Inquiring Camera Girl Photography

2010-03-01T23:42:00.004-07:00

In honor of my namesake...

Its mostly older people who get that the name of my blog, "Inquiring Camera Girl," is a reference to the newspaper column written by a young Jackie Kennedy in her days before JFK. Fresh out of college, she was an intrepid "street reporter" with a paper in Washington, DC. It was her job was to approach strangers and ask them witty questions for her column, which could be about anything. She'd then snap their headshot.

In searching for a name for my blog, I decided an homage to the young girl-reporter with the bulky camera was appropriate.

I often had to do some "street reporting" of my own for my articles.

One time, I stood outside a grocery store to ask exiting shoppers for their views on Medicare reform. I then took their picture with my trusty Canon. Some people were annoyed at being accosted outside the supermarket (and who can blame them?), but one elderly woman was delighted that I'd approached her. She told me I was pretty, and said I was the town's very own Inquiring Camera Girl. That's one of my favorite memories working at the Green Valley News.

I found this great account of Jackie's days as a journalist, and of her love of writing in general. From the book Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House, by Sally Bedell-Smith.

After her graduation from college, she had worked for fifteen months as "The Inquiring Camera Girl" on the Washington Times-Herald. Armed with a bulky Graflex, she roamed the city, asking questions that were frequently droll, sometimes disconcerting, and invariably probing. "You could make the column about anything you wanted to," she said, "so I'd find a bunch of rough, salty characters and ask them about a prizefighter just so I could capture the way they talked."

She asked pretty young women if they would rather be "an old man's darling or a young man's slave," and at an elementary school in Virginia she inquired, "What makes little boys so bad?" She touched on issues of love and marriage: "Are wives a luxury or a necessity?" "What didn't you give up after you got married?"

Since her girlhood, Jackie had loved writing; she had descriptive flair and a good ear for language. In her Vogue application she called Cecil Beaton's sets for the plays of Ocsar Wilde "the candybox spillings of pinks and mauves." She told the Vogue judges that she had grown up with "vague dreams of locking myself up somewhere and turning out children's books and New Yorker short stories."

Still, journalism was a raffish profession for a well-bred girl. Jackie found amusement in rewrite men and other newsroom characters, and savored that "there was no routine, no two days were ever the same." But Jackie didn't identify with the newspaper world, viewing herself more as a provocateur than a journalist. Jackie regarded her job as a "field course in psychology," using her inquiries "to learn how people thought and reacted and what mistakes they had made in life and what they would do over."

Jackie's Camera

From www.JFKlibrary.org:

Camera Jacqueline Bouvier used as the $42.50-per-week reporter and photographer for the Washington Times-Herald. After reluctantly turning down an offer from Vogue to join the magazine's Paris office, she took the job at age 23 as a newspaper photographer. Roving the city with her camera to capture citizens' reactions to issues of the day, she contributed a column titled "Inquiring Camera Girl by Jacqueline Bouvier."

Speed graphic press camera
Graflex Company

2010-01-24T23:02:00.003-07:00

Pomegranates in my parents' front yard.

2010-01-22T16:36:00.004-07:00

Last summer's reeds are all engraved in ice
as is your image in my eye; dry frost
glazes the window of my hurt; what solace
can be struck from rock to make heart's waste
grow green again? Who'd walk in this bleak place?

-Sylvia Plath, from "Winter Landscape, With Rooks"

2009-11-29T21:54:00.006-07:00

Bisbee, Arizona.

2009-11-28T15:43:00.008-07:00

Self portraits!

"The Pool"

"The Laundry Room"

- Is that wallpaper awesome or what?

Before our house was remodeled, the whole place was decked out in it, apparently. Thankfully this little bit was left behind in the washing-machine cove.

2009-11-22T18:57:00.009-07:00

These are a few pictures that ran with an article I wrote for the Green Valley News last month. The story was on the Santa Cruz Community Foundation, based in Nogales, Arizona, which helps a wide variety of small, struggling non-profits on both sides of the U.S.- Mexico border.

