Pretentious Corner

Time

2008-08-24T04:53:00.000-07:00

I recently performed at a "open mic" night at a local brewery. I don't play out often but when I do I have a lot of fun. There is usually a fair amount of people there that I now, some are playing and some are there for support. There were several photographers playing that night which backs up my theory on creative types having other avenues to express themselves.

I make mental notes on how people prepare for their 15 minutes of fame. Did they spend a lot of time preparing or do they just wing it when they get up there. Some drink a lot of beers, others indulge in crops from "Bob Marley's Farmer" and some are just stone cold sober. In the past I have gone "Rock Star" , where I'm out of my mind and can barely stand up by the end of the night.

My intent when I play is to get something out of it other than violent vomiting the next day. It's an opportunity to make the most out of a short period of time. I do the best I can with the time that I'm given. I take this same approach when making a photograph. Preparation is key to doing anything well but I think you also have to be open minded enough to go with the moment and follow your instinct and not be afraid to explore an idea that comes to you. I believe this is a similar approach that Jazz musicians take. We have a beginning and a end and what happens in the middle is the reason why we do anything.

I like having timelines set for me, it puts a certain amount of pressure on me to not over think things and just start doing.

Rule Breaking

2008-08-13T07:01:00.000-07:00

I'm going to break my rule on talking about other blogs this once. There is a great entry over at Conscientious that takes us to Phillip Toledano's project Days with My Father. It's very well done and runs through all of your emotions. Check it out.

Blurb

2008-08-08T20:14:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted, I guess like a lot of Blogs I've slowed down this summer. I have been fairly busy working so I can't complain. I recently made a book through Blurb and was fairly impressed with the job for the money I spent. Like anything it takes some getting use to, I took their advice and made a small 7x7 test book and randomly selected different kinds of images to see how they reproduced. All in all I got back a fairly accurate representation of my work. A few images were a little heavier than normal. It would be great if they could give you the option of a heavier stock.

I wouldn't use this for a portfolio book but great for small side projects.

Foutaises Jean-Pierre Jeunet (eng sub)

2008-06-28T20:46:00.001-07:00

Eric Clapton Shows Some Guitar Skills

2008-05-13T21:15:00.001-07:00

spinal Tap 11

2008-05-06T20:28:00.001-07:00

This is a great documentary from 1984.

Added Links

2008-04-22T20:01:00.000-07:00

I added some new links in the photo blog section. These have all been around a while but I would highly recommend reading Heather Mortons Blog on daily basis,lots of good info and perspective from our neighbors to the north.

I also find Thomas Broening's and Timothy Archibald's blogs interesting too.

40 years

2008-04-19T05:19:00.000-07:00

Sometimes peoples fears get the best of them. You can be afraid to fail and you can be afraid to succeed and some can be afraid of both at the same time. You can cloud your thoughts with over thinking. I'm not big on setting goals because I think they are traps for giving up when a goal isn't reach by a certain timeline. I also believe that your goals will change as you move forward and you should go with that instinct as long as you are positive about the change. I have stated before that I'm a big fan of change, good and bad all lead to some place new.
Every marketing guru in the world will tell you to do what you love, do one thing and do it really well. Create your brand and stick to it. I think that's good advice from a marketing standpoint but I think sometimes people do this too early in their career and pass on opportunities that may help them down the road. I hate when I hear young photographers or assistants say "that's not what I do". I think it's a bit naive and close minded for a" creative person" to put themselves in a box right out of school. You may find out that your really good at a different genre and apply that knowledge in the future. Everybody has there own idea of what being successful is. I have seen many talented people give up on their dream because they couldn't adapt to change. I may have a different outlook but my idea is that if you get out of college by twenty five years old you have forty years to be a photographer until you turn sixty five. Do you really want to spend forty,thirty,twenty years shooting the same type stuff? Not all of us are going to make millions and millions of dollars in a ten year period and then fade off into the sunset and do book projects and gallery shows.

I also believe you have to be open minded about your location. Sometimes you have to move for opportunity,but some people aren't willing to do that. Big cities are not always the best place to work, I started in a large market, moved to a very small market. I was lucky, the small market I moved to allowed me to work on very large jobs for big clients at a very young age. I would have never gotten that experience in a big city. I got to work with extremely talented people without all the big city click bullshit.

I am currently in a large market ,opportunity once again brought me back. Like all opportunity there is a certain amount of risk, financial and mental. Each of these categories carry the same weight in my opinion. One feeds the other. Over the years I have witnessed people fold under these pressure's. If you don't open yourself to different experiences at the beginning of your career it can come back to haunt you.

I have learned more from bad experience's than good ones.

HotClips - Swimming With Sharks (1994)

2008-04-17T18:42:00.001-07:00

Ad-Lib

2008-04-05T07:21:00.000-07:00

The Tavis Smiley Show, August 11, 2004 - Richie Havens will be forever remembered for his powerful performance of the song "Freedom" at perhaps the best-known music festival ever — the three days of peace, love and music at Woodstock, New York, in 1969.

It was the "coming out" party of the rock 'n 'roll generation. And as Havens tells NPR's Tony Cox, "it was the begining of the world, as far I was concerned."

As Woodstock's opening act, Havens was scheduled to spend just 20 minutes on stage. But after his set, he was asked to keep singing because the second act, Santana, was nowhere to be found.

"So I'd go back and sing three more," Havens says. "This happened six times. So I sung every song I knew."

By that time, Havens had been onstage almost three hours — and still they needed more. "And I thought, 'Gosh, what am I going to do?'"

Then he belted out "Freedom," and his electric ad-lib performance set the tone for the next three days. "The word 'freedom' came out of my mouth because this was our real particular freedom," he tells Cox. "We'd finally made it to above ground."

According to PC's own archives I believe that Santana could not be found because he was under the impression that he was scheduled to go on later and decided now would be a good time to drop acid. I found some info that supports my archives.

Carlos (in an interview on The King Biscuit Flour Hour)said that he didn't remember if it was Acid or Mescaline that he had dropped. They were scheduled to go on later in the evening so taking it was ok. Thing was though, that they changed the time on him and it was "go on now or forget it". So they went on, all "peaking" and everthing. Oh! and about that "jam session" I watched them at Aquatic Park in S.F. jam on weekends, he had his brother Jorge (from Malo) jamming with them.
- Bob, San Jose, CA

Carlos Santana later said he was on acid during his Woodstock performance, and the reason he looks a little harrassed is that his guitar kept turning into a snake, and he would have to change it back so he could go on playing. It's not certain whether he took the brown acid (which was initially given out free to musicians at the show) but perhaps this is one of the experiences that led announcers to warn people that the brown acid wasn't too good.
- Ekristheh, Halath, United States

Source

You can watch Carlos wrestle the snake here

Richie Havens Freedom Woodstock 1969

2008-04-04T12:49:00.001-07:00

Freak Flag Friday,enjoy.

I got a telephone in my bosom
And I can call him up from my heart.

Overnight

2008-04-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

Here is another documentary that I recommend, it's called Overnight and as usual it's a couple of years old. It documents the making of the movie The Boondock Saints. This documentary blows my mind every time I watch it, almost as much as Dig!

Overnight - Trailer

2008-04-01T20:34:00.001-07:00

The Wet Plate Collodion Process

2008-03-26T23:11:00.001-07:00

Collodion

2008-03-23T19:02:00.000-07:00

We are going to kick it old school today,check out the video and the links about the Collodion Process. Pretty cool stuff.

History

More History

Photographer Quinn Jacobson

Scully & Osterman Studio

Video

O brother, where art thou?

2008-02-27T17:53:00.001-08:00

Roger Deakins

2008-02-27T17:33:00.000-08:00

If you have ever seen a Coen Brothers movie than you have seen the work of Roger Deakins.He has a great look to all of the films he shoots, B&W, desaturated color,straight color. Every look matches the tone of the story.He started off documenting farms and villages before entering film school. You can check out some of his photos through the link.

