Disgraceful

Friday Song

Also, school’s out for the semester. That was an interesting ride, but now its time to unwind.

Sam Falls

Larry Sultan, 1946-2009

Sultan has been a major source of inspiration to me as a photographer and as a thinker, and I think by many with a certain taste he was viewed as one of the greats. Wallpaper is featuring a sideshow of his work; from his subversive fashion shoots for the magazine, to his personal work which attempted to peel back the veneer and fantasy of the Southern California Dream. via

Recent Inspirations

Extreme Art

A French artist has struck an unusual deal to sell his latest work: instead of paying up front, the buyer will hand over a regular fee until the artist dies. Christian Boltanski said his deal with Australian professional gambler David Walsh was a “game” with the devil – but not a pact. The work involves four video cameras filming Boltanski’s studio in suburban Paris, day and night, from January until his death, with images relayed live to a cave in Tasmania, Australia. “This man (Walsh) thinks he can beat the odds and he says he never loses,” Boltanski, 65, told AFP in an interview at the studio in Malakoff, in the southwest Paris suburbs. “Anyone who never loses or thinks he never loses must be the devil.”  The longer Boltanski lives, the more Walsh has to pay. Walsh, a professional gambler who made his fortune in casinos, worked out that he would make money from the deal if Boltanski dies within the next eight years. “He has assured me I will die before the eight years is up because he never loses. He’s probably right. I don’t look after myself very well. “But I’m going to try to survive. You can always fight against the devil.” via The Independent

Yeasayer – Ambling Alp

more about “Yeasayer – Ambling Alp on Vimeo“, posted with vodpod

Friday, Friday, FRIDAY!

Food, wine, photos and flatscreens. Open to the public.

Nola Bounce

I’m leaving tomorrow for New Orleans to catch up with my boy.

On the serious side its been a crazy year of getting around the country for me; for that I’m thankful. Looking forward to spending time with family and friends, and a free day or two to try and make some pictures. I arrive back with another crazy week of school ahead of me so I won’t be posting for awhile. Safe travels and a happy holiday to those celebrating.

 

Creative Interlocutors

The chair of my department, Charles Traub, published a manifesto he wrote over a decade ago entitled “Creative Interlocutors” on our blog yesterday. There are some very interesting ideas throughout the entire piece, but this particular line struck me as more succint than ever:

“At present it seems we are practicing in the real world to exist in the virtual world. In the future there will be no demarcation at all. In other words, the way think about our life with technology defines it.” – Charles Traub, 1997

As of now I’m entirely uncomfortable with this idea. On the hand, perhaps there is nothing entirely new about this idea, man and technology share an age old relationship, but on the other it seems as if we’re no longer working along side one another, but in fact becoming one another. Maybe this was always the case and its only now the tools have caught up to make this reality so clear. On the other hand its possible we have crossed over into new epoch as futurists like Ray Kurzweil have predicted. The examples are many, but with the arrival of  say,”augmented reality” to our social landscape, it seems as if every year the firewalls between man and his creations are breaking down. I’m not sure why at 26 I feel like an 80 year old reacting to the changes in the technological landscape, but I think its important to question to what end all this leads, particularly as its being discovered that our technological lifestyles require enormous sums of energy which, in another decade, could rival that of motor vehicles.

Read the entire manifesto here

The No-No

Theater of the Absurd

Gwen

American Girl’s new 95$ “homeless doll“

41, 81: Percentage of Americans and Chinese, respectively, who think action on warming is worth it even if prices rise as a result.

Rank of Global Warming among national priorities cited by Americans in a January Poll: 20

From the Wall Street Journal: “If they can’t find workers over the next several years, Japan’s agriculture will disappear,’ says Kazumasa Iwata, a government economist and former deputy government economist and former deputy governor of the Bank of Japan.”

6 percent of the population in Japan is still actively farming vs 1-2 percent of the American population.

Talladega Speedway #1
Birmingham, Alabama, USA, 2009. Edward Burtynsky

Audit Faults New York Fed in A.I.G. Bailout

Neuroscientists used lasers to inscribe bad memories on the brains of fruit flies, and Earth’s women are growing shorter and fatter. via Harper’s.

Walead Beshty

Continuing in the spirit of the last post I thought I’d share the work of Walid Beshty. Beshty’s work is currently on display at the New Photography 2009 on view at MOMA. The bold colors and angular, textural quality of the images work for me much more than the others, especially as they’re analog images.

Three Color Curl (CMY: Irvine, California, August 19, 2008, Fuji Crystal Archive Type C). 2008.

An interview with Beshty on an older series of work that was included in last years Whitney Biennial.

Sam Falls

The Humble Blog recently featured artist Sam Falls and I remembered an image of his from an online auction we’d both had work in over this past summer. Wish I’d taken the time to check out his website earlier. It seems I’m becoming a sucker for photography that blurs the definition of what is traditionally viewed as a photograph; with much of his work I’m not sure where the painting and illustration end and the photograph begins, if it even really does other than as a place to represent his work. So Sam, if you read this, drop a line and fill a brother in.

Figure Drawing (St Paul) 2009

Grandma Joan’s Stirrups, 2009

Provocative Percussion (3), 2009

Friday Music

The Very Best got my attention last year when their single “Tengazako” hit the blogs. This beautiful flow in a language I couldn’t understand over the ubiquitous “Paper Planes”set the tone for the rest of their releases. The voice belonged to Esau Mwamwaya, a young Malawian living in London. In one of those strange music world stories, Esau befriended a pair of guys who were shopping at an antique furniture store he was working at. The two were part of Radioclit, already a big production duo in the techno/electro world. The three collaborated on a mixtape that fused South African marabi and kwaito sounds, indie rock samples, Hans Zimmerman scores etc. Instead of sounding like some kind of ironic mash-up of “Africa Meets Indie,” each track sounded fresh, original and more often than not, really uplifting. Ecstatic summer music basically. Their first solo album of original productions finally has been released State side this month, and its a great blend of Mwamaya’s vocals, and East London underground beats fusing with a variety of African rhythms and melodies. Give them a listen.

Print Sale

That’s right ladies and gentleman, in order to raise some money for a project I’m currently shooting, I’m offering a print sale on any images contained on my website and blog. Sizes come at 8×10, 11×14 and 16×20 priced at $20, $30 and $40 respectively. All prints will be archival inkjets on luster paper printed by myself.  The sale will be running throughout November, just in time to sneak in some early holiday orders for loved ones. Act now!