Last night when I was finding every excuse not to sleep I remembered reading about Heima, an attempt by Sigur Ros at those usually pretty shitty tour films. From what I've heard it is pretty amazing, and consequently is being shipped by some anonymous cd retailer to my house right now. ( It took me awhile to find the speacial edition) I could have ordered it off of Amazon but I really wanted the booklet with tour photographs that came along with the special edition. I'm hoping the quality is decent and it's a book I can keep around and it's not just some lousy pamphlet. 

"'heima' is sigur rós's first ever film, filmed over two weeks last summer when the band undertook a series of free, unannounced concerts in iceland. they hauled 40-plus people round 15 locations to the furthest flung corners of their homeland for their debut venture into live film, to create something, well, inspirational."

I'm really looking forward to this film not only as an insight into the band, but also beautiful Iceland in which it was filmed. The film is peppered with interviews and a second disc full of live performances, so it should keep me entertained. If anyone is interested they are also releasing accompanying promo cds with acoustic renditions of some of their earlier songs and five totally new ones.  

Back to the title of this post. While I was browsing their website I just realized they realized their new album all the way back in June! Then it finally came to me. I remembered seeing the music video for gobbledigook awhile ago, which while directed by Arni&Kinski, was a collaberation with one of my favorite photographers, Ryan Mcginley (which is plain to see by the style of the video).

Rather than focusing on the video, (which gets a little repetitive after three minutes) I want to feature some of Mcginley's work from "I Know Where The Summer Goes." He also did some work on Morrisey live shows if youre into that, and an Oscars Portfolio for NYTimes Magazine.  

Watch the video.

About the album

Heima

I Know Where The Summer Goes

You know, I don't think I've ever heard about anyone singing about shyness, and I like that Jens Lekman at least took the step.  I'm listening to "Black Cab" right now. It's sad to imagine at one point in my life I used to be that awkward and quiet. (Don't tell me I still am!) Attention, ladies and gentlewomen, this is Jack speaking. Wonderful voice, and clever lyrics too. Get happy touchy feely with this guy sometime.

I just finished editing about four more pictures of the family reunion. Instead of a white, seamless white roll I had to rig up a white wrinkly tarp. Although I did like the light texture it added, I had to tone it down a lot in photoshop. It's been really tedious. I can't wait until I have an assistant later in life or an out of house retouching studio that can do the mundane work for me. Barring shortcomings such as only one flash and the wrinkly tarp, I think they turned out decently. I wasn't able to get many smaller groups of three or four like I originally intended. A lot of the larger group shots (twelve or so) are shoddy pictures, except in the family keepsake sense. I tried to balance my artistic intentions with the needs of the families, but in the end I could have used a bit more organization. Oh well!

Lotta test shots and what-not.

And beer.

  I originally intended for the family reunion to be an entire project, but the whole endeavor never reached that far in the end. Now that I'm mostly done with that, I want to do a seperate summer project in order to rally some moral boosting photos for myself. This way, when I'm looking outside of my window thinking about taking pictures, I'll at least have a purpose to bring me there. I'd say 90% of photography is just being there. No one ever took a picture sitting inside with their camera on the shelf.

I got my roommates names and emails today. Ive been trying to get ahold of them, but no luck so far. So here we go,NYC, here I come. Please don't crush my dreams <3

Keepin a camera around my neck more often now, which is good. This weekend is the family reunion and after that I need to start getting some more shoots going for a summer portfolio... maybe it'll give me some encouragment for the school year! I scheduled my classes today, I'll have a 3 day weekend! Time for a nap though, just wanted to update. 

*edit: CONFIRMED. As of july seventh, two thousand and eight, I am officially living with two other guys this year. I called housing and pleaded for a double but they kindly told me it was impossible. It's not that I'm going to mind the people, more the space issue. Oh well. Here's for an interesting year. From what I hear roommate lists go out on the 15th! 

I bought this Magnum Landscape book today. Love it. Later. 

So it was just today I realized (probably not for the first time) that my goals with photography don't match the practices of my lifestyle. For all of the idealized notions I have about the world my refusal to try to actualize or follow them may just make me a giant hypocrite. Those infinitesimal moments I pine over are there. I don't follow them anymore, I don't even look for them. Lately I have been too selfish with living than to develop an objective eye. Forget about any reflection of the photographer a picture may contain, or any statement made, I am simply failing to record. 

I don't really carry a camera anymore. And when I do, I don't think about it too much. The only picture I took this week was when someone asked me to take a picture of them. That's what I've been expecting. It really makes me sorry to lose these small moments of time, no matter how minute or transient they seem. 

Far more important than my shooting habits is a change in my own perspective. I judge everyone. This might not be a problem if my sole focus in photography wasn't portraiture and pictures of people. I remember talking about the lost imaginations of adults and the active process of 'choosing' in photography while writing my SVA introduction letter. How am I supposed to reveal someone's character when I pidgeon-hole them?

I am at the same time entirely empathetic and apathetic to the content of any  person's true character. The only thing bridging the gap here is effort. I find I am very introspective, and have defined philosophies and thoughts. But I tend to stay there. People surprise me and I tend to surprise myself when I actually make the effort to climb out of my own head. Things can get real. I just haven't been letting them.

Nothing has changed. Life is as it always has been, hidden in plain sight. What is a character flaw now I believe is something that can be learned. The merger of the two sides of my mind, the 'ideal world' and my 'conflict with reality' are going eliminate this great oversight. I just want to say thank you to a few people for talking with me about this, and some random people who have pushed me/made me think about it. Everything is going to change. If it doesn't, I'll have this post... this realization to look back on. If nothing changes, I am just running away. 

On a non-serious, entirely post worthy note: I just got my background support stand for the family reunion photographs. I know I will be doing white seamless shots, but I need to think about poses, focal lengths, groups.... basically what my focus will be with this upcoming project. I am going to have to figure out how to light them since my wireless triggers have died on me. Maybe I will try to rent some PocketWizards for a day. 

I just wanted to stick http://www.eddieadamsworkshop.com/ in this post too so I don't forget about it one day. It looks great. 

I've also stumbled upon the work of Andrea Galvani ( it would be a shame not to feature a picture in this post )  I wish I had the time to actually find someone myself, but I barely have enough time to read my blog feeds. So credit to them on the find. I'm just echoing their good taste! The perspective reminds me of Galatea of Spheres by Dali, my favorite of his.  Also for some reason moving pictures has been very problematic lately. I can't move it away from the top. I don't know whether it is my layout or just Blogger itself, but I may make the move to WordPress if I find that easier. We'll see.