Road Trip Journal

Images conceived yesterday on the long drive back from Wild Animal Safari while listening to rightwing talk shows on the only available radio station:

Dick

Dik-dik

Dik-dik diptych

Dick trips

Dick trips diptych

Dik-dik trips triptych

Cryptic dik-dik diptych

Tip dip trick with Dick trips triptych strip

Royal Asshole

Rephotographing Rogovin

Milton Rogovin has compiled a string of dazzling portraits in his long career. I think my favorites are his Lower West Side series re-photographing families. Rogovin made a series of portraits in the early 70s in inner city Buffalo. Later he sought out his subjects and rephotographed them twice, once in the mid-80s and once in the early 1990s. For some subjects he shot a fourth round in 2002. The series was published as a book in 1994. Some examples were also included in the 2006 book Milton Rogovin: The Making of a Social Documentary Photographer, which is where I first encountered them.

As in other re-photography projects the comparison of a subject with itself over time is the source of endless fascination. What changes? What stays the same?

Obviously people change over time. Bodies age, blossom, wither, and disappear. Fashions shift. But for me the more striking features of Rogovin's photos are the consistencies. Part of his magic portrait voodoo was the ability to bring out essential postures and expressions. It's amazing to see these remain relatively constant over the course of many years, and to see them pass between siblings or generations. Anyone who's looked through an old family scrapbook is familiar with this game, yet that experience can be muddied by personal memory. In looking at rephotographs of strangers as in the ones below, the changes and the constants shine right through.

Milton Rogovin will turn 100 in December 2009. He hasn't aged a bit.

Lower West Side Triptychs, Series #1

1973

1985

1992

Lower West Side Triptychs, Series #2

1973

1985

1992

Lower West Side Triptychs, Series #3

1973

1985

1992

Lower West Side Quartets

1974

1985

1992

2002

Small World

I don't mean to toot my own horn but I thought it was worth mentioning that my website got a very nice writeup recently on Hrdecknl Trpnstckzi's blog.

"Ne zamandır makinayı elime alıp birşeyler çekmediğimden olsa gerek bütün gün zamanımı fotoğraf izleyerek geçirmeye çalışıyorum!" he says, before adding, "Bir kere açık söyleyeyim acayip popüler bu aralar sokak fotoğrafçılığı. Bir kere kolay! Yani öyle görünüyor. Mekan, malzeme bol. Işık güzel, sokaklardaki gölgeler, arabalar, dumanlar, gelen-gidenler sonsuz. Ama çektiklerinin içini dolduran kim var derseniz işte o konu benim boyumu aşar. İdolü olan biri için cevaplaması zor bir soru."

Lastly, "Aşağıdaki linkler benim gezip gördüğüm, takip etmeye çalıştığım, kimi zaman burada fotoğraflarını paylaştığım street photo grup ve fotoğrafçılara ait linkler. İzlemesi bedava."

The Tower of Babel, c. 1563, Pieter Brueghel
Very kind words indeed. I'm still working out the exact translation but I'm pretty sure it means "something something something totally bitchin pictures something something". If anyone can give me the full translation, I'll send you a print.

What a small world the internet has provided for us!

What To Do? #35

103. NW Broadway and Hoyt, Portland, 2006

104. Junction City, OR, 2007

105. SE 90th and Division, Portland, 2003

(WTD? is a weekly installment of old unseen b/w photos)

Books to be read sequentially?

Before Photography, Peter Galassi, MOMA: 1984

Photography Until Now, John Szarkowski, MOMA; 1989

Art Photography Now, Susan Bright, Aperture: 2006

After Photography, Fred Ritchin, Norton: 2008