Well, maybe a little “wow.” Since I last wrote, I have sold my house and found homes for dog and horses, and I have moved to a loft in downtown (Lowertown) St. Paul.  This is major.  People in the building are artists; they think like artists; in other words, they’re tolerant of each others’ divergent and occasionally spacey thinking, and they are encouraging to each other.

My move has allowed me to be out shooting almost daily without having to get in my car to drive 30 miles.  In fact, I’ve only used one tank of gas in the last month.

Since there is so much to discuss, since I haven’t posted for six months, half a year, and since I have to put together a book proposal within two weeks, I’ll just call this post a restart.  I promise to write later with all of the ideas rambling ’round my brain, including some new work.

Later.

Cheers,

Michael

Happy New Year. It is winter here in South Dakota. One often thinks of it being cold, below zero, with the wind howling off the prairie, and snow drifting to the rooftops, and that would be right, sometimes, when it is that way. Anyone who knows South Dakota, though, knows that it might also be 70 degrees and sunny, all the snow melted into mud. The truth is, right now, it is somewhere in between, but it is winter, and the days are pretty short, and it’s a bit too chilly to run around shooting projects outdoors. It’s a better time to sit in a warm house and drink mulled wine.

About a week ago I went shopping for some glüwein or at least the spices to make it, but the spices were unavailable, and this being the state that’s trying to pass an abortion ban and always votes republican, the wine was not for sale because it was Sunday. Still, it is a good time to mull, if not wine, then ideas, concepts, plans.

I am planning a website remodel to show better what I do, what the common threads are in my growing body of work. Various professionals, photographers and curators, have said I have to limit the scope of my work to accomodate the thinking of editors and other curators, and, while I understand and appreciate the advice, I just can’t accept that I should ignore any avenue down which my photographic urges want to lead me. This is part of the reason that I am letting the body of work age and develop - watching the various directions curve toward some meeting points.

I am shooting much more color than I once did. I like it, although I still have a deep appreciation for the beautiful shadows and highlights in black and white photographs. Should I abandon the black and white work I’m doing? Probably not. Should I stop putting it in my portfolios (whatever they are)? Maybe. What about all the older black and white work, the essays, the series that have been such a substantial part of my portfolio (here used in perhaps another sense)? Should I put them in some archive type category? Perhaps “classic?” This is not just a matter of black and white versus color.

It is a matter of moving on, if in fact, it actually is moving on. Do curators and editors want to see what I have done in the past or what I’m doing now. In one respect, I suspect it is up to me. Do I still consider some earlier work as commonly thematic with newer work?

So, as I said earlier, I’m mulling, though right now, it is morning, and I’m drinking brewed coffee, not mulled wine. Incidentally, the latest batch of Nouveau Beaujolais is great.

Halloween was low key but fun.  Late in the afternoon, I heard about a party at some friends’ 1860’s cabin.  Here are a couple photos from that night.  Question: What is the weaver in the red costume dressed up as?

The Saturday before that, I dropped a heavy shelf on my foot which swelled and hurt, so I walked around very gently thinking I had bruised it.  After two weeks though (yesterday), I figured out that my right  foot is broken (for the third time).  So now I’m laid up with the same air cast and crutches I had the last time.

It’s been raining for two days, just enough rain to feel like a blanket wrapping you in softness and security.  Two days ago, I drove 4 hours to Des Moines to photograph Senator Clinton addressing the Sisters on Target banquet.  I wanted to get close and actually interact with Hillary, but the wall created by her blanket of security, the secret service and personal staff determined when and how I would shoot.  I was happy enough with what I brought home and sent off to Sipa.

I have a new show coming up in February at a wonderful gallery, Nuance, in Beresford, SD.  I’ll be sharing the show with a sculptor friend of mine, Mary Selvig.

I am in a period of photographic and professional growth, having met with Mary Virginia Swanson for two hours last week, followed by a portfolio review with George Slade, director of the Minnesota Center for Photography.  So, I am in the middle of revising my website and my portfolios.  It is giving me new perspective on editing for stories, print sales, portfolios, and books.  There is much to think about and consider.

Is this photograph emotional?

This has been one of the biggest mysteries to anyone who knows me. “What the hell are you talking about?” “You missed the point!” I think that I think associatively or tangentially. This becomes more clear when I start to organize photos, and since I have maintained for years that I photograph to make meaning, the idea of orgaznizing photos in a sense bringing manner makes sense.

This is nowhere near the order in which I made these photos, just the way that they seem to flow conceptually, at least to me.

Until Recently, I swore I’d always shoot in black and white. Then I started shooting with a digital camera, and an older artist friend of mine started looking at the color captures and commenting on how nice the color worked in various photographs.

I’d already been thinking how nice it was to have the choice of color or b&w without having to decide when I took the shot. I tried some pure color and came to grips with color being ok when it has a reason for being.

I began to see that sometimes it’s the color that prompts me to take the picture; other times it’s the geometry or the action. Often, when different colors have similar values, black and white just won’t work, because there isn’t enough contrast.

I wondered (and still do) what color’s place is in the different genres of photography; fine art, photojournalism, street shooting. I’ve come to some working solutions for myself, but they’re only tentative, and they don’t really matter. The one problem I run into, though, is whether a given photo should be color or b&w.

What I have figured out is that some images look better in color and some in black and white and that there is no reason not to include both color and black and white images in a book or exhibition.

I do think that color is a powerful ingredient or tool and should be used intentionally, a little here, a little there.

As I look around at what has been happening in the art photography world, I see some confusion. (or maybe I feel it - there’s a big difference with confusion) In the early days of small format photography, there was no such thing as a “series.” There were photographs. The two great Magnum photographers to whom I best relate, Bresson and Erwitt, made photographs and except for a personal style, there was nothing the same about separate photographs. The men found photographs they wanted to take and took them. Then they moved on.

Now, everything has to be a “series.” Everything has to be new and groundbreaking. Guys, there’s only so much ground to break and still make photography. I’m not talking about art using light as a medium to paint with; I’m talking about capturing the moment, the one thing that photography can do that nothing else can.

So what about new and innovative? Here’s what Bresson, the publically acclaimed master, said, “Photography is a way of shouting, of freeing oneself, not of proving or asserting one’s own originality. It’s a way of life.”

I’m not saying I don’t or won’t shoot series, because I do, but often I’m shooting whatever captures my attention. Does this mean that photograph is not worth hanging, because there aren’t 24 more just like it? If the gallery wants unique, it would seem that one such photo would do a better job of meeting their requirements than 25.

Oh, and by the way, here are some from the same evening.

Perhaps we could serialize and call them, “Falling Behind.”

Later,

MAS

It is humid and not quite stormy out. This kind of weather puts me on edge and makes everything seem unsatisfactory.  Needless to say, I’m not editing photos today.

I have a question for everyone:  When you exhibit or publish a series, is it something you actively worked on from start to finish with the series in mind, or do you go through all your good shots and pick out the ones that go together in a story or group?

I would really like to  know  how various people work.

MAS

Tomorrow is (would be) my younger brother’s birthday. He died tragically 12 years ago. My mother has a shrine to him in the corner of her living room. The pictures of him are in the back left. His two kids’ pictures are also in the set, and they are all sitting below the one painting he wished to inherit someday. I never noticed the shrine before this visit.