Primitive Landscape

I'm not sure whether I will have enough room to display this at the Abbaye for June, but it was already displayed for two months at Bonte between 9 and 10 on Walnut along with other works from members of the Philadelphia Photo Society...

Beckoned by The Abbaye

For the last seven years, one of my favorite places to go for brunch (or anytime of the day really) has been The Abbaye, a Northern Liberties restaurant / bar on the corner of 3 and Fairmount in Philadelphia.... One source of pleasure here is the environment which is complemented by some compelling local art... For the month of June, I will have a turn to display my artwork (and maybe sell something-- or be discovered?)... It will be my first solo show in Philadelphia.... My favorite bar during Philly's beerweek and my artwork paired together--- June should be a good month...... Loren will have a show in August at the Abbaye, and again in February for her portrait project... We have been planning on going Saturday for brunch, but I noticed that it is Weyerbacher (my favorite brewery) night from 4-6, so we might go then instead... I recommend that you go too, dear reader and fine beer drinker!
I won't display here the photos that will be displayed in June if they aren't already (until some time well after the end of the month), but I will display a couple photos taken during the same period...

2009-07-16 Woodbury Golf Course

These photos are from what I consider to be my second ever photo shoot... They were all taken in the Woodbury Golf Course-- which, at this point, was still open, I think... Anyone in Woodbury knows that it is closed now.... If I'm right about dates, then it closed very shortly after these photos were taken--- so, given that I have had several sessions in the golf course (at least two of which are already on this blog), one might say that I have a photographic chronology of the demise of this historic landmark of Woodbury, which begins here... I wish to add that one must remember that I had only just begun using a camera, and it was almost entirely new to me to take photographs... Like I said in the previous blog entry, I was so happy with the results from this session, I decided that I would start doing this regularly-- but now I wanted to try to sell these photos as art...
Some of these are not especially great, I know (at this point, I did not execute focus well-- although some might still say that), but I want to have examples here of how I started photography, and how some of my themes and methods developed... For instance, the way that I give importance to color and shape over social or objective meaning is at a nascent stage here... I was just beginning to learn how to frame the scene into the static photo...

This file for this last photo was accidentally shrunken when it was being prepared to be sent for a print, and I am not certain that it can ever be reproduced properly, at least as a large print, so I consider it unavailable, a one of a kind wedding present to two good friends... Some of the others shown here and others from this photo shoot have been printed and sold / given as presents....

2009-07-09 to 12

These are from the first photo shoot I ever attempted.... Before taking these photos, I had only picked up a camera when someone asked me to take a photo of him / her, etc. or for a brief experiment with the camera... I had no idea what I was doing, so I was really experimenting a great deal when I took these shots, and that tendency has been essential to my style from this point onward.... One morning delivering newspapers I noticed how beautiful the sunrise was from this spot in Clarksboro, NJ, so I stopped to watch it; then again the next day; then again a third day-- with the camera, this time... I only meant to share with others how gorgeous the sunrise is, thinking that most people don't see it regularly, if at all (the latter described me for most of my life)... I was so pleased with these photos that I started taking the camera with me regularly and searching for enticing locales-- which has included my backyard often... There is no need to travel the globe to take a beautiful photo-- sometimes looking out the window is enough...