MFA Boston
Monday, December 26, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
The Exacting Eye of Walker Evans
A fantastic online companion to The Exacting Eye of Walker Evans at the Florence Griswold Museum in Lymne CT.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Monday, December 5, 2011
Friday, December 2, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
My heart of silk
is filled with lights,
with lost bells,
with lilies and bees.
I will go very far,
farther than those hills,
farther than the seas,
close to the stars,
to beg Christ the Lord
to give back the soul I had
of old, when I was a child,
ripened with legends,
with a feathered cap
and a wooden sword.
is filled with lights,
with lost bells,
with lilies and bees.
I will go very far,
farther than those hills,
farther than the seas,
close to the stars,
to beg Christ the Lord
to give back the soul I had
of old, when I was a child,
ripened with legends,
with a feathered cap
and a wooden sword.
Federico Garcia Lorca
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
You talk about simplicity. When I first made photographs, they were too plain to be considered art and I wasn't considered an artist. I didn't get any attention at all. The people who looked at my work thought, well, that's just a snapshot of the backyard. Privately I knew otherwise and through stubbornness stayed with it.
- Walker Evans
Photo of the Week
Endlessly Repeating Twentieth Century Modernism
Via Flickr:
Josiah McElheny, Endlessly Repeating Twentieth Century Modernism, 2007
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Friday, October 14, 2011
Degas and the Nude - I need to be able to take the pictures home.
Last week I spent about 1-1/2 hours perusing this wonderful exhibit. I got to the museum right at opening and because it was a members only preview a crowd hadn't developed yet. Degas is a favorite and I'd been anticipating this exhibit for some time. Without exception the pictures were both beautiful and interesting. I took in all that I had energy for and soon recognized the difficulty in absorbing so much work in such a short time.
It occurred to me that in order to fully appreciate a work of art you should be able to experience it on a daily basis - hanging on your wall - that an exhibit such as this is really only a cursory exposure to such wonderful work.
The relatively inexpensive catalog only suggested the qualities of the originals. You need to rely upon your memory quite a bit. One of the remarkable things about catalogs from photography exhibits is that the catalogs are quite faithful to the originals. Paintings and drawings suffer immeasurably.
So I will without a doubt go back to this exhibit several times and have to be satisfied with the catalog.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
The 1960s
Set of photos from 1960s project
These photos were made in and around the neighborhood and schools (Huntington School and South Junior High School) of my childhood.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Photo of the Week
A.D. 1663, James Keith, minister of the First Church of Bridgewater, MA preached his first sermon at this site.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Photo of the Week
I met this guy at Wheels of Time show in Brockton last weekend. We talked about how much we like the old cars restored to original - rather than the "hot rods" that are so popular. He's standing with his 1953 Hudson Hornet - an amazing car.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
The word beauty is unavoidable … it accounts for my decision to photograph … There appeared a quality, beauty seemed the only appropriate word for it, in certain photographs, and I am compelled to live with the vocabulary of this new sight … through over many years [I] still find it embarrassing to use the word beauty, I fear I will be attacked for it, but I still believe in it. - Robert Adams
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
It’s more important to concentrate on what you want to say to yourself and your friends. Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness. Take [William Carlos] Williams: until he was 50 or 60, he was a local nut from Paterson, New Jersey, as far as the literary world was concerned. He went half a century without real recognition except among his friends and peers.
“You say what you want to say when you don’t care who’s listening. If you’re grasping to get your own voice, you’re making a strained attempt to talk, so it’s a matter of just listening to yourself as you sound when you’re talking about something that’s intensely important to you.”
Friday, July 22, 2011
Favorite Photography Books #3
by Lee Friedlander
Text by Maria Friedlander
This book collects Lee Friedlander's personal photos of his family starting in the early 1950s and going through 2000. While they all have the stamp of Friedlander's style they are much more intimate and subjective than the work we are accustomed to seeing. The layout of the book is by subject and somewhat chronological and is presented as if it was anyone's family album. A very complete, tender visual narrative emerges (with the help of Maria's text). We see the children growing, his wife aging, the family getting larger and all of the sharing and love that goes with it. But like any family album the questions abound secrets are kept hidden. A beautiful book by one of America's great artists.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
Favorite Photography Books 2
Wright Morris:
The Inhabitants
The Home Place
God's Country and My People
Three great books that pioneered the narrative combination of photographs and words. His photos are straightforward images of life in the midwest through depictions of architecture, barren landscapes, rural townscapes and details and objects of an American way of living in the late depression. They rarely show people, the presence of which is suggested through the depiction of timeworn buildings, tools and belongings. The books share some of the same photos and the texts are quite different in style and point-of-view. The Home Place (1946) reads like an novel and shows a clash of two generations and their values. The text and the pictures seem to integrate with the characters in a very personal way going beyond illustration. The Inhabitants (1948) pairs seemingly unrelated text with photographs and is somewhat abstract enabling the viewer to fill the gaps between the narrative and the photos - ultimately creating a complex portrait of life in the midwest post depression. God's Country and My People (1968) seems to be more of a refinement in style of the other books. Many of the same photos are used and the texts at times seem to make a more direct connection to the photos they are paired with. Ultimately these books form a detailed history of a way of life in America that is personal and maybe more complete than that presented through the Farm Security Administration photo projects.
Wikipedia's Bio of Wright Morris and a list of his other books.
Wrighht Morris Images
The Inhabitants
The Home Place
God's Country and My People
Three great books that pioneered the narrative combination of photographs and words. His photos are straightforward images of life in the midwest through depictions of architecture, barren landscapes, rural townscapes and details and objects of an American way of living in the late depression. They rarely show people, the presence of which is suggested through the depiction of timeworn buildings, tools and belongings. The books share some of the same photos and the texts are quite different in style and point-of-view. The Home Place (1946) reads like an novel and shows a clash of two generations and their values. The text and the pictures seem to integrate with the characters in a very personal way going beyond illustration. The Inhabitants (1948) pairs seemingly unrelated text with photographs and is somewhat abstract enabling the viewer to fill the gaps between the narrative and the photos - ultimately creating a complex portrait of life in the midwest post depression. God's Country and My People (1968) seems to be more of a refinement in style of the other books. Many of the same photos are used and the texts at times seem to make a more direct connection to the photos they are paired with. Ultimately these books form a detailed history of a way of life in America that is personal and maybe more complete than that presented through the Farm Security Administration photo projects.
He also published many novels and there are many other books drawn from this set of 3 books.
Wikipedia's Bio of Wright Morris and a list of his other books.
Wrighht Morris Images
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Favorite Photography Books 1
Published in 1976, this book influenced my whole approach to photography. I had seen his work (along with Harry Callahan's) at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts before I had ever thought seriously about making photographs.Both artists made photographs of their friends, family and surroundings. You didn't have to go somewhere foreign or photograph something spectacular. Their work gave me a license to tell my own story and photograph the things that were happening around me.
Link: Emmet Gowin's photos.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
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