and more cycling...

all images above © John Watson

I found John Watson's blog, Prolly is Not Probably, a couple of weeks ago. I found it just in time to catch his almost-daily posts from his epic trip from Portland to San Franciso. That's just under 1300 kilometers by his estimate, which he covered in around two weeks.

When I got into biking (just a few weeks ahead of finding Watson's blog - noob), this was the sort of trip I imagined. And even if I'm long ways off from having the strength, the know-how, and even the courage to pull off a trip like that, I've been really enjoying the process of getting there.

Last weekend I biked around U.P. and ran into my dad and his bike buddies hanging out at a sari-sari store in front of the AS building. I swung off the pavement to say hi and hit a bump. My bike fell from under me and I shot my arms out to catch myself from falling flat on the dirt. I gingerly picked myself and my bike up and sheepishly walked to the stands, and then said hi to my dad.

Me: Hey! Did you see me fall over there?
My dad: Nope, but I'm sure all these people did.

This was the day right after I rode along Daang Hari with Dino, and did 20 kilometers biking from Alabang to Cavite and back. That's the farthest and longest I've ever biked, and I was feeling a bit confident.

Last night, my friend Jun invited to ride around the ULTRA/St. Paul's area. It's a bit of a steep inclined loop and it's supposed to be good training for climbs. I managed three rounds before giving up. There were parts where I just walked the bike up. I still haven't gotten this granny gear thing down pat, apparently.

Anyway, Watson's blog is really encouraging and great. Check out his "A Day In 10 Photos" section where you can see photos from his trip. He's also on twitter: johnprolly.

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So that nobody thinks I've totally given up my day job and sold my work cameras - it has crossed my mind - here's an outtake from the shoot of Jun's band. I wanted to shoot at night and in ambient lighting.

I eventually brought another car around with headlights on around for fill. I still know how to do this. Haha.

Walker Pickering

"Skyline," from Nearly West series by Walker Pickering.

Dan Winters on A Photo Editor

 

Dan Winters, one of the best there is, has a 3 part interview on A Photo Editor.

Stefan Ruiz

Found this via What's The Jackonary.


Picture Perfect: Stefan Ruiz from Incase on Vimeo.

Teodulo Protomartir

It's unfortunate that I do not know more of Teodulo Protomartir, whose photos of 1946 Manila put the art in artifact, but I'm glad I caught his show at Silverlens. Amazing photos. This just wasn't a guy with a camera experimenting with a relatively new medium. This was a guy with a unique and timeless vision. His composition and knack for visually articulating a moment will put those scarf-wearing, from-hip-shooting kids to shame.

Silverlens press on Protomartir here. The show opened yesterday and will be on for a month. Go see it.

T. Enami and new music

I've always felt that photography was meant more to make one curious about the world we live in, rather than explain it all away. That's not a modern or post-modern take. Even at it's conception, photography was already doing that. Which is why I have a thing for early photography

I found T. Enami via The World's Best Ever and you can learn more about him, and see more of his photos HERE.

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Thanks to my buddy, Barry, for giving me the heads up. I'm now listening to the new Shout Out Louds album, and looking forward to the new The Magnetic Fields album (which is described as folksy).

Nadav Kander's "Yangtze, The Long River"

"It's much more about going there quite empty-minded and trying to photograph through a felt sense. And making pictures that describe how I feel when I'm in a place."

"When I photograph landscape, I'm after some sort of question, some reflection on my own mood, or some catalyst to make a reaction. It's not to find great lands and great views. It's more about finding the signs that we exist."

Nadav Kander's always been one of my favorite photographers. This slideshow-with-commentary of his series on the Yangtze River is pretty cool because aside from seeing the images that won Kander the Prix Picet 2009, you get a glimpse of Kander's mind while making these images.

Alec Soth and Larry Sultan

Alec Soth is up blogging again, somewhat. He's a guest blogger at Little Brown Mushroom, an independent publisher. Very art.

Alec's last post is on the recent death of Larry Sultan, a photographer whose photos inform my idea of photography. He's known for photographing his parents and the porn industry in California.

The NY Times obit is HERE. More obits and tributes to Sultan can be found linked at Alec's post.

Christian Patterson: Out There

Christian Patterson is one of my favorite photographers who shoots in color. He's good and he should be. He's only worked with William Eggleston. After Sound Effects, I'm glad to know he's wrapped up a new series called, Out There, which is visually inspired by Terrance Malick's film Badlands. Which is, in turn, based on the story of Charles Starweather, a multiple murderer.

About this series, Patterson says,

"I have long been fascinated with and inspired by phantom events—events that have little or no physical presence in a place or an image but have a very strong relationship with the place that is photographed."

