Warhol Museum; Andy's Lion

Spent a fabulous weekend with my fabulous husband who allowed me to do some fabulous editing work. In the photography phases of my life,  subject matter may change like the weather but one thing remains constant; I am shooting or I am editing.  To be editing provides the brain (right or left?) with much needed solace.  Not unlike the creative part of shooting, you are creating an entire new body or project.  Whether it’s a portfolio, a book, a marketing campaign…they all benefit from tight photo editing.

My mind wanders through the myriad of images we have taken at Aerial Innovations or through my own archives.  Once I have seen them several odd amounts of time, I can almost review them from memory. The strong ones remain, the weak ones fall away.  Once back with the thumbnails/contact sheets cut apart, it turns into a big memory game…which ones go together, making secret little matches.  More weak images fall away, several new surprises happen, until it is cohesive and tells a story.

I keep in mind from the beginning the skeleton of this story.  What are the images trying to say, who are they saying it to, can they complete the thought or do they need more help?  All of these componants go into the story.  If you understand, I have been successful.

Driveway with Flags

Friday before Memorial Day..I will pretend it’s Sunday since I am going where there are no connections, except with family, friends & nature.  A few images up of “flags”, the great american-photographer subject.  I start to notice them more and more, then it begins to fade into the backdrop until someone says, “notice the flag?” and I am back to seeing them every where.

Love of country, love of countrymen, love of symbolism in imagery.

Happy Memorial Day 2009.

Wendy

Flags on Flickr

Street View, NYC

The New York City trips I have taken over the past five years consitute an extremely varied body of work. It was as if I could not be limited by subject matter or format, my eye exploring every avenue.  I was fortunate to have 5 (or is it 6) trips from which to choose images.

The editing process for this group has boiled down to , “Can I look at this image another hundred times?”  If I can, it makes the cut.  I have reviewed these images probably more than any other group of work I can think of. The NYC images are comprised of film and digital captures..even going so far as to haul the C220 around (that is probably what gave me some minor shoulder problems..yeah, film is expensive.)

The series currently uploading to flickr are from a batch of about 500-600 quickie prints from the local fotomat..remember those? Ok, it wasn’t fotomat but they are 4×6 prints that you get to anticipate and look forward to picking up, then go through roll by roll in order of how you shot, reliving the trip frame by frame. By now, my batch is crazy messed up with initials on the back of friends favorites..and probably missing a few.  I have only scanned about 1/3 of them, of which this is about another 1/3.  Then add in the digital. Nice to have a project.

Wendy

NYC Images on Flickr

In 1994, I moved to Rockaway, NY in Queens to live for a year in a volunteer community. I worked as a photography instructor at St. Johns Home & School for Boys. It was a dramatic change from Dayton Ohio not to mention that NYC has a great ability to leave a lasting impression on all who live there. I did not return until ten years later when I visited Manhattan on four separate occasions in one year. I have started posting images from those four trips on flickr, there are many more to come! Here are a few brief itinerary’s of the work.

First Trip, Halloween, Times Square, 2004. A trip to Ground Zero. It was hurried, less than 24 hours on the island. It was good to be back but so much had changed. My friend Teresa and I went next in May for the Diane Arbus Retrospective and Ashes + Snow exhibit. We caught up with friends from Rockaway days and had a grand time.

I previewed the next trip with watching No Direction Home and helping myself to a full collection of Dylan CD’s. Summer, 2005, Times Square, Staten Island Ferry, Empire State Building in the daytime. Lots of Medium Format work, time to investigate and explore visually. The final trip was again in October, Rachel and I attended photo expo which I highly recommend to professional photographers. The workshops can be helpful, check out the latest gear, but get out and see some galleries! Once again, it was photography and friends.

Looking at all of the work complied from the year, I like many of the images in the group because I catch myself exploring visually again like in Washington DC, switching from digital snap shot to medium format. Training attention on various themes but being left open to the unexpected. Probably a little bit schizophrenic, that’s what I do.

We are returning this fall to take in a Broadway show, our first! I look forward to a relaxing visit tempered by image capture but not driven by it. I’ve gone pretty much digital at this point in my travels, saves on the hassle at airport security, travels light and is very adaptable. What will I be shown next?

Our nation’s capitol. Visually stunning. Overwhelming with historical references. World renowned as the showcase of democracy. Lots of great restaurants, too. What I remember of my first visit; the fireworks, knowing without a doubt that I wanted to be a mounted policewoman when I grew up. I brought my actual profession back for subsequent visits to memorials, museums and the famous mall.

I had visited DC almost yearly for about ten years, mostly visiting friends. Looking back on the images, it is apparent where I had been exploring various ways of seeing , pushing myself with new techniques. It was a safe place to make mistakes. This body of work is a great example of these explorations. The soft focus of a yard sale camera captures the steps of the subway and the unmistakable vision of the Washington Memorial, the snaps of visitors wandering in the heat, the uncomplicated views through a twin lens reflex of the FDR Memorial, lots of flags and juxtapositions.

The images currently posted on flickr are only a small percentage of the total images. Even so, I have the realization that I have probably not captured any other place quite as completely in my own vision as the district. I am looking forward to delving into more contact sheets and prints of these visits and posting them alongside these current images. It’s a great place to start, my own capitol to the democracy of photographic technique.

Living in any area of the county issues us grand explorations into unique vistas, culture & history of a region; the legendary & timeless monuments of Washington D.C. or the surreal landscapes of the southwest offer visual insight into place and people. In Tennessee, we have whiskey. (And, thankfully, also in Kentucky, we can’t be known as the only whiskey state, although we do write more songs about it!) Making whiskey is a fascinating process, from gathering simple materials found practically anywhere, to the intricate process of distilling to make a liquid that evokes images of western bar rooms and goes down a bit harsh. (It’s not the taste, it’s the aftermath…)

See more Whiskey House images through my flickr link.

These whiskey aging houses I have photographed are in Bardstown Kentucky (Early Times?). I drive by in the summer time when the metal gleams strongly in the sun. I expected to capture it with such a patina but found myself on this particular day in questionable weather (for flying at least, not photography). Images were taken with a 645 format fixed focal length Rollex camera. I never knew what I would be capturing. The viewfinder was a small hole with layers of dust. Exposure was slightly more controllable.

From the air, the houses stand like a neighborhood, each the same bright white with hundreds of windows. Almost prison like on the ground, they stand on guard to invaders (within and without) with rolls of barbed wire. Some counties that distill are dry, like Lynchburg in TN (tours given yearly, I highly recommend it), so a taste is out of the question. But do you really need a reminder of what whiskey tastes like or can you just imagine the first burning gulp that cascaded like fire into your soul?