I really cannot believe it is already March. I’d totally planned on making some sort of new-year stort of post (new-year lower case, not like New Years or whatever) but that got done over at my photo blog and never cross posted.
Speaking of annoying cross-posting, I’ve recruited Winslow Taft to conjure from his mystical cauldron of design witchery a new website for me that will once again show its face at carynorton.com. I think the most exciting part of this is that this site will finally bring together all blog-style units I produce. I’m looking forward to having ONE place to post things and actually have those things be visible just by being at my site.
I most just wanted to say hi to the people reading this. I don’t have any scale of how many people that may be, but I promise when the new site launches there will be BILLIONS (literally billions) of blog posts.
I’ll show you a photo I’ve taken this year that I love (see above, or if you’re reading this via blog reader, you may have to view it on the site to see the image). It’s my friend Bob shot on 8×10 and I consider this my first successful 8×10 photograph. There are some others posted at the aforementioned photo blog, for your fyi.
11.23.09
As a matter of circumstance and habit, I don’t often see other photographers’ work unless I subscribe to a blog they produce or a blog that I read that happens to show their work. On one hand, I find this a most appropriate work to follow / lead my own to wherever it may be headed. (Recently, an artist I greatly admire said to me, ” imitate and emulate, no one but yourself,” and I am finding this advice to sound quite satisfactory.) On the other hand, I occasionally take a gander at others’ work by accident or by way of direction from a friend, and I can find it most inspiring.
There are two recent images that wound up saved to my computer for the inability to let them go. By that I mean, as much information as I intake daily (important or utterly, utterly banal) most of it flows right back out and I only grab one tiny nugget of it. But occasionally I’ll see something that demands its own room in my brain.
The first of these is by a photographer I have never heard of—Aneta Bartos. I don’t exactly recall how I found this image, but I love it. Her work is totally different than what I am used to seeing, but there is something so…something..moving? genuine? that it stops me in my tracks.
The next image is the result of a long bunny trail. My new friend Jonathan Canlas sent me a message to check out a podcast by The Candid Frame on Dan Winters, which was a very good listen. I decided to check out their blog a bit more and ran across the classic Jim Herrington. I don’t know if it matters that I love the music this woman creates, or if this portrait of Gillian Welch is just universally arresting. Just look.
Such a sad day for me, as of like five mintues ago. I learned that the photographic legendIrving Penn died today at the age of 92. There isn’t much a I can say about him that wouldn’t be repeating the outpouring of grief at his passing and praise of his work and work ethic. I’d love to post a photo I took of him, but I never did. And even if I’d had the chance I probably would have shit myself trying.
I am tinkering with the idea of making a 4×5 out of Lego. Any ideas or suggestions, email me. That’s all!
8.3.09
I shoot a very limited number weddings each year bur rarely mention that here. I cannot help mentioning my last week, however.
My friends Bob Miller and Allison Thornhill had the most gloriously beautiful and laid back wedding I’ve ever witnessed or been proud to be a part of. A few of us went down to Costa Rica this past week to help the celebrate and I took photos the entire week. I send off the film tomorrow, but literally the moment I walked in the door (3 am Saturday morning) I grabbed the 4×5 I shot and jumped into the darkroom to develop—I had to see them AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
I was not disappointed. I could never seen another photo from their wedding and be completely satisfied from just the handful of 4x5s I have. The shot below is not necessarily my favorite from the day, but it gives a good idea of the people and location I was working with. How could I even take a bad photograph down there with these people? I submit it is not possible. Anyway…heres that shot:
6.26.09
mental_floss is an amazing magazine full of non-stop nerdery, facts, and more thorough insight lots of things than you may need. Fortunately, they are based, at least in part, here in Birmingham. A good portion of the content of the magazine is historical or in someway abstract which lends itself to illustration or various elements of stock photography. However, Winslow Taft (m_f art director) and I have great plans of figuring out ways create brand new, creative photography for as many of their stories as we can. The most recent collaboration is a simple one. They have an entire article on toilet paper and, as the subtitle indicates, it’s all about “how America convinced the world to wipe”. We settled on a hero shot of a roll of TP. I look forward to working more and more with mental_floss in the future. (Also, I don’t know if I blogged the last thing I did for them…here is one of the shots from the “Most Important Questions of 2009″ cover story from a couple of issues ago.)
6.11.09
VOLTRON RAWWWWWWRRRRWRWRW!!!
Okay, so I just saw this post over at Gizmodo, featuring the following image:
This is awesome because I received this exact camera when I was 6. I had an entirely Voltron-themed that year and it. was. awesome. The only thing I didn’t get was a whole set of the individual characters to create the “full sized” Voltron figure, which at the time I was sad about, but I get now was just that my parents were smart enough not to completely spoil me.
