No Words

23Nov09

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Alcobaca Revisited

16Nov09

 

Street Scene: Alcobaca, Portugal 2007

Just over two years ago, I almost died (see here) in this town. At least, that’s what Sharon thought. For some reason, I remained unusually cool throughout the episode but that’s not this is about. I just thought it was time to post a new photograph and this is what I came up with. It is a place in Portugal which we visited because of the incredible cathedral in this small town. I took this picture as were leaving the parking lot. The cathedral is at the end of the street to the left.

 

Originally, I thought it was just a pretty scenic picture but I had a second look at it recently and thought I could get something more out of it. I have been doing this a lot lately. The beauty of digital photography (or one of them) is that the contact sheet has been replaced by programs like Lightroom or Adobe Bridge. In the “old days”, you could look through your contacts and if you saw something worth printing, you had to go through the entire routine of small prints, work prints, final prints, etc. and then what you ended up with was a fairly good print of the image on your contact sheet. It might be lighter, darker, more/less contrast, with some of the edges burnt in but that was it. Now it’s different! Color becomes black and white and vice versa. Color mixes with tonality and grain is either added or subtracted. Parts of the image which distract the viewer are darkened or blurred out so that the are hardly noticable. In other words, you are never quite finished looking at any of your pictures. They can always be made, changed, altered and printed— and the best part is that you are always sitting down. This can be done over a cup of coffee just before supper. I should mention that I never add or remove parts of images nor do I use any other digital wizardry. I only darken/lighten/blur parts of images. The only concession I make to our modern era is the use of layering and masking but what the hell— nobody’s perfect. Actually why not? I really never change anything that was in the original image— I merely alter it. That is what photographers have been doing since the 19th century.

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From the Past (Again)

06Nov09

 

Woman with Handbag

One of the things I like about digital is the ease in which one can find, classify, and edit photos. Compared to contact sheets, this is a no brainer. Take this image for example. I took it last February and never gave it a second glance. At that time the background was very distracting, which made the photograph very boring. Two weeks ago while scrolling through my images in Adobe Lightroom, I noticed it again. I liked the pattern on her dress together with the shape of her right hip.This time I thought it might be better in black and white. It looked ok but what really bothered me was the background so I darkened it. With the background darker, it now looks good in color. It never pays to discard an image. I keep finding old one that excite me all the time.

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Tags: Female, Florida, Lust

A Man and His Dog

27Oct09

Man with two dogs: Tours, France 2009

His head turned to look at me just as I snapped the shutter. “Jesus Christ! It’s not supposed to happen this way” I thought. I did not make eye contact. He stared at me for a while and then he exchanged a few words with his girlfriend (the blur on the right). Sharon had gone into the grocery store to buy a chocolate bar and I walked toward it to make my escape but he intercepted me.

“Did you take my picture?” He asked me sharply in French.

“No” I replied (in my mediocre French), “I took a picture of your dog.”

“You should ask me for permission to take a picture of my dog” he said.

Oh shit! here we go again, I thought. This has been happening a lot lately. Just recently in Montreal, a heavily bearded man approached me and asked if I took a picture of his kids. Of course I lied and looked at him with contempt and he walked away but this really has been happening a lot lately. I even wrote about it in a previous blog about this horrible woman I met in an antique store in Florida. I wonder if Henri Cartier Bresson ever had to deal with these schmucks. I mean, why would anybody object if they happened to be in the way of someone’s photograph? It’s not like visiting the dentist. It really does not hurt. And of course, they will never ever see the picture. I mean NEVER!

Of course this did not apply to the mysterious Montague. He was a golf hustler in the 30’s who is semi-famous (among golf aficionados) for once winning a bet with Bing Crosby that he could beat him using only a baseball bat, a shovel and a rake. This guy did not want his picture taken either but he had a good reason. He was wanted for bank robbery back east— but I digress.

Anyhow, Sharon and I were walking in the old town one evening in Tours, France. We had just finished dinner and were walking around enjoying the sites. I usually enjoy taking pictures at night even though I rarely come up with anything interesting. Usually I take pictures of people sitting in cafe’s and just generally hanging out. Europe is a good place to do this because there are always people sitting in cafe’s and hanging out and for the most part they are really cool. (think Cartier Bresson again. This was his stomping ground. There is history and tradition here.) So that’s it! I just take my camera around with me when we go our for dinner.

“You should have asked me” He repeated.

