The New York Times Magazine has become a sort of Mecca for contemporary art-photographers. Last week it was Philip-LorcadiCorcia, before that was Martin Parr and then Katy Grannan and then Todd Hido, then Taryn Simon, and so on and so on. This week its Richard Barnes.
21. Kenosha, WI, 2003 Copyright Brian Ulrich
I am happy to say that his week a friend of mine also made it in. Brian Ulrich was not commissioned to do a piece for the NYTM'sThe Way We Live Now section, they used an image he created for his Copia series. The article is written by Michael Pollen. Michael wrote a great piece called Unhappy Meals for the NYTM a few months ago, based upon his bestseller The OmnivoresDilemma.
Is this a growing trend?
Security Cams Copyright Tim Davis
Last week another one of my favorite photographers, Tim Davis, was featured in the The Way We Live Now section of the NYTM. The above image was also taken from a preexisting series, titled Security. The article is titled Who's watching the F.B.I.?. It discusses the "Trust me anyhow" defense Bush created after the 2001 Patriot Act was passed (just another Bush fear tactic to take over the Post-9/11 world?). The author of the piece, Jeffery Rosen, talks about how the FBI has used national-security letters to scrutinize the financial data, travel records and telephone logs of thousands of U.S. citizens and residents. Between 2003 and 2005 , the F.B.I. issued more then 140,000 national-security letters, many involving people who do not have obvious connection to terrorism.
"National-security letters were authorized in 1978 as a narrow exception to federal privacy laws, and their reach was expanded in 1986 to give the F.B.I. easier access to the records of suspected spies. The F.B.I. could issue the letters only if senior officials in Washington had a factual basis for believing that the records pertained to a suspected spy or terrorist. But the Patriot Act diluted these requirements, allowing F.B.I field agents to issue the orders on their own say-so merely by asserting that they were 'relevant' to a terrorism investigation."
The Bush administration was fortunate that, shortly after the F.B.I. scandal broke, the alarm over the Justice Department's firing of prosecutors knocked it off the front page.
"No matter how corrupt, greedy, and heartless our government, our corporations, our media, and our religious and charitable institutions may become, the music will still be wonderful. If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC"
-Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)
Feist with the Broken Social Scene My second love after film and photography is music. This is nothing new, I think many artists have an affinity for music that goes deeper then some may know. I'm going to tell you my story, if you care to listen.
*WDSO Production Studio, Chesterston, IN
My earliest passion was music and the radio. As a young child (probably 5th grade) I would create tapes of myself as a radio disc jockey and make my father listen to them in the car. Many years later I joined WDSO, my high schools radio station. I was there for 4 years, usually spending one or two days a week opening the station at 5:30am and staying after school until about 7pm. I loved it! I was even selected to go "down-state" for the Indiana State Broadcasting Championships, in the Best DJ category (the excitement level is obviously similar to the State Football Championship!)
I was on my way to attend Columbia College in Chicago for broadcasting when something hit me. Do I really want to sit in a small room for the rest of my life while I talk to myself? That was perfect for High School, but not forever. So the only other thing I was interested in at the time, photography, took over.
My step-father Mike, a big music fan in his day, gave me his record collection when I was about 13. From there on I was exploring the likes of Zepplin, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Heart, Styx, Rush, Van Halen, Boston, The Beatles, Billy Squire, Ted Nugent, etc.
I love music (thanks to Mike) but it wasn't until about 6 years ago that I started to really understand music. Shortly after moving to NY I was exposed to an entirely different world. I started listening to The Flaming Lips, Jeff Buckley, Wilco, Whiskey Town, Son Volt, The Pixies, Belle and Sebastien, Elliot Smith, Badly Drawn Boy, etc. From one band to the next I began being obsessed (similiar to when I was 13), listening to whatever I could, spending hours on mix tapes for friends (and my step-dad).
Connor Oberst from Bright Eyes, Copyright Rolling Stone
I eventually stopped seeking new music and took a year or so break. That was until I received (thanks to my girlfriend Laura) a copy of Bright Eyes:Lifted, or the story is in the soil, keep your ear to the ground. It's not an easy album to listen to. At first I wanted to break it in half, but after about the 4th time listening to it (and taking many breaks in between), I got it! All of a sudden it was crystal clear! Just like that (snapping fingers).
I can honestly say that album changed my viewpoint of music and my connection to it, just as Rush and The Beatles did 10 years earlier. Almost instantly I became one of those Bright Eyes junkies. I bought a vinyl box set of all his previous albums, seeked out all his previous projects, started to collect obscure live material and even found 2 homemade albums he made when he was 13. Although I have stopped being obsessed, I still consider Bright Eyes my favorite musician. I also believe he may be the greatest songwriter living, next to Bob Dylan.