(You can read it here: www.gvnews.com/articles/2009/11/13/news/51border1101.txt)

Among the sites I was able to tour were a community center in an impoverished Sonora neighborhood, and a soup kitchen for illegal immigrants who've either attempted to cross into the U.S. and were deported, or are waiting to meet up with their smugglers.

(The woman and her two young children in the last picture had just arrived in Nogales for that very purpose.)

No matter how a person feels about the illegal immigration debate, this definitely puts a human face on the issue, at least for me.

With more than 200 bodies of migrants found in the Arizona desert in the past year, it's sickening to think that this family could could part of next year's body count.

2009-11-14T15:19:00.007-07:00

The lone beacon of reason in a sea of ridiculousness?

Take the Quiz here!

You Are...Elizabeth Bennet!

Whew! I thought for a minute there I was going to be Marianne Dashwood, a character I find totally insufferable, in spite of my love for Kate Winslet. Instead, I'm apparently one of the most awesome and beloved female protagonists of all time:

Jaime, you are Elizabeth Bennet of Pride & Prejudice! You are intelligent, witty, and tremendously attractive (Jaime's note: woo hoo!).

You have a good head on your shoulders, and oftentimes find yourself the lone beacon of reason in a sea of ridiculousness. You take great pleasure in many things. You are proficient in nearly all of them, though you will never own it. Lest you seem too perfect, you have a tendency toward prejudgement that serves you very ill indeed.

All possible results: Elinor Dashwood, Marianne Dashwood, Elizabeth Bennet, Fanny Price, Emma Woodhouse, Catherine Morland, Anne Elliot

2009-11-06T16:48:00.005-07:00

...a bit of randomness in downtown Tucson ...

2009-10-24T20:47:00.001-07:00

Tucson's Mission San Xavier del Bac, "The White Dove of the Desert," founded 1699.

Prayers, photos and milagros attached to a statue of an entombed St. Francis Xavier.

2009-09-28T18:53:00.002-07:00

While pumping gas today at a Circle K on the south side...

I looked over and saw this billboard. What a nice gesture on the part of this woman's family, even if it is kind of a strange one.

2009-09-26T13:12:00.002-07:00

A few pictures I've taken lately for the paper...

Sahuarita High School students working on a Habitat for Humanity house -

A magic show put on for Continental School students -

2009-09-19T17:00:00.002-07:00

I think I have one of the coolest jobs around.

I don't like being a reporter 100% of the time, that's for sure. But at the end of the day, no matter how annoyed, how tired or how stressed I am - I at least know that I made some kind of a difference.

And from a photographer's perspective, working at a small newspaper provides the best opportunity for taking a variety of images. I could be taking pictures of puppies at the animal shelter one minute, and the next will see me rushing out to the freeway for a rollover accident.

Some days are happy, some are tragic, but you could never call my job boring.

Here's a round-up of what I've been covering lately...

Get your flu shots, everyone!

Back to school!

A Sheriff's Lieutenant swears in new volunteers

Planned roadwork should fix potholes like this one

Creative science experiments

A fatal car accident

Border Patrol agents help injured illegal immigrants

Residents took to their golf carts for a "Tea Party" rally

A drug smuggler's load - over 300 pounds of marijuana

The fire department shows off their new ladder truck

Local students on the monkey bars

2009-09-16T21:22:00.000-07:00

The Western Sky

So... I'm posting twice in one day. If I can't take my own awesome pictures, I won't let that stop me from enjoying someone else's. Dag nabbit.

And who doesn't love cowboys?

These are from Google's LIFE Magazine photo archive, which I love dearly. This is basically a collection of all the photographs that didn't make it in the magazine, and some that did.

My one complaint: I wish they were labeled more thoroughly. I'd really like to know where those Eisenstadt's were taken, and when, and under what circumstances.

I'd also like to know why that man was walking casually towards -- not running frantically away from -- what appears to be a tornado.

Photographer: unknown

Photographer: Alfred Eisenstadt

Photograher: Walter Sanders, 1943
Roy Rogers & Trigger

Photographer: Alfred Eisenstadt

Photographer: Robert W. Kelley

Photographer: Alfred Eisenstadt

Photographer: Bill Eppridge, 1968
Wild Mustangs, Montana

Photographer: John Loengard, 1970
Casey Barthelmess, retired 79 year old cowboy, Montana

2009-09-16T20:40:00.003-07:00

I'm in a bit of a slump, photography-wise.

