Dylan Hausthor & Paul Guilmoth’s Sleep Creek was the Charcoal photobook of the month for February 2020… If you needed any indication of just how far behind I am in reviewing books, well, there you are. It received a ton of press, including some thoughtful comments from Collier Brown in Od Review and some illegible nonsense thoughts from Brad Feuerhelm in ASX, and I’m very late to the party.
Oh well.
Continue reading “Dylan Hausthor & Paul Guilmoth – ‘Sleep Creek’”About halfway through composition of my review of Ninagawa Mika’s Sugar & Spice, about 5 minutes after I discovered (and ordered a copy of) the Acid Bloom series, I felt inspiration and excitement like I haven’t in a long time. I ran to the camera shelf, grabbed the OM10, 50mm f/zuiko, and a +4 Macro filter that came with it, and got to shooting.
Alas. I, a fat, balding, middle-aged slob like me, isn’t going to go make Acid Bloom in an afternoon. But I did make some pictures quite unlike anything I’ve ever done before, using tools and processes that I’ve never used before, so I think it’s a win overall… And who cares anyway? I had fun!
Continue reading “(Not) Channeling Ninagawa”If I was somewhat unimpressed with Ninagawa Mika’s Sugar & Spice, well, it was probably the wrong book to jump into Ninagawa’s work. After all, Ninagawa is very well known for her particular and peculiar use of color, which Sugar & Spice didn’t really show to full effect. To remedy that, I ordered Ninagawa’s new Tokyo book (unboxing and review coming sometime next year) and 2003’s excellent and inspiring Acid Bloom.
Continue reading “Ninagawa Mika – ‘Acid Bloom’”I’m not sure where I heard about Michael Ashkin’s were it not for. It wasn’t a Charcoal book, so I suspect it was the review and “Highly Recommended” rating from Jörg Colberg. I more or less trust Colberg’s reviews, and tend to more or less agree with him most of the time, but it was Ashkin’s use of text that pushed me over the edge.
Continue reading “Michael Ashkin – ‘were it not for’”I’m not sure how I ended up with two rolls of Fuji Super G. Maybe one came from a Oli’s Choice or similar mystery expired box from the FPP, or maybe a lot of expired film from the ‘bay; I think the other came from an Emulsive Santa event, maybe the 2019 version, but I’m not sure. What I do know is that I had both for more than two years, and one for longer than that, and I kept them in the refrigerator.
Sadly, whoever owned one of them before me wasn’t quite so kind…
Continue reading “Film Shooters: Refrigeration is Your Friend”Back in November, 2020, Alec Soth’s Little Brown Mushroom imprint/project/thing ran a sale. Most of the stuff on offer was way out of my league, and I was deep into debt reduction mode anyway, but I plumped for the $100 “Gathered Leaves Grab Bag.” What is the “Gathered Leaves Grab Bag?” Well…
Continue reading “The Gathered Leaves Grab Bag”Until I stumbled across Subway during an Aperture sale, I only knew Bruce Davidson for… Turns out, I had Bruce Davidson confused with Bruce Gilden and I almost scrolled right past, but I’m glad I checked it out (and bought a copy), as it’s quite something.
Continue reading “Bruce Davidson – ‘Subway’”
