techni-

© Erik Lunsford

This has been the best year for Fall color that I can remember in a long time. A week ago, I drove through the curves of State Route 394 in Eastern Ohio, with my hands on the wheel and my jaw in my lap. Back in Milwaukee, I've been staring - up at trees, out my office window at sun shining through leaves, at yellow maples illuminated by streetlights, and at wet, slick color smeared on the road. And I've made no pictures to capture what I'm experiencing.

Slightly frustrated, I found these two winners by the St. Louis photographer Erik Lunsford, whose work and blog I find refreshing. When I worked at a newspaper, I never took time to make pictures like this.

i love this photo, #33

© S. Billie Mandle

I love this photo by the photographer S. Billie Mandle. I met Billie at Review Santa Fe this summer, and we had a fun (and for me, enlightening!) conversation about teaching. Billie teaches at the Massachusetts College of Art, and was gracious in her advice about all things relating to students, performance and expectations. Here's Billie's artist statement about the series from which the photograph comes:

These photographs were made in confessionals, the small rooms found in Catholic churches where people confess their sins. Most major religions have theologies of repentance -- what makes the confessional unusual is that it acts as a physical manifestation of an abstract idea. It gives form and structure to the interiority of penance. The walls and kneelers embody the thoughts and prayers of the penitents, and the penitents in turn leave their mark on the confessional. I am interested in how the photographs, as physical objects, might speak to what is intangible and ineffable about these spaces.

fast break

Win-Cemetery Road Location, #1 and #3 © kjm

A recent discovery, while heading to the Columbus, Ohio, airport.

within reach: unleafy

forgotten salad spinner incident © kjm

[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]

partner (in crime)

Nancy Spero installation at the Cairo Biennial, 1998 © Marilu Knode

I can't take credit for the fact that Marilu started has a blog, but the fact that she's had to hear me talk about mine for so long ("blah, blah, blah," as we're fond of saying), certainly didn't hurt. But more to the point, the woman has things to say.

Questioning Contemporary Art is a smart and thoughtful site, and if you haven't visited it already, her latest entry is a great place to start, with her thoughts on the recently-departed artist Nancy Spero.

within reach: first

the first frost of the season © kjm

[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]

add to cart

© (clockwise, from top left) Emily Shur, Liz Kuball, Aline Smithson, Timothy Briner, Mark Menjivar/Kate Bingaman-Burt

On the roller coaster fun ride that is freelance income, my rickety car has been rolling (slightly) downhill lately. So I was able to add to my collection of photographs with some recent, superb online purchases. From 20x200, I scooped up work by two California photographers I've admired for a while now: Emily Shur and Liz Kuball. From the new 52 Editions, a wonderful cafe image by Aline Smithson. Photographer Mark Menjivar teamed up with illustrator Kate Bingaman-Burt on a unique food journal, with all profits going to charity - which I purchased at Ampersand. Lastly, Timothy Briner had a fundraising pre-sale from his fabulous Boonville project, and I was able to score an 11x14 fiber print. I can't think of a better way to spend $212.00 - after all, the roller coaster will likely be heading up hill soon.

passage

Saul Steinberg In Nose Mask, New York, 1966, left,
Paper Cup with Shadow, New York, 1975 © Irving Penn

On hearing of Irving Penn's death, I sat down with Passage, one of my favorite photo books. I was thinking I'd determine my favorite Irving Penn portrait, and post it here - a silly and impossible task, I soon realized. I think what I love about his work, both the portraiture and still life, is that there's such a straightforward and graphic approach to his image-making, and yet the content is always quite powerful. I often think it must be easier to make portraits of the famous and recognizable in our society, but Penn's pictures seem incredibly honest to me. From what I can tell, he approached Tom Wolfe and Pablo Picasso with the same care as he did a Parisian balloon seller or a Moroccan shepherdess. Or ginko leaves and found cigarettes, for that matter.

with reach: reboot

paper clip as tool © kjm

[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]

fast (fake) fern

Natural Bridge Road Location, #1 © kjm

within reach: burn

lonely ice cube © kjm

[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]

sans camera

(partial map of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area)

Something I saw last week that I wished I'd been able to photograph: A closed-down Hardee's in Two Harbors, Minnesota.

Something I saw that would have made a wonderful stock photo: My friend Andy paddling his kayak, silhouetted in the sun and water.

Something that occurred, that no photo would have done justice to (ok, maybe video): A sustained wind for 20 hours, gusting to 50 mph, that kept us stuck on a rocky island for an extra day.

Something I experienced last week that I didn't need to photograph to appreciate: On the last morning of our 5-day trip, a short, solo canoe paddle in the early morning mist.

away

South Blue Lake © kjm

The scrawled items on the list on my desk are nearly illegible. The list contains words that make no sense living in such close proximity: Cous cous. Alarm. Dr. Bronner's. Bank. Socks? Triennial. Charger. Bills.

