So, I was getting ready to leave to go to chicago, texted Kawan to see if he was going to drink and draw, and he said, no, I’m going to miss it tonight, it’s Day of The Dead in the city. I was instantly like, I should go and photograph that, even though I hadn’t packed and leave for chicago the next day. Yeah, these photos happened before the ones it the last post.
So I got to the mission about 7, 7:30, and start walking south on Valencia. I don’t really see much until I get to close to the 24th street BART station. I came to the tail end of a parade, there was a group of dancers (next photo).
Then I followed the crowds down 24th st, towards the park where there were other things still happening; art and live music and ofrendas (altars with pictures and other things that remind us of the dead, usually specific people). Food and flowers and pictures, candles and other lights.
Then I ran around a bunch and took the rest of the pictures here.
Posted on 2024-03-08T02:44:03Z GMT
These are in vibes order, again. Lot of verticality in this edit. Had a really nice time the weekend these were taken, stayed at Hunter and Jason’s place. Great view out of their windows, pity there wasn’t a decent photographer there to get a shot of it.
Anyway. Had a real nice portfolio review earlier this week, looking at the san pablo work, working on mashing it into a shape to start shopping it around as a book and maybe an exhibition. Sets that work together, colors, leitmotifs. I’ll have to make some prints, too, if there’s a show. Gallery show? Me? Maybe. Have to find a gallery.
Farmed out the work prints earlier today, anyway. Going to be an interesting exercise to see if I can make it work.
Posted on 2024-02-29T09:06:29Z GMT
So last fall, while I was in Sardinia, I took a little side trip. The festival we were at was at the north end of the island, in a little town called San Teodoro. From there, I took a bus to the train station in Olbia, and the train took me all the way across the island. I don’t want to belabor the point, but I could take a bus and train, about 6 hours total, to get to a place that was about a three hour drive away. Whole island has the population of less than the greater bay area, and yet somehow high speed rail in california ‘doesn’t make sense’? They’ve played us for fools.
Anyway. These aren’t in any particular order, I exported them in numerical order and then they got randomized when I uploaded them. No big deal. I was in the town for a total of like 24 hours? And there’s 25 pictures, so pretty good. I don’t know why when I do something like this I shoot like it’s National Geographic back when they were decent. Walk and shoot, walk and shoot. Wait, look, shoot some more.
Unlike those guys (almost to a person, guys, and if you want to see the seeds of their self-destruction, well, there’s one), I don’t have any patience or, as it turns out, time. Where they could sit on a single corner for days to wait for one shot, I move around probably too fast. Impatient, maybe, but also there’s so much to see, especially in a new place. This goes back to what I was saying about not slowing down and working a subject a while back. Knowing I only have a certain number of hours left in a day definitely plays a part.
There’s also a little alarm bell, a little flag in my head that goes off when some things happen that says ‘this is important! something is happening! take a lot of pictures of it!’ and for some reason the 20 minutes after takeoff and the 20 minutes before landing in an airplane are always flagged. Big landmarks, definitely flagged. Times Square in New York, I could photograph there for days (and have, I go basically every time I’m in NYC, it’s a sickness).
Something I’m thinking about for San Pablo though. I started out with the thesis, handed to me on a silver platter by Robin, that it was the most interesting street in the Bay Area, more so than Market or Polk in SF or Telegraph in Oakland/Berkeley. But the place I’ve ended up is that any street (any place) becomes interesting the more you look at it, and also it becomes harder and harder to pin down what you’re talking about.
This town was cool though, not super touristy in the bad way, good vibes, nice light even at night. Nothing shouty, but nothing terrible either. Lots of hills.
Posted on 2024-02-21T09:25:47Z GMT