Lately, long hours at work and triple digit temperatures have left me feeling lethargic and uninspired. And I think I'm sick of Tucson and all of its artistic decrepitness.

Or maybe I'm just over downtown. I went on an excursion there the other day, which usually turns up at least a few good pictures, but not this time!

Ironically, the one picture I actually like was taken from my car while I was leaving downtown. My bad mood disappeared when I saw this little white dog hanging out of a car window, his owner's arm lovingly around him.

I wish the quality of the image was better, but it was taken with one hand... from inside my car... while driving.

And yes, I know that's unsafe, but that little dog was worth it.

2009-09-06T23:53:00.002-07:00

La valse de Madame Bovary...

I finally got around to watching the 1949 film adaption of Madame Bovary, starring Jennifer Jones and Louis Jordan, after spending several months earlier this year mildly obsessed with the infamous Gustave Flaubert novel.

While the movie isn't remarkable, I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. Madame Bovary is a difficult novel to adapt to film because really, it's Flaubert's beautiful writing that makes it so memorable, and not the rather mundane storyline. (Unhappy, unfaithful wives are nothing new to literature.)

Director Vincente Minelli did an especially fine job with the big climactic scene at the ball, where Emma Bovary first eyes the rakish and adultery-inspiring Rodolphe, casting her insipid, doting husband to the wayside.

(And wow, who could resist an affair with Louis Jordan, with the way he dances?)

The choreography, the cinematography and Miklos Rosza's sweeping and increasingly dizzying score come together beautifully to create about 5 minutes of cinematic perfection.

(Watch it in high definition; it really gets good starting around 3:40.)

2009-09-05T18:38:00.003-07:00

Pictorialism...

The Flatiron Building, Manhattan
Edward Steichen - 1904

I ran across this beautiful pictorialist photograph while looking for pictures of Greta Garbo for my last post. (Steichen's 1928 photo of Garbo is probably the most famous portrait of her.)

I was struck by this moody, atmospheric street scene when I saw it - it's the kind of image that inspires a story to be told about it. And I remember thinking the building looked vaguely familiar to me. Turns out my friends and I walked right past the Flatiron Building last month on my trip to New York City.

Its easy to mistake the photograph for a painting -- and that's the intention.

Pictorialism was a late 19th century/early 20th century photographic movement which held that photographs should look like paintings, drawings or etchings.

According to author and photographer Robert Leggat, "the term Pictorialism is used to describe photographs in which the actual scene depicted is of less importance than the artistic quality of the image. Pictorialists would be more concerned with the aesthetics and, sometimes, the emotional impact of the image, rather than what actually was in front of their camera."

Pond-Moonlight
Edward Steichen - 1904

Rodin's Balzac
Edward Steichen - 1908

And a very different example of pictorialism...

Old Pier, Queensferry
Alexander Wilson Hill - 1920

From www.NationalGalleries.org (The National Galleries of Scotland):

This photograph, exhibited in Paris in 1926, is typical of Hill's pictorialist work. Pictorialism flourished among amateur photographers in Scotland from the 1890s until the Second World War. Using special coatings, photographers changed the appearance of a print to make it look like a charcoal drawing. The detail in this picture is blurred but this softens the image in such a way that the drabness of the boats sitting in the silt becomes more appealing. By working on the print, Hill intended to 'make an appeal to the emotions quite outwith the scope of straight photography.'

2009-08-29T20:49:00.003-07:00

She was "The Face" for a reason ...

I just watched the classic film Camille, directed by George Cukor and starring the luminous Greta Garbo, and I've come to several conclusions:

1) I am a hopeless romantic

2) Tuberculosis is awful, and all 19th century prostitutes seemed to have it

3) Greta Garbo had flawless features

In the wake of conclusion No. 3, I did a Google image search to confirm this revelation of mine — which has been obvious to the rest of the world for, oh, about 70 years now — and I was blown away by all the beautiful photographs I found. Not only was she an amazing actress and a mysterious and intriguing woman ("I vant to be alone"), she was remarkably photogenic.