“I didn’t think the dog cared” I answered. “Dogs aren’t usually uptight about having their pictures taken.”

He rolled his eyes in disgust, blew out some air through his mouth (a typical French move showing contempt.) and turned away. I retreated into the grocery store where Sharon was making her chocolate bar selection.

“You should have asked my permission to take our dog’s picture.”

I turned around to see the guy’s girlfriend who had followed  me into the store. She was visibly angry.

“You should have asked my permission to take our dog’s picture.” she repeated.

I am sorry. I did not think the dog spoke French.”  I said. By this time I was getting annoyed and really did not want to deal with them any longer Unfortunately I did not know the correct way of telling people to fuck off in French so I excused myself and turned away. They finally gave up. As I watched them walking up the street, I turned to Sharon and told her that what they really probably wanted was a handout but they handled it wrong. We stepped outside the store and back into the street when this other guy approached me.

” Excuse me, why did you take a picture of me sitting in the cafe with my friends a few moments ago?”

” I didn’t take a picture of you,” I said. “I took a picture of the street”

He excused himself and walked away.

” I think this might be a good time to exit” Sharon said.

“Schmucks!” I thought.

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Le Bar du la rue Buci (Again)

20Oct09

In Paris exists my favorite bar— Le Bar du la rue Buci. I don’t know why I like it so much but I do. It’s where I met Francoise 5 years ago as she went from bar to bar with her suitcase full of pens, jewelery, and cigarette lighters. It lies right in the middle of the left bank scene at an intersection of small streets lined by bars and cafe’s. Its cosy, and it allows the visitor to Paris to experience the one thing that all Parisiens enjoy—people watching. All you have to do is walk in, find an empty seat facing the street and sit down. In about twenty minutes, a waiter comes over and asks you what you want and he returns about twenty minutes later with your drinks. For the next hour or two you just hang out and watch the street, or the people at the next table. That’s what the picture is of.

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From the Catalog of Uncompleted Projects

03Oct09

Next to my good friend Brian Nation, I am the world’s second best procrastinator. My mind is flooded with projects that are never completed and most of them are never even begun. It’s like that great epic movie “Intime” which began in my mind sometime in 1962 and was never even started. All I had was a shot of a woman in Paris— in a park walking as the camera slowly zooms from a wide angle shot to a close-up of her face. She turns her head, her hair moving in front of her face and stared blankly into the lens. That’s It — that’s as far as I got. If I were Steven Speilburg, the next step would have been film school but I am David Saxe and the next step was oblivion.

As a photographer, there are always projects in my head. Some are just fantasies and others end up on my web site. I still have a few bouncing around in my scull  but they are incomplete. Sometimes I just don’t have enough images. One of them is on dogs. I don’t know why I chose dogs. I never even had one (I had a lot of cats though). Another is on umbrellas but that one is hardly started (I only have one picture.) And again, another project is  called “All about God.” This one is almost there. The picture above is the first in the series and by the time I get back from France, hopefully it will be done.

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Tags: Black & White, God, Landscape, Paris, photography

The Republic of France

28Sep09

Man Ray and The Republic of France

It’s not really a great photo but I always liked it. A few years ago while wandering through la Cemètiere du Montparnasse  in Paris, I stumbled upon the final resting place of Man Ray. As you can see it was his also his last “objet de l’art.”  I already wrote about this place a few years ago but I only used this image this time because I am off to France this week for a holiday and I needed a good send-off.

All my favorite photographers were either French or lived there for most of their lives. In fact Man Ray went there as a young man and stayed there for most of his life. The only reason he ever had for leaving were the Nazis but he returned right after the war. Yes, it’s picturesque— but that’s not the reason for its attraction—its something else. The food, the wine, the people, the history,—naw— there is something else going on and I just can’t put my finger on it. Sometimes, after a nice quiet relaxing lunch,  I sit in one of those cafe’s, slowly sipping my way through a bottle of wine and I watch the action in the street. People are shopping, talking to neighbors, checking out other people, picking up their kids from school, or anything else that they do and it is just at a different pace. It’s like everything is in slo-mo. France for me is just one long dream sequence and although the wine probably has a bit to do with it. there is also and underlying truth and that is that they are operating at a slightly different pace that here in America.