I'm going on vacation tomorrow, and many of the list items pertain to that, while others are real life, business-type items which will have to wait for my return. In the meantime, I'll be paddling a canoe through pristine lakes, enjoying the company of close friends, and hopefully not having a reverse nervous breakdown from being away from illuminated screens. In addition to the cous cous and socks, I'm bringing along Michael Pollan's In Defense Of Food, which I hope to devour (sorry), a blank notebook, and (gasp) no camera.

I'll be back in about a week, relaxed and recharged, and ready to stare down that list. See you soon.

as seen: over, under

discarded napkin that resembles a cloud © kjm

i love this photo, #32

Orange Tree / 2009 © Eric William Carroll

I love this photo by the photographer Eric William Carroll. It's one of many beautiful images in the Michael Mazzeo Gallery online exhibition, Arbor.

In the online exhibit, Carroll states, "My images begin at 1:1 scale. I use large, wallpaper-like sheets of light sensitive paper to capture my subject's shadows. My slow, camera-less process is the antithesis of contemporary photographic technology. I am interested in distilling photograph to it's most basic elements of light and timing, in an attempt to minimize form through long exposures. Everyday objects, spaces, and moments are frequent subjects. My art stands as a reminder that human experience, and our memories of it, are transitory and intangible."

fast and loose

Highway 51 Location, #2 © kjm

One from June that I overlooked while editing.

i love this photo, #31

© Pamela Pecchio

I love this photo by the photographer Pamela Pecchio. I'm really drawn to a lot of her work, especially her series Habitation. But this photograph is taken from her series Landscape, of which she says, "... the photographs are made from the place where we often experience the landscape, inside our living spaces. This particular photo was made in Baton Rouge, LA and is of a live oak tree in a park, through the passenger side window of my car. The window was actually covered in sap."

[See past 'i love this photo' entries here.]

as seen: mend

tailor shop window © kjm

[view previous as seen photos]

within reach: fake

vegetarian barbeque rib sauce © kjm

[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]

after class

red napkin on book © kjm

front row

Homer Adams Parkway Location, #1 © kjm

class picture

© kjm

Well, the first day of the Professional Practices class seemed to go well - the students seemed engaged, and I saw no signs of a coup (yet). As part of the class, we'll have a blog, to which students will be posting work, and reading online interviews with photographers and industry professionals.

I went a little crazy in compiling the list, and there are now 201 interview links!, and we'll be posting our own interviews as well. The first assignment for the blog was to post a favorite photograph made over the summer. Please stop by to see these and future pictures by the students, as well as to poke around the interview link list.

http://miad-fa382.blogspot.com/

within reach: inside

condensation on the front window © kjm

It's starting to get cooler.

[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]

new kid

© Matthew Monteith, from the series Art School

Syllabi? Check. Lunch money? Check. It's my first day of class today - wish me luck.

taste of memory

© kjm

My brother recently gave me a stainless steel water canister, which along with being quite stylish, has probably already saved the planet of about 100 plastic water bottles. I've been using it lately to save iced coffee in the fridge, but yesterday called it back into service and filled it with water. After a shoot in Chicago, I took a drink, and the water had a very slight coffee taste. It instantly brought me back to the taste of water from my dad's red Thermos cup, handed carefully to me by my mom on a family trip. My spot in our green station wagon was front and center (can you say projectile?), while my brother and sister fought over vinyl territory in the back seat. I think the family vacations were fresh in my mind, as the subjects I had just photographed were a family from Chicago, who'd spent the last 5 months touring the country.

within reach: note to selves

note on the front door © kjm

[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]

pencils down

report card, 1973

My mom recently found a folder containing all my student report cards, from junior kindergarten through college. The early marks were good, though I was apparently a little reserved (one comment in the margin from my kindergarten teacher: "Not as pokey as he used to be.") What's noticeable (and disappointing) is a drop in the grades, beginning in mid-junior high and only picking up again during my sophomore year in college. What was I doing with my time, if not studying?

I'm preparing to teach my first ever class, for junior-level photography majors at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. I'm really excited and nervous, and plan to write about the experience here. No time to be pokey. Stay tuned.

within reach: ac/dc

shadows low on the office wall © kjm

[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]

within reach: streaks

rain on the bedroom window © kjm

[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]

i love this photo, #30

© stella kalaw

I love this photo by the photographer Stella Kalaw. I'm a huge fan of Stella's series Family Spaces, and envy her ability to make pictures that are both intimate in subject, and yet graphic and pristinely composed. The photo above is from her blog, where she's been posting photos in a series called Wandering. About the series and photo, she says,

"Wandering is a collection of photographs from my occasional observations of everyday life. It is a means for me to reconnect to what drew me to the medium in the first place. And that's really all it is: my repeated attempts at recapturing that feeling which energizes me to continue taking pictures.

One day, I had an hour to spare before going to work. I wandered around Union Square and I was drawn to the morning light falling between the buildings. I saw this shop window and composed the image. I was about to click the shutter when a stranger entered the frame. It just happened serendipitously. It was after I took the photograph that I noticed the details from that encounter: the lady twirling her hair and the mannequin on the right that mimicked her hairstyle."


[See past 'i love this photo' entries here.]