The Three Amigos

I’ve been shooting fruits and vegetables for so many years in the studio and in Union Square and other markets, that it has produced an ongoing relationship (get it? Produce? Oh, never mind…). Richard Avedon once commented, “I’ve worked out a series of nos. No to exquisite light, no to apparent compositions, no to the seduction of poses or narrative, and all these nos force me to the yes. I have a white background. I have the person I’m interested in and the thing that happens between us.”

Somehow I’ve managed to do that with fruits and vegetables.

Broken Eggs

I was tooling around the NAPP – National Association of Photoshop Professionals – web site (I’m a member) and discovered my Broken Eggs photograph is an Editor’s Choice for this this week. Who knew? It’s a nice way to end the week.

http://www.photoshopuser.com/members/portfolios

7/02/09 addendum – The week is over and you can’t find my Editor’s Choice photo any longer. But you can check out my Photoshop User Portfolio.

And, on another note, the final portfolio pages are being printed. This means Monday, the portfolios are ready to go out.

3:00PM 6/24/09

Bin of Bing Cherries, Union Square Market, NYC – 3:00PM, Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Sometimes I just hang around a piece of fruit until it gives me something I can use.

(Random note to self: So much rain. The total New York City rainfall from June 1 – June 24 is 8.65 inches. That’s 5.60 inches above normal so far and we’re not done with June. We’ve had rain 20 of the first 24 days this month… No wonder everything tastes waterlogged. Hey, where’s summer?)

The Crowd

Seth Godin wrote a very short blog entry, On the Road to Mediocrity. The basic point is, “The only way to get mediocre is one step at a time.” Don’t settle. Simply a brilliant insight. Well worth reading.

12:01PM 6/19/09

Bundles of Rhubarb, Union Square Market, NYC – 12:01PM, Friday, June 19, 2009

The Union Square market reveals its little secrets…

Three months of lessons and lots of practice to make 7 of these guys.

A lot of advertising photographers invest in hand-made portfolio housings. They are the finishing touch to a lot of hard work and make for an impressive presentation. I hand-made my own portfolios and slipcases because it seems like a really important part of the process. How could I entrust anyone to the task of making a book for my work? I had just finished shooting for an entire year, working on a new style and vision, and the vision couldn’t just stop there. The craft should continue from the digital world and carry through to the physical one that wrapped around my printed pages. I’m a hands-on kinda person and I love research.

I sought out Barbara Mauriello, a brilliant and highly regarded bookbinder, conservator and artist, who agreed to take me on as her student, to become a one trick pony. That is, to learn screw post bookbinding techniques, the style in which many commercial photography portfolios are bound. I also joined the Center for Book Arts on 27th Street, to rent their bookbinding studio equipment, a remarkable resource for an archaic craft. I later assembled the books in my basement workshop.

After four long training sessions with Barbara and months making countless “test books” using dozens of different fabrics and techniques, the real books went into production, with the goal of making ten in total, knowing a few would be ruined along the way. Two Three of the books didn’t make it. After all, I was just an apprentice, more or less copying what the master demonstrated.

As an added element to my books I designed my own logo based on the iconic jumping goldfish photo to create a copper die for imprinting the covers. No, I didn’t make that myself, too, I sent that out to engraver, Owosso Graphics, in Michigan.  Sophia Kramer was my mentor on this part of the bookmaking and with infinite patience taught me how to use the kindly used, but ancient, Kensol 36T, three-ton press (ooooh, sounds impressive, doesn’t it?) at the Center for Book Arts.

They’re done, they’re gorgeous, and I’m sending them out in the world (not unlike my teenage daughter to college) to see how they fare.

12:43PM 6/15/09

Tilefish, Union Square Market, NYC, 12:43PM, Monday June 15, 2009

Bad name, great eating – grilled with a little ginger, garlic, mirin and soy sauce.

2:30PM 6/12/09

Carrot stack, Union Square Market, NYC – 2:30PM, Friday, June 12, 2009

These guys were screaming, “Eat me.” So, I did.

In the Mirror...

In reading The Craftsman, by Richard Sennett, I was reminded of the guild hierarchy: an apprentice spent 7 years before becoming a journeyman and the journeyman, another five to ten years before earning the title of master craftsman.

After years of producing elaborate, complicated photography projects, my new style of work has become rather intuitive, natural and technically comfortable. Unconsciously, a natural perspective and a vision evolved out of years of experience. At first, however, I didn’t trust it; the process seemed too easy to me. Yet after a year of producing fun, new, portfolio images, I had to acknowledge my talent had become quite innate. I have become a master craftsman, not a charlatan wearing the Emperor’s New Clothes.

Sennett also notes that, “Masters should be pestered to explain themselves,” in a way that makes their process clear to others. That was meant in the context of training future masters, but I’d like to think it also pertains to relationships with clients. After all, everyone benefits from the dialog and the outcome is better work. And so I offer up this blog, without much pestering.

This new portfolio will never be finished. It’s a work in progress, always. Not just for the sake of marketing, but also for my own satisfaction and personal growth. I have to keep reminding myself, this portfolio took decades, not months, to develop—years spent honing technique and craft until it’s become second nature.

Now, I promise not to let this go to my head.

Or think that I’m wearing really nice clothes, when it’s just jeans and a t-shirt.