2010-11-30

Pat Sansone on the Polaroid SX-70


Pat Sansone with an awesome Polaroid SLR 680 SE (blue button), photo courtesy of The Impossible Project.

Pat Sansone, from one of my favorite bands - The Autumn Defense, and some other band called Wilco, has written an article at Aquarium Drunkard about Dr. Land's masterpiece, the Polaroid SX-70. He talks about discovering the SX-70 camera, and falling in love with the colors. He also bemoans the death of SX-70 film in 2008, and how it forced him to grow as a photographer.

It's a nice read. I'm about the same age as Mr. Sansone, so I understand what he means about being from an "in-between generation," technology-wise.

He also just closed an exhibition at The Impossible Project space for his recently published book, 100 Polaroids. Here's a nice set of pics from the opening party by Joshua J. Sarner.

Vampire Weekend Cover Photo Controversy Continues


Ann Kirsten Kennis, by ????

I can't resist a Polaroid-related news story.

PDN Pulse is reporting that things are looking worse for Tod Brody, the photographer that licensed the above image to Vampire Weekend for the cover of their Contra album. In case you've missed it, former model Ann Kirsten Kennis (pictured) sued Vampire Weekend, who in turn sued Brody, who in turn is hiding from Process Servers. Long ways to go still.

The more important question to me is, SX-70 or Type 88? I'm leaning towards SX-70 even though the bottom of the frame is cut off, just look at those colors.

Polaroid Model 250 Reissue


Polaroid 250 Limited Edition Reissue.

This was in my Impossible Project spam a few days ago, and it looks like they're already sold out? The Limited Edition Polaroid 250. These are actually from LandCameras.com. They've been converted to rechargeable batteries and standard shoe-mount flash (included) by Cory Verellen.

Is it as cool as the Limited Edition Polaroid 185 from Polaroid Japan? No. But still pretty cool.

2010-11-29

Liv Tyler by Anton Corbijn for G-Star Raw


One more Anton Corbijn post and then I'll give it a rest. A small, but nice, Flickr set from G-Star Raw. Liv Tyler by Anton Corbijn.

Shadow Play: The Making of Anton Corbijn


In keeping with the Anton Corbijn theme, I ran across this trailer while I was looking for other Corbijn material. I was unaware of this film but I'd love to see it. Hey Netflix, how about getting on that?

2010-11-28

Tom Waits to Publish Book of Poetry


Tom Waits by Anton Corbijn.

This will probably be a must-have if you're a Tom Waits fan. A planned poetry/photography book collaboration with Michael O'Brien. From the article;

There are no concrete details as to when the book will be published, but the project has reportedly been conceived as a modern version of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, the famous collaboration between writer James Agee and photographer Walker Evans, which documented the hardtack lives of dust bowl sharecroppers and was first published in 1941. Rather than Mid-Western farmers, however, Waits and O’Brien’s book should examine the lives of the homeless.

The photograph above is from Waits/Corbijn - Photographs 1977-2010.

Seen at The Prague Post.

2010-11-23

Steve Jobs Meets Dr. Land


DSC_0975, originally uploaded by infrar3d.

I'm a huge fan of all things Polaroid, and especially of the man that invented the instant film process, among many, many other things - Edwin H. Land. There's a very nice little article at the Signal vs. Noise blog at 37signals that gives a brief history of Dr. Land and Polaroid. It also relates an anecdote about a fateful meeting Steve Jobs had with Land shortly before he was ousted from Apple in 1985, just as Land had been at Polaroid a few years earlier.

There are links out to a couple of other interesting, related articles as well, and some insider posts in the comments.

Seen at Fashion Copious.

2010-11-21

Blogs: Fashion Gone Rogue


Hanne Bruning by Jacob Sadrak.

There are lots of fashion blogs, but my favorite is easily Fashion Gone Rogue. The photography is consistently high quality and always attributed, the updates are frequent, and you're always informed if there's nudity after the jump - in case you're surfing on the office PC.

My only complaint, and I know this is up to the contributors, is that for gearheads it would be nice if more of the photos had EXIF data. Most of them have it stripped out, or they're tearsheets. But, if you just want to look at a constant stream of excellent fashion images, you can't do much better.

Runners up:
Fashion Copious - More than just pictures.
Ben Trovato Blog - Emerging talent. Almost always NSFW and almost always contains EXIF data.
Asian Models
Calikartel - Also often NSFW. Hey, I warned you.

cellybrain


CELLYBRAIN ZINE$!, originally uploaded by cellybrain.

Hamburger Eyes has a new zine available, culled from the cellybrain Flickr account. If you don't know about cellybrain, here's the mission statement on the cellybrain Flickr profile page.

sooner or later celly phones will take the shape of brain implants which will include all the regular features of a celly phone and then some. this flickr stream "cellybrain" is an attempt make those technology companies hurry up by maxing out the features of celly phones and letting them know we need implants and we need them now.
"cellybrain" is a mission started by hamburger eyes photo magazine. "cellybrain" is a collection of celly phone photos from different celly phone photographers from all over the entire planet on a daily basis.

