12:37PM, 3/10/2010 - Apricot Blossoms for Sale in Union Square Market
Nothing says “Spring” like twigs with blossoms. So, I’m going to assume winter is officially over, even if we still have 10 days to go.
Somehow, mushrooms don’t say “Spring” at all.
11:43AM, 2/3/2010 - Late Season Winesap Apple with Dead Leaf
The leaf is dead, but the apple lives on.
I find it amazing that apples keep for so many months after harvest. According to AskMen.com (a web site for kitchen challenged men, among other things), “if stored in a cool, dry area (the basement and the fridge drawer are always good picks), apples can last anywhere between 3 to 6 months.”
Honey has an indefinite shelf life. Supposedly in Egypt in 1800, some archeologists found a pot of honey and, when opened, found it tasted just fine. (Both died later from the curse of Tutankhamen. >I’m making that part up<).
Sliced turkey, on the other hand, gets slimy in a few days.
Go Figure.
12/14/09, 10:14AM Union Square Market - Where's the Purple Broccoli?
Where’s the purple broccoli?
I make my marketing message as clear as possible because I want the attention of the smart, little shops with brilliant creatives who fly under the radar, as well as the equally brilliant big boys. I’d certainly lose the interest of those I wish to work for if I sent out a constant stream of mixed messages. Not an easy task in a competitive industry as this, but probably one of the most important lessons we can learn and a word we know all to well. Focus.
If you want to find your audience, keep your message consistent, your work focused and your vision clear.
Onion Mirror
A vision evolving.
While in the process of this particular exploration I’m finding there is a lot of failure. Not failure in the sense of exposure or composition, but failure in concept and vision. And, there’s certainly no value in putting images into my book simply because I did it. Right now, I’m developing the concept of a dark series. The vision is evolving and this shot is more like what I need for the new series; it definitely feels like a sister image to the Steak photo that started it all, back in October.
Now the challenge is to find a thread that connects my next dark image to the first two.
Eye to Eye with Blue
A little departure from my usual musings…
Every once an a while, when the sun is out and the time is right, cats go into the day crazies (there is a similar variation known as night crazies). They skitter, they leap, they walk sideways, turn somersaults, and levitate and transport themselves, in cartoon fashion, across various vertical and horizontal surfaces.
And then they plotz.
Cats, as I understand it, have no sense of self. But after an event of wild abandon, they head off to wherever the sun is streaming and lay in the glow of light and strike a pose,
or two,
or three,
or forty – in movie star fashion, in some kind of repose as if to expect the camera to capture them in their glorious, sultry elegance.
This time I obliged.
And, within seconds, she fell asleep in heat of the sun.
Sleeping Blue
12:43PM, 12/21/2009 East 3rd Street between 1st and A
Like the snowstorm of last Saturday, the year is slipping away. 2009 looked good for a moment (here and there) until, like the snow, it turned into a syrupy slush. So,what’s the lesson learned this year?
It was all good.
If we learn from our mistakes, we grow and move on. We don’t whine and complain about the failures; we embrace and discuss the solutions. Why did I relaunch my studio business in the middle of all this? It was time to come back. I make a lousy employee.
2009? No, not a great year by any standards. But a good year nonetheless.
2010? Well, it goes without saying (although I am, aren’t I), it’s going to be a better year by a long shot.
10:12AM, 12/14/2009 Rows of Romanesco Broccoli
Swaying like the tops of pine trees blowing in the wind, these end of season romanesco broccoli are actually an edible flower in the Brassica oleracea family (cauliflower, not broccoli!).
Now that the clocks have been set back, I don’t have to get up quite as early to capture the more dramatic early morning light (It’s not like I’ve ever actually gotten up early to shoot these). People keep asking me if I light or arrange the Union Square, Shooting from the Hip photos. The answer is always no. The light and styling of the subject just happen to be that way when I capture the image.
P.S. All my friends have commented that, “Hey, they look like Xmas trees.” Silly me.
2:15PM, 11/23/2009 - Watermelon Radish at Union Square Market
Watermelon radish is a beautiful root vegetable with a magenta to white center that looks like it was made on a spin art machine. Although its nickname is the bleeding heart radish there’s no heartburn here. This radish is sweet, not spicy or bitter, which is a really good reason to try it if you don’t normally like radishes in salads. The watermelon radish is different and worth a try.
Here’s a link to New York Magazine for a Mâche-and-Watermelon-Radish Salad recipe by Akhtar Nawab, formerly of Tom Colicchio’s Craftbar and his own restaurant, Eletteria.
Simply wonderful.
Anthropomorphic Celeriac
I don’t do anything, really. I don’t. I go to the market. I see something interesting. I shoot it. I eat it (this week it was in my salads). I rarely see the “anthro” part until after I’ve finished shooting and have time to review the captures. It’s the limbo of the background isolating the food. We get to study it with no distractions and that’s when it takes on a life of its own.
So why do we see it this way? I suspect that this is just the human brain still relating to the world it lives in the same way it did 50,000 years ago. As early modern humans evolved and needed to explain the world around them and, while in the process of inventing reasons for why things happen like day and night or lightning, did they also look at their relationship with food and give human attributes to those things that abstractly had hair, eyes, hands, etc., as they did with clouds? I think so (but I haven’t done my research here). Somehow this must be embedded in our genes just like smiling.
10:28AM, 11/4/2009 Rose Hips Heart
Occasionally, I’ll mosey over to Wikipedia to gather a little information about something I’ve recently shot and then grab a couple of key words and search for more reliable information. Today’s results were more amusing than usual.
Hmmmm. Fact or Wikipedia fiction? “Rose hips have recently become popular as a healthy treat for pet chinchillas. Chinchillas are unable to manufacture their own Vitamin C, but lack the proper internal organs to process many vitamin-C rich foods. Rose hips provide a sugarless, safe way to increase the Vitamin C intake of chinchillas and guinea pigs.” Now, is that so the chinchillas will make nice shiny fur coats?
Continuing on, “Rose hips are also fed to horses. The dried and powdered form can be fed at a maximum of 1 tablespoon per day to improve coat condition and new hoof growth.” Okay, maybe that’s plausible, but why the dosage? So we do it right?
And then it goes on, “The fine hairs found inside rose hips are used as itching powder” Itching powder? What? No reference to whoopee cushions? And finally, this: “Rose hips can be used to make Palinka, a traditional Hungarian alcoholic beverage.” That’s a traditional fruit brandy produced in Transylvania (no references or links to either, True Blood, The Vampire Dairies or Twilight). Nice, but I looked that up in Wikipedia and there’s no mention of rose hips.
I didn’t search elsewhere today, this was too much fun. Gotta love Wikipedia.
Anyway, we’re deep into fall and this capture was a pleasant surprise. There’s something about that long, bare green stem in the foreground that makes this work. Maybe because it looks like that big vein that real hearts have.
There’s a secret life hidden in every object; it just takes an insightful approach to coax it out. Deliberation and spontaneity, technology and elbow grease, exploration and happenstance are all elements in this process. Whether it’s water, wine, coffeemakers or cosmetics, D.A.Wagner uses all these elements, combining them with elegant lighting, playful color and a touch of humor to create iconic images.
A seasoned professional with too many photography awards to list (oh, okay, just this – 16 Rx Club Awards including a silver) and experience that includes shooting and directing documentaries in China, pioneering work in digital photography and raising a teenager, D.A. even has photographs in MoMA’s permanent collection.
It may have been Bauhaus architect Mies van der Rohe who said, “Less is more.” But it took D.A.Wagner to do more with even less.
