylon under the BQE. A few blocks from the empty lot in the last post. I'd enjoyed the look of this thing in passing before but once someone put a face on it, it became a poor dead robot and I figured it was worth noting.


I also shot some portraits of one of my oldest friends, Eve. It's a more dead pan shot than I'd like, but I have this and one other shot that I enjoyed, the other needs a good bit of work on it and will prolly post in the future.


I'm really becoming a huge fan of shooting with the 600se, and will definitely keep working with it. I feel like it makes a great camera for decisive moments and decent for portrait work as well.

Brooklyn

So I dragged my Cameras down to Brooklyn this past weekend and shot some work there that kindof reflects what I'm doing here in Massachusettes. When I return I'll be shooting a lot more stuff but in the meantime I have this location near Kate's, an empty lot at Marcy/Metropolitan.

I like the top and bottom two images and will prolly keep them as a diptych, the third will not make the cut but since I went through the time to retouch it i figured I may as well post it.




Some people thought this was a very different approach for me to be shooting in such an urban environment but I'm not sure it's a huge departure. I also shot these stopped way down ~f45, normally I shoot at about 22 and I think I might like that a little better.

wheelbarrows, sally's Place, Some Landscapes.

So my blog keeps on exploding every time I try to post and label these images. This weekend was nothing but rain and despite the fact that I might have bronchitis it yielded some pretty fun 4x5 work. Had to do a lot of blocking and wiping down of my stuff to keep the rain away but I've got some fun stuff.

Starting with a weird wheelbarrow picture (dunno why but I love wheelbarrows)

This sign is being eaten by plants, I've had my eye on it for a while now...

And the rest of these are from Sally's Place in Seabrook, NH. It's a wierd place full of discarded mysteries, but I like it.

I'm definately happiest with the top two images but they all printed quite nicely. Felt good to shoot work that relates to my landscape project...(wheelbarrows excluded!) anyways I hope this post doesn't bug out because I have a train to catch. Oh and guess what it's still raining!

Snaps, the Goose.

So I am trying to shoot more with the Goose (polaroid 600se/mamiya press camera/frankenstein) I am a lot happier with the shots on this roll. Not my usual forte for sure but I'm still scouting some locations for new 4x5 work.

Kate, Newbury, 2008

Kate, Plumb Island Beach, 2008

Kate, Staten Island, 2008

I really enjoy the shape of the 69 and the Film just pops quite nicely, It's not 4x5 but at least I can stay mobile with this camera.

Portraits

I'm trying to shoot more portrait or at least interior work lately, Just doing landscape leaves me feeling kindof cornered sometimes. I have a 6x9 Mamiya press camera that I'm trying to wrap myself around. here's some 4x5 as well.

Kim, Lightning Storm, 2008

Lamp, Enzo, 2008

Jimmy, NYC, 2008

The top image is a 4x5 of a friend, was trying to catch lightning while we watched but something else happened instead. The bottom two are from the 6x9 I really dig the softness of these negs and the format is kindof pretty.

Summer, Cabin

So it's been quite a while since i put up anything fresh on the blog. To make a long story short I worked quite hard this summer living in NYC and shot when I could. I'm pretty happy with what I shot, but am kindof bummed that I didn't shoot more.

Anyways it's back to school now and here's some stuff that I've been able to get scanned.

Cabin, Fireworks, 2008

Deerprints in Mud, Summer 2008

Granite Rubble, Summer 2008

I really like the bottom 2 detail shots, after looking at a lot of the stuff I shot, seems I spent a lot of time looking down at the ground. I really enjoy these though. The cabin shot I think I like, but that place has all kinds of loaded value for me so who knows.

5-13-08

Finals, Review Boards are here.
I have been focusing more on printing lately, (reprinting mostly) This past week has been really beautiful with the weather. The sun has been out in full force and I took some time to tune up my bike and start riding a bit, as well as a day to the beach! (such things are necessary to break up end semester stress!)

However I did manage to come up with several sheets of film that I'm happy with. While wandering in the woods near the Old Newbury dump I found a Shantee Town (sp?) Was a bit scarey at first after passing several "No Trespassing" Signs then stumbling across this. It looks like it hasn't been inhabited for some years, I found maybe a dozen shelters and I hope to return there to shoot some more of them.

This shed was probably the most ornate of the structures I found, some were little more than just caves. I'm assuming most of these were built from junk dragged away from the dump, which is less than a quarter mile from here.


I also returned to the old B&M tracks a bit more, these old tracks run all through essex county and I'm always finding some interesting stuff amidst the old path that's been left behind.


I think this will be the last new work I post for a few weeks, Moving to NYC next Tuesday, and although I plan on shooting through this week I don't know how soon I'll have fresh scans up.

That being said, I still might be making new work up until this coming weekend, as long as I have a significant bit to develop I'll put it through the works on friday.

-DA