Photo Sunday: Stephen Shore

I can't believe that it wasn't until last week that I'd ever heard of or seen the work of Stephen Shore.



Working in much the same vein (and the same time) as William Eggleston, Stephen Shore's style is nevertheless distinct. While Eggleston, as far as I know, always or at least usually shot with medium format or even 35 mm cameras, Stephen Shore works in 8x10.



Shooting with such a large camera and negative size, Shore's work has a much more painterly feel to it. It feels less spontaneous, but retains that impartiality that characterizes so much of Eggleston's work, too.


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Shore's interiors seem like a point of inspiration for Todd Hido, another of my favorite photographers.


This image is such a precursor to the work of Nan Goldin. She was more interested in people than fabric patterns, sure, but the aesthetic is quite similar.



Shore was born in 1947 (still alive, for the record) in New York City. His passion for photography began in childhood, and by the time he was 24, he had mounted a solo show in the MoMA. Shooting on cross-country road trips, Shore captured that proverbial American Landscape in its 1970s glory.


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As a young man, Stephen Shore hung out in Warhol's factory, and managed to snap some beautiful shots of the classic Factory denizens.


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Lou Reed <3 and Andy Warhol

Unless otherwise specified, all images come from the website of Shore's representing gallery, 303 Gallery. All rights reserved to Stephen Shore and 303 Gallery. Biographical information comes from Shore's Wikipedia article. 

you've got too much to wear on your sleeves

Just a quick one today!


dress: thrift -- cardigan: thrift -- shoes: thrift -- scarf: present from Alex, thrift -- tights: present from my sister Molly, Target

I actually wore this yesterday, anticipating that today's forecasted rain would mean I'd be dressed in the jeans, boots, and huge cardigan that I'm currently sporting.



I love this dress. It's a Gap 90s does 60s number. I've seen it at the thrift store a few times, oddly enough. If I find it again in a larger size, I think I'll have to buy it. The one I have seems like it was put through the dryer, and, beyond that, it's just too tight in the butt :P I spent all day yanking it down.

Here's another way I styled it in the fall:



And a little detail shot of the super cool pattern:



I think yesterday's version was the more youthful, fun styling, and the way I styled it last fall is more classic. I like both! Seeing that picture makes me miss having (comparatively) longer hair. What do you think?

I spent some more time in the darkroom yesterday and made a print using two negatives. It was a pretty labor intensive process with lots of contrast tinkering, dodging, burning, time tinkering, etc., but I love the end result. Totally worth it.



Off to go buy more photo paper and read this really fascinating book for class about Reconstruction and depictions of enslaved Americans and emancipation through public monuments. I'm not being sarcastic; I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys American history. It's called Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves.


Today's title comes from The Shins -- "Kissing the Lipless." I love that song so much. The Shins are part of an elite group of bands that I've liked consistently since 7th-8th grade, and have a very special place in my heart :)

Photo Sunday, Monday Edition: Alejandro Chaskielberg

There are few photographers whose work has ever had quite as strong an immediate impact on me as that of Alejandro Chaskielberg.



All of these images are taken from his series The High Tide, which focuses on the indigenous Guarani people in the Panara River Delta of Argentina.





I particularly enjoy Chaskielberg's work because he cleverly manipulates analog methods to create the effects you see here. Using a 4x5 view camera, Chaskielberg manipulates the focus and angles of his picture to create a surreal sense of scale. He supplements dramatic night-time lights with flashes. The only post-camera aspect is the increased color saturation.





Oh, and did I mention that he's only 33?



I'm not usually much of one for photojournalistic photography, but Chaskielberg's work is something special because it transcends simple documentary-style images. He creates art that stands on its own away from its socio-political context and implications.



I accidentally closed the browser window that had all of the tabs for the sources! Oops. All of these images are the property of Alejandro Chaskielberg, and I probably shouldn't be posting them at all.

i don't mind dressing in green if i thought that you'd understand what i mean

Spent a beautiful afternoon taking photos with Alex in the park. It was CRAZY warm today. 65 degrees warm. What a treat! One more reason to love the South Bay.










I love when everything is green! The hills all turn brown in the sun by May, normally, so there's a very brief window where things are all bucolic and verdant like this.




On me: skirt: thrift -- top: thrift -- jacket: thrift -- shoes: Jeffrey Campbell / On Alex: cords: Levi's -- sweater: thrift -- shoes: thrift -- hat: Scala -- jacket: Vintage Members Only, thrifted







Today's title comes from The Soft Boys -- There's Nobody Like You. The Soft Boys are a really amazing, influential, and sadly under-appreciated group from the seventies. I strongly recommend their album Underwater Moonlight to any fans of post-punk and 80s alternative!

i'm in the new york times online and photo sunday!

First things first...

...that's me! In an all-thrift look I styled for a photoshoot for the New York Times! I've been wanting to share this with you guys for so long. Back in November, my friend Alok invited me to participate in a shoot that our school's Sustainable Fashion Collective was doing for a New York Times feature piece about sustainable fashion on college campuses. I lent a lot of clothes to the group and modeled for the shoot, and I was lucky enough to make it into the online feature. Best of all, I'm wearing the top that's pretty much my favorite shirt ever :)

I can't thank Alok or the Sustainable Fashion Collective enough for getting me involved. It was a really wonderful, fun experience. Major props to our photographer, a fellow student Kris Cheng.

