Photo: November 2003 Archives
For your pleasure while I sleep, I present you with a pair of floor-crawlers.
I was largely disappointed by the photographic opportunities presented to me in New York. Part of it was that morning and late afternoon/evening light in Manhattan sucked. Part of it was going in to the city with people who were big on driving and not so big on walking around. And taking photos out of windows in a moving car is frustrating to me. Assuming that airport security didn't fog my film with their magic security-creating boxes, there might be some good stuff from the other camera. Or maybe all I've got from visiting the city, photo-wise, are these two photos that amuse me.
I always wondered where flags went when they died....turns out it's Hoboken, NJ.
One last thing before I leave...
In the spring, I'll be taking a documentary photography class. I am simultaneously excited and filled with dread. It'll be a wonderful excuse to spend more money than sane people tend to on fun things like film, paper and gear. I'm sure I'll have very little choice but to get better at photography.
But still, there's the dread bit. For the entire class, three months and some change, we're working on a single project. The goal of the class is to end up with something like 30 fine prints that all work together. I'd guess something like 300 work prints. Probably 30 rolls of film, give or take. All on one thing.
I've been told that the trick is to choose your absolute favorite thing in the entire world and to make it as broad and all inclusive as possible. Which is easy to say but deceptively hard to do. Apparently a large percentage of the people in the class hate their projects by the half-way mark. "If I have to shoot one more stripper and try to make it different from the last 540 photos of strippers I've shot, I'll fucking top myself." "I thought hanging out at this crackhouse would get me some really great photographs...but if one more crackhead threatens to remove my skin with a carpet scraper if I photograph their face, I'm turning narc."
So, I need to decide what exactly I like enough (and like photographing enough) that I won't get frustrated and sick of shooting it. Additionally I should ideally be able to shoot it indoors when it's cold as shit in Jan/Feb and shoot it outside when it's wonderful and spring.
My final project this semester (5 weeks, 15 rolls, 15 prints, 100+ work prints) is tentatively titled "Nerd Spaces" though perhaps "Science, technology and industry spaces" would be more accurate, since I've avoided photographing people, comicbook shops, gaming, libraries, etc. It's largely been photographing in the medical research/hospital complex, computer labs, office spaces, etc. I've actually had a hell of a lot of fun doing it and 4 weeks into the 5 week project, I've yet to get really tired of the subject. Ok, I'm bored of photographing wiring in server cabinets, but still, I'm hardly restricted to that. Even that narrow of a focus and I'm still getting along. (As an aside, I really need to stop being lazy about scanning my negatives so I can toss some of the black and white stuff I've been working on up here. Some of it I'm actually gasp proud of.)
So, I'm thinking that maybe pitching "Nerd" as my big-ass project. When you get down to it, that's pretty broad. You got science nerds, engineering nerds, computer nerds, math nerds, economics nerds, comic nerds, anime nerds, paper gamers, video gamers, grad students, english nerds, etc. And inside of each of those, you've got both the people and their haunts. The real question is, would it really be interesting?
Right, right. And so ends another terribly eventful weekend at work. And away I go. Next weekend, there will hopefully be a few photos from the NJ/NY trip I'm about to leave for.
