So last year, this site more than doubled in traffic. Not a bad result from flirting reluctantly with self promotion – handing out maybe 200 business cards since the end of October 2010. This year, goals are explicit, higher and pursued with intent. My public presence now includes:

• This site with formal collections of finished artwork.  The visual component will be fairly static.   Text, in the form of blog posts and information pages, will be frequent and more importantly, useful.  Expect equipment and technique reviews from my unique standpoint, and I plan to add a good bibliography in the next few days.
• My new, public Facebook page will have my most up to date work, often in a raw, lightly edited state.  What was once accessible to a select group of artists and friends will be public.  Please hit “like” and “share” it with your friends, too.
• My work will be represented on one more site, but that’s a bit down the line and somewhat hush hush.
• My twitter feed collects much of the above and serves as an overall RSS feed.  I still need to figure out a proper flow for these microblog links – I want to inform, not spam.  It should be manageable, but if you find a flood, let me know.

And that pretty much covers the online stuff only.  Other things are in the works – and that doesn’t include the real work : the art.

2011 was a mixed bag – everything about it could be described as half-hearted – and yet, still a success.  Let’s see what happens with some intent behind it.

However, my 2nd selection aside I couldn’t really bear using such an old piece – I’ve gotten better since, but I had my reasons for doing what I did – and since the judging and additional curating is done, I uploaded what was going to be my submission for this year to my profile; Quiptych. It also forms the centerpiece of my “cohesive” printed art portfolio, arrange just so to use the problem of vertical pieces in an horziontal presentation book to my advantage.

Now, finally, to get some real writing done.

To be accurate, they put a 19 year old me in their collection.  It’s particularly nice to be in a set with my buddy Russell Frederick. I had little expectation for a 14 year old piece to be selected in an emerging art competition in 2011, but there you go.  True, to me it’s like the film just came back from the developer – yeah, I made some 5×7 prints a decade ago, but I never really worked the negative.  It really is best described as 1997/2011.

Now, with that in mind, I’m not strongly attached to this piece.  So lets toss it aside – it was made 14 years ago; my ego isn’t attached to it – if it were, I’d have to think I hadn’t gotten any better since.  What’s nice about this collection is that while I don’t like every piece, they are photographer’s photographers: I don’t know most of these people’s work,  but I’d recognize them as photographers and not the crap that floats to the top.  I’m glad a few – and only a few – of these people made it into the top 150, because on the whole, the photography selections were terrible.  I could go point by point, case by case, but I don’t think I can bring myself to do it.  I did walk a dear friend through the postcard display at Rush Gallery this past week and explained either in terms of composition, last year’s selections, historical pieces, and to a lesser (if any) degree, technique.  (That last point may be shocking to those who think me as “technical.”  For another post.)  I swear I used several of the selections as examples to teach people what not to do.  This also applies to many of the online curators/live shows.  Whatever.  I hope some of the selectees make good in the market so I can critique the pieces as they deserve.

Anyway, congrats to 19 year old Adam, you don’t suck as much as I thought.

Yay.

The rest, however, are not so lucky.  I have a bit of an upload going on; “retrospeculum” (formerly, “Start Here”) will be changing a bit.  Too much overlap with other sections.  “Destilled” will be getting, well, destilled, as soon as I figure out what belongs there.  I know there are things that don’t belong there right now, and they will go.

Oh, the bio, which was boring and stupid was rewritten.  A lot fewer details and a lot more informative.  I did remove my ICQ account listing.  It kills me.  It was six digits, and I had the thing since (cringe) high school.

Moving along, that stuff will sort itself out.  More important is what is coming to this section.  Since my trip to Miami this past March, I’ve been shooting a fair amount of film, mostly MF (6×7 and 6×9 in particular), but also a little 4×5 and 35mm.  I just took possession of – god help me – an 8×10, but nothing is happening there until I build, buy, or steal a new bellows.

The upshot of all this is that I have a significant range of film cameras, many of which are system cameras, and have developed approaches to using and specific purposes to each.  I mean everything from a Mamiya C330S to a Graflex 4×5 R.B. (with factory Graflok!) sporting a 8″/2.9 slapped in front with gaffer tape, epoxy, and a steel lensboard from an unknown system.  All of these systems have reviews online: none of these are new cameras and lots of people have things to say.  I do not intend to duplicate that.  I just want to give my notes on these tools, especially since I have a pretty good cross section of MF offerings (thought LF and 35mm will get some notes).  Systems include Mamiya TLR, Mamiya RB67 and RZ67, Mamiya Universal, Koni Omega, Pentax 67, Horseman 970, Kiev 60, Hasselblad 500 series, and more.  I think the first up will be the Koni, representing one of the best price/performance ratios in film cameras, which is remarkable given the current prices of systems like the RZ67 and the Fuji GX680.

But for now, I sleep.

Well, it isn’t: I’ve just been very busy printing and doing some new work. I’m sure I’ll take a break one of these days soon and write about rant-and-read-worthy matters.

Hey! If you’re here looking for the photos from the J. Viewz Hammerstein Ballroom show, they aren’t here yet. You can see facebook sized images… on the (suprise) Official J. Viewz Facebook page which has a nice album. Infected Mushroom shots to come as well.

Concert photography to come. Also, please note I generally do not shoot professionally and have no interest in shooting for stock or any arrangement where copyright is ceded and little interest in event photography. I’m more than happy to entertain editorial, documentary, and fine arts related inquiries. You’ll figure out whom I am. I may be a bit brazen, but I respond to politeness in kind – if you have a proposal, go ahead and ask. Photography is too easy to be legitimately haughty about – except in relation to most photographers

Regardless of why you are here, thanks for looking, I’m always sorry for the mess or a dearth of content, and you should know where to find me if you need to.

Cheers!
Adam