Hi everybody.

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.

Well, the zenphoto hole affected the whole site. But after parsing just about every script on the site and putting in new .htaccess files, I think I’m clean and I can’t find any ill effects. That was really annoying and very badly timed for me. In fact, the time I was going to spend on moving to integrate the galleries into WordPress was spent on that; but I think I can get that done this weekend.

Yay.

Sorry. Zenphoto had a gaping security hole and got hijacked. Working on it now.

[3:02am EDIT: fixed. WordPress might have a similar hole. need to check.]

For various reasons, I’m doing the social media thing. It’s a bit of a long game, but I know one girl who’s already worried. And this is just to test that wp autotwits. The other direction, as you may have noticed, works just fine.

I’m late in adding this, but I was just at Lisa Diakova’s show in Chelsea, and if you are around you should check it out too. Absolute master of blending oil paint. The show runs through November 5th and then after a bit of a breather, I think it heads out West to Cali and possibly further. You can find it at 526 West 26th, suite 609 in Chelsea. Buy something. Say hi from me.

It’s 6am, so a quick note.  The photo section is in flux.  The “same as printed” portfolio is fine; the idea is to provide an online equivalent to a set I use as such, both in content (plus one added image) and experience.   Consequently, images are bordered as they are in print, vertical sets appear together, the two page panoramic composite (50+ MP) shares the same three border opposing approach.  In essence, every webpage is equivalent to a print. 

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.

I know, this blog seems dead – it’s been a very long time, even by my standards.

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.

EDIT: Hey, if you’re looking for New Year’s 2010-2011 Hammerstein Ballroom photographs, you’ll find them in the Special Events section of the new gallery. Enjoy, and thanks for your patience.

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

I guess I’m entitled. Can’t say, “I don’t sell, don’t show” anymore. OK, I can, but it needs an asterisk.

CurateNYC

Exhibition Selections

My entry.

Over the last year, people who met me – or ones who thought they knew me, to whom photography was “my new thing” – have inundated me with questions – mostly related to photographic technique, purchases, and education. Now a glance to the right will show that my commitment to this blog has been essentially negligible. Nevertheless, I find myself willing to share techniques to some degree and with a number of email responses that could easily be reworked as blog posts. I’ll give it a shot.

Moreover, despite my fairly long list of lenses, my shooting kits are light, typically 1-3 lenses. Only recently did I carry five for a short trip – and of course ended up using one only of them over three days. I’ve already started a write up on my primary bag (based on my 5DII) and will extend it to the other loadouts, including my GH1 setups.

No promises that I’ll ever get this done.