World Photography Day - August 19 (quotes & books):

World Photography Day

August 19

You’re not trying to capture reality. You’re trying to capture a photograph of reality.

– Stanley Kubrick.

Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.

– Dorothea Lange.

Whatever happens in front of the lens stays. What’s captured during the encounter is all that exists.

– Gregory Heisler.

I think photography is a universal language as far as storytelling goes, and I think that’s what it’s most successful at.

– Mary Mattingly.

It’s amazing how photography can capture just a split second of something exquisite.

– Kiera Cass.

Recommended reading:

Eye on America

Photographs by Michael Ruetz.

Introduction by William Least Heat Moon.

New York Graphic Society book.

Published by Little, Brown and Company.

Published 1984.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 0821215736

Description:

85 color illustrations, including 7 panoramic foldouts.

“America,” writes William Least Heat Moon in his introduction, “is yet a place to test a vision or to find a vision of whatever kind.”

Eye on America is the stunning embodiment of one such vision – a celebration of this nation’s unsurpassed beauty, its contrasts and ironies. Michael Ruetz, highly regarded in Europe for his photojournalism and photographic books, spent two years on a solitary odyssey, traversing the United States. From Pemaquid, Maine, to the volcanic slopes of Maui, he captured the scope and grandeur of the country for this collection of images, which includes seven panoramic foldouts.

Eye on America stands well apart from the run of photographic books, not only because of Ruetz’s superb technique, but because of the unusual camera he uses. This Technorama camera is capable of encompassing hundred-degree views without distortion. In Eye on America, cities – Boston, New York, Atlanta, Saint Louis, and Houston among them – unfold in sweeps of skyline. Juztaposed with these glowing human monuments are expanses yet untamed – the Grand Canyon, Bruce Canyon, the Oregon coast, Point Lobos, and Death Valley. Through subltle and striking light effects, Ruetz transforms the familiar into visions at once mysterious and new. As William Least Heat Moon comments:

“Michael Ruetz almost creates this beauty within the camera; he catches a casting of light, or he backs away from his subject until the breadth of view minimizes specifics and turns even the jarring details of a city into concordance. With the particular softened, the universal comes forward, and with it, Ruetz hopes, the timeless.”

A Photographer’s Life: 1990-2005

by Annie Leibovitz.

Published by Random House Trade Paperbacks.

Published 2009.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 081297963X

ISBN-13: 978-0812979633

Description:

“Annie Leibovitz’s photographic memoir of the past fifteen years in her life captures powerful, intimate moments…. She juxtaposes the most personal against the full-color flash of celebrities and the grandeur of the natural landscape against the bloody horror of war. A Photographer’s Life is a testament to a life lived large – and in full embrace.” – More magazine.

“Her fans may be astonished both by the range of the work and the unstudied, everyday quality of some of the images–a family day at the beach, a newborn in the delivery room.” – Newsweek.

“A revelation.” – Boston Sunday Globe.

“Startling.” – Washington Post.

Time Frames: City Pictures

By Michael Spano.

Photography by Michael Spano.

Introduction by Susan Kismaric.

Published by powerHouse Books.

Published 2002.

First Edition.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 1576871401

ISBN-13: 978-1576871409

Description:

Time Frames, Michael Spano’s long-awaited first monograph, is an exploration of spatial and temporal dimensions in photography framed by the backdrop of New York City. Divided into five chapters, each employing a distinctive technical process. Time Frames showcase a wonderful, typically disjointed way of looking at life in New York City. Panoramas captures interacting urbanites moving through elongated frames as the lens of an extremely wide field camera pans during exposure. Grids captures eight moments on a single negative as Spano moves through a sequence of events, pre-determinedly exposing one small portion of the negative every four seconds. Portraits focuses on individual inhabitants transformed from their settings through the solarization and blurring of forms into atmospheric otherworlds. Multi-Exposures matches solarizations with multiple perspectives. These single-negative layered compositions arrange and compress selected intervals of time and space into one image. Diptychs fuses two distinct moments onto one negative, in which the scale, focal planes, and perspectives shift and ultimately compose a dual image of urban spaces.

The Here and Now: The Photography of Sam Jones

By Sam Jones.

Published by It Books.

