In the Basement Blowin’ Hot Air
Uh oh, environmental portraiture (almost)! What’s next gritty face closeups? Well, not quite, but I did have a fun year end scrambling about making this image of old heat exchange fans. The large fan paddles actually suck air from the room space down under the floor and force it through a heat exchange into the performance hall above. The fans are still in use going on 100 years, though the steam pipes on the left are the old inactive heat exchange. There are three of these fans in this room (one more behind me) and the long shaft goes all the way down out through the wall of the room into a separate space to the motor. There are even two more fans in the “attic” above the hall that work to pull air up and out.
 Blower Fans |
Not CERN scale cool, but great vintage steam(punk) cool.
The image will run as a two page spread. Many thanks to George, who helps maintain the system, for stepping in on short notice.
Sun Spots
What had been forecast as a beautiful fall day (and it was on the drive down in the dark at 5am) turned into a fog shrouded morning when I made the image below. We had just enough sun peek through at sunrise to get this and a small patch of blue before things closed up. So it is with weather and photographing outside, but my tale here is not about unexpected weather so much as other truly unexpected events and experiencing the world through sight.
 School Entrance |
Just after this image was made I started to descend the hill, and because the fog was so thick, you could look directly at the sun. At that moment there were some power lines crossing in front of the sun and what I first thought were two birds sitting. The “birds” however were moving along with the sun and not staying on the power lines. When the sun is so low you can actually see the sun (of course more accurately the earth) move rather quickly.
The nut I am I turned to my client and said, “Do you see those two black spots on the sun?”. The reply was, “no”. And shaking my head I say, “Well I swear I can see two spots on the sun”. Or that was approximately the dialogue. Not two days later I stumbled across this National Geographic article about massive sun spots on the sun, large enough to see with the naked eye.
Sometimes you’ve got to trust what you see! -it is after all our greatest way to perceive our universe.
Harvest Pavillion
Harvest Pavilion: In a field again for David Thompson
In the field (another view from a field) and light where there was not any.
Sometimes the vision for the ideal view of a project is just not the current reality. This Garden Pavilion serves as the entryway and main gate for the Common Ground High School teaching vegetable garden. We photographed the finished structure in the fall as seemed appropriate for fruitful gardens. But the school had opted to hold off on electrifying the building (while still planning surrounding services).
While I’d say today’s trend, and definitely among my clients, is to photograph projects under natural light conditions, as well as use the designed light environment instead of sticking in a big photographer’s nose. In this case David had designed lighting that he envisioned illuminating the translucent roof, a great way to create atmosphere for evening outdoor events the school might hold. So in addition to making day images we had the task of illuminating the roof from within to create a glowing roof at dusk a reality. The logistics turned out to be easier than if the building had been more enclosed. We used a series of wide open faces light down the rafters on each roof side and a couple smaller spots on the floor interior. And of course the generators to power everything while we waited for dusk to descend.
 Generators |
 Interior Lighting |
Interior Lighting |
 Scouting View |
And the finished image. With a second preset camera in the garden we were also able to make a matching broadside image from within the garden.
Thankfully in the fall, in a field, at dusk we weren’t eaten alive waiting for the right moment!
 Harvest Pavilion at Dusk |
Artschwager
Whitney Museum of American Art: Richard Artschwager
I had the interesting opportunity to photograph some archival documents, posters, paintings, etc at the residence of artist Richard Artschwager for an upcoming Whitney retrospective. Nothing too different in the photography, though I tested out a nice new portable tilt photo table (new meaning: my construction). Barring hauling a studio column this makes poster size flat works manageable on location with just a tripod. Also, though ceilings were not a problem here, the tilt table allows a shorter ceiling height. Anyway, it was a privilege to photograph the work and meet such an art luminary (lunch was great!). I can’t post any inside tour pics, but the converted church residence was a trip.
 Artschwager |
 Artschwager |
 Poster |
 Blip Stencils |
Civil War Memorial
As alluded to in an earlier post (Images Made: Woolsey), my images of Yale’s Civil War Memorial are out (YAM article). I want to take a quick moment to share two images that were not published.
I couldn’t help but make the first here after I saw it (made it on the way out, after covering the bases). I knew it wouldn’t make it with space constraints. The reason being that without the help of a heavy caption one understandably would assume the left wall of names is also from the Civil War (which it is not, World War II, I think). Anyway, point is outside of editorial clarity or expediency I like the architecturally formal strength here. In this I think I have a sense of space and a visually longer lasting image – the building lines are there to follow, loop back on, and interlock.
 Civil War Memorial |
The second image as well was not published, as this whole wall was. I want to share this here because it is a good editorial image for me as it feels different than many I have made. It is closer of course, perhaps, but (and maybe it is just the subject matter) it feels more intense.
 Civil War Memorial |
Walker Evans Polaroids
Walker Evans Polaroids: Summertime Fun
Alright, here it is, summer project 2011. Soooo much fun, well a little work.
I had the privilege of photographing 716 Walker Evans Polaroids over the course of two weeks. Kind of a hired gun situation (pardon the metaphor, remember I don’t shoot things!), but I wasn’t going to pass this up. Thanks to John ffrench, Josh Chuang, and the helpful PPD staff for having me, and helping me get through this many objects in only two weeks!
Cozy summer cave:
 Studio Layout |
Closer
Some closer views of the photography stand below here. Lights were cross polarized and Polaroids were held down under glass.
 Photography Stand |
 Glass Hold Down |
The Trick, ‘er Method
The trick (or more professionally sounding, the studied method) for this type of high volume / high quality project is a consistent, smooth workflow. Objects are batched out in chunks that make sense for both equipment and human attention. I’m pretty good at estimating how long something will take me in the early project planning phase (i.e. estimate of cost for client), but there is always a slightly panicky “rubber meets the road” period in the first day or two. I plan quite a bit and do test shooting on prop objects if needed. The goal of this project was high quality human inspected color correction (not what is often referred to as “rapid imaging”) for each object. The objects have been fading and changing over time and photographing them now as faithfully as possible at least creates a record for this time that will last.
 Line 'em Up |
Lots More and Images Below, Read more…
Images Made: Woolsey
Images Made #1: Woolsey
I think the blog here is aptly named, though hopefully no non-meat eaters have been driven away. In the spirit of how things are made I’ve largely posted either behind the scenes views of some projects or called out other projects to showcase what I do. I’ve added a Projects page that largely takes care of the latter visually for larger projects, but I will still post mentions here too. With this post I want to start a series that shows more of how specific images are made. This is a simple one, but I think important in showing how an otherwise simple image is MADE, not captured. This is a distinction in understanding images – the images I make.
I see myself as an image maker and this is important in that I don’t see images “taken” or “captured”, instead MADE. Sometimes this is less artistically subjective in the photography of art (aka museum photography) where the making might be more about technical making (assembly) or in this case a more subjective, but not excessively produced image that uses a little foresight and an ounce of assembly.
This exterior image of Woolsey Hall in New Haven, CT was made to accompany interior images I made of the Civil War Memorial that lists both fallen Union and Confederate soldiers of Yale (look for an upcoming mention on those).
 Woolsey Hall: Final Image |
More to say and Images Below, Read more…
Keyboard Behind the scenes.
Made my first visit to the Musical Instrument Collection at Yale University. I spent the day with the very friendly curators Nicholas and Susan photographing some keyboard instrument art and sound boards.
Here is a quick behind the scene panorama with one instrument up on a table to photograph the sound board.
 keyboard setup pano |
Same instrument as finished image.
 Instrument Soundboard |
Fun group and day, can’t wait to come back again!
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Cushing Center
Photographed the nicely designed exhibition and collection space at the Cushing Center, designed by Turner Brooks Architect.
I photographed this back in the fall with the help of Turner Brooks and his associate Aaron, but publication was delayed an issue. There has been several previous articles on this collection and the preparation of the exhibit, but I was invited to make finished images of the space.
A feature is running along with an article in the Yale Alumni Magazine. As well Architectural Lighting magazine picked up the story for their museum lighting issue.
You can see the full set of images I made as a featured project: Cushing Center.
 Project: Cushing Center |
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Jules Olitski Paintings
The three Larry Rivers paintings I photographed a couple years ago had been the largest canvases I’d photographed, but I’m bemused to say I’ve topped them thanks to the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. I photographed a smaller Olitski work in western CT and then this monster in Boston for the upcoming exhibit: “Revelation: Major Paintings by Jules Olitski” and accompanying catalog.
Jules Olitski’s Third Indomitable is all of 18+ feet long. The kind folks at FAE Boston unwrapped and provided a space large enough to photograph. Aside from masking off the shiny ducting above nothing was too difficult aside from backing up far enough and getting an even light spread. In the uncropped image below you can see the painting leaning against the warehouse wall on foam blocks.
 Jules Olitski, Third Indomitable |
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