See his tonight show debut above (2005). (I have already sent this to many of you, but if you have not seen it, you'll probably love it, or at least respect it.)
Leslie Feist, 2007 Copyright Tim Leyes.
My current female obsession and one of my favorite artists is Feist. I first listened to Feist only about a year or so ago. I was blown away! There are too many things to list that explain why my love for (Leslie) Feist goes so deep. (The below video may help)
Her new album, The Reminder, (as well as Cassadaga by Bright Eyes) comes out this month! She is featured on the front of Sunday's Arts & Leisure section in the NY Times. Read it and listen to an interview with her by Jon Parlese here.
The article talks about the day that the above video, for the new song "1234", was filmed. The environment that was spoken about sounded fantastical. Usually my imagination has the ability to wander but after seeing this beautiful video (only one camera was used taking one continuous shot, no edits) I'm convinced that it was must have been a good time. Watch this video! She is awesome!
Other memorable music moments.
*Watching Pink Floyd's the Wall, the second time. *Seeing David Bowie at Jimmy's Bronx Cafe in 2003. *Listening to Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys in full, over and over. *Come on Feel the Illinoise by Sufjan Stevens *Toys in the Attic by Aerosmith *The New Deal by FDR (3 disc set of 50 songs written in 50 days) *Discovering Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. *The Blues Brothers movie The list goes on and on...
Last night I made it over to Milk Gallery for Spin Magazine's silent auction, I Turn My Camera On. My Boys over at The Humble Arts Foundation had a hand in the mess. The worked look great. The people looked even better.
Recently I was given the opportunity to see a free showing of "The Host". "The Host" was released in South Korea in 2006 and quickly became the country's highest grossing film of all time.
The movie blew my mind: The visuals are stunning, it's funny, scary and disturbing. You may have to let go of a few things to fully enjoy it, but if you do, it just might be one of the most well rounded and exciting experiences you've had at the movies since, well, ever? No, its not that good, maybe since KungFu Hustle.
Thanks to Eric William Carrol and the Library of Congress, I was able to find some old historic photos from Boonville, NY. Boonville, NY is where I initially found the inspiration for my (now four year long) overdue Boonville project. For those of you who may not already know, I am leaving the confides of Brooklyn to head out on a year-long journey to six different towns named Boonville. I'm leaving August 1st.
In the above picture you will find what I believe is the Hulbert house. The 2 story building on the left hand side of the image with the white balcony. The below image was taken at the Hulbert House in 2003.
"Untitled (Times Square), 2004-2007" is a series I've been working that will most likely end its run this year. In light of Tim Conner's "Tod Papageorge post", I figured I would share a few of these images and talk about my process as well as my motives for working on the project.
Tim Connor talks about Tod Papageorge's shooting style of the 70's. In this article, Tim references his own style and talks about the struggles of shooting in today's world compared to the days of walking around Minneapolis in the 70's. Below is the paragraph (from Tim's blog) that inspired this post.
Except at parades, demonstrations or other public events where people are in a sense costumed and expecting to be photographed, I rarely take these kinds of pictures anymore. I wonder if Papageorge does. Even as cellphones snap away by the millions, there seems to be a new & pervasive fear of being photograpically singled-out on the street. In the workshops I taught this year, my students were intimidated. “How do you take pictures of people you don’t know?” they asked. I suggested they ask permission. “But what if I want them NOT posing?” they asked. I told them to just shoot & see what happens. But I also gave them my opinion: “Don’t shoot children you don’t know.” In “Snapshots” I photographed a lot of kids without asking for permission. Not anymore. Pedophiles, real & imagined, have replaced the devil in our modern consciousness. Shooters beware.
This paragraph really resonated with me. I've never been a street shooter, never really had an interest until a few years ago. In 2004 I was spending a lot of time in and near Times Square; I started to take my camera and spend time watching people. Saturdays in the Summer are out of this world.
(After 9-11 I spent 4 weeks shooting from the hip. At first nobody was worried about a kid with a camera but as the weeks went on, people started to have negative reactions . This turned me off to street shooting; I didn't need the frustration, plus I didn't feel it was one of my strengths at the time.)
Times Square opened up possibilities for me. Not only is there great subject matter full of irony, the people/tourists seem to have no fear, no inhibitions. They just follow the person in front of them, and for some reason they don't worry about anything (cars, muggers, me, etc.). There are thousands of people taking photos at any given time, I blend right in. What really interested me was the fact that I could utilize a flash and still have very little or no reaction. I honestly felt like a kid in a candy store, shooting and flashing away.
HYSMD features the latest news and updates from Timothy Briner, a photographer who lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. View selected works online at timothybriner.com.