Published 2007.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 0061348120

ISBN-13: 978-0061348129

Description:

“Sam Jones has a unique ability in this age of insane celebrity idolatry to humanize these people who often seem entirely estranged from the world the rest of us live in. This book is about celebrity, yes, but its also about one artist’s ability to use fame to create something uniquely delightful.” – David Granger, Editor in Chief, Esquire, from the Foreward.

Portraits

By John Hedgecoe.

Published by Collins & Brown.

Published 2000.

First Edition.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 185585726X

ISBN-13: 978-1855857261

Description:

For the past four decades John Hedgecoe has been taking pictures of the leading figures in the worlds of art, literature, science and politics – from Winston Churchill to Mary Quant. His technical skill and unerring ability to capture the essence of the sitter in a single frame have brought him tremendous critical acclaim.

This comprehensive portfolio brings together an impressive collection of John Hedgecoe’s portraits, featuring an eclectic mix of personalities from all avenues of life. These masterful photographs reflect his wide-ranging career, from the early days on Queen magazine to his years as Professor of Photography at the Royal College of Art in London.

Accompanied by short anecdotes that offer an entertaining insight into the special relationship that exists between the photographer and his subject, Portraits is a revealing portfolio and an illuminating read.

Making the Bad Blood & Mall Maze trailer videos:

During the making of the video trailers for Bad Blood and Mall Maze, I got to make fake blood again.
Something I always loved to do during many Halloweens past.
Great fun.

There are various recipes for making fake blood, using water, flour, corn syrup, chocolate syrup, etc …
Through trial and error … a lot of trial and error … I eventually settled on clear liquid hand soap and food dye.
It’s easier and faster.
The soap already has a thick consistency, with an effect that mimics the slow flow, ooze and drip of real blood.

To make the fake blood, I filled a jar with soap, added red food dye, then green food dye to darken it.
Apply the green dye one drop at a time as you continue to mix.
If you add too much green, the solution turns brown and you have to dump it out and start over.
It’s that simple.
 
Choose the recipe that works best for you.
If you’re going to use my method – remember that it's soap.

Be cautious how you use it.
One advantage is that soap and food dye doesn’t permanently stain clothes.
I patch-tested a white washcloth and it cleaned no problem.
The disadvantage is that it’s SOAP.
Patch-test to make sure it doesn’t irritate your skin.
Get any in your eyes – it’ll sting.
Swallow any – it’ll make you sick.
Be mindful and careful.

Remember the pros and cons.

Pros ... it's soap.

Cons ... it's SOAP!
 
For the Bad Blood trailer, in reference to one of the key chapters in that novel, I repurposed the machete from my collection of gardening tools and two precision craft knives from my art tools I use for miniature model making.
In the future, I will be making videos using miniature models.
 
To make the fake blood flow down the blade, I used an applicator bottle with the narrow funnel.

You can control the flow better, with less mess and waste.

I draped one of my plain black T-shirts over the front of the sink.

The black fabric absorbs light and prevents reflection when filming metal surfaces.

My wife exclaimed: “What the …?!” when she walked into the bathroom and saw I’d used the fake blood to make a bloody handprint and put some nice smears around the inside of the tub.

Another advantage of using soap … it rinses away no problem.

For part of the Mall Maze trailer, again in reference to part of that novel, I filled my left driving glove with fake blood and let it ooze out through the seams for the effect of a wounded hand.

Using the same method of preventing reflection, with black curtains around the camera lens, I made another short film of the jar I’ll be using in a future video.

I'll be using the same blanketing method when filming and photographing a glass tank, for mixing inks and paints in water.

Below are the trailers for Bad Blood and Mall Maze:

Finally, here’s my assistant, Bodhi, our crazy Ragdoll cat:

Photography and film-making:

I’m excited to be branching into creating book advertisement trailers, animation, and short movies.
 
More to come.

Greeting Cards:

Click on the images to be redirected to the Zazzle store and see the full selection.

NOTE: New designs are added regularly.

A percentage from sales is donated to Multiple Sclerosis (MS) research.

Greeting Cards:

Click on the images to be redirected to the Zazzle store and see the full selection.

NOTE: New designs are added regularly.

A percentage from sales is donated to Multiple Sclerosis (MS) research.