Bill Wolff’s Composing Spaces

Lauren Mitchell at Viz points to Square America, which is a gallery of vintage photographs found and purchased at garage sales and flea markets. The site’s developer, Nicholas Osborn, writes: "Square America is a site dedicated to preserving and displaying vintage snapshots from the first 3/4s of the 20th Century. Not only do these photographs contain a wealth of primary source information on how life was lived they also constitute a shadow history of photography, one too often ignored by museums and art galleries." I really like that phrase, "the shadow history of photography."

One of the more striking exhibits in the Square Photography gallery is called "What Was On (November 1963)." What Was On is a series of 140 photographs taken by Martin Johnson of CBS’s coverage of the JFK assassination and funeral. Osborn presents 33 of the 140 images—each of which essentially the 1960s version of contemporary screen shots, providing a window into the events of the day and the medium being used to present those events. Consider these images:

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Frans Lanting’s "A lyrical view of life on Earth" filmed in Feb. 2005 at TED.

Toomer from Manning, 2:57 remaining in the 3rd quarter:

The first snowfall came to southern Jersey on Thursday, starting around 9:30am and ending around 11:00pm. About 3 inches in total. I, like many others I imagine, enjoy seeing how snow transforms the spaces we take for granted everyday. While walking around campus I snapped a few photos of Rowan Hall with my cell phone.

While in Rochester, NY, over Labor Day weekend for my cousin’s wedding, I had the opportunity to go to the George Eastman House gallery. It was the final weekend of an Ansel Adams exhibit. I had seen one of his exhibits when some of his work was displayed at the Harry Ransom Center on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin. The exhibit in Rochester was bigger and more thorough than the one in Austin and, as always, it is great to see master photographs up close.

The images that stuck with me from my time at the Gallery, however, were by Robert Polidori of Chernobyl after the nuclear disaster and New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. What struck me of these large-scale photographs was the similarity of the decay–and how the decay has completely redefined the spaces themselves:

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Today, as part of International Day of Peace activities, Rowan University’s College of Fine Arts hosted an exhibition of Pinwheels for Peace (1 of 4 such exhibitions in Glassboro, NJ) on the lawn between Science and Westby Halls.

This non-political organization aims to provide an alternative to the violent images that bombard children via TV, video games, and the movies. The organization web site says that it is their “hope that through the Pinwheels for Peace project, we can help the students make a public visual statement about their feelings about war/ peace/ tolerance/ cooperation/ harmony/ unity and, in some way, maybe, awaken the public and let them know what the next generation is thinking.”

I walked over to the exhibition with Sandy Tweedie, expecting to take a few pictures of it for an old friend who is an elementary school art teacher, and then be on my way to the Amish market in Mullica Hill. I didn’t expect there to be a table outfitted with markers and pastels so that passers-by could make their own. Some of the pinwheels were exceptional–amazing colors, wonderful patterns–and clearly took a lot of time and thought. On the other hand, my pinwheel (front and back):

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The latest edition of Light Leaks magazine arrived in my mailbox last week. Light Leaks, which is dedicated to “Low Fidelity Photography” is a new publication (only 7 issues so far), and each one is better than the next. In an age when anyone can take a spectacular picture using a high-tech digital camera and Photoshop, Light Leaks is a refreshing reminder of what can be done with less:

Light Leaks magazine is all about the low-fi. Our readers love unusual cameras—plastic toy cameras, crappy cameras, pinhole cameras, “technologically challenged” cameras. Light Leaks showcases these cameras, the photographers behind them and the photos created with them.

Of particular interest in Issue 7 are Wally Billingham’s article on how to shoot infrared film using a Holga and Kelsey Jarboe’s portfolio.

I’ve had infrared film and the necessary filter and step-up ring sitting in my camera case all summer, but thought that I had to load the film into the Holga in complete darkness. Turns out to not be the case, and I’ll be breaking out the infrared when I head to Rochester this weekend for my cousin, Andrew’s wedding.

You can see some of my Holga prints in my Picasa portfolio.