matt's pictures

Always remember the super glue

Posted by matt on 2009-03-27T00:00:00Z GMT

twitter thoughts too long for twitter

A conversation today on twitter got me to thinking about photography, and culture and style and art and society. There was a photographer, who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent, who’s work really demonstrates all that’s wrong with the world right now. The photographer that brought up all these questions is a very successful commercial photographer. Very polished, styled images. There are a lot of things that I don’t like about them. A lot of his images are super low contrast, with no blacks (tonality, not people) at all, while also cropping off body parts willy-nilly. His lighting also bothers me- the photos strike me as the kind you need an army of assistants (well, at least two or three) to maintain-complex and unnatural. Not every shot should be into the light, all of them can’t be at golden hour, and sweat is never that perfectly placed. It’s a distinctive look, but it’s a plastic look, it’s one I’ve seen a thousand times before. We live in a dissafected, disenfranchised society. There are the indebted, and there are the people we owe money to. The rich are few and far between, something like 5% of the population at any given time, depending on your definition of rich. Money as we think of it now has no basis in the real world, but is merely some numbers in digital domains. Given that, where is art? It’s all gold and glam and crazy hair and tight pants. It’s abstract and disconnected and complex. It’s thin, insubstantial. It’s going to fall apart. It’s the lack of substance that I keep coming back to in my thinking; those photographs, even of somewhat interesting subjects, were plastic and boring, stamped out of a mill of complicated lights and staged action-peaks that only look like decisive moments. They are the shiny object, to be consumed and tossed away without thought. Where are the real photographs, the photographers of the world as it is? I’m not talking about people wandering to far flung regions to uncover the the worst of the worst, I’m talking about the local people, the ones doing projects and reporting on local things? Where are these photographers? They’re out there, I’m sure it’s not just me laboring under a delusion. I know because I’m one of ‘em.

Posted by matt on 2009-03-25T00:00:00Z GMT

This one goes out to Mom

Yeah, sure, sappy, I know. Go fuck yourself. My mom is in the hospital for the 13th time since September. Or was it August? I can’t remember when she started dialysis, but it was around then. 3 A.V. fistulas, a peritoneal port, 6 cardiac caths, a couple infections, surgeries to install and remove the above, time for monitoring, recovering, etc, etc. She’s been through a lot. And she’s still not done, although it now seems that they’ve got a handle on why the fistulas keep failing so consistently, it’s a 2% of the population kind of problem. Now she’s going to rest for a couple months and they’re going to do something different for a dialysis access. She might murder me for posting this, but oh well, at least then I won’t have to worry about my student loans. This was right before they took her back for surgery today.<img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/this_one_goes_out_to_mom/1218/0001.jpg” alt=”Photos” />

Posted by matt on 2009-03-23T00:00:00Z GMT

Home, where the laptop is

Phil the wonderdog, and his owner Todd.

Posted by matt on 2009-03-23T00:00:00Z GMT

SXSW update....

So we’re still here, still haven’t seen any shows, and if it weren’t for our gracious and intelligent host, we wouldn’t even have had and free beer. Austin is really going to have to kick it up a notch to save itself from this one. Beginning of the night, all dressed up, still hopeful. <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/sxsw_update…./1220/0004.jpg” alt=”Photos”/> We went to the party 45 minutes early and there was already a line a couple hundred people long. For some reason, when you tell people free beer and hot DJ’s, they line up like it’s the cure for stupidity. And then stand there. For two hours. While people cut, and get to go in vip. On the way, the night looked promising. <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/sxsw_update…./1220/0005.jpg” alt=”Photos”/> Seems to me it’s an intelligence test. It sounds like a good idea to go stand in line for a little while and get a bunch of free shit- booze, music, hot, scantily clad women etc. There’s a limit to how much you can stand there though, and here’s where the intelligence test comes in: the smarter you are, the sooner you leave. When we left, there were still 200 people standing in line, not about to get in. The line, when we got there. Seemed like we’d get in. <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/sxsw_update…./1220/0006.jpg” alt=”Photos”/> Now, they were at capacity when they stopped letting people in, I’m sure. But after a bunch of people leave, why not let the people at the front of the line in? Instead, they were only allowing VIP’s, which unfortunately, we’re not. The same line, 45 minutes later. <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/sxsw_update…./1220/0007.jpg” alt=”Photos”/> So, we gave up after about an hour of just standing there. In our defense, there were maybe 20 people in front of us; it seemed possible, when they said they were at capacity, that we might get in after some people left. Then we came back to the house, (Todd’s house) and drank beer and talked late into the night with todd, todd’s friend who works for SNL, and his girlfriend, who’s name I’ve forgotten. Longtime blogreaders and friends will know this is because I’m horrible with names. This was as far as we got. Then we gave up and commenced drinking. <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/sxsw_update…./1220/0008.jpg” alt=”Photos”/>

Posted by matt on 2009-03-20T00:00:00Z GMT

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