Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Stay Tuned.

I'm still here!

To Progress:

Well the Holidays are gone and it's back to dead at B&H. Literally nothing happening there...except me, playing with the same Leica M4-P, longingly. Outside of that I've logged some more hours at ICP, and soon I'll have access to their facilities. I've been holding off on projects for a little while because A. I've been real busy. B. It's too cold for street photography and C. I was hoping to get the Too Much Chocolate-Kodak grant for my portrait project (which I did not). So now I have to self motivate myself back into action against the cold, and busy, busy schedule through which I trudge.

Congrats to the recipients of the Too Much Chocolate grant! You guys deserve it from what I can see on your websites.

Otherwise, I borrowed an Olympus EP-1 for the New Year weekend. It's a great little camera! I can't process any of the files in Aperture, even after I convert them to DNG, but I certainly enjoying shooting with it! I think I'm going to hop-ship over to Lightroom after this little disaster. Sorry Appple...no side car files and and a backup failure make Mark a sad boy. My simple review of the camera is that I want an EP-2, because of the electronic viewfinder. I just can't make serious pictures with a rear LCD screen. I'm not gonna buy one, but I would if I didn't think Leica's and 4x5s were cooler anyway.

If anybody knows any self motivational techniques I'd love to hear them! I feel a slump coming on...

Lets discuss:

1. How cold it is. Very cold. So cold I went back and took another look at some of my Summer snapshots to warm up a bit.

2. As much I enjoy some time spent in a magazine store, I contend that even with all the publications going under, we're a bit over saturated. Hopefully soon someone like Apple will step in.

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

3. I still haven't seen the Frank show at the Met. What's wrong with me?

4. Due to poor digital archival practices early on in my 'theoretical' image making, I've now lost the better part of my restaurant interior portfolio I shot while photographing for The Onion. It was my fault, but still, it's a big reason why I don't shoot entirely digital.

5. Alec Soth has launched a new blog and zine: http://littlebrownmushroom.wordpress.com/

I bought a copy of the zine, you should too. Mr. Soth asserts, and I'd like to agree, that in the wake of press printed commercial and editorial content moving toward an as yet undiscovered digital delivery system, photographers and image makers have an opportunity to fill the gap. Rediscovering a somewhat lost sense of tangibility that (I feel) is important in the creation and worth of the photograph.

"While most print media is dying, the photobook is going through a renaissance. I can only hope the vibrancy and appreciation of this medium will increase. If we’re lucky, maybe by 2020 The New York Times Book Review will give photobooks the same attention they give, say, graphic novels" -Alec Soth

6. I might put down my Hasselblad for the season if the cold persists, and focus on my portraiture, INDOORS.

7. How wonderful is it to be a homebrewer? Eggnog Milk Stout will be ready the week after Christmas.

That's all. Merry Christmas!

Mark vs. The Craigslist Robots

Welllllll working in a camera store sure makes the time fly! What am I doing that I can't seem to belch my thoughts all over the internet more often? Oh yeah, LIVING! It's like, what I do...

Other things I've done lately have been apply for the Too Much Chocolate/Kodak grant for emerging photographers (ohplease-ohplease-ohplease!), travel to Chicago, and pay my credit card down to the spot where Captain Planet's gonna take take pollution. Debt free is the way to be. Actually, through some purchase/return malarchy, I do believe Visa actually owes me $40 dollars. We'll see how they feel when I start charging them monthly interest for late payment, plus fees...

So anyway photography, I still do that.

I sent out emails to craigslist daters tonight. We shall see which of them are vile robots and which are hopeless romantics. This is the 'form' email I sent to 10 men and 10 women in the m4w, w4m sections of craigslist tonight:

Hello,

My name is Mark Sperry and I am a photographer. I am currently shooting a project about online dating, and after seeing your craigslist ad, I was hoping you would participate. I am not asking for money, or any personal information! I ask only for the opportunity to make your portrait, and that you write, by hand, the contents of your craigslist ad. Here is a portion of a recent grant proposal explaining the project:

My project focuses on individuals who use the Internet as the center of their love life. What I find intriguing about this phenomenon are the contradictions inherent in the process. Participants (myself included) have turned to a medium that is associated with anonymity and distance to form the most personal of human relationships. Members of every generation use social networking sites like OkCupid, Match.com, and Craigslist to create profiles or ads that essentially act as a billboard for their self-image. Dually, those pages hold the projected image of hope for the potential of connections, relationships, and an end to loneliness. All of this is taking place behind the Internet’s inherently protective veil. The social networking world now more than ever acts as a core conduit for many aspects of our social interaction. Online dating is perhaps the oldest part of this development.

