circles

circles, originally uploaded by Tyson of Habein Studio.

a recent piece by me.

"We have it all!"

"We have it all!", originally uploaded by Tyson of Habein Studio.

I'm blogging this shot again. It was taken last fall.

I like this photo because in many ways it represents the city in which I live.

The often maligned Great Falls does have it all... or very nearly (we could use more quality regional and ethnic food). There is an amazing arts community, music all over the place, a wonderful collection of bars and pubs, beautiful nature near by, and so much more. I think, often, Great Falls is disregarded by its own people, who don't know how good they have it.

The people and the community are much like this building. Very rough and pieces are falling apart, but there is so much potential there. Everything you need is there, if under a layer of dirt and grime. Often Great Falls, much like this building becomes more beautiful because of the bits of dirt, and wear and tear. The beauty is in its roughness.

I guess overly polished just isn't my style.
When I returned to Billings, my home town, this weekend and had time to kill, I spent it taking photos is the old, dirty, run down part of town. I seem to do a bit of that everywhere I go.

There's a fair amount of complaint (and rightly so) about "ruin porn" within contemporary photography. The difference between "ruin porn" and documentary work that covers the less wealthy side of things, the run down, the falling apart in a less destructive way is in the emotion and intent behind it. The inherent difference lies in the tendency to either view things as a side-show... a car crash to gawk at, or to look at things with love. One can see these things as indicative of the resilience of the people in the area and the strength of community bonds despite the harshness of their economic environment. There is hope in this view. There is potential and a vision for a positive future, whereas the other viewpoint hopes for the continued crumble and fall.

To me, "ruin porn" holds no appeal. To me, the "arrived", wealthy, and polished, hold no beauty without a story to give it context.

To me, the potential, the growing, the hope for the future is where it's at.

I'm entering this one, for all these reasons, in the Old School Photo Lab Old School Photo Contest. I think it fits their mentality. It's all about the old school, and how our past can carry us foreward.

Art links: painting, video, electronic music

there's a wonderful quality of vulnerability in Peter Ravn's work.

Peter Ravn

The level of production that goes into this video and stage work is pretty amazing.

Monstrous techno video production

Jen Mann's work has an ethereal beauty to it, with some amazingly natural skin tones and a tendency towards aloofness in her characters.

Jen Mann

Good information on copyright, transformative works, and fair use

Anyone working in a creative field should try to keep themselves up to date on concepts of copyright and fair use. My opinions on U.S. copyright law have changed a lot over the last several years, but disagreements with the implementation of the law do not allow us to ignore the law itself.

Fair use

Art Links: Illustrators a-go-go

Amazing detailed black and white work. I wish I could draw like this.
Iain Macarthur

Comic book influenced, reality washed away...
Loic Zimmerman

The colors! Oh god, the colors!
Darin Shuler

Link gallery: India, drawing, pie, and surreal photos

India is a place I long to visit.

A visit to India via skateboarding.

India via skateboarding

One of my favorite new artists to discover in quite some time. Bayo's work has detail in all the right places.

Bayo

I've always liked pie better than cake.

Pie

Wet Collodion process photographs that bring a touch of surreal to the traditional process. Something different, fun, and often creepy.

Noah Doely

I am amazed by this project. So much time and care taken in these pieces.

Areth: An Architectural Atlas by Adam C. Ryder

Paintings by Rajni Perera on Booooooom Blog

Solid painting work here. I enjoy the human/geometric tension. Great color as well.

Booooooom Blog is a great source of a lot of good artwork.

Rajni Perera

Robert Adams

"Making photographs has to be, then, a personal matter; when it is not, the results are not persuasive. Only the artist’s presence in the work can convince us that its affirmation resulted from and has been tested by human experience. Without the photographer in the photograph the view is no more compelling than the product of some anonymous record camera, a machine perhaps capable of happy accident but not of response to form."


Robert Adams on personal photographs

Wugazi

I've long been a Fugazi fan, and while not a big Wu Tang fan, I can respect the sort of culture they've created around themselves. It's an interesting mash-up that makes sense on multiple levels.

Wugazi

Buy the The iPhone SLR Mount at the Photojojo Store!


Put DSLR lenses on your Iphone

I... I... I just don't know, man.