Photographers/Musicians

2008-02-19T18:20:00.000-08:00

It seems to me that a lot of photographers are musicians. Most of the photographers I know play an instrument. I'm not sure if music is the gateway to photography or the other way around. In my case music came first. I thought it would be hard to make a living as a musician so I chose something safe like photography.

Photographer/Director and Musician Sam Jones made a great documentary on Wilco called "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart". It's a couple of years old but I watched it the other night and forgot how good it was. I don't know much about Sam Jones but I am aware of who he is and what he does. I'm a sucker for a good documentary. Sundance Channel runs this movie quite often. Check it out.

Click on the title link to read a interview with Sam Jones about the movie.

Wilco - I Am Trying To Make A Film

2008-02-19T18:19:00.001-08:00

Tom Dowd

2008-02-13T15:03:00.000-08:00

If you have followed my blog then you know that music is a huge part of my inspiration. Primarily the music of the sixties and seventies. I believe that music had it's greatest advancements in creativity during this time.

Tom Dowd was a music engineer and producer that help change the way music is recorded. There is a great documentary running on IFC this month called Tom Dowd & The Language of Music. You get an inside look at the eveolution of the recording process and the motivation that it gave to the artist based on how Tom recorded and produced. It is set to run again on Feb 25 @5:10 pm, set your DVR. If you click on the title link you can hear a NPR interview with the director of the documentary.

Here is some info from Wikipedia on Tom Dowd.

Dowd took a job at a classical music recording studio until he obtained employment at Atlantic Records. He soon became a top recording engineer at Atlantic Records and recorded popular artists such as Ray Charles, The Drifters, The Coasters, Ruth Brown, and Bobby Darin (Dowd recorded the legendary "Mack the Knife") and capturing jazz masterpieces by John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Thelonius Monk, and Charlie Parker by night. His first hit was Eileen Barton's "If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd a Baked A Cake". It was Dowd's idea to cut Ray Charles' recording of "What'd I Say" into two parts and release them as the "A" and "B" sides of one 45 rpm single record.
Dowd worked as an engineer and producer from the 1940s until the beginning of the 21st century. He recorded albums by many artists including: Eric Clapton, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rod Stewart, Wishbone Ash, Cream, Chicago, The Allman Brothers Band, Joe Bonamassa, The J. Geils Band, Meat Loaf, Sonny & Cher, The Rascals, Willie Nelson, Diana Ross, Kenny Loggins, James Gang, Dusty Springfield, Eddie Harris, Booker T. and the MGs, The Drifters, Otis Redding, The Coasters, Bobby Darin, Aretha Franklin and Ruth Brown. [3] Dowd received a Grammy Trustees Award for his lifetime achievements in February 2002.
He died of emphysema on October 27, 2002 in Florida, where he had been living and working at Criteria Studios recording studio for many years.

Tom Dowd helped to shape the artists that he worked with, and because he worked with an array of great artists on some of the world's greatest recordings, Dowd was highly influential in creating the sound of the second half of the 20th Century. It was he who encouraged Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records to install an Ampex eight-track recorder, enabling Atlantic to be the first recording company to record using multiple tracks.[4]
Dowd is credited as the engineer who popularized the eight-track recording system for commercial music and popularized the use of stereo sound. Although stereo had been invented in the 1930s, Dowd was the first to use it on a record. He also invented the use of linear channel faders as opposed to rotary controls on audio mixers. He devised various methods for altering sound after the initial recording. [1]
In 2003 director Mark Moormann premiered an award-winning documentary about his life entitled Tom Dowd and the Language of Music. In the 2004 biopic Ray, Tom Dowd was portrayed by Rick Gomez.

Tripp'n

2008-02-11T20:56:00.000-08:00

PC is back from the road for a while. We went fifteen days longer than we had planned, which was very cool and unexpected. I didn't blog at all and I didn't miss it all that much. I took the approach that doing was better than talking or writing.

