the blog world is still so new! the current stars are skilled at putting on a grand show, like chaplin. who knows, maybe even the more thoughtful ones (keaton, in my image) won’t survive the next wave…
i used a darkroom today. i like black and white film because i think it’s EASY. today i made four contact sheets and four prints. none of the prints are ready to be exhibited, 3 are not centered properly on the paper, but in all of last YEAR, even with my scanner, i made probably no more than 15 prints, which was the whole idea of getting it in the first place. scanning is such pain, everything is guesswork! “how’s the calibration of my monitor, how’s the calibration of the lab’s printer, if i move this curve 5 pixels down does the photo actually look better, and WHY IS IT THAT walgreens almost makes my color film look better anyway…” not to mention the soul-crushing tedium of scanning. the darkroom is simple and rewarding.
i also saw araki’s latest show today. it’s called Araki 69, he’s turning 69 years old and he shot it with a 6×9 camera. i would say the photos are like “Araki photos made with a 6×9 camera,” in other words he translated his style accurately to the format. here’s an interesting interview with Araki, it makes me feel a bit ashamed for having so little to say about him WHEN HE’S PUBLISHED 450 BOOKS, if that’s even true. “Kofuku Shashin” sounds interesting, though.
Where is your darkroom? (rental, home-made, etc)
I’ve never read an Araki interview so laden with cusses- nor have I ever heard him speak like that in Japanese. But seeing the venue (Vice) it makes sense that he’d be sexed up in translation for a magazine so enamored by it’s own precocity. (“for god’s sake?” “DUDE?”)
But thanks for posting the link- there were some real gems of thoughts in there- particularly:
“There’s the phrase “artistic expression,” but I believe that the people truly expressing themselves are the subjects, you know? It’s not about the photographer trying to express stuff. It doesn’t work like that.”
and
“Yes, because the people in front of you, the subjects, they’re far more extraordinary than you. They all have their own charms. But often they themselves aren’t even aware of their charms, so you have to discover it and present it to them, like, “This is it!” They’re radiating all this aura, so your job is to pump up that aura even more and give it back to them by capturing it on film. That’s how I approach my work. “
That is what it is all about.