YOU'RE THE STAR OF MY MOVIE

I’ve been on a really nice jag work-wise and I am happy to report that I made
it into The New York Times Magazine! I took the photos to accompany
Mark Bittman’s column about the East Village Japanese restaurant Kajitsu. Somewhere, somehow the photo gods smiled on me… Evidence below:

My wife has twice tried to get into the restaurant for dinner and it looks like we’re going to have to wait even longer as Chef Masato Nishihara’s food was both insanely delicious, beautifully prepared and, there’s no denying, that’s a very nice press clipping.

A very grateful thank you goes out to Photo Editor Luise Stauss (whom I met through Natasha Lunn)… in my book they drink free!

I’ve been surgically attached to my laptop since September and those long long days are coming to an end (in the sense that I’m finishing up some projects, not in the I should try this kind of way). For the first time since I decided to quit my job as Associate Art Director at American PHOTO Magazine to become a photographer in 2008 I have been Capital B Busy… Like weeks and weeks of 14 hour days busy. I know it’s been a while cause my late night drink of choice has changed from Campari (summer) to Vodka (fall) to Bourbon (winter) … yes, sadly I am marking time with alcohol…. It’s like those prison movies where they scratch a mark into the wall except I’m drawing bottles. BUT… there is a stack of food photography prints sitting next to me. Thank God I didn’t get fat… I skipped dinner for weeks.

All of which is to say: Dear Reader (that would be my wife, sometimes my sister, and maybe a few people with desk jobs that have Google Reader tattoos, and God willing a few Photo Editors), I apologize. But here is a little sunshine in the form of a recent picture I took of Alexis Rothenberg. She runs Worthwhisland. You, my friend, can actually buy a Ross Bleckner. It’s not everyday someone says that to you. Right?

I can now cross SUPERMODEL off my photos-to-take list!
Want more details: This was easy, I’m lucky, she’s awesome.

You can read an interview on LOVING and learn about her secret blog.
She is an excellent photographer: Listen to her speak and see some of her work for Oxfam. Thank you Helena!

Marcia Resnick‘s “Roy Cohn and Steve Rubell” … just cause.

p.s. This reminds me that I once took photos in the West Village apartment of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Time to dig through the negatives!

The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by building an “objective correlative”; in other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events, such that when the external facts, which must terminate in a sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked.

–T.S. Elliot in “Hamlet and His Problems” from The Sacred Wood; Essays on Poetry and Criticism.

I read this in a Louis Menand article from the Sept. 19 2011 issue of The New Yorker. We are widening our scope of reading material around here as the Mrs. just subscribed to the Wall Street Journal. These facts should immediately evoke the emotion of being overwhelmed as there is plenty of reading material delivered via mail in addition to the Absalom, Absalom and a bio of Alexander Hamilton just taking up space but the photography in the WSJ looked good in the weekend’s issue. England’s Guardian is arriving to NYC shortly so there may be some photographer movement in the works. Keep me posted if you hear anything.

A loose double window frame on the 11th floor in 80 mile an hour wind seems kinda dangerous so I attached it with a wrench tied with wire to the radiator. It worked. The frame is still in place. There was some water damage when I woke up but I managed to sleep through the majority of Hurricane Irene’s not-as-bad-as-it-could-have-been encounter with New York City.

Sunset was a dozy after the storm broke. Unlike those intrepid CNN reporters who are either trying to up their pay grade, or have death wishes, these photos are as close as I got to photographing the hurricane.

Nice clouds, eh?

It’s been a Jamaica kinda day around here and “the people” (my sister) demand a weekend song. Thus: Gappy Ranks  – “Put the Stereo On”

Kate Jones has a wonderful eye for both making jewelry, with her label Ursa Major, and for editing photography, on her blog which covers style and sailing. Check it out and tell me you aren’t ready for an adventure on the high seas! My wife and I started researching used sailboats this summer. Bill Storandt regaled us with tales of putting down anchor off the coast of Italy and Kate’s stories of growing up on a boat only fortified the bon voyage-desire.

Here is Kate featured as a Lady of Castor & Pollux with a photo I took in her studio.

I recently paged through Rizzoli’s “Man Ray / Bazaar Years”. I love photographers that manage to split editorial and fine art careers (Edward Steichen is a current obsession).

Dear Career Gods,
Sign me up for that split.
Love,
John

I missed MOMA’s “The Original Copy Show” but an Art Blart post contains a large selection of images from the show, which examines how photographers examine sculpture in their work.  MOMA’s exhibition site for the show is also, in the words/sculpture/photograph of Bruce Nauman, HOT.

Note: I spent some time as a book buyer and would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the hard cover looks valuable and the paperback is pretty cheap.

“Because we rock non-stop” – The Treacherous Three

Treacherous Three as you can see / Special K / Sunshine / And Kool Moe Dee / And don’t forget MC Spoonie Gee: