Boating Roundup Delay

August 29, 2007

Just in case anyone thought I forgot, I do have a couple of pictures from this past weekend’s boating excursion with the folks. I’ve just been way too busy with the beginning of the semester looming, but stay tuned - I’ll have pictures and wrap-up soon. Rest assured it was great fun, and made me long for the nautical life I shall probably never have. Alas.

Posted in: filler 2 Comments »

Two Old Pictures

August 20, 2007

Here are a couple of old pictures from back in the day. The summer of 1992 I went to Boston a few times, and on one of the occasions took my camera along to shoot Ethan’s portrait. Why I’m not precisely sure - I think it was Ethan who initiated this session, not me. We stomped around the Fens and the Victory Gardens a bit looking for appropriate places to shoot. This was at the Museum of Fine Arts. Somehow I got talked into having my own picture taken, and the rest is history.

Ethan: So Punk It Hurts

Me: Sensitive Artist In Training

I wasn’t sure if I had really good documentation of the shear ridiculousness of my hair at the time. This pretty much sums it up.

Posted in: photo 6 Comments »

Photographers: Are We Dead In The Water?

August 16, 2007

My good friend Brian has known me and my work since junior high. He sent me a link to a blog entry about the current Professional Photography market, the trends, and the influx of amateurs with cheap-yet-nice cameras selling their work for nothing to stock photography sites. There was another link at the end which was a bit better stated.

Here’s my take on all of that.

The last year of getting my BFA in photography I took a class called “Professional Directions for Photographers”. In it we discussed the process and pitfalls of following a variety of paths to reach the stage where our work in the art world was sustainable. We covered showing in galleries, publishing, curating - all kinds of topics. It was the most inspiring class I took in my time there.

One of the most important lessons I came away from this class with was: I never had any intention of doing the legwork, networking, and compromising required to fit most professional photographic jobs. It simply wasn’t going to happen. Never let process stand in the way of product.

The interesting thing about this discovery was that it didn’t ruin me. I didn’t bemoan my squandered education. There wasn’t any point where I felt that I’d made a mistake.

Quite the opposite.

Instead, the realization that I was free to do my work the way I wanted without worrying about my marketability was a fantastic new area for me to splash around in. I immediately accepted that I’d be doing a mundane 9-5 job until I retired to pay the bills unless there was some major fluke. That was, and still is, fine with me.

In the time since I worked all that out, I have detoured into video, went back and got by MFA, abandoned video, shot piles of Polaroids, and ended up where I am today: shooting often and coming up with multiple threads to pursue, with a much stronger eye, a much clearer vision, and a desire to build upon all that I have already done and produce work that fulfills every visual ambition that I’ve ever had.

Will it make me money? Will it make me famous? I like money, but have no need to be famous. Que sera, sera is how I’m looking at My Position In The Photo World. I’m proud of the work I’m doing. That covers about 90% of why I do it in the first place.

So when I hear about pro photographers grumbling over lost profits and the devaluing of photography, I do sympathize. It’s a monumental task to get to that point, and it stinks to watch untrained saps put their work out there so effortlessly. Unfortunately, though, there is always a golden age to anything that will always seem like it has passed, nothing will ever be the same again, and what we are left with is the ruination of what many of us have worked so hard to be a part of.

On the other hand, the major point that springs to mind is that artists have a tendency to panic every time a new tool emerges and makes their craft seem easier and more accessible to the general public. Indeed, it is easier than ever for an individual to produce and sell work on little more than a whim while the pros wince and cry into their ground glass about all the time, care, money, and effort that has been lost to a loser with a fancy beginner DSLR.

I understand all that, but must point to history and mention that this is nothing new. People have been given tools that lend a potentially professional feel to sub-amateur work since just after Gutenberg’s press. Each and every time there is a new technique, tool, or method of producing work a glut of nonsense appears that wows audiences until the less valuable output falls away and the last wo/men standing are the true artists.

This will keep happening. A point that many have made is that those who grew up wanting to be a part of the pro photography system that they are familiar with will need to change or perish. I agree with this. You have to be better than ever, and want it so badly you could scream, to survive in the photography market today - particularly if you expect to be hired as freelance. Assignments just aren’t being offered like they used to be. Cheap stock is plentiful. It isn’t enough to be the best anymore. The whole strategy for getting your name out there and your work recognized needs to be reconsidered top to bottom.

So what do I do? As I mentioned, I never wanted to be in that market anyway. I don’t miss it. However, I’m having a grand old time working on my imaging and am getting it out there in the small, steady ways that I can handle.

I’m not going to put myself in a position to starve over an idealistic view of how an artist or professional photographer operates. There is a major difference between the work that is sold to stock agencies and the work that I (and a lot of other artists) do. Are we whimsically entertaining our lofty, artsy ambitions?

Maybe.

But I’m cool with that.

Posted in: photo chatter 3 Comments »

Research Art

August 13, 2007

A few posts back I mentioned a project I had a hand in here at the lab - Research Art!

There were many blank walls around the lab that I work in. Occasionally someone would hang a poster that they made for a conference, which were sometimes interesting, but more often than not would look a little ridiculous as the corners started to curl and pull off the wall. My new boss (as of last fall) decided that these would no longer be allowed to hang, and instead we would start a program of “research art” - figures, drawings, and other strange items that would be extracted from research materials, stripped of most obvious meaning, and blown up to 20″ x 30″ to be framed and installed around the building. The initial idea leaned more towards taking a graph and removing the legend, but I had different thoughts.

There are a number of great ones that were submitted by people around the lab, but as I didn’t have much of a hand in those (simply polished them up and printed them pretty much as-is), you’ll just have to pay me a visit in order to see them.

As keeper of the poster printer, I end up with everyone’s research posters. They are treasure troves of idiosyncratic little images. Below I’ve posted a few that I found and put up in the lab. Keeping with the original idea, I’m not going to bother explaining what they depict. I’d probably get it wrong anyway.

You should also be aware that these look much cooler in great big frames on the wall. The bulk of them are sharp, colorful, and bold, which is hard to convey here on blogger - especially with the severe JPEG compression that they apply to uploaded photos. Again, though, feel free to pay a visit, and we’ll do a lab walk to savor the art.

This is one of the first ones I did. I don’t really think it is what people were expecting. They were a little bemused at first, but then saw where this was all going and got into it. Of course, there are still those who think it’s all a bit ridiculous. That’s OK.

Another early one. This one didn’t come out so great in print. Might try to reprint it sometime.

This is one that I just did. I think it’s great. Not sure where it’s going to go yet - part of me wants to keep it near my desk, but there’s no good wall space left.

Green spinning things. Whimsical, aren’t they?

I appear to have a penchant for arrows that have been stripped of their meaning by my reckless cropping.

When I asked for submissions, one student got the wrong idea and made a whole research poster conformed to the 20×30 specifications. I felt bad that he didn’t quite get it, and tried to extract something from his poster. I loved this image immediately, but didn’t even bother running it past the Director. I’m willing to bet he’d despise it.

Heh. Pond.

(I don’t know if they made the images themselves, but these were extracted from the research posters of: Khandaker Ashfaque, Jesse Shapiro, Rebecca Neumann, Virginia Rich, and Marcos of the Parsons Lab at MIT)

Posted in: MIT 2 Comments »

More Bizarre Visions

August 9, 2007

Thanks to the bizarre magic of Burger King and The Simpsons, here is how I might end up were I ever a guest voice on the show.

Well, the outfit is correct anyway.

Posted in: huh? 5 Comments »

Bizarre Visions

August 9, 2007

Today on the way to work I was thinking about the Music Express. You know, that carnival/amusement park ride where you get in a car that goes round and round in line with a bunch of other cars while rock music plays really loudly over speakers that have been tortured for way too long.

I was wondering what it would be like if they played old Philip Glass records instead. There’d certainly be some kind of demented nature to spinning around while berserk arpeggios play in your ears, but my favorite part was imagining the conclusion of the ride:

Many of Glass’ pieces end abruptly, with the whole Ensemble building up through an overpowering crescendo to an abrupt silence that ends the piece.

So the ride, of course, should also hit the brakes and screech to a stop violently and abruptly - which would result in everyone flying out of their seats and landing on the car in front of them.

OK. Now go picture it. I burst out laughing in the middle of the subway car. Hell, I’m still chortling about it right now.

Bizarre.

Posted in: huh? 2 Comments »

97th Post!

August 8, 2007

OK. So this was supposed to be a big exciting 100th post, but I’m difficult and contrary, so I modified it to be the 97th. Here is a list of 97 questions from those questionnaires that people love to send around to each other. Now that I’ve done this, I don’t ever expect to see one in my inbox again. Just refer to this one.

1. What time is it?
Morning.

2. Living arrangement?
Just me and the mice.

3. What book are you reading now?
The Pan Am Building and the Shattering of the Modernist Dream, Meredith L. Clausen

4. What’s on your mouse pad?
What mouse pad?

5. Favorite board game?
Scrabble, unless there are four people - then I’ll push for the card game Asshole.

6. Favorite magazine?
I used to say the British music magazine Q, but then I started to be out of touch with all the bands they named dropped (not to mention, I got a little sick of their irritating obsession with Oasis) - so I haven’t read it in a while.

7. Favorite smells?
Jet A Fuel

8. Least favorite smells?
The mall dumpster that is shared between the entire place - including the food court. Barf.

9. Favorite sound?
Hmm. There’s the romantic ones, like foghorns and things like that… but I’m afraid that a big vintage synth farty rumbly bass line really gets me more than anything.

10. Worst feeling in the world?
Confusion.

11. What is the first thing you think of when you wake up in the morning?
Juice.

12. Favorite color?
green, grey

13. What food irritates the hell out of you?
Corn. It doesn’t get any stupider than a food that has no value and exits in the same form that it entered.

14. What’s the furthest you’ve traveled from home?
Beirut, Lebanon

15. What song sends you into a homicidal rage?
“Lazy Days”, Spanky and Our Gang (sorry, Nancy!)

16. What is your opinion of porn and/or Playboy?
I’m all for it, as long as we’re talking about the (relatively) respectable mega-industry and not scary messed up stuff with kids and coersion and lord knows that else.

17. What was your most embarrassing drunken episode?
You’d have to ask someone else - I don’t pull the “I don’t remember” thing, but I can say that at this very moment they’re buried pretty far down in the memory banks.

18. Is there a book you’ve read more than three times?
There are many books I’ve read more than three times - I’m weird like that.

19. How many rings before you answer the phone?
2-3

20. Last album that you bought?
The big Genesis box set of “The Middle Years”. (It. Rocks.)

21. Most disliked very, very popular musical person?
Elvis Costello. Not only because he exists, but because everyone insists that I should like him and are shocked when I don’t.

22. How do you like your coffee?
Used to be a little sugar, but now that I’m an old fatso I’ll go with a little Splenda.

23. Future child’s name?
No kids here, sorry.

24. What is most important in life?
Sleep.

25. Favorite foods?
Rachel and Mike’s New Years Quiche, just about anyone’s turkey and mashed potatoes, and Grandmother’s Presbyterian Choir Cake for dessert.

26. Vanilla or chocolate?
I’ll take swirl, thank you.

27. Do you like to drive fast?
Only if I am the one driving.

28. Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?
No.

29. Storms - cool or scary?
Extra cool if there’s someone around, scary if I am in the house alone.

30. What type was your first car?
‘81 Camaro

31. If you could meet one person dead or alive?
Edwin Land.

32. Favorite alcoholic drink?
I’m always up for a good bitter IPA.

33. What is your zodiac sign?
Taurus

34. Do you eat the stems of broccoli?
I’d rather eat dirt.

35. If you could have any job what would it be?
Archiving, cataloging, and restoring nuclear test films.

36. If you could dye your hair any color?
I don’t have much left to dye.

37. Ever been in love?
MYOB.

38. Is the glass half empty or half full?
Empty.

39. Favorite movies?
Midnight Madness, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Koyaanisqatsi

40. Do you type with your fingers on the right keys?
Yes indeed.

41. What’s under your bed?
Old LaserDisc and SelectaVision players.

42. What is your favorite number?
12

43. Favorite sport to watch?
Hockey

44. Say one nice thing about the person who sent this to you.
Rachel smells funny.

45. What CD do you have in your stereo right now?
“The Pointer Sisters”, The Pointer Sisters. To be honest I bought it because it was a Mobile Fidelity issue, but am coming to find that it is a damn fine album!

46. Favorite TV show?
The Muppet Show

47. Earliest memory?
I think having my diaper changed…

48. Name as it appears on birth certificate?
James Michael Long

49. Nicknames?
Don’t ask.

50. Number of candles on your last birthday cake?
33

51. Time you get up?
6:30

52. Children?
I know plenty of all ages.

53. Piercing/tattoos?
Yeah. Sure.

54. Eyes?
Blue.

55. How much do you love your job?
It’ll do.

56. Birthday:
May 11, 1974

57. Been to Africa?
No.

58. Been toilet papering?
Shh!

59. Been in a car accident?
Yes.

60. Croutons or bacon bits?
Croutons.

61. Favorite day of the week?
Saturday.

62. Favorite saying or phrase?
Bite me.

63. Favorite restaurant?
Sol Azteca.

64. Favorite flower?
Money plant.

65. Favorite nonalcoholic drink?
Ginger ale.

66. Favorite ice cream?
I’ve never been a huge ice cream fan, but a good dish of Mint Chocolate Chip will do quite nicely!

67. How many times did you fail your driver’s test?
Zero!

68. Before this one, from whom did you get your last e-mail?
My boss

69. Do you sing in the shower?
Yeah. Right.

70. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card?
Newbury Comics (for the CDs, not the comics)

71. What do you do most when you are bored?
Read.

72. Favorite sport:
Hockey.

73. Favorite vacation spot:
Misquamicut, RI.

74. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
In that little brick building in Cambridge that I covet. I plan on building one just like it in Buffalo. I think.

75. Were you named after anyone?
The name James goes back some ways in the family, but in the immediate family there was my Grandfather - James Martin, my father - James William, and me. James Michael. Why the varying middle names? Not sure, really. But it does tickle me to look at my Grandfather’s old business cards and see my name looking back at me, hence insisting on listing myself as James M. Long at every turn. I’d probably do the same if I had my father’s middle initial, though. That’s a fine association as well!

76. Do you wish on stars?
No, but I do make wishes at other times.

77. When did you last cry?
Might have been my Grandmother’s death.

78. Do you like your handwriting?
Yes. I don’t do cursive anymore except my signature, for I never got the hang of it and it’s illegible. I do like my printing, especially when I’m not in a hurry.

79. What is your most embarrassing cd?
For whatever reason I ended up with a copy of Belinda Carlisle’s Greatest Hits. I can’t even blame the 80s project, for none of her solo songs were in the list. I remember getting it in the dollar bin at the old Sam Goody at Quincy Market, but why? I have no idea. I used to like buying dollar bin stuff if it was even remotely interesting. It’s gone now, not even ripped into iTunes. Bye-bye, Belinda.

80. If you were another person would you be friends with you?
Maybe. I might think that I was a pompous asshole, though. Hard to tell.

81. Do you have a journal?
On and off. I tend to regard the blog as the journal these days, though of course it isn’t gushing with seedy secrets - as a journal should be. Learned my lesson on that one, I’ll tell ya.

82. Would you bungee jump?
No.

83. What is your favorite cereal?
Responsible cereal? Cheerios. Not-so-responsible? Lucky Charms. It’s all my Grandmother’s fault. Whenever I stayed with Grandmother and Grandfather she had Lucky Charms all the time. Of course, she had the same merciless sweet tooth that the entire family is cursed with, and could easily be spotted savoring her own bowl of them.

84. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?
Yes, since the time I ripped the sole off my pricey shoes doing it the naughty way.

85. What is your favorite lunch meat?
I used to have a real roast beef thing, but it goes awry so easily. I still enjoy it, but I have to inspect it first. Turkey is usually a pretty safe bet.

86. Do you think that you are strong?
My cousin Lisa once told me that I am a dog person who wishes he was a cat person. Draw from that what you will.

87. What is your least favorite thing about yourself?
Procrastination.

88. Who do you miss the most?
My Grandparents, definitely. Not much I can do about that. My friend Reid in Beirut. He’s trapped and miserable. It’s depressing.

89. Last thing you ate?
Despite the fact that I’m supposed to be watching my intake, last night on the way home from work I bought a little package of Peggy Lawton chocolate chip cookies. Yeah, those brittle ones wrapped in the impenetrable cellophane wrapper. Achilles heel if ever there was one. They’re delightfully horrid.

90. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?
Nancy, regarding my upcoming visit to Ellington.

91. Do you wear contacts?
No, but everyone in my family wears glasses in one form or another - which means I’m dead in the water in a few years.

92. Favorite Day Of The Year?
New Year’s Day. There’s good friends, quiche a-plenty, making fun of the parade announcers, and sitting around feeling sluggish. What could be finer?

93. Scary Movies Or Happy Endings?
Scary movies.

94. Summer or winter?
Winter.

95. What Did You Watch Last night on TV?
I hate television, don’t even have an antenna. However, I did watch a bit of “West Side Story”. All films should be shot in 70mm.