She also happened to be a favorite subject of one of the most famous and talented portraitists of her day: George Hurrell, photographer to the stars. But Hurrell was more than just a celebrity photographer, he was a true artist.

(Numbers 2, 3, and 4 below are definitely his, some of the others may be too.)

In conclusion, the purpose of this post is really for me to point out that Garbo was beautiful, and that I'm jealous. And to show off some of the gorgeous photographs I found. And to rant about my love for George Hurrell. (He'll get his own post one of these days.)

Enjoy!

2009-08-20T20:54:00.002-07:00

Select photos from my glorious trip to New York City!

I met up with three of my good friends in the Big Apple earlier this month, and we had a blast wandering around and exploring the city.

Out of the hundreds of pictures I took (I go a little crazy sometimes), these are a few of my favorites!

...

One whole room of the Museum of Modern Art is just blank, white walls. Visitors to the MOMA record their height and sign their names with permanent markers. They probably have to repaint the walls every month.

From MOMA.org:

Beijing-based artist Song Dong (b. 1966) explores notions of transience and impermanence with installations that combine aspects of performance, video, photography, and sculpture. Projects 90, his first solo U.S. museum show, presents his recent work Waste Not. A collaboration first conceived of with the artist's mother, the installation consists of the complete contents of her home, amassed over fifty years during which the Chinese concept of wu jin qi yong, or "waste not," was a prerequisite for survival. The assembled materials, ranging from pots and basins to blankets, oil flasks, and legless dolls, form a miniature cityscape that viewers can navigate around and through.

A fun detail from the exhibit.

My friend Elyse perusing the museum.

A French bread hat, corn cob adornments. How cool is that?

My friend Chad in Chinatown. Hehe.

Grace Church in Greenwich Village. Built in the Gothic Revival style and dating back to 1843. I love that little cloud.

Mannequins in a store window and a reflection of the city. I think the Storm Trooper is my favorite.

The Chapel at Green-Wood historical cemetery in Brooklyn, where their motto is: "Come for a visit, stay for an eternity." (I'm not joking!)

The chapel is beautiful!

One of the oldest grave markers we found in the cemetery, which dates back to the 1830's. Doesn't this sound like the start of a riddle?

To rest in his cod
H. Ottman Hobbe
...

An old building above the subway tracks, covered in ivy and graffiti.

Traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge, just after sunset.

2009-07-24T17:58:00.001-07:00

My friend Alex's last show with The Gallery, Club Congress. I had a lot of fun doing a promotional photo shoot with these guys last year. Death-metal rockers with hearts of gold.

2009-07-13T00:30:00.003-07:00

Musings on photographic portraits and self-portraits

Today I got a chance to check out the new Robert Mapplethorpe portrait exhibit at the University of Arizona's Center for Creative Photography, and I was in heaven. There were hundreds of portraits — of everyday people as well as famous figures, such as Patti Smith, Truman Capote and Andy Warhol.

I made an effort to soak it all in and try to pinpoint the elements that make a portrait successful.

Marianne Faithfull -1974

Iggy Pop - 1980

Patti Smith - 1975

Portrait photography is pretty new to me, because my love of photography first began with landscapes. I eventually branched out into cityscapes, thanks to Tucson's photogenic dilapidating barrio neighborhoods and downtown area. Gradually, I began actively photographing people.

At first I was hesitant. As a generally reserved person who prefers to avoid conflict, taking pictures of strangers bothered me — they would inevitably notice me and get creeped-out by the awkward girl with the giant camera pointed in their direction. And even if a photo session is planned, working with people always complicates things.

But I've come to understand that people always seem to improve an image. (My dad always told me growing up that "a picture isn't worth much without a person in it.") Foreboding storm clouds tumbling over a mountain pass may be beautiful, but a child gazing up at the sky in wonderment would really elevate that image.

When it comes down to it, people really care most about connecting with other people. The most striking photographs, for me, are effective because of the bits of humanity they capture and preserve.

I haven't taken many portraits yet, and I'm going to blame this partly on a lack of willing subjects. (My friend Adan, below, was an exception!)

