Tag: photography

~ Mark

ecantwell:

I have become a big fan of sunrises lately. Sunsets get all the credit, all the social media likes, all the romance. Sure, okay, more people are awake when the sun sets (especially these post-daylight-savings days), but I think there is also something lingering about a sunset that allows it to be mused over and loved and savored by its admirers. Sunrises, as I have come to observe, are often over very fast. The gorgeous part doesn’t hang around. It is there and then it is not.

It is there and then it is not and then it’s time to eat breakfast, to answer emails, to fight traffic, to stare at the clock, to spend money, to feel tired, to wish you were somewhere else. You can’t settle into a sunrise with a glass of wine and a nice book. You can’t use it as a chance to reflect on things. 

Sunrises are capricious and selfish. They are not interested in rewarding you. They are the kind of lover who leaves when the act is over. This is brave of them. They don’t want to cater to your needs. They don’t want to perform for you on cue. They take care of themselves, they are gorgeous when they want to be, they are not ashamed to become mundane again very quickly. 

And yet how can you wake up to this and not feel somehow more whole, more alive, more determined? Walk into it, walk through it. It will be gone too soon not to dive in like some holy Olympian. Take it by its stupid reins and ride it into the ground. You’re only awake like this for a minute.

Don’t waste it. 

~ Mark

I called around and managed to get a lot of expired stock donated. I also used tungsten-based 35mm slide film to storyboard the movie – this really helped me show the various labs what the final film would look like and thus negotiate prices with them. They are much more likely to give you a discount when they think you’re someone that might be back one day with a bigger budget.

Shane Carruth. Clever! Prepare like a professional, get professional treatment.
~ Mark

I think we have to be frugal with our photo-viewing. I love it when you find a photo from a time you’ve forgotten about – one that, maybe, someone else had possession of. It makes you realise how linear and reductive memory is.

George Saunders.
~ Mark

ransomcenter:

“There’s a reason so many of Newman’s portraits have become the iconic images of artists such as Stravinsky and Picasso. Entering their space, Newman managed to capture something of these artists’ inner lives.” 

Read the Austin American-Statesman’s review of “Arnold Newman: Masterclass.”

Caption: Arnold Newman, Igor Stravinsky, 1945. Contact sheet of four negatives with Newman’s marks and cropping lines.

~ Mark

youmightfindyourself:

“In Augusta, to photograph James Brown, these pictures were taken when he suggested we go for a ride. He told me he would show me ‘his town.’ So we jumped into an old car and drove around. He would stop the car when he saw someone sitting in their yard, run up, do the split, yell out, ‘I feel good,’ and jump back in the car and drive off. It was all so spontaneous and hilarious, and it took the onlookers by such surprise. Brown was a fun-loving character and a good sport.” Harry Benson, Photographer