Friday had an odd, very photo-centric morning. I was up and out early to go see an exhibit at the Greenberg Van Doren Gallery at 730 Fifth Avenue at 57th St of Tim Davis's The New Antiquity, which was really quite wonderful. Mostly rather cold, dilapidated ruins, but with instances of real, active, breathing contemporary culture seeping in, appropriating, commodifying, and generally defiling. Which makes it sound like some arch gesture; soldiers in Mickey Mouse ears shooting the nose of the Sphinx. But no, it was really quite subtly whimsical, skillfully finding a similar sort of smirk in Rome and China; to me a powerful exertion of the photographer's playfulness.
Worth visiting, although it would mean being in one of my least favorite areas of the city, Central Park South and 5th Ave. Trump Plaza, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Bulgari, Armani, Versace, Kenzo, Banana Republic, Uniqlo, The Gap, Luxury Jeweler, and eventually the string of 4th-rate pizzerias and I [heart] NY T-shirt chintz joints that cater to the most clueless, lost, and visually assaulted tourists anywhere. Who the fuck knows where these people are from. All I know is that I saw cameras everywhere, and had pigeons practically walk over my foot in front of Rockefeller.
In those chintzy souvenir shops (which are probably hoping to have people in there still a little fuzzy on Euro-Dollar exchange rates) I found myself haggling, twice, for an Olympus Stylus Epic. These guys want $100. And wouldn't get it out of the case. I said $60. He said I'll think about it.
Granted, I said (brilliant international haggler that I am) that they're going regularly for $10 on eBay. Which is sometimes, though not always, in fact true. $100; too much.
I think he'll sell it to me, but I have to check it out!
The second place I found myself evaluating some dusty, clearly neglected and beat-to-shit little champagne Olympus. $50, he says. I dunno, I say. See, the seal between the rings of the lens are crumbled.
What are you, a repair guy?
Ha.
No, are you?
No, man. I'm a photographer.
If I weren't so fucking sweaty and harried and uncool, I'd be pretty suave, eh? C'mon.
I took pictures, but I'm still waiting for the next good thing.
Then I went to ICP and chatted with my good friend JW Veldoen, who, coincidentally enough, is in not one but two of the best pictures (of the 6-7) from a longer period than I'd care to say.
Shooting a lot, which feels great. Have to start working with my T4 Zoom again. I've got some ideas for the zoom this time, which is a first. Maybe I can start getting some high caliber B/W, 3200 ISO stuff out of it.
And date stamp. My original love!
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Ryo KAWANISHI 河西遼; a not quite typical photo Friday.
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2 comments:
Whoa. Bruce Gilden is a kind of bold that I could never ever be.
Tell me about it.
One technical question I have is; how do you focus when you've got a flash in your other hand? Did I already ask this, here, another time? I still want to know.
Although I'm guess that he's simply got it focused as close as it will go, and has his aperture shut down (for depth of field), and just keeps it that way.
One very thing practical thing I picked up from this is that being in a tourist-y, packed environment like this... he sticks out because of his boldness and obvious professionalism, but this is a stretch of street where hundreds of people are taking pictures constantly.
It's an ingenious place to shoot.
(Also, did you catch that it's the same stretch of road, 5th Ave and Central Park South, that I was complaining about in this post? I'm thinking about what I would want to focus on, if I go back there to shoot.)
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