eBook "Looking Down" Released

I am pleased to announce the release of my second book, Looking Down: Photographs From the Sidewalks of Hyde Park, Boston, published by Middlebrow Books.

Looking Down is an intricate look at the ephemera found on the pavements of one of Boston's more quiet, outlying neighborhoods.  

This handsome edition includes a duotone monograph with 75 original prints. With a very personal essay by motion picture historian Dan Auiler, and cover design by Deidre Adams, Looking Down is a beautifully understated book that will lend charm, grace, and dry wit to your eBook reading device.

Looking Down is on sale at amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble.

California Again

 Wool Growers' Restaurant

Los Banos, California, October 2009

I began my series on the farmers of California's San Joaquin Valley on this particular day, in October 2009.  I had begun photographing at the San Juan Reservoir early in the afternoon, and by the time I was finished, I asked the park guide where I could get a good meal.

He directed me to the famous Wool Growers' Restaurant in Los Banos, ten miles away.  Wool Growers' is a French Basque restaurant which serves its food - lamb stew, fried chicken, boiled cabbage and potatoes, and tons of bread and wine - family style.  I could barely finish half of my meal, though the farmers sitting nearby cleaned their plates.  Farming is some strenuous labor.

Out of the Box: Rediscovered Photographs

Hyde Park, Boston, Massachusetts, October 2000

Out of the Box: Rediscovered Photographs

Barber Shop, Hyde Park

Boston, Massachusetts, September 2000

So, I ask the two barbers if I can snap a photograph of them in their shop.  No problem. 

The client has a problem.  "Well, you can cover your face if you don't want anyone to recognize you," I offer.

Problem solved!

A.K.A. Pablo

Actor and comedian Paul Rodriguez

Latino Water Coalition, State Capitol

Sacramento, California, October 2009

Paul Rodriguez is a stand-up guy in more ways than one:  His support of family farmers in the San Joaquin Valley by bringing the issue of the drought forced upon them by the Federal Government is commendable, and spurred the California legislature and Gov. Schwarzenegger to enact measures to deliver badly-needed water to the farms of the Central Valley.

Rediscovered Negatives: Portraits

Alisaith, Cookstown, New Jersey, 2003

A frequent subject of my camera's lenses is Alisaith, but this roll escaped development for years, until I pulled it from the freezer last month.  I usually use available window light to illuminate my indoor portraits, but we wanted something with a more nocturnal feeling.  Using a low-wattage table lamp (upper right) for backlighting, we set up two candelabras for our prime lighting source.  Shooting with some of my stash of old school Kodak Tri-X (expiry date, August 1972), we were able to obtain a very painterly portrait.

Channeling Homage

Highway 17 (Trans-Canada Highway), Ignace, Ontario, May 2010

Last week, I was subconsciously channeling the great color photographer, Keith Laban.  On my recent trip to Canada, Ed Ruscha?  Walker Evans?  Maybe, maybe not.  But I sure miss tableaux such as these.  They're disappearing.

Hopscotch

Hopscotch grid, Highway 17 (Trans-Canada Highway)

Town Square, Ignace, Ontario, May 2010

This sure brings back memories!  Take the video consoles out of your kids' hands and take them out to the playground for a couple rounds of hopscotch!

Of Harry and Visual Polytonality

Twlight of the Harry, March 2009

In March last year, I took on a photo job for a friend, to shoot her Brussels gryphon terrier, one Harry.  We had wanted to catch Harry in his natural element, going outside to leave his contribution to the Earth.

As the sun was low and sinking, I thought it would be ideal to capture the essence of Harry -- and what resulted were these striking and powerful pictures of him on the frozen tundra of Minnesota.

For your edification, I present Der Harry.

Also Sprach Harry, March 2009

Ein Harryleben, March 2009

My Governor Is a Jewish Cowboy

Kinky Friedman, Austin, Texas, October 2006

One of my favorite photography shoots as a photojournalist was when I trekked up to Austin from San Antonio to cover the Kinky Friedman for governor campaign.