Adan Solorzano in Bisbee, AZ - 2006

But I have gotten some practice in through self-portraiture. Some people probably see this as an exercise in vanity, but I don't think a person should shy away from self-reflection through art. (Unless they go overboard, like Frida Kahlo, for example — she's amazing, but how often did she focus the subject of a painting on anyone other than herself?)

Besides being great practice, taking a self-portrait is therapeutic — as an artist, you're in complete control of the way you portray yourself, and what message the portrait conveys to the world.

***

I came across these remarkable self-portraits at the Mapplethorpe exhibit...

While I don't think this first one has much overt meaning behind it (although some critics say he's trying to emulate Jesus on the cross), Mapplethorpe was obviously trying to project a certain image of himself in "1980."

A photograph taken eight years later, his final self-portrait, symbolizes his realization of his own mortality, with a sharp focus on the skull in the foreground. (He died later that year of AIDS.)

Self Portrait - 1975

Self Portrait - 1980

Self Portrait - 1988

These inspired me to check out the self-portraits of other famous photographers.

Cindy Sherman is known for her conceptual self-portraiture, staging scenes and altering her appearance to create different personas.

Untitled Film Still #35 - 1977

Untitled Film Still #16 - 1977

Unlike Mapplethorpe and Sherman, this self-portrait by Diane Arbus is informal, and although it is staged (of course), it captures the real Arbus. She's not in costume or putting on a show for the camera. Look at the frantic expression on her baby's face.

Double Self-Portrait With Infant Daughter, Doon, 1945

And finally, these are some self-portraits I've taken over the past few years. I'm not going to try to interpret them or pretend like they're important in any way, but I hope they inspire some kind of reaction.

(Even if the extent of that reaction is: "Umm... why is Fidel Castro's face painted on the wall of a public restroom?")

2009-07-06T20:04:00.000-07:00

Fourth of July weekend in Greer, Arizona. (And Springerville, Eager, and a little bit in Globe, too.)

Thanks to my good buddy Steph, whose grandparents have an amazing cabin in Greer, I was able to escape the Tucson heat for three glorious days. So long, 102-degree hell hole! Hello, 70-degree-rainy-green-paradise...

One of my favorite discoveries of the trip: select trees in the woods near the Smith's cabin had... faces! Very Lord of the Rings.

Across the street was a bucolic stream, and colorful mountain wildflowers grew everywhere.

Just outside of Greer is Springerville...

Because I'm apparently an old lady at heart, I made sure we stopped in the local antique shop. There we came across various portraits of Jesus, a headless leopard planter, and a rather demonic-looking doll.

Yikes.

...

On Saturday, we went to the Springerville-Eager Fourth of July parade. There's nothing quite like Independence Day in a small town.

(Springerville, AZ, Population: 1,956)

On our way back to Tucson, we stopped in Globe, an old copper mining town halfway between the White Mountains and Tucson.

After a tasty enchilada meal at a Mexican restaurant stuck in a weird time warp (19th century coffered ceilings, neon Miller Light signs on the walls, a young waitress with a Beehive), we took a short walk down Broad Street in the historic downtown district.

We soon found that the town itself was in a kind of time warp...

And in closing...

A photo - taken in Globe - that sums up the whole trip, courtesy of Stephanie:

2009-06-29T22:17:00.000-07:00

And all around is the desert; a corner of the mournful kingdom of sand.

2009-06-05T21:09:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday I got to see one of my favorite bands, VAST, play at Club Congress in downtown Tucson. I love these guys! This is my second time seeing them live, and I just might have to become a groupie.

I brought my camera and got some pretty neat shots, but maybe next time I'll give the band a break. I wonder if it's distracting to look out into the crowd and see a giant lens pointed at your face the whole time...

Anyhow, it was good practice for me because my camera doesn't do well in low-lighting situations, and Congress is really, really dark. I've learned that I need to use a very low shutter speed, try to keep as steady as I can, and just hope that I get lucky.

I've also posted a few of my favorite VAST songs, for your enjoyment.

Don't Take Your Love Away

Lady of Dreams

One More Day (which someone set to the ending of "Cinema Paradiso" - I love Youtube.)