And now onto Photo Sunday. I thought that today, I'd share some of my favorite photographs, all by different photographers. I left out ones by people I've already featured in Photo Friday/Sunday, but their work would all definitely be here otherwise.


Edward Weston
Charis Wilson, 1937
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This photograph is one of the dozens of unforgettable images that Edward Weston and his muse/model/wife Charis Wilson created together. I believe that it's a photograph taken during the time they spent touring the States and making photographs for a Guggenheim Fellowship. There's just such an obvious connection between Charis Wilson and Edward Weston that comes across in this photograph. It's as if you can see all of their relationship just in her expression. Some of my photography teachers were actually friends of Charis Wilson, having met her because she spent the second half of her life in Santa Cruz, which neighbors the San Francisco Bay Area to the south. She passed away in 2009 at the age of 95. By all accounts, Charis Wilson was a beautiful human being in all senses of the word. A documentary about her and Edward Weston, Eloquent Nude, is definitely worth watching.


Alphonse Mucha, 1908
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I only know about this photograph because I bought a postcard of it at the Metropolitan Museum when I was 13. I don't think I even saw the print itself. I love the juxtaposition of the gazing woman and the sleeping man. It's a sort of unfamiliar visual scene, but I always have such a strong impulse to figure out what the model must have been thinking. It's corny, but you can really see something behind her eyes, can't you?


Peter Hujar
Candy Darling on her Deathbed, 1974
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I first saw this photograph as the cover of Antony and the Johnson's album I Am a Bird Now. Candy Darling was a Warhol Factory superstar, a transwoman who delighted everyone with her beauty. And that's her Lou Reed sings about in "Candy Says." She died of leukemia in 1974 at age 29. All of her grace and all of her sadness come across in this image.


Man Ray
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This is probably the first photograph that I ever really fell in love with. I'm not sure I'd find it quite so impressive now as I did when I was 13, but I can still look at it for a long time. I think Man Ray singlehandedly created my artistic interest in creating surreal images.


Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii
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This photograph is from 1909. That's right. 1909. Full color. Prokudin-Gorskii essentially invented the Technicolor process. I think the process of this image is what really fascinates me, but the composition and colors and expressions themselves would make it a standout even with today's technology.

I hope you liked seeing this little smattering of photographs! It was a lot of fun to put together.

On the subject of photography, RosieGlow is having a camera necklace giveaway! It's SUCH a cute piece :)

Photo Sunday: Todd Hido

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Todd Hido is one of the photographers whose work I always come back to. In his series of houses and apartments at night, Todd Hido manages to capture that uneasy calm that settles over suburbia after the sun goes down. Even his shots taken in the daytime seem to somehow convey that same unease.


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Photography literally means "light writing," and Todd Hido exemplifies the possibilities of that meaning. He doesn't use lights or flashes. He works with the light already in a space. The light itself is essentially the subject of the photograph in many of his images.


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Movies and literature have embedded within us the notion that a lone light in a dark landscape promises something. Alien landings, clandestine affairs, and other nocturnal goings-on. That tension and suspense colors all of Hido's work even as it fails to offer up any sort of strange happening. That is why I love it. It isn't about dramatic incidents. To me, it's about the strangeness of the mundane.


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We hardly ever notice light until there is an absence of it.


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P.S. Don't forget to enter the giveaway if you haven't yet! Extra entries if you tweet or re-blog :)

Photo Sunday: Francesca Woodman

Francesca Woodman's work amazes me. Looking at it today, it might be easy to dismiss it as hackneyed, angsty, self-indulgent Project365 work, but that reading forgets one really important fact: Francesca Woodman practically invented the moody, surreal female self-portrait. All of her work was created between 1972 and 1980. Forbearers like Claude Cahun and contemporaries like Cindy Sherman are certainly important figures in the birth of the female self-portrait, but it's Woodman who really brought in the personal, emotional edge.



Unfortunately, Woodman's angsty work was the product of a very troubled life. After a hugely successful undergraduate career at RISD, Woodman committed suicide. She was only 22.



As a young female art student, it's easy to identify with Woodman. Almost all of her work was created while she was still an undergraduate. It makes me feel pretty inadequate to realize that, but it's also inspiring. Being a young woman is an experience that doesn't often get a fair treatment. Just think of how few coming-of-age novels there are about young women in the realm of what's accepted as literature. Francesca Woodman captures something about being a young woman in a way that is both accurate and abstract.


Woodman had an amazing eye for detail. The angle of the fish bones repeats perfectly in the wood of the wall.


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To my eyes, her work has a lot in common with the photography of Ralph Eugene Meatyard. Both of them use the simple trick of a long exposure to create a ghostly, ethereal atmosphere.


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Woodman took this photograph at the age of thirteen. Pretty unbelievable, isn't it? The lighting couldn't be more gorgeous.

I love how Francesca Woodman's photographs are mysterious but resonant. Her imagery is alien but still familiar.