YOU'RE THE STAR OF MY MOVIE

I just finished Claire Messud’s The Emperor’s Children.” She is a compelling storyteller and draws vivid, complex, and believable characters. There is some “what would this look like photographed?” language, but it rarely gets overly descriptive. The writing is mostly in service of the storytelling and you can read the whole thing in a couple [...]

I’m now reading: Freddie Young & Paul Petzold’s “The Work of the Motion Picture Cameraman.” It inspired me to post an exceprt from Dviga Vertov’s “Man With a Movie Camera.” Make some popcorn because it’s a stone cold classic. I must have watched it 20+ times in school. (This is the popper we use and [...]

I came across the 4×5 work of Dannielle Nelson Mourning recently and I am particularly captivated by the open-ended quality of this picture. There is much to read into the filmic nature of the gesture (she is casual, yet determined and I have to wonder what happens next). The look on her face (deep in [...]

Got model releases? No? This little bit of info should inspire you. Ann Kirsten Kennis says there isn’t a release for the picture of her on the cover of the Vampire Weekend release Contra. According to Entertainment Weekly: “Kennis is asking the band, label XL Recordings, and photographer Tod Brody for at least $2 million [...]

My most recent The Photo I Didn’t Take: I’m talking to my wife, Kerrilynn, and Xan Cassavettes yesterday evening at the store when Xan turns around mid sentence and says “holy shit, what’s that?” Directly across the street, curtains are on fire in a ground floor apartment. Like a real fire fire. I run to [...]

My wife pointed out the first firefly siting of the summer last night while eating in the garden at Franny’s. It is such a pleasure to see that light. It evokes strong childhood memories of Virginia summers and backyards full of them. Sadly I don’t see as many as I used to but I was [...]

The New York Observer (June 14, 2010 issue) in an article about the Ron Galella doc Smash His Camera refers to Harry Benson as a paparazzi photographer. That’s weird.

I used to read more when my day job was a 45 minute commute to midtown, but I finished Scott Bradfield‘s The People Who Watched Her Pass By a couple of weeks ago. The book is sad and hilarious and there are passages so descriptively vivid I swear I’ve already seen the photograph: “Grandma was [...]

I got this book of painter Maurice Denis‘ photographs at the Musée d’Orsay a couple of years ago in Paris. They are very Summer Friday. His paintings express his interest in the flatness of the picture plane, line and pure color shapes and his photographs from 1901 (left) and 1911 (right) show a similar concern [...]

Kerrilynn and I went to Rockaway yesterday. It was a bright day and that West Coast looking filter-y yellow light I love was very much alive as the sun was setting. The best time at the beach is always 4-8 in my book. Less crowds, cops, and chance of skin cancer. The water was cold [...]