Desert Garden (set to someone's home video from Ireland - aweseome)

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

2009-06-01T21:55:00.000-07:00

I had a crummy day at work, full of not-so-happy things to cover, so I wanted to put up something fun. I found these LIFE Magazine images of some of my favorite classic Hollywood actresses looking very smiley and silly. Enjoy!

Marilyn Monroe is befuddled.

Deborah Kerr is on the beach ... NOT
rolling around with Burt Lancaster.

Gloria Grahame and mini-G are bright eyed and bushy tailed.

Lucille Ball swings.

Shirley Jones loves corn. Corn that's as high as an elephant's eye, that looks like it's climbing clear up to the sky!

Audrey Hepburn won the Oscar!

Doris Day will shoot your eye out, kid.

2009-05-31T00:34:00.001-07:00

Life as a community news reporter is definitely interesting.

When I eventually become a best-selling author, or famous photojournalist, or famous for some reason or another... I'll have a lot of fun little anecdotes from Green Valley to fill up my memoirs. (See: Heart-shaped-potato-woman, several posts down.)

A lot of the time we're lacking in hard (aka really important) news, but the small stuff can be fun too. These are some pictures I've taken in the past month.

This snowbird fell into a cactus. A cop drove by and heroically pulled the jumping cholla thorns out of her arm with pliers. She was featured in an article we wrote for "Thank-A-Cop Day."

That's an illegally placed sign!

Residents say a permanent Border Patrol checkpoint will force smugglers around the checkpoint and drive crime into the community.

This Tubac business owner, who looks rather suspiciously like Santa Claus, led a caravan of peaceful protesters through the interim inspection station earlier this month. I was expecting some drama, but looks like he and the agent got a good chuckle out of the whole thing.

2009-05-23T14:33:00.001-07:00

Palms at midnight.

I decided to experiment with some late-night photography, and I'm pleased with these eerie images.

The white backdrop in the closeups of the palm fronds - that was cloud cover. It was nice and monsoon-y that day, and I was surprised how light the sky was so late at night.

2009-05-18T23:30:00.001-07:00

It's been at least a month since I've finished Madame Bovary, and I've discovered that I haven't been as compelled to write about the last half of the novel as the first half. (Which I went a little crazy over, admittedly.) I guess I'm generally a happy person and was more taken with Emma as a spirited young woman, full of hope and liberation, than Emma as the sad, greedy soul she became, miserably heartsick and defeated by life.

It's like watching the first hour of "Titanic" and turning it off before they hit the iceberg, which I've been known to do.

Anyways...

At the rate Emma was going, it was inevitable she'd come to a tragic end, and she did spiral to her death in a rather pathetic way. I kind of liked her at first. While she was flighty and naive, I liked that she was spunky and went after the things she wanted. Her downfall was that her expectations were unattainably high, and she chose to retreat into a dreamworld rather than face the disappointments of reality.

Emma was so silly and disillusioned that she actually thought death by arsenic poisoning would be quick and painless. I quote:

"It's really quite simple to die," she thought. "I'll fall asleep and it will all be over."

But Flaubert ruthlessly squelched out Emma's romantic notions of suicide: the next several pages are devoted to describing Emma's horrible, painful death. There's even a disturbing postmortem scene where, while they're moving the body into the casket, black bile spews from Emma's mouth onto her white wedding dress, which her husband insisted she be buried in.

While the scene was obviously included for symbolic purposes, I think it was also Flaubert's intention to shock us with an unexpected and cruel dose of realism. Emma lived in a fantasy world, but she couldn't escape the cold reality of death.

La Mort de Madame Bovary - Albert-Auguste Fourie

For me, this is the defining moment of the novel:

"Why then was life so inadequate? Why did she feel this instantaneous decay of the things she relied on? If there existed somewhere a strong and handsome being, a valiant nature imbued with both exaltation and refinement, the heart of a poet in the shape of an angel, a lyre with strings of bronze, sounding elegiac nuptial songs toward the heavens - why, why could she not find him? How impossible it seemed!

"But nothing was worth looking for; everything was a lie. Each smile hid a yawn of boredom, each joy a curse, each pleasure its aftermath of disgust, and the best of kisses left on your lips only the unattainable desire for a higher delight."

