“untitled at the moment”

Last night I attended an event for Boston Magazine’s Best of Boston “Restaurants” at the 808 Gallery at Boston University.  Besides being full of all the top restaurants in Boston, the 808 Gallery is currently showing photographs from this years PRC’s Annual Auction.

The way I see it

Isn’t necessarily

The way you see it

Or the way it is

Or ought to be

What’s more important

Is that we’re all

Looking for it

And a way to see it.

-Desi DiNardo (Starbucks coffee cup)

Here’s and (article) from New York Magazine of large format photos of famous actors, none of which seem particularly flattering.  They are very Richard Avedon-esque.

For all of you photo fans, Boston is the hotbed for Photo lectures this fall.  Please mark your calendars for these great upcoming lectures at the Photographic Resource Center, MassArt, SMFA and the MFA.

Expose Yourself:  Best Practices and Career Forward Thinking in the Photography and Visual Media Industry - Massachusetts College of Art (September 30, 2008)

William Christenberry - Massachusetts College of Art (October 20, 2008)

Barbara Crane - Photographic Resource Center (October 23, 2008)

Gregory Crewdson - Massachusetts College of Art (October 29, 2008)

Elinor Carucci - Massachusetts College of Art (November 3, 2008)

Tim Davis - SMFA (November 13, 2008)  12;30-2pm

Paul Fusco - Photographic Resource Center (November 13, 2008) 7pm

P.L. diCorcia - Massachusetts College of Art (November 17, 2008)

Sally Mann - MFA, Boston (November 20, 2008)

Henry Horenstein - Photographic Resource Center (December 2, 2008)

Larry Fink - Photographic Resource Center (December 11, 2008)

My image, Distortion #1, 2008 appeared in SHOTS Magazine issue No. 101.

It all starts with a scratchy throat.  When that moment hits, you launch into a bad mood.  I awoke yesterday with the scratchy throat, but I wouldn’t let it get in my way.  I was going to Newport, RI to see two of my friends, actually they are the two people I met the first day I went to college at MassArt.  I think it was Visual Language class, or maybe Form Studies, but whatever the case, I’ve only seemed to keep in touch with 3 of my peers from those classes, all of which I tracked down and photographed this week.

Newport was beautiful yesterday.  I went to a antique shop called The Armory and saw some Daguerreotypes and Ambrotypes that I was interested in, especially the Dag in a locket.  It was fading fast, but so unique.  I also found some old Cabinet Cards from various photo studios that existed in Boston and Rhode Island in the early 1900’s, but the guy running the shop didn’t feel like haggling with me on some of the prices.

I hope to have my newest images processed and scanned within the week.  As for now, I need to go get some cold medicine.

It seems someone over at The Oprah Magazine has a liking to fine art photography.

My wife was reading the October, 2008 issue of Oprah and said, “Hey J, look at these Polaroid 20×24 pictures in Oprah.” Let me just break it down for you.

• Work by Thomas Allen appears on Page 38
• Work by Jacques Henri Lartigue appears on Page 63
• A full page write-up about a new Richard Avedon book appears on Page 217
• A Larry Sultan image appears on Page 218
• 20×24 images by Mary Ellen Mark appears on Pages 281, 283, 284

Thanks Oprah!

The Karsh exhibition opens next week at the MFA and in November another show called Photographic Figures opens to inaugurate the Herb Ritts Gallery.

Just got 15 rolls of film processed - very productive week.  I just photographed two more people tonight, and have another subject lined up for tomorrow and three this weekend.  Time to order more film.

Here’s what I have been up to lately:

• writing a paper on Transitionary Moments in Contemporary Photographic Portraiture.
• lining up portrait subjects to photograph in color.
• scanning negatives and printing.
• thinking about topics for next semester’s THESIS - setting up my outline.
• I started running for the first time.  I’m up to 4 miles.
• reading essays and looking at books on portraiture - specifically monographs by Rineke Dijkstra and Katy Grannan.
• planning an Emerging Collectors Event at the PRC.
• Going to exhibitions in NYC and Boston
• Going to the MFA - Karsh show opens next week
• Going to birthday parties
• having a lot of dinners from the crock pot.

More to come…….