Susan Sontag on Photography

“Being educated by photography is not like being educated by older forms of art.  For one thing, there are many more images around claiming our attention. The inventory started in 1839 and since then just about everything has been photographed, or so it seems.  This very insatiability of the photographing eye changes our world.  In teaching us a new visual code, photographs alter and enlarge our notions of what is worth looking at and what we have a right to observe.  They are a grammar and, even more importantly, an ethics of seeing.  Finally, the most grandiose result of the photographic enterprise is to give us the sense that we can hold the whole world in our heads—as an anthology of images.

To collect photographs is to collect the world.”

DSCF1218

Columbia Flower Market

I would rather have flowers in my hair than gold around my neck. I walked this market twice, the first time with my nose, the second with my eyes.  The first thing I am going to do when I get back to Mexico is go to the market and buy flowers for the house.  When the kitchen smells like baking bread and there are flowers on the table, I know I am home.

A rose in sunlight is nature.
A rose in the dark is poetry.
~Terri Guillemets

A Photo and a Poem

Two Ways to Open an Egg

Watch me open this egg!
the first woman said

cracking the pearly skin
against a cold metal tin

a swift separation
a dead yellow gem

there, it’s open
she said

watch me open this egg!
the second woman said

placing the orb
in the encircling arms of a nest

holding it to her chest
for ten thousand breaths

patience,
she said

and said
and said
and said

… and the egg opened itself.

 Alexandra Franzen


_DSC3649.jpg

Portrait Photography

Here is an image from the Portrait Photography class at the City Academy.  It was taught by Leigh Keily, who shoots the royal family and celebrities and does amazingly complex commercial work.  The class lasted seven hours.  Students are required to shoot exclusively in manual mode.   We learned how to do automatic refocusing for runway walking and spent hours and hours on lighting techniques and studio setup.

_DSC3183-Recovered

 

 

Lifestyle Photography

Here is one of the images I created during the Lifestyle Photography course at City Academy in London.  Lifestyle photography is interesting because images must be designed to incorporate copy.  Students took turns modeling.  This is Yiyi.  In casting terms, she owns “cute.”   I am learning so much.  Going to Europe to study was a good choice, even if I did miss summer.  Man-o-man, this weather is HORRIBLE!

Lifestyle2

 

 

Portrait of Andrew at Cambridge

_DSC2846
Portrait of Andrew

Complex image of reflections in an art gallery window. The cool colors of the dusk and the rain contrasted with the warm interior of the gallery. Two canvases were hanging in the window.  They were abstract, atmospheric color washes.  King´s College is reflected in the glass. The image of the man with the umbrella is my friend Andrew, who patiently walked back and forth until I got the shot.   Andrew is one of the group who founded the Nomadic Gardens, where I volunteered the other day.

This is a wet, chilly place to do street photography.  I have had a cold for the last three days, but am still on my feet shooting the street and living on diet of antihistamines, cold medicine and cough drops.  I finally bought a coat yesterday after stubbornly refusing to buy one until I found a good deal.

Normally, I would stay in bed with a cold like this, but I have a six-hour portrait photography class today at City Academy.   (I will sleep when I´m dead.)

I think I`ll come back to London next year to study photography.   The resources and opportunities for learning in London and Paris are phenomenal.   Too bad the weather is so crummy.  Boy, do I miss the blue sunny skies of Mexico!

Cat Whisperer Closeup

Closeup

After a week, which included running away for two days, the cats, Merlin and Casper, are nearly won over.  I pulled out all the stops.  I have wet cat food, but they have to show up at my bedroom door and ask for it.  (You want it, Baby, you want it?  Gotta ask real nice.)

Huh-uh.

Last night, I gave each of them a 15-minute massage.  I thought we would spend the night together since they were both in my bed.  I fell asleep, but I must have started snoring because they ran off.

I wonder if the vet has earplugs for cats.

That´s OK.  Like Sheherazade, I have a few more tricks up my veils.  This evening, I cooked half a salmon with the skin on it.  My hands smell like fish oil.  Maybe I´ll rub some on my hair.

Maybe I´ll put some between my bosoms.

Huh-uh.

They love me now.  After dinner, they circled and rubbed against my ankles while I did the dishes.  Merlin even offered to help.  Casper is leaning against the fireplace and lip syncing to Barry White.

Gonna get me some lovin tonight.

Huh-uh.

%d bloggers like this: