civilized ku # 5250 ~

Easter kids ~ Bergen County, NJ (embiggenable) • iPhone

Off to the Jersey Shore, my least favorite place on the planet. Will be posting Jersey Shore pictures with commentary everyday for the next week.

civilized ku # 5244-45 / diptych # 226-29 ~ road tripping

road trip ~ (embiggenable) • µ4/3

pool from hotel room window ~ Rochester, NY - (embiggenable) • µ4/3

Kearney girls / diner ~ Rochester, NY - (embiggenable) • iPhone

PM / AM ~ Rochester, NY - (embiggenable) • iPhone

Annie's art / Annie + family - photo by me c.1978 ~ Elmira, NY - (embiggenable) • iPhone

griddle for world record pancake ~ Penn Yan, NY - (embiggenable) • iPhone

My 3 day road trip - >Rochester>Elmira>Penn Yan - was a fantastic success. Lunch in Rochester with the Kearney H.S. girls, in Elmira (NY Southern Tier) a day with a dinner with Annie (who unexpectedly and suddenly lost her husband 1 year ago) and a 4.5 hr lunch in Penn Yan (NY Finger Lakes Region) with Mike Johnston (of TOP fame fame). Each encounter was very enjoyable and interesting.

FYI, the hammer-blow-upside-my-head of the trip was the impact of standing in front of a toilet (in Annie's home) and being stunned by the picture on the wall in front of me. A picture I made over 40 years ago. Annie's husband, Murray, loved the picture so much, he placed it on the wall behind the toilet so he could view it every time he peed - a somewhat weird honor but an honor nevertheless.

Not nearly as stunning, but impressive nevertheless, was discovering the gigantic griddle used to make the then (1987) World Record Pancake - 28'1". The pancake was cooked before an estimated 5,000 people, and many of them helped eat the 28-foot buckwheat hotcake slathered in butter and maple syrup. Sorry I missed the event.

Re: my stated intention on this road trip to make pictures with my "real" cameras didn't pan out. I made a few such pictures but the iPhone sucked me in again.

environmental portraits ~ and the "winners" are ...

µ4/3 / iPhone ~ embiggenable

2 of my pictures were selected for the online gallery Environment Portrait exhibition. Which was somewhat unexpected inasmuch as I didn't think that my submissions were especially strong. Nevertheless, the juror, Elizabeth Avedon (step daughter of Richard Avedon) thought they were good enough to be selected from amongst the 2,000+ submissions.

Up next: selecting pictures for submission to the juried Still Life: Elevating the Mundane exhibition.

environmental portraits (people) ~ present and past

Responding to a call for submissions for an exhibition, Environmental Portraits, I submitted the above pictures. The pictures were culled from my picture library comprised of digital pictures made over the last 18+ years.

The call for submissions stated:

An environmental portrait is an image made in a place where the subject lives, works, rests, or plays. This setting adds tremendously to the story of who the subject is—their trade, their passion, their fears, or simply how and where their time is spent.

We seek images in which an environment interacts with the subject to create a storied whole — images in which our interest is piqued and we are introduced to the unique world of the subject, enhancing our understanding of another being.
It wasn't until a few days after the submission deadline had passed - as I was prepping the pictures for this blog entry - that I realized that my selection of pictures did not need to be limited to my existing picture library. In fact, if I had not experienced a brain fart, I would have remembered that I have a pretty extensive body of environmental portrait works which were created on assignment for magazines, advertising agencies and corporate clients. The examples of those pictures, as seen below, were created with the environment as an integral element to enhance a story, re: who the depicted person was.

Even though people pictures have not been in conspicuous evidence on my blogs - although, on the increase with my the new snapshot work - environmental portraits were one of my commercial specialties. I enjoyed the work. Got to meet some interesting people.

baker ~ from A Day in the Life of Pittsburgh assignment

chef ~ from a restaurant-in a former church- review assignment

opera singer ~ from a Notables Spill the Beans  about their favorite restaurant

Composer / Conductor ~ for magazine profile article

bar patrons ~ for magazine article about iconic Pittsburgh neighborhood bars

Civilized ku # 5186 / the new snapshot # 216-17 (diptych) ~ stop, look, listen

hotel mural ~ Bellerica, MA. (embiggenable) • iPhone

tailgating ~ Bellerica, MA. (embiggenable) • iPhone

To my EYE & SENSIBILITIES a good/great picture is one which, first and foremost, is visually interesting / engaging to view. If such a picture conveys a "meaning", personal or universal, for an individual viewer, so much the better. However, both qualities will be judged entirely by a viewer's subjective eye and sensibilities.

It is also my firm belief that the picture should do the "talking". While a simple Artist Statement is a never a bad idea, rambling statements composed of pyscho-self-analytical artspeak mumbo jumbo is never a good idea. iMo, they read like an instruction manual telling the reader what to think about when viewing the picture(s). Whereas, again iMo, I believe the best manner in which to approach the viewing of a picture is with a blank/open mind.

In other words, as the old railroad crossing signs suggested, when viewing a picture, the best approach is to STOP, LOOK, LISTEN.

vintage snapshots # 1-7 ~ I found a gold mine

While in North Jersey, during a search for a chocolate-covered vanilla-cream filled donut as well as a well above average hot dog, I came upon an antique shop that looked to be a well worn antique in and of itself. Add to that allure the fact that it was a warm sunny day so the owner - somewhat of a patenaed character himself - was lounging on an antique chaise sette out in front of the shop, all of which virtually demanded a stop and look see.

I was pleased as punch upon entering the shop inasmuch as it was even better than I thought it would be as indicated by the exterior. It was crammed with shelves (no antique furniture other than what was outside) that were in turn crammed - literally, every square inch - with stuff. Even though the shop was a small single room, I could have spent an entire day in the place and not seen everthing there was to see.

Fortunately, one of the things I did see was a floor standing jewerly cabinet with 10 drawers which, upon investigation, were filled with old snapshots. The wife immediately gave me a look which implied that my time to browse the collection was short so I quickly sorted through the top 2 drawers and selected 20 pictures which looked good - interesting referents and decent condition - to me.

The only remaining objective was to find out how much $$$ was required to leave the shop as a happy guy. Fortune smiled on me once again inasmuch as the cost was a mere $10.00USD.

RE: During my donut quest I had been waxing nearly poetic about Krispy Kreme donut shops because they are the only donut shops where I can be assured of finding chocolate-covered vanilla-cream-filled donuts. Unforunately, they seem to be few and far between. So it was Karma that, while my donut quest was unsuccessful, I was able to settle for a reasonable consolation prize in the form of a Krispy Kreme delivery truck bank - another item I found at the aforementioned antique shop.

the new snapshot # 214 / civilized ku # 5165-67 ~ eggs and rabbits

kids ~ Harrington Park, NJ (embiggenable) • iPhone

Easter baskets ~ Harrington Park (embiggenable) • iPhone

napping dads ~ Harrington Park (embiggenable) • iPhone

plastic egg ~ Harrington Park (embiggenable) • iPhone

Spent Easter weekend in North Jersey with the wife and inlaws + 8 neices / nephews.

The 2 kids dressed in their Easter outfits were not part of the group. I noticed them hunting eggs in a yard across the street from our Easter festivities household. They were visiting relatives. Just had to make a picture of them.