All I am saying is Voltron kicks ass still, and I was super excited to see this classic camera posted online. It is even more appropriate now that I am a photographer.
Also, I just got back from Japan. Took a trip with my sister to celebrate her graduation from Grad School and man did we have fun. Here is a random snap while I wait for my film to get processed. I shot 8mm as well. That’s exciting.
5.22.09
I love a photograph in print. It is really were they belong, in my opinion. So, in this increasingly online world, I always love to see stuff I’ve shot in print.
Today, I got in the mail copies of an annual report I shot up in New York back in January for a non-profit called The International Longevity Center.
It was a lot of fun to slip it in right before I went to Uganda for DIG.
Anyway….it printed really well and it reminds me how important good paper is. Love some thick stock. Here are a couple of pages from it.
5.7.09
Hey everybody. Just an official blog post to mention I put up a new section to this website for the work I did in Uganda for DIG.
If you want, following along with the words in the intro and the IMAGE NOTES. The goal, of course, is to tell the story with the images themselves, but hopefully the words will give a bit more insight into DIG and the people you see in the photos.
Here is Greogy and his glorious beard. It has apparently been going since November (which would make it an unofficial Whiskerino I gues).
4.15.09
So this is my friend Winslow. His house was crushed by this tree in his yard over the weekend during the storm-nasties. I missed the tree still on the house, but I think the point still comes across. Gonna take some serious work to get this thing back together.
To view this image in more detail, please see the bigger version here.
4.14.09
I figured I’d post something here since it is my neglected corner of the internet. (The places I actually update are electric lion, poptpop, and finally I caved in and started using twitter.)
This year has been a bit odd so far. It started with a bang with a trip to Uganda to photograph for a lovely non-profit called DIG that teaches sustainable gardening skills to at risk people and others who have HIV/AIDS.
It has been a hard trip to top! What a way to start. Here we are in April and I find myself fighting with myself even more than normal about what it is I want to be shooting and how to present myself appropriately to find that work. I need to get back up to New York and meet more people. I made a few connections when I was there in January for an annual report and have a short list of names I didn’t have time to have face time with in my two days off.
Anyway, internal dialogue remains difficult. I want to meet the person who has found the perfect match of making a living and shooting what they want. I know it is possible. I guess really I just want to meet more people. It is not a strength of mine (anymore, at least) to intentionally find people to meet. Got any suggestions?
Oh, hey, also….speaking of suggestions. I’m heading to Tokyo in June with my sister to celebrate her graduating grad school. Where should I go? Do you need anything photographed while I’m there? Can’t hurt to ask, right?
I need to find better ways to manage my downtime. For now, here are some images from this year so far in no particular order. (if you see this in an RSS reader, you’ll likely want to view the post at the journal proper.)
Holger Thoss walking with me in New York.
preparing
planting
and harvesting
and resting
3.20.09
So…it is friday night…what did you do tonight? I ate chinese, cleaned my studio, and hung out in the darkroom developing sheets of 4×5 black and white film. No need to get into the grizzlies of what film and what chemicals….I can say we had a good time*. Anyway, it occurred to me that the way I develop stuff may not be exactly orthodox. Or it could be totally common. I don’t actually know. Thats not really the point I am wanting to make anyway. The point is I use a tracklist of music on my phone and I fully stole the idea of music mixes as chemical times from by buddy Jonathan Purvis. I’m sure he listens to obscure amazing musics while he develops…I just searched my iTunes for songs that matched the lengths of time I needed.
I present to you that playlist…list now:
The Sesame Street Theme Song
Weather Systems – Andrew Bird (this is the developer…six minutes)
If Before We Are Coughing – Half-Handed Cloud
Bourbon Balls & Whoopie Pies – Cecil Church
Boa Constrictor – Magnetic Fields
Kids In The Hall Theme Song
David the Gnome Theme Song
Title Track from the Phish album The Sicket Disk
Note To Self – David Karsten Daniels
Waok (Ay) Rollcall – The Roots
some song called 60seconds1 that has been in my iTunes Library since early 2005
Row – Jon Brion (Eternal Sunshine Soundtrack)
I thought the list was bizarre enough to share. So there you go. Most of those songs are exactly one minute long.
*this is a decently obscure reference to the linked film. brilliant.
On an entirely unrelated note, here is a video that brings together two things I love immensely. The musics, quicks, looks, faces, ticks, and voice of the lovely Nellie McKay, and TED Talks. If you do not know either of these, do yourself a favor.
