Category Archives: Photography

The genius of Richard Misrach

Art, Death Valley, Photography

I have been going to the California desert – on a pretty regular basis – for about 35 years. The great majority of that time has been when the light was hot and flat, washed out, the colors dull. Almost every photographer working in the desert shoots during what is called the sweet light or golden hour – between about an half hour before sunrise to about two hours after sunrise and the reverse – sort of – around sunset. Richard Misrach shoots during the middle of the day when the light is flat and washed out and his photographs looks like the desert actually seems to look when most people are actually looking at it.

Most “fine art photographers” tend to not use normal lenses, especially in the desert, with the wide angle being a perennial favorite. So there is some point of interest in the foreground but the real photograph is often the background. Art Wolfe is a terrific photographer; he is a photographer who does – more or less – conventional images in a conventional way better than anybody.  I love his shots but their strength is that they are not what most people see when they go to the desert.

Richard Misrach strength is that his shots show what most people see and are impacted by in the desert.

I love Misrach – his images – and he has had a huge impact on my photography but I have never been quite sure why I am so attracted to them. I have never been sure how he made them work. Over the weekend, we saw the same Misrach photographs displayed at both the Oakland Museum and the Berkeley Art Museum. (It was interesting how the same photographs took on a different feel – tone is better – when they are displayed differently. I preferred the Oakland show, BTW.) More importantly, for me, the two shows helped me understand Misrach’s photography much better.

Now, I think that the genius of Misrach is not in the content of his photographs – which are often pretty mundane – but in how that photograph is played, for lack of a better word. First his images – photo talk for pictures – are huge – like five by six feet huge – and that makes a big difference. And sharp; 8″ by 10″ camera sharp (or, if shot today, huge megapixel sharp).  It is easy to almost get lost in the photographs, they almost become a real life view. He has had the guts to just go for an outrageous size and the impact is worth it (except that they are too big for most homes. Second, the images are desaturated. Just like the desert light, at any time but the golden hour, is desaturated.

It will be fun to see how this plays out in my photography.

 

 

 

 

 

I’m thrilled that nothing goes away on the web

Photography, Psychological Musings,

The San Francisco Police Department wants to us a couple of my photographs in their annual report and I am shocked. Not shocked that they want to use the photographs – well, actually, shocked about that too – even though I do think that it is a pretty good photo of the police at the 2011 LGBT parade – as they call it – but shocked that they found it. I put the pictures in my blog last June where they – apparently – lurked until the Office of the Chief of Police of the San Francisco Police Department found them. That is pretty extraordinary. Well, I guess, today, not extraordinary: just ordinary.

Still for me, shocking. A couple of weeks ago, I did a post on going to Sequoia Hospital for a daily infusion of the antibiotic daptomycin and two days later, the head nurse said that I should be careful not to show anybody’s name in my pictures. It turns out that Sequoia does regular searches to see what people are saying about them on the webs and then referred it to the nurse in the photograph. I know that whatever I put here is available to anybody, but it was still a surprise. And I had a moment of feeling slightly queasy, like seeing a cop car’s redlight going off in my rearview mirror.

As I finish this, the shock has dissipated but the thrill remains. And here is the other picture.

 

 

 

 

A nostalgia trip to Death Valley

California, Camping, Death Valley, Photography,

After driving through Yosemite, over Tioga Pass, down Highway 395, and east on the Big Pine Road, Michele, Ed Dieden, and I got to Eureka Valley as the sun was going behind the Saline Range. We set up camp in the twilight, ate barbecued Polish sausage and zucchini, and went to bed. We woke the next morning just in time to see the Saline Range light up. Part of the plan was to go over to the Eureka Dunes to photograph but the day was windless and the dunes were pretty marked up with footprints. Rabbits, lizards, coyotes, and people footprints – including somebody walking bare foot.

Still, in the early morning light, the dunes were haunting and the Last Chance Range behind them seemed dark and moody.

The night before had been colder than we expected and we decided to bail on going to the Race Track because it was a little more than 3,000 feet higher and that much colder. We decided to drop down into Death Valley its actual self where it would be much warmer.

On the way, we decided to revisit Titus Canyon. Titus Canyon is a drive that starts in the Amargosa, the next valley to the east of Death Valley, and then wanders through the Grapevine Mountains before dropping through a deep canyon back into Death Valley proper. It is one of the classic – meaning ranger approved Official League – drives that usually can be done in a car. Michele and I had not done the drive in twenty years and had forgotten how spectacular it is.

Of course it was alot more crowded than we are used to.

Michele had been driving, but, when we got to the actual canyon, Ed took over the driving chores and we walked for a while.

From there, it was back into the valley and a drive to below sea level then up The Hole in the Wall Road to 2,000 feet where we had a steak dinner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marble bath at Steel Pass

California, Death Valley, Photography

 

 

Several years ago  – probably more looking at how much less I weighed  – I was involved in what I like to call The Marble Bath Gambol. At Wendel Moyer’s suggestion, several of us installed a marble bath at Steel Pass where one did not seem to exist but was shown as Marble Bath on many maps. It had been increasingly likely that the area was going to be annexed into Death Valley National Monument which was then going to be upgraded to a National Park – the highest level of protection and control. Wendel felt that the park would need a real Marble Bath but it would have to be done before the area was actually a park.

The installation did involve a certain disregard for the rules and regulations governing the installation of a structure in a Wilderness Area but it was felt that the end result justified the violation.

Somewhere, I have a bunch of pictures of the whole thing but my picture storing protocol has been pretty casual and I am not sure where to even start looking for them. But, today, while looking for something totally unrelated, I ran into this picture.