Looking into my personal photographic “pre-history”. From the Kodak Brownie Hawkeye era. Mike was an early college friend from Southern California, and one of those … unforgettable … characters, versed in West Coast life, hot rods, Jack Kerouac, sex and drugs. The Iowa locale is another subject for another story for another time.
Lamoni, Iowa – June 1961
Not many photographers’ work inspired and moved me the way Robert Frank’s did …
And here we have some comments from a number of other photographers about Robert Frank’s influence.
Also read this piece by The New Yorker‘s Amanda Petrusich.
(#2512)
This morning, walking to my workspace …
(Eagles/Stardust Series, #2497)
Yesterday, rummaging through decades-old storage boxes, I came upon what has to be one of my very first photographs-for-the-sake-of-photography. My relationship with the young woman depicted evolved into an enduring forty-year friendship, through marriages and much other history for each of us, until her death in 2004. The print I found, in its scuffed and torn state, was scanned but itself represented a re-photograph of a small polaroid print that was made along with a number of others of my friend as part of a piece in which I had painted a roughly 2′ x 4′ full-figure silhouette of her as she stood on a beach. Then the silhouette was filled with a composite collage of portions of the many polaroids I shot, including the one below. While that piece is long gone from history (and perhaps thankfully so), it did mark an early conscious determination that photography was a medium I wanted to pursue.
(contemporary rescan of damaged 1970s print from re-photographed original 1964 polaroid print)
Porsche 930
Lotus Elise
Rat Rod
Rat Rod Chevy Truck
Something for the Red Series (Ford GT)
1934 Ford
1934 Ford
S-10 Chevy Pickup
Today, while rummaging through boxes in my workspace that sit on about sixteen linear feet of shelves, stacked seven feet high, I discovered two forty-year-long-lost prints that Jim Friedman sent me back in the early 70s. Here is a quick document I made of the find:
(My Photograph of Photographs by Jim Friedman: top – Joe 1972, bottom – Christie 1973)
These prints are in fine condition, already on 14″ x 18″ mats, so I will have to frame and/or put them up where I can find wall space. Wonderful treat for my Friday.
Jim tells me that these prints were made while he was still studying with Minor White at MIT. For more of Jim’s work in his succeeding professional career, see his site at http://www.jamesfriedmanphotographer.com/. And to see more of my earlier posts about Jim on this site, try this.
message on second avenue
