The Spring 2020 Polaroid Week went down, as usual (I think), in the last week of April, and I started a day or two late and ended up rushing through most of every pack on the last day… Now, two weeks later, I still haven’t scanned everything, but I’m itching to share some photographs for a change, so let’s go!
Continue reading “Some Instant Fun”Poulomi Basu – Centralia
Poulomi Basu’s Centralia is a disturbing and violent book of a disturbing and violent subject. It’s not for the faint of heart, it’s equally not for the hard of heart. Basu calls it “an Indian docu-fiction” that “…push[es] the boundaries of my own documentary practice – to construct a narrative that borrows from the tropes of science fiction to create a hallucinatory reflection…” And I think she succeeded.
Centralia was Charcoal Book Club’s Photobook of the Month for March 2020, and without them, this book probably wouldn’t have come across my radar.
Continue reading “Poulomi Basu – Centralia”Nate Matos – ‘Resort Town'(s)
I’m something of a Nate Matos fan, I guess. I came late to his Serif & Silver series, and every 6 or 8 months, I pop into his website and buy most or all of the zines he has on offer, leading to the acquisition of his ‘Blandscapes‘ and a group of other zines.
Now, we have the ‘Resort Town’ series, three zines about three resort towns: Rockaway, NY, site of the long-gone Playland amusement park; Anaheim, CA, home of Disneyland; Bombay Beach, CA, who was one of the earliest casualties of human-caused climate change.*
Continue reading “Nate Matos – ‘Resort Town'(s)”Anil Mistry – ‘Goodnight Sweetheart’
Anil Mistry‘s Goodnight Sweetheart: A miscellany of morose, misanthropic middle-aged musings and mattresses is a collection of photographs featuring discarded mattresses, paired with statements, aphorisms, poems from some friends. As a middle-aged man myself, it hits some buttons, for sure…
Continue reading “Anil Mistry – ‘Goodnight Sweetheart’”Anil Mistry – GAH!
Look closely at the cover of Anil Mistry’s ‘GAH!,’ and you might just end up uttering the title without even thinking about it… and if you miss the fun stuff on the cover, by about page 6, you’ll be “gah”-ing on almost every page…
Continue reading “Anil Mistry – GAH!”Keiko Nomura – ‘Otari — Pristine Peaks’
Keiko Nomura’s Otari — Pristine Peaks was the Charcoal Book Club selection for April 2019 (if I recall correctly) and documents the people and lifestyle of a small village in Japan. It’s not a book I would’ve likely come across on my own, and so I’m once again glad to be a Charcoal subscriber.
Continue reading “Keiko Nomura – ‘Otari — Pristine Peaks’”Expired Film Day 2020… 160-C Edition
Another reminder… Get your Expired Film Day 2020 submissions in by April 18! I’m sponsoring 2 prizes this year: best black & white photo shot at night, and best color photo of an amusement. So get to it!
Continue reading “Expired Film Day 2020… 160-C Edition”