The other night at a restaurant here in Vermont, the waiter came by and asked us if  we were still “working on it”. I hate that term!  Food is— or should be more than that. In fact it is right up there with sex as a favorite human pastime and nobody thinks of sex as work unless you are a hooker or a porn star. But this schmuck come over to the table and asks if we are still “workin’ on it.”

I think that has something to do with the attitude in Europe and why we are a bit lacking. We tend to see things here as related to business (profit, bottom line, red ink, etc.) or sports (slam dunk, winner, loser, home run, etc.) while they tend to equate things with the senses (I sincerely doubt they have a word for slam dunk). We wolf down our Big Mac and coke at McDonald’s in 12 minutes while they take a few hours over a few glasses of wine. Its just different.

On the other hand, I sometimes think my best photos were taken after a bottle of wine. I get up from my two hour lunch and begin to walk at a slightly different pace and voila!

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Tags: Black & White, France,, God

Car Shows

16Sep09

Custom car shows still excite me after all these years. I was never into fixing up cars at all— more like enjoying their art. For me its like going to an art gallery—just that the crowd is different. I went to my first one over 40 years ago with my friend Grant Page who was really into this shit. He was a very crusty, belligerent edgy sort of guy who was capable of putting down almost everything in a very charming way. He was offensive without being offensive. This photo was taken at a car show in Boca Raton last year. I was with my friend Lew who besides being into classic cars (he owned 2 1950’s Packards) was a very crusty, belligerent edgy sort of guy who was capable of putting down almost everything in a very charming way. I guess that’s the type of guy who is into these things or is it just that things tend to repeat themselves.

Anyhow, there we were stumbling around looking at all these cars and Lew was somewhere looking at Packards and I saw this chick drinking a beer at her stall where they sell all sorts of crappy car paraphanalia. And as the last line in Casino goes— “and that was that.”

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Tags: Black & White, Groups

Dogs

08Sep09

I thought it was time to update my web site. I always find this process difficult for a number of reasons— the biggest being selection of images. Have I done enough? Are they interesting? Have I gone too far— and so on. It is an endless series of doubt, second guesses, false expectations, agonizing editing, and of course procrastination. Sooner or later though, I come up with a plan and I begin to implement it. This time I settled on a number of different themes such as drinking, buddies, music, etc. I still might change a few of them but one of the first ones to be discarded is a project I am working on entitled “Dogs.”  It’s not that the images are bad, more that I think there is more to be done on this subject.

Over the years, I have discovered that I am drawn to certain subjects or themes in my photographs that I tend to shoot them over and over. On the other hand, other themes  just sort of “appear” in the course of my editing. I seem to have a standard repertoire of subjects which I explore in ever greater detail. One of these is dogs. I just love taking pictures of them. I never set out with the idea of taking pictures of dogs initially— it just sort of happens. I really don’t know why I love this subject but I do know what attracts me to them. It’s their body language. I’m serious! They just have a way of hanging where their shapes, soul, mood, whatever just shouts at me. I suppose this is the personal deep inside sort of stuff that makes me tick but there it is.

This picture was taken in Lafontaine Park in Montreal recently. There seems to be a lot going on  with energy going in all directions. Whenever I do get around to putting this theme on my web site, this one will probably be included. In the meantime, I have to go back to my editing and indecisions. For instance— black & white or color?

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Tags: Dog, Montreal, People

What?

02Sep09

Do you ever ask what makes an image interesting? My old friend, John Max used to say that when you looked at pictures in an exhibition, there were always those that stood out from the crowd. You could walk down a line of paintings or photographs and every now and then, you would stop and look at one of them a bit longer and harder than the rest of them. Those he would refer to as “gems”.  I never forgot that and over the years, that’s how I learned to edit my photographs. In the “old days” I would go over my contact sheets and mark any photograph that even remotely interested me with a grease pencil. I would then make 5×7 prints and pin them to this giant board that I had on one wall of my studio. I would look at these images regularly and from time to time, I would remove those that I no longer found interesting. After a few months, what remained were my “gems.” It’s no different today, only instead of a giant bulletin board, I use Adobe Lightroom. It is even a bit better because not only do my good ones come to the front but themes are also more visible to me. At this moment, I am editing images for my website and separating the pictures into themes. It should be done in a few weeks.

Oh ya. The photograph at the top is of a guy selling beads on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. I have no idea why I like it but I cannot discard it. It probably has something to do with the guy wearing sunglasses in the car on the left. I just cannot stop looking at his hand.

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Tags: People, Travel