Want more cell phone photography? My good friend Donovan recently had a few photos selected for the National Cell Phone Photography Exhibition at the Southeastern Louisiana University Contemporary Art Gallery.

Seen at Mission Mission.

2010-11-20

The Case for a New Camera


002_1814, originally uploaded by infrar3d.

I've been thinking a lot lately about upgrading my D1x, which is getting pretty long in the tooth. I'm not in a huge rush, so I'm taking my time and enjoying the thought process. My gut reaction is a D700. I get to use one occasionally at work and really like it, but there are other considerations, like video and lens choices.

So I've been trying to make a list of pros and cons to help with the decision, and I've pretty much narrowed it down to three options. Here's what I have so far. I'll start with my current gear.

2010-11-18

SebastiĆ£o Salgado


Photo: SebastiĆ£o Salgado

There's a SebastiĆ£o Salgado exhibition hanging right now at A Gallery For Fine Photography in New Orleans through January 1st. Hope I find time for this one.

Seen at PhotoNOLA.

Albert Watson: Strip Search


Photo: Albert Watson

There's a write up on Albert Watson's new coffee table book about Las Vegas, Strip Search, over at Las Vegas Weekly. Complete with a nice little preview gallery.

Bruce Weber: Haiti/Little Haiti


Kiki Barthelemy and her son, Shamar Key, Little Haiti, Miami, Flroida 2010 by Bruce Weber.


Marina Cashdan at The Huffington Post recently interviewed Bruce Weber. It's mostly about his upcoming exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami "Haiti/Little Haiti," which is a long-term project he's been working on about the Haitian community in Miami. Lots of nice photos with the article, and a few other interesting tidbits, like this;
Jessica Lange takes really great photographs, and Jessica and I were talking about [shooting on film] and she said something really great, she said, 'You know, the great thing about using film is it can be a more intimate experience.' It's just because you're maybe not shooting as fast ... It's also easier to mess up, which is good, because then you can have a mistake which surprises you and maybe makes you think about something else.

2010-11-17

Photoblogger Profiles

Is it time for end-of-year lists already? Wired Magazine's photo blog, Raw File has a list up titled Get to Know Our Favorite Photobloggers. A few I already follow, but several I was unaware of. My favorite new discoveries? la pura vida and Dodge & Burn. Maybe I should knock together my own list.

The Best of NYC's Nightlife Photography

Seen in my RSS feed, from The L Magazine:
Using polaroids, fast ISO speed film, unassuming point and shoots (and assuming digital setups), our favorite NYC nightlife photographers capture fresh perspectives after hours, documenting another generation's worth of tit slips, sweaty crowd surfing, and champagne poppin' mischief. We asked them to share with us their favorite pics, preferred venues and wildest experiences... and they did.
And if you like this sort of thing but want a little local flavor, I highly recommend my friend Rekanize's Flickr stream.

2010-11-15

Sometimes I Miss the Nineties


000_0009, originally uploaded by infrar3d.

I was going through some things in storage recently, and found a few boxes of photography-related stuff I thought I'd lost in Katrina. Some cool old cameras, a bunch of old prints and negatives, and even some film.

I posted several of the prints in my Flickr stream. These were from a couple of shoots I did in 1998 I think, for modeling portfolios a couple of friends of mine were putting together.

Some of these were taken on location, and some in my very short-lived studio. All were taken with a Pentax ME Super, and an SMC-M 50mm f/1.4. All shot on Ilford XP2, which I used often in those days, when I didn't have time for hand processing Tri-X.

I noticed one of the photos from that set got blogged at Film is God.

2010-11-14

Things I Can't Afford: Leica Noctilux-M


You don't see one of these on the local Craigslist very often - a Leica Noctilux-M 50mm f/1. As in one point zero. Only $2500.00. That's a bargain folks.

Pentax 645D Review at LL

I just finished reading Nick Devlin's early review of the Pentax 645D over at Luminous Landscape. It's worth a read, if you're interested in a $10,000 medium format digital SLR.

Nick points out that the 645D inherits some of the modern DSLR handling characteristics from the Pentax K-7/K-5. I think I've read similar statements over on the Pentax forums. But I noticed, from the pictures accompanying the review, that the top panel is also a bit reminiscent of the legendary Pentax MZ-S, with it's slanted control panel.

2010-11-03

Stock Photos Suck


Custom photography vs. stock product images.

Jakob Nielsen has an excellent new article up at useit - Photos as Web Content. He used gaze plots (eye tracking) to show that users recognize, and ignore, stock photography on websites.

Seen at bizreport.com.