Nobu's Skeletal System

I had the best of luck today.

I can definitively say that Alec Soth is one of four men that significantly shaped and molded my views on photography, contemporary image making, media, the history of photography, my notion of history itself, and in many ways, my life. 

But Soth is the only man of those four that I do not know personally (the others being Jim Dow, Bill Burke, and Roswell Angier, who all dearly obliged me in endlessly long  conversations about photography, life, and possibility). I owe a lot to Soth and his willingness to share his notions of the world through the blog he wrote for a number of years. His writing, coupled with the open stance he takes crafting his photographic work, enabled me to feel as if he were a mentor, even though we have never even shaken hands.

And thus, for the past month I have been trying to get up to the Sean Kelly gallery to go see Soth’s new show — Broken Manual. I kept writing trips to see it on my calendar and then something would come up and I would have to bail. Today was the last day of the show and I made sure to place in BIG BOLD LETTERS that I had to go. I hiked up to Chelsea around noon and after spending about an hour at the small show I was just getting ready to leave when, low-and-behold, Soth appeared behind the gallery counter! This was not the first time I have run into Soth, as I once snuck into a class at MassArt (when I was attending SMFA) where he was giving a small lecture and asked a question out of turn. But, this time I got him to sign my book and he gave a short gallery tour to a small group of us. I asked a couple silly questions, as I still sometimes get flustered in talking to people I deeply respect, when in reality there are a billion other conversations I would love to have with him about photography. But that is life, I guess and maybe sometime I will reach that goal. Third time is the charm, right?

Self-portrait in Amalgamated.

I just got my film back from Montauk and I am excited to say that there are many exposures I am very happy with. But this is a perfect example of why I love film and still indulge in shooting it sometimes. Pure accident with a multiple exposure and light leak. But I love it.

“Self Portrait after Solnit & Klein.” Montauk, 2012.

kchayka:

epsteinian:

Sarah Muehlbauer

All I really want out of life.

This will be my mantra for Winter 2011/12

spaceageballad:

OMG FORTS

I want to be in all of these. NOW!

fonduepalace:

Yves Klein “Leap into the Void” 1960

One of my favorite pieces. Ever.