My technique is fairly simple. I attempt to find sitters through Craigslist personal ads, user profiles from dating websites, or people I meet in everyday life that date online. When someone agrees to participate I go to their home or a place of our choosing and make a formal black and white portrait. After the shoot, I ask my sitters to write, by hand, the contents of their personal ad, or dating profile “about me.” The portrait is meant to complement the written contents of their statement, which is scanned at high resolution, revealing the signature of their handwriting. The silver gelatin photograph and the hand written statement act to remove the sitter from their “internet anonymity,” the texture of the paper and the marks of the pen shown at a high level of detail further reveal the individual behind the “profile.”

You can view some of the images I've made over the course of this project on my website.

Please do let me know if you would like to participate!

Mark Sperry
http://www.marksperryphoto.com
http://320txp.blogspot.com/


I'm going to try and send out that number of emails at least 3 times a week now, whether I get the Kodak grant or not, I have to finish this project. I'm switching gears from the landscapes/street photography I'm doing in Brooklyn, but this project needs to take priority right now, Broadway will always be there.

One thing that still bugs me is whether or not my portraits themselves are visually interesting enough. I'd like them to stand alone as strong images, without all the baggage of the ideas behind them. I'm not sure if this is a misguided approach, but as an image maker I feel like the simple act of crafting a picture should be half the battle. I still wonder if I should change the style of the whole thing to make it look less 'editorial' and more dramatic, or well crafted, with heavy lighting and all that. Ideally I guess I would do both...


What do YOU think? I do like how the scans of the statements are coming out though. Flatbed scanners create a beautiful digital file, in their own way.

two pretty girls

I'm still working, as you may have noticed from my recent blog post. I got a job at B&H working in the used department, which is pretty good. It's nice to know where the money is coming from, but I've let go of a lot of my freedom. The real challenge is going to be continuing my work within the confines of a busy work schedule, and a social life. I've done well for myself so far during this period though. I've shot three portraits and and have done some of my street photography/landscape work. It gets expensive though. I have about ten rolls of black and white waiting to be processed. I think I need to move my processing back home so I don't have to go into the darkroom to do it. Summer has never really been good for the lab, you need cold weather to stay inside all that time.

The Images posted here are from two of my recent portrait shoots. The black and white fujiroids are from my project, and the color film is just my continuing efforts at portraiture.



I hope the Tri-X turns out half as good as the black and white proofs I shot that day. I had imagined a sun-drenched look to that shot we and were fortunate that we got some rays amidst an overall cloudy day. As for the close up shot I used an extension tube on my 80mm to get a head and shoulders shot. That's Erika, and she totally looks like Linsday Lohan in that picture.

As for Gina, the pictures in color, I was worried at the time that I was just doing what I've done before. After seeing the contact sheets though, I think I got some acceptable images. I probably could, or should have done more, but I'm happy with the results I got. One of them went up on my website.

Hum-drum and it's back to work tomorrow. And so I'll continue making pictures for a while and see what I can see.

How funny you are today New York
like Ginger Rogers in Swingtime
and St. Bridget’s steeple leaning a little to the left

here I have just jumped out of a bed full of V-days
(I got tired of D-days) and blue you there still
accepts me foolish and free
all I want is a room up there
and you in it
and even the traffic halt so thick is a way
for people to rub up against each other
and when their surgical appliances lock
they stay together
for the rest of the day (what a day)
I go by to check a slide and I say
that painting’s not so blue

where’s Lana Turner
she’s out eating
and Garbo’s backstage at the Met
everyone’s taking their coat off
so they can show a rib-cage to the rib-watchers
and the park’s full of dancers with their tights and shoes
in little bags
who are often mistaken for worker-outers at the West Side Y
why not
the Pittsburgh Pirates shout because they won
and in a sense we’re all winning
we’re alive

the apartment was vacated by a gay couple
who moved to the country for fun
they moved a day too soon
even the stabbings are helping the population explosion
though in the wrong country
and all those liars have left the UN
the Seagram Building’s no longer rivalled in interest
not that we need liquor (we just like it)

and the little box is out on the sidewalk
next to the delicatessen
so the old man can sit on it and drink beer
and get knocked off it by his wife later in the day
while the sun is still shining

oh god it’s wonderful
to get out of bed
and drink too much coffee
and smoke too many cigarettes
and love you so much

-Frank O'Hara

New Pictures for Shamdoogle

For http://www.shamdoogle.com/

Not bad for a no budget, no plan afternoon of shooting.