It's true. I took Hass up to Nippon Photoclinic on Broadway to remedy the lens and bellow syndrome it came down with. Fortunately it was only 30 bucks. This seemed like A LOT when I dropped Hass off - I walked out of the Clinic wondering if you can haggle with a technician. A few days later I was checking my voice mail and found two important messages in my inbox:

1. Someone named Kevin wanted to know when and where the funeral was. It creeped me out that I had apparently inherited this man's phone number (maybe I was in his will) or instead the fact that Kevin doesn't give two shits about this guy enough to keep current with his phone number.

2. A worried Japanese man informing me that my lens was indeed detached but there "has been a problem with your body". Fantastic. The only upside of that message was hearing him recite his telephone number... I really loved his annunciation.

I must have sounded pretty important in the New School cafeteria:

"Excuse me, so my HASSELBLAD is broken? You know, Victor Hasselblad's camera, made in Sweden by precision technicians? Yes yes. You fixed the lens? Ah very good. There is a problem with the rear flaps? ... They don't fully close? Okay, I'll be right there." ::CLICK::

Instead he just sort of told me one of the rear flaps doesn't fully close, and that labor is $160 if no parts were needed....otherwise it might as well be $200. Hah. So I took my broken camera home. I'll fix it someday when I'm not broke. Funny. I even shot off my last two shots just so I can see how the mistake looks on the negative. I imagine it will just be a half exposed or fully exposed negative. But ya'know it'd be nice if the other 10 came out nicely, considering I've gotten a little screwed over last time I got developed.

About that. I accidentally developed my roll I shot for my photography class in Union Square that we were saving for the darkroom. Dropped it off with my color roll by mistake. Not bad, but once I set the negatives on the light box I there were these dark.. UGLY streaks all over most of my good shots. I asked the man what these were, and although his response of "light leaks" sounded like a canned response for "oh crap I ruined his negatives", his answer is entirely believable. I AM shooting on cameras made in 79' and 85, after all. In the meantime I gaffer tapped the hell out of my one body and ordered some light baffle which will hopefully solve the problem. Tomorrow I'm planning on shooting my roll in USQ after an unsuccessful stint in the rain today.

So let's take inventory:

Broken Hasselblad
Broken Contax 159mm
Broken Contax 139 Quartz
Nikon D70s


This means I'm camera-less.

"But don't you use digital Jack?"

"No, ever since I moved to New York I'm a film elitist. Thanks."

"But isn't 90% of your work digital anyway?"

"Shut up."

Now we transition to the pleasant part of my post. (This is my favorite part)

Finance a Young Photographers Education: Buy Him This Book!


Jack wants a beautiful new book. Since no one bought him the last one he posted he put up a new one instead. (thanks mashal!)

The book is Asakura Portraits, by Hiroh Kikai. Since the site is flash based I'll post one picture and give you the link here for the rest. Beautiful portraits.

You might have seen this artist in the past (I know I have) but I wanted to feature some of his newer work (since I love it!) Levi Van Veluw, besides having an awesome name, is an artist from the Netherlands who likes to do stuff to his face. Copy pasta!

His works constitute elemental transfers; modifying the face as object; combining it with other stylistic elements to create a third visual object of great visual impact. The work you see therefore is not a portrait, but an information-rich image of colour, form, texture, and content. The image contains the history of a short creative process, with the artist shifting between the entities of subject and object.

Although one can certainly accomplish a "landscape of the face" with say wrinkles, furrowed brows, hair, whatever- the constructed feel here creates an interesting dichotomy between the object/subject, also revealing the symbiosis between the two. One can exist without the other, but it wouldn't have the same impact at all. Plus "Gravel" reminds me of Pan's Labyrinth. I love the uncovered shoulder for reference, a reminder that this is something very familiar and natural - the human face. I can't help but look for the familiar contours of the skull while looking at what is essentially a study in texture. Plus most of them are pretty clean.

The Ballpoint series is how I originally was introduced to Levi van Veluw. I'm glad I checked back. Go here for more.

*This may be interesting for fellow Parsonites who will be dealing with magazines in the very near future:

Wired is doing a profile of a profile of Charlie Kaufman here
Very cool behind the scenes info. I haven't read all of it yet.

Last on my list is a set of shows I plan on attending this September. If you're at all interested in coming, let me know! (By all means this is a copy paste job from various sites...) Any suggestions, please post in the comments. I haven't even taken a look at all of these on my list, most were suggestions.

Josef Koudelka: Invasion 68 Prague Aperture Gallery
September 5 - October 30, 2008 Opening reception: September 4, 6 - 8 pm

Kevin Cooley: At Light's Edge Massimo Audiello Gallery
September 4 - October 11, 2008 Opening reception: September 4, 6 8 pm

Check out ArtCal for news on new gallery shows.

#1 My Hasselblad is stuck to a lens/bellows that isn't even mine. (Long story) It's in between cocked and uncocked. I can't remove it! Supposedly this is one of the only flaws in the very reliable Hassies. Figures it'd happen to me. I normally wouldn't mind but I am 10/12 shots on my roll and I'm ithching to get them developed! I saw this woman I would have loved doing a portrait of but I only had B&W film on me at the time.... needless to say the color film was on my Hassie. Definately a color shot. Oh well. Tomorrow will be the third time I try taking to to B&H, hopefully we can get the damn thing removed.

#2 is slightly more interesting and a bit less tragic. I jsut wanted to feature a few of my favorite shots from the Lens series for NYT. Damon Winters has a series called "neighbors" in which he uses double exposures to capture the many juxtapositions of NYC. Here are some of my favorites.



I know double exposures aren't a new invention or anything, but they are real eye openers in the same way diptychs can be in terms of photographic possibilties of juxtaposition and even composition.

They have a kick ass interview with Damon Winters while he talks about his process over a slideshow. Good stuff.

On third note if you noticed a lack of updates in my flickr stream lately it isn't because I haven't been shooting, rather, I've been shooting film since I've gotten to the city. I do believe I wasted my first roll of 120 by loading it incorrectly but once I finish up the roll on my Hassie I'm going to take them to get developed and hopefully scanned ASAP.

I did update with one shot I've been wanting to do for awhile now, I just needed the right conditions. Here's an outtake (slightly oof) It was suprisingly hard to get the natural pose I wanted, but overall the results turned out okay.



More final version can be seen here along with the photo on the bottom which takes the context of the city out and suddenly becomes a study of form and the texture of waterdrops. If it isn't obvious the silloheting is very intentional. It took me awhile to achieve the exact amount of light I wanted to fall on the edges.

Other than those there are a few shots I'm anticipating from my roll of color from my 159mm. I hope I can use the scanner at Parsons to scan the negatives.

Possible titles next post:
"My Broken Hasselblad"
"My Tricked Out Leather-Clad Thunder Bolt Strap 159mm"
"My Photo Class Shopping List"
"I Hate My Photo Professor"