Writer Jennifer Litz and I showed up at Friedman's campaign headquarters, a warehouse building on the wrong side of the tracks, at the appointed time.  I entered his office, and introduced myself.  He turned a surly face to me, asking "You're the photographer, huh?"

I replied in the affirmative.

"Well, this fucking shit better not take more than five minutes," he growled.  "I'm tired of wasting two hours every time one of you people comes around here."

"I'll do it in four minutes," I countered.

And I did.  Friedman was so impressed I could execute a photo shoot without endless light metering, lighting setups, and assistants with reflectors that he invited us up to Sixth Street to cover a campaign meet-and-greet at Tom's Taboolery, where I snapped this with my Nikon FM-3A.

Most politicians I've ever met are slick and superficial types who pretend they're your best friends -- for all of ten seconds.  I have a hell lot more respect for a guy who's not really a politician, but a cowboy who shoots from the hip, but means what he says.  He won my respect with his line about photographers wasting his time.  I don't have much use for them, either.

Rediscovered Negatives: Im Augenblick

Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral)

Köln, Germany, 1987

Of all the great Gothic cathedrals, my personal favorite is the cathedral at Cologne, which began construction in the 13th century, but was not completed until the 1880s.

It dominates the city's skyline, and for tourists to the beautiful city on the Rhine, to see the giant cathedral, all you need to do is step outside the city's main train station, and there it is.

Love Letter, Straight From My Heart

Actor, painter, photographer, director, and

all-around Renaissance Man, Dennis Hopper

The sheer heft of Dennis Hopper's latest photography book, Photographs, 1961-1967, makes this 530-page volume worth the $700 price tag (now marked down to $465.11).  I got it in the mail from amazon.com, and ensconced in a sturdy blue-linen box, it's bigger than a Guttenberg Bible.

As well it should be, given its over-the-top subject.  With essays by Jessica Hundley, the late Walter Hopps and Hopper's gallerist Tony Shafrazi, a portrait of Hopper the crazed genius comes through. Hopps's introduction, The Taos Incident, sets the stage for the kaleidoscopic imagery that follows, with his account of a visit to Hopper's New Mexican abode sometime during the 1970s.  During that trip, the purpose of which was to retrieve contact sheets and negatives for an upcoming retrospective, Hopps arrived in the midst of one of Dennis's manic episodes, riddling the walls of his own living room with a submachine gun.  

Photographer and painter Ed Ruscha, 1964

This is no "vanity" project by an otherwise marginally-talented celebrity.  Hopper was trained as an Abstract-Expressionist painter by no less than Thomas Hart Benton.  Hopper applied his aesthetic training and instincts to photography when he was given a camera by friend and acting mentor James Dean during the filming of George Steven's 1956 epic, Giant.

Hopper went crazy with the Nikon, and went through hundreds of rolls of Kodak Tri-X, particularly during the 1960s, when he was more-or-less exiled from Hollywood because of his bad boy reputation.  Many of the photographs printed herein are candids, as well as surrealistically-composed shots of showbiz friends and colleagues, such as Tina and Ike Turner, John Wayne, Peter and Jane Fonda, and denizens of the L.A. art scene like Shafrazi, Ed Ruscha and Andy Warhol.  But what really makes his style gel are his gritty and straightforward black-and-white documentary shots of urban Los Angeles.

New York City, c. 1963

Hopper's exacting eye takes us on excursions across the United States, and especially to south of the border, into Tijuana.  His Mexican photographs are his quietest, and most poignant.  Hopper's images of rural and railroad scenes in the Mexican state of Durango alone make for a remarkable monograph of photography that transcends its travel and tourist origins.

Robert Fraser, Tijuana, 1965

If your coffee table is sturdy enough to accommodate this giant tome, I recommend gracing it with the most crucial period of this larger-than-life icon of the 1960s avant-garde art scene.  Dennis Hopper's work is both entertaining and enduring, and belongs on the same book shelves with such kindred spirits as Garry Winogrand, Louis Faurer, Weegee, Diane Arbus, and Robert Frank.

Painter James Rosenquist, 1964

Visit Taschen's website to view a PDF of this fascinating book.