While I was gone I got the chance to step out of my comfort zone and work differently than I have in the past. Due to the specs of the gig I couldn't rely on my usual process, so I had to learn something new. It's been my experience that most photographers don't like learning something new and I am no different but much like Jules Winnfield I'm in a transitional period so I gave it a shot. I learned something new that I wouldn't have done on my own and as it turns out it was rewarding and a great learning experience. I will now be able to implement what I've learned into my future work.

A lot of people have been writing about the end of Polaroid as we know it. I get why people are upset and rightfully so. Change can be a real MotherF'er but I prefer to look at things like this as being forced to do something different. It's not all bad just different. What do I know? I'm part of the problem, I haven't used Polaroid in five years.

A good point has been made that how we work is being decided for us not by us.I felt the same way when Kodak stop making Royal X in the mid eighties.If you use Polaroid I feel your pain. I have embraced digital for the last ten years but I do see quality going down the shitter.I see a lot of bad Photoshoped images and I'm from the school of just because you can doesn't mean you should.Something is definetly lost when you haven't gone through the process of exsposing film and or Polaroid.

Road

2008-01-01T07:45:00.000-08:00

The staff here at PC is going on the road for a while. We will be off working and reconnecting with some old friends. We may have stories from the road as well as interviews from the front lines. James Brown had a simple philosophy about work.
Watch the video below to find out his words of wisdom.

Henry Rollins speaking about James Brown

2008-01-01T07:44:00.001-08:00

Gordon Willis

2007-12-31T06:30:00.002-08:00

One of my favorite movies is The Godfather. I love the whole look of the movie. It's warm, dark, and moody. Gordon Willis was the cinematographer and discusses the look of the film in the video below.The title link will give you more info.

Gordon Willis on cinematography

2007-12-31T06:30:00.001-08:00

Ralph Gibson

2007-12-30T19:37:00.000-08:00

I don't know much about Ralph Gibson but I like a lot of the things he says in the video below.
Title link takes you to more of his work.

Ralph Gibson - Master Fine Art Photographer

2007-12-30T19:35:00.003-08:00

Fine Arts - Ralph Gibson's photographies

2007-12-30T19:35:00.001-08:00

Jim Marshall

2007-12-29T07:28:00.002-08:00

I'm on a rock photographer jag at the moment.

Jim Marshall shot just about every musician of the sixties, seventies and beyond. If you click on the title link you can listen to a NPR interview from 2004 where he talks about how he works. Jim talks about the access he had back in the day and the time before media management.

Jim Marshall on Wolfgang's Vault

2007-12-29T07:28:00.001-08:00

Karl Ferris

2007-12-28T17:26:00.000-08:00

Karl Ferris shot some of the most iconic images of the sixties. He photographed Hendrix, Cream, The Beatles, and Donovan.
Check out the video below, very cool stuff.

THE KARL FERRIS EXPERIENCE

2007-12-28T17:25:00.001-08:00

Johnny Cash

2007-12-27T18:30:00.000-08:00

I heard the Johnny Cash version of "Hurt" today and it reminded me of several things.

It's never to late to reinvent yourself and the power of imagery can make you hear things differently. I would wager that most people never paid real close attention to the lyrics of this song until they saw the video. Mark Romanek was the director and did a great job of intertwining archival footage with new imagery. If you click on the title link you can read more about the making of the video.

Johnny Cash - Hurt

2007-12-27T18:29:00.001-08:00

Week One

2007-12-16T20:06:00.000-08:00

It has been one week since I started this blog. Like most of my projects, I start with an idea and then I start to refine it. There are things I will change in the coming weeks. I read just about every photo blog that I can find so I'm fairly familiar with what people are doing.The information that people share is unbelievable and inspiring. We even got a shout out on the first day from Whats the Jackanory? and that's like blog royalty.
I don't post a lot about photography because I think the other bloggers cover most of the issues.I'm more interested in the process of how creative people think and how they arrive at certain thoughts and ideas. I use a lot of youtube videos to get across some of my thoughts, there is usually a sequence of visuals or one or two lines in the videos that have meaning to me. Sometimes they just make me laugh.
It is just about impossible to discuss inspiration without sounding like a prick in a beret and turtleneck. I get that some of my references cause eyes to roll and that's cool with me, what inspires me may not mean anything to you. Part of the reason I have kept myself anonymous is so you don't have a preconceived idea of the work I do and you just look at what I post, after all it is called Pretentious Corner.