Found out via Shane Lavalette.
Interview of Patterson on Out There at Making Room.

Ondoyphotos.com

Some friends of mine were quick, smart and sensitive enough to feel that there was a need for a visual compendium of the effects of Typhoon Ondoy. Within the week after Ondoy hit the metro, Ondoyphotos.com was up and running. Good job guys.

community

Things seem to be settling down.

Last month was shitty, as I've said. I guess emotions started going haywire in August, when Cory died and the country went into collective mourning. Then in early September, Alexis, one of the good guys, and his girlfriend Nika were killed, and I saw my close friends grieve. After that, the nice family of three who ran the cafe across the bar I sometimes hang out at were also murdered in their own apartment. And in the past week, I've had friends scampering to higher ground, losing everything to the the floods of Ondoy. Right now, Metro Manila just might be able to duck this new storm, the tragically named Pepeng. (Next time, let's stick to the international list of typhoon names.)

My almost-meltdown due to work-related stress seems trivial in comparison to it all and I'm just glad that the people closest to me are dry and safe. And happy. Right after the madness that was Ondoy, it was good to see my high school buddy, Hester, marry Tonee.

At this point, while there's a lot of things to be done, back to regular programming will be a relief.

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Take a minute to enjoy photography of David Leventi, who takes pretty good portraits of a place.

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I love Community. And I mean the TV show, not how we are all connected and shit.

September was a shitty month, and that's something I'll try to recap later. I'm just glad it's over. Here's a quick quote that broke the monotony of things going on in my head. It's a bit refreshing to think about photography by itself again. And, you can't go wrong with a basketball metaphor applied to photography.

"Then, it occurred to me that these plays almost always have a component of near failure involved in them. It's the fingertip catch, the unlucky or lucky bounce, or a player making a grab on a line drive that shouldn't have been catchable. It's almost never the "perfectly executed play" or the "high percentage shot" that makes us leap up from our chairs in disbelief. I feel the same way about photography." - Bradley Peters.

More on Bradley Peters and his staged yet failure-dependent work at Conscientious.

Jody Rogac

I'm in this Goethe-Institut sponsored workshop right now with German photographer, Espen Eichhofer, and we're supposed to be thinking of portraits. Being bad at photographing people, and liking to shoot spaces more, I'm tempted to argue that I am shooting "portraits of a place." But that would be copping out so I am... endeavoring to shoot people for this workshop.

Speaking of portraits, I like the Jody Rogac's.

(Via Feature Shoot)

Ryan McGinley's Moonmilk

Ryan McGinley gets a lot of flak for plagiarizing himself when it comes to his commercial work, but I really don't care. His personal work is strong, original and pretty damn good.

More of his Moonmilk series at Tiny Vices.

Alec Soth in the NY Times

I almost missed this profile in the NY Times of Alec Soth, one of my favorite photographers. In talking about many things, such as how he broke out with his Sleeping By The Mississippi body of work, his working methods, and his new exhibition, Black Line Of Woods, wherein he surveys the people and places at the fringe of society, Alec Soth is, as usual, candid.

He takes his exhibition title from Flannery O'Connor. He says, "She’s talking about where culture ends, I wanted this work to be about the longing to escape."

Regarding his photo of a parking lot where Olympic Park bomber, Eric Rudolph, was apprehended after five years of hiding, "Even though he was a bad guy, it was this boy fantasy about hiding, and there’s something really romantic about that."

On his knack for photographing people, "My own awkwardness comforts people, I think. It’s part of the exchange."

Anyway, so that's inspiring. I'm in sort of a creative rut. I miss photography. I shoot pictures almost every day for work but I miss taking my own. And when I do take my own pictures, I seem to be horrible at it. So the idea of escape and working on my own is quite appealing to me right now.

Get an NY Times free acount and read the article, Alec Soth, Trolling For Strangers To Befriend.

the Records

Max Records, the kid who plays the kid in Where The Wild Things Are, is interviewed on We Love You So.

Max is also the son of Shawn Records, the photographer.

If my last name was Records, I'd name my kids Hit and Broken. Hehe.

Tokyo Camera Style

You know how serious photographers scoff at questions about cameras? And how they like giving obtuse answers like, "painters never get asked what brushes they use!" Yeah, but I bet those painters actually have an opinion about their brushes. And also, how much are you willing to bet that a huge percentage of photographers, including all those serious ones, are geeks. People just want to know. The tool matters.

Anyway, I forget who tweeted this, but check out Tokyo Camera Style by John Sepal, I think. I love it.

Nguan's Coney Island

Found Nguan's work via Feature Shoot and I'm liking his Coney Island series a lot.