Dave Makes Killer bread

Dave Dahl's story has received a fair amount of attention locally and now it's gone national with this feature in Inc. written by my friend and many time collaborator Bill Donahue. He's a three times convicted (Dave, not Bill), former meth dealer / addict who, with the help of his brother Glenn, has jump started a new life for himself baking amazing healthy bread.

This guy makes cool bikes in Portland

Sacha White hand builds each Vanilla Bicycle himself. The attention to detail is sublime. The waiting list is three years or thereabouts. Makes me wish I was thirty, skinny and riding one of his fixies.
Photographed for Forbes.

The Vendor Client Relationship

More on Louisville

The last time I showed work in Louisville was May of 1976, a student work show at the Louisville Public Library (if my memory serves me correctly), I had the distinction of having one of my entries removed due to obscenity. You be the judge but I'm guessing someone saw something homoerotic in the image.
Here's the story behind the picture. My friend Bobby Adams and I were interested in making deliberately provocative, dada'esque images often using each other as models. We were on the roof of the Center for Photographic Studies on W. Main St in downtown Louisville. I had just shot Bobby, with his camera, nude and standing on his hands with the cityscape of Louisville behind him. As he pulled on his jeans he remarked, "damn, look at the black stuff all over my hands" and I took a couple frames with my own camera.
The exaggerated grain in the image was from deliberate reticulation of the negatives during processing, a technique I used quite a bit during that period, and one which I now look back on and mostly groan. First year photo student stuff.
Anyway, it was kind of cool having my print banished. At least I got a reaction.

Inspiring and Overwhelming.

I came away from my two mornings reviewing portfolios at Photolucida both inspired and overwhelmed by the level of talent and quality of the work, re-affirming my belief in the still image as a powerful medium. Three artists stood out for me:

Karen Davis’ series of staged set pieces using mechanical dolls that had belonged to her late disabled sister. Re-creating scenes, both imagined and actual, of their shared childhood Davis presents a powerfully emotional body of images.

Lauren Hinkin’s “Displaced I & II” series uses landscape to communicate a sense of loss and abandonment in two bodies of staggeringly beautiful B&W prints.

Alejandro Cartagena has over a period of years chronicled the affects of sprawling new suburbs in Mexican cities. He seduces the viewer by utilizing a combination of traditional landscape, abstract formalism and documentary motifs to achieve a complex simplicity that is at once both informative and beautiful.

It was such a pleasure and honor to be able to meet all the people who so generously shared their work with me. Thanks again to the good folks at Photolucida for putting on a great event.

Photolucida

I'm excited and a bit nervous about speaking, along with my longtime dear friend and colleague Susan Seubert, at the 2009 Photolucida Portfolio Reviews next Thursday, April 23 at 11:15am. This event is only open to those attending the conference, but if you are going to be there stop by and say hello. Susan and I will be talking about our respective and different approaches to mixing our professional and fine art careers and of course showing pictures. I'll also be slinking about as a roving reviewer on Thursday and Friday.

Also plan to attend Susan's opening on Saturday the 25th at Froelick Gallery. I got a sneak preview of the work and all I will say is it's stunning.

A door closes, a door opens. The news I had been rejected by FotoFest in Houston has since been tempered by an invitation to show 3 - 5 pieces from the same project as part of a group show in the Louisville Photo Biennial, which I wrote a bit about previously. The show will be at Actors Theater Gallery, which I understand is a quite nice space. Dates are June 5 – July 26. Below are three more images under consideration.

Rejected

The sting of the rejection letter cuts to the bone and crushes the fragile ego. Here are a few of the rejected works that were not selected for inclusion on the Fotofest Biennial Participating Space Website.

















I have a feeling I may soon have opportunities to show other rejected works from various photo annual submissions, etc..

I Love Oregon Locations

Last Thursday in the dunes near Florence.

Blatant self promotion

What keeps me going in tough times such as these is the knowledge I possess that rarest of gifts, the ability to make a living doing what I love to do, I get paid to play. That and the fact that I have no other serious marketable skills.
And while the debate over whether magazine photography can remain a viable industry may rage on in other quarters I stubbornly push forward with little more than the knowledge I’ve survived previous economic downturns and a deep love of the game.
Of course not every gig is a dream come true but I find something in most all of them. Then there are those that come along now and again that require me to pinch myself.
In that vain I present my second published story for Travel Oregon magazine in which I was assigned to photograph and write about riding my motorcycle around backroads in the central Oregon high desert. Not a bad gig, huh?






Just for fun here are some of the images that didn't make the edit.

Shepard Fairey + Manny Garcia + Terry Gross

An interesting interview today on Fresh Air with Shepard Fairey and Mannie Garcia regarding the now famous Obama portrait. It raises all kinds of interesting and complicated questions about the ever popular “appropriation” of source material for art and the appropriate attribution and compensation.

I’ve always been of the opinion that if an artist took source material and significantly changed it, such as Rauchenberg’s use of news photographs in his paintings, or Robert Hienecken’s use of advertising in his work, well it seemed fair enough to me. Where I call bullshit is with artists such as Richard Prince or Thomas Ruth who simply reproduce someone else’s art work and I’ve yet to hear an argument compelling enough to change my mind.

This case is a more difficult call for me and I have a leg on both sides of the fence, but leaning to Garcia. Fairey’s point of view is that he significantly changed the image and it’s purpose from a news reportage image to a political statement. But I agree with Garcia, that the image was his and he should have had the right to decide whether to allow it’s use. To bad Fairey couldn’t have done some legwork and tracked down Garcia prior to all this. Then again, Garcia may have denied him the rights and we would have never seen that iconic image. Tough call.

This isn't Fairey's first time being criticized for appropriating artwork and his defense claiming he uses proceeds to promote social causes rings a bit hollow because it also promotes Fairey in the process.

The sadder part of the interview came when Garcia was discussing his own dispute with AP regarding whether he as a free-lancer with no signed contract, was in fact “employed” by the AP. AP is claiming all his images were works made for hire and therefore the property of the AP. But if he was a free-lancer, not an employee, meaning not on salary with full benefits, etc. and had not signed a contract granting such rights, then all works should remain Garcia’s property. I hope he wins that one.

Mikah

I met Mikah while volunteering for the Do1Thing project. She’s just turned 20 and is currently living at Bridge House in Portland, right in my neighborhood. Here are few details from her past:
Her father abandoned the family when she was an infant. At 14 she was placed in foster care because of her Mother’s drug addiction. At 17 she ran away to Las Vegas where she lived on the streets, slingin dope, stealing and using meth. Pregnant at 18 she was forced to surrender her parental rights. About 14 months ago she found out she was pregnant again. Hoping to avoid repeating her past mistakes and give this baby a chance she knew she had to get clean. She and her boyfriend went to live in Mexico with her boyfriend’s parents and kicked. About 7 months ago she returned to Portland Oregon where she couch surfed, slept on friend’s floors and eventually got into Bridge House.
Jordan is now 5 months old, chubby and bright eyed. Mikah attends AA meetings with her Mother and is working towards getting her GED. She hopes to get some education, a decent job and be a good mother to her son, hopefully earn back some parental rights to her now 2 year old daughter.
There were a few consistent themes that ran in the stories of the kids I met and spoke to while working on Do1Thing, primarily drug addicted parents, the foster care system and methamphetamine. If I learned nothing else it was that the best contribution to society I can ever make is to be a good parent to my own kids.
Mikah wants that for Jordan. The odds are stacked steeply against her. I hope she makes it, for her and Jordan’s sake.