Mirror, Father, Mirror

2007-12-16T20:05:00.001-08:00

Chuck Close

2007-12-15T19:40:00.000-08:00

If you click on the title link you will see a pretty cool piece on how Chuck Close works.

Chuck Close: I Love My Job

2007-12-15T19:39:00.001-08:00

Dennis Hopper, Art Collector

2007-12-14T15:28:00.001-08:00

Guy Maddin

2007-12-12T17:53:00.004-08:00

He's been around for a while. Check him out.
Flashbacks, cheap cameras,vignettes,grainy film and Darren McGavin.
Click on the title link for more info.

The saddest music in the world

2007-12-12T17:53:00.003-08:00

Guy Maddin talks about his editing style (and YouTube!)

2007-12-12T17:53:00.001-08:00

Horace Bristol

2007-12-10T20:45:00.000-08:00

In 1937 photographer Horace Bristol pitched an idea to Life magazine about a story on migrant farm workers with John Steinbeck writing the text. The magazine passed on the idea but the two agreed to collaborate on a book project. After working several weeks Steinbeck left the project to write the novel The Grapes of Wrath. Bristol's images were used by Life when they did a story about the novel. The images were also used to help cast and provide the look of the 1940 movie version starring Henry Fonda. Click on the title link to read more and see some of the photos.

The Grapes Of Wrath

2007-12-10T20:43:00.001-08:00

The Grapes Of Wrath

2007-12-10T20:42:00.001-08:00

Music

2007-12-10T10:37:00.002-08:00

Another way to expand your mind is through music, all styles. The best musicians are free of all thought when then play.They feel it out, get in the zone and go. They know there are only twelve notes to choose from and it's their job to mix them up anyway they can.

I often try this when I start a new project, free my mind of my style and what others are doing and just create. At the end of the day I'm looking to see if I've learned anything new. Once you are in the rhythm and momentum kicks in it carries you to the end result. Just like music.

A great example of free thinking is slide guitarist Derek Trucks. He incorporates many styles of music into his own.When he plays he is almost emotionless but what comes through his hands is what he's feeling. If we could all tap into our own creativity that way.

I will post two videos of him. The first will be with The Allman Brothers Band which he is a part of and the second will be him playing with Eric Clapton. Clapton doesn't have him up there because he's a great guitar player, he has him there because he inspires the shit out of him. Even the most celebrated need motivation. If you like his playing go to the iTunes store and search for The Derek Trucks Band.

I hope the blog is living up to it's name.

2007-12-10T10:37:00.001-08:00

Welcome

2007-12-09T20:18:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my new pretentious blog, everyone has one so why not me? I 'm a commercial photographer but this blog will not just deal with photography.You may or may not see some of my work here, this blog is not part of my marketing campaign.The first several post are going to deal with people who influence me. You can't see their influence in my work but it gets my mind moving forward.

Movies play a big role in getting me to think about my own work. What's more pretentious than foreign films?

Jean-Pierre Jeunet is the director I'll be talking about today. his films include Delicatessen, Amelie, A Very Long Engagement.
He has a background in animation which comes through in all the visuals of his movies. He uses very heavy colors primarily reds,greens and sepia tones. Jean-Pierre is heavily influnced by painter Juarez Machado. You will see the similar color schemes.

He tends to use the same crew and actors in his movies. All three of the films I mentioned have a very consistent look and feel about them. These movies were made over a thirteen year period.

Delicatessen

2007-12-09T20:06:00.001-08:00

Delicatessen - Bed Springs

2007-12-09T20:05:00.001-08:00