Friday, December 28, 2012

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow



I had new business cards made recently by the good folks at Moo. They look great but I'm not really sure what to do with them. I rarely attend conventions or networking sessions, and I usually avoid meeting dressy types or anyone official or who looks like they might care about a business card.

But I wanna show people B is for real, so I've been leaving them here and there anonymously the way I leave workprints. Park benches. Phone booths. Etc. I'm a regular Johnny business-card-Seed. And I've got some extras. So if your name and phone number happen to be the same as mine get in touch and I'll send you some, and you too can puzzle over what to do with them.

Oh well. I suppose I should've thought about all of this before having them made. But that's just not how I roll. I've got a business card now. This shit's real. I'm living on the edge, yo, starting yesterday.

Also on the personal networking front, the Art Photo Index launched its huge website last week. I'm not sure if it has any practical use but it's very fun to browse just to see how photographers present themselves. My strategy was scattered. I chose six photos which had absolutely nothing to do with one another, then backed it up with text from one of those online Mad-Libs-style artist statement generators:
Ever since my early childhood career I have been fascinated by the essential unreality of relationships. My work explores the discordant hyperspace between Critical theory and divergent serendipitous sightings. With influences as diverse as Kierkegaard, Coltrane, and Andy Warhol, new tensions are crafted from both constructed and discovered dialogues, so that what starts out as contemplation soon becomes finessed into a hegemony of futility, leaving only a sense of failing and the dawn of a new order. For example, my untitled photograph tentatively titled (Untitled) #4598 embodies an idiosyncratic view of dominant recorded tropes, yet the familiar imagery allows for a connection between sidewalk, camera, and people's shoes, a recurring motif in my work. As intermittent derivatives become reconfigured through diligent and diverse practice, the viewer is left with an insight into the limits of our world.  
I currently divide my time between Berlin and the barn at the end of my driveway.

I have no idea what this says. But I feel that in itself expresses where I am today with my photography. Photography is a beautiful mystery bla bla bla, and all that stuff. You can't pin it down bla bla bla. Which I could write in an artist statement but it wouldn't make me laugh. It wouldn't make me feel young.

On the blog front, despite my mid-year abandonment it's been a good year for B. I've been running the numbers recently and they're very encouraging:

Forty-seven. Two. Nine-hundred-sixty. Pi. Several million and three. Zero. Eight. Fifty thousand. But probably the one which gives me the most hope moving forward is eighty-eight point one. And of course forty-four. That's how old I'll be tomorrow.


3 comments:

Stan B. said...

Love those cards (shoulda sprung for C-90 though)!

John Roshka said...

Happy Birthday. Great blog. I check it everyday. Don't know why but it keeps my mind clear and simple when it comes to photography and makes me easier to go out and photograph. It is an interesting craft and your love for it shown on this blog makes it a great inspiration for me. The sarcasm, the simplicity, the importance, the beauty, the ugliness of photography presented on this blog help me to find my style and realize that the feelings, the easiness and the process itself is the most important.

John said...

happy birthday! Don't forget five point six, always a good #