96. Stones or Beatles?
Beatles.

97. Do you like surprises?
Well, of course - the good ones, I mean. Not things like IRS surprises.

Posted in: bloggy business 5 Comments »

Not Much

August 6, 2007

I don’t really have anything to contribute today, except for the amusing picture above of Melissa, Baha, and I descending the first hill on The Beast. They gouge you pretty good for the pictures, but I thought this one was worth it. The three of us look like we’re having a pretty good time (as opposed to feeling barfy).

I have no idea who that guy I’m sitting next to is. King’s Island was fairly loose about letting you have a whole seat to yourself if that’s what you wanted, but in a moment of chaos we scurried our way in and I took the seat next to him. He was initially peevish about this, but clearly got over it.

Besides that, I am cranky and have a headache. I have been distracting myself with creative tasks: making more of the weird “research art” things that we’ve hung up all over the lab that I work in. They’re interesting and fun to make, but the reality is that everyone thinks I’m a complete crackpot, as usual.

I’ve been trying to amuse myself by pondering these two people: I’ve decided that it is Danny and Wendy Torrance. Danny is trying to contact Scatman Crothers to save them from the coaster; Wendy appears to believe that Jack Nicholson is in the tunnel we are about to enter wielding an axe.

Posted in: photo 6 Comments »

Huh?

August 2, 2007

Rolling Stone, in their wisdom, has published a list of the “25 Most Underappreciated Artists“. I’ll admit that I have been exposed to some good stuff due to 1) a few years of boarding school 2) art school and 3) city dwelling in general. But honestly - do they really think that these bands are slipping through the cracks? Please!

1. Tom Waits
Everyone I know goes through a bit of a Tom Waits thing at some point or another. In fact, owning Frank’s Wild Years earns you 3 credits at most art schools and many universities.

2. The Replacements
Are you kidding?

3. Cheap Trick
OK.

4. Sonic Youth
Oh, come on. Yeah, sure, Sonic Youth need more appreciation. They’re perpetual indie rock luminaries whose position is guaranteed for all eternity. Unless you’re still grumpy about the little wobble that was “Bull in the Heather”, you must admit that they haven’t really messed up their cred, survived Geffen with grace, and continue to wow forward-thinking music fans.

5. Warren Zevon
I can’t read too many music articles without his name coming up one way or another.

6. Big Star
OK, I’ll bite: who?

7. The Pharcyde
See #6.

8. Roxy Music
Huh? Brian Eno was a founder. That translates to permanent hip status. Even the ultra-smooth Avalon, which would have vanished if it had been by some crap band like Johnny Hates Jazz, continues to sit on Top Whatever album lists.

9. Talking Heads
I’m not even going to address this.

10. Bob Seger
Well, alright. I get this one. Like Journey, there’s really no better way to drive around America wasting gas and feeling all immortal-like than with a Bob Seger song. Unfortunately, he does take a lot of guff for simply being Bob Seger. But… I’m willing to bet that his greatest hits albums sell pretty damn well. Even I own one of them. Weren’t expecting that, were you. (well, maybe you were)

11. Fugazi
Ooh, really digging up the obscure bands, aren’t we?

Rolling Stone, for whatever reason, did not actually have a 12 in their list. Why? I don’t know. But since they interrupted my flow of smug musical rantings with inconsistency, I’ll just say that my comments would be pretty much the same for the below bands.

In summary: Are they kidding? Is this list for real?

Tom Petty? Yeah. He’s a real underdog. Full Moon Fever didn’t sell for shit.

13. The Cramps
14. The New York Dolls
15. The Band
16. The Cars
17. Pogues
18. Alice Cooper
19. Dinosaur Jr
20. Sleater-Kinney
21. Hüsker Dü
22. Devo
23. Wilco
24. Tom Petty
25. Ween

I’ll find out who Big Star and Pharcyde are, in case I’m doing my part to under-appreciate brilliance, and if you see anything that you don’t know, well, see? Rolling Stone was right.

Get crackin’.

For the record, tons of people appreciate these bands, myself included. If you don’t know Hüsker Dü, well, I’m sorry. You are Rolling Stone’s moron target audience. Get thee to a record store pronto.

Who do I think is genuinely underappreciated?

a-ha.

No, I’m serious. A stupid name, a perky bubble gum hit, and too many cheekbones to really be taken seriously by Americans, they got the short end of the deal over here. There’s some great stuff past “Take On Me”, most of it with a sculpted pop bent (if that’s going to be an issue, then fine, don’t bother) and an interesting way with melody. Sure, they’ve done stuff I think is crap, but so has most bands that I get into.

Posted in: huh? 3 Comments »