"Why then was life so inadequate?"

2009-05-07T00:27:00.000-07:00

In honor of Mother's Day...

A few of my favorite mother-daughter actresses, who prove that talent -- and amazing bone structure -- are inherited.

Natasha Richardson & Vanessa Redgrave ...

Isabella Rossellini & Ingrid Bergman...

And while having never graced the silver screen...

Erika & Jaime

( party girls at heart)

Love you, Mom.

2009-04-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.

- T.S. Eliot

...a lugubrious day in Southern California. Taken at Easter.

2009-04-20T12:32:00.000-07:00

After Continental School's recent decision to lay off nearly a quarter (!) of its teaching staff because of Arizona's horrendous economy, the school held a Hawaiian-themed "spirit day" last week to raise morale on campus.

The picture of the girls is just joyous -- I love the way they're holding hands. And the little boy in yellow looks so contemplative. Children are easy to photograph - they always look cute, and they really could care less that you're taking their picture.

2009-04-18T18:08:00.000-07:00

TROLLS!

2009-03-23T21:37:00.002-07:00

These are my favorite lines thus far from Madame Bovary, which I am about halfway through reading at the moment, and completely in love with. It's the most beautifully written book I've ever read, and I have to stop myself from going overboard underlining every poetic sentence with my pen.

This probably won't be interesting to anyone but me, but if you decide to continue reading you should know the gist of the story: an unhappily married woman in 1850's France decides to take charge of her life and find happiness, even if that means spiraling into moral depravity, AKA lots of extramarital affairs and material decadence.

Charles is Emma Bovary's poor husband; Leon is a young man she fell in love with and pined over endlessly, though nothing was acted upon (so far); Rodophe is a smooth-talking lothario who taught Emma how good it feels to be bad!

(And writing that last line just reminded me that my dad is going to be reading this.)

In addition, I've posted some related book covers and movie posters, so my blog is at least not entirely unrelated to the visual arts. It's interesting which characteristic of Emma's each one emphasizes: vanity, sensuality, fragility, arrogance.

So far in my reading I've found the character of Emma Bovary to be sympathetic, and yet kind of awful and selfish at the same time. But I think these quotes from early on in the novel reveal an innocent lust for life anyone can relate to.

* "Emma sought to learn what was really meant in life by the words 'happiness,' 'passion,' and 'intoxication,' - words that had seemed so beautiful to her in books."

* "She loved the sea for its storms alone, cared for vegetation only when it grew here and there among ruins."

* " ... she felt quite disillusioned, having nothing more to learn, nothing more to feel."

* " How do you describe an intangible uneasiness that changes shape like a cloud and blows about like the wind?"

* "But her life was as cold as an attic with northern exposure, and boredom, that silent spider, was spinning its web in all the dark corners of her heart."

* "Deep down within her she was waiting for something to happen. Like sailors in distress, she gazed at the solitude of her life with despairing eyes, seeking some white sail in the far-off haze of the horizon."

2009-03-21T19:48:00.000-07:00

Springtime in the Sonoran Desert ...

2009-03-18T17:51:00.000-07:00

It was a slow news week.

2009-03-17T00:49:00.000-07:00

So...I actually took these the same day as the St. Patty's Day parade. When I'd had enough of the LARP guys running around grunting and clashing their wooden swords, I returned to my car only to find that someone had blocked me in!

But it was a beautiful day and I was in a festive mood, so instead of calling a tow truck, I took a walk.

Downtown never fails to provide interesting things to photograph. Window displays, car interiors, newspaper dispensers - Tucsonans find all kinds of ways to express their creativity.

2009-03-15T21:29:00.001-07:00

Tucson St. Patrick's Day Parade & Festival

I woke up late today (big surprise) and missed the parade, which apparently featured a bunch of Irish-themed floats and ran through downtown Tucson. But I made it out to the festival, held at Armory Park, which was a lot more fun than I anticipated it would be. Who would have thought so many Tucsonans were so in touch with their Irish roots? Or maybe it was just all the booze that brought them out.

Anyways.

I've always had a slight fear of taking pictures of people in public places like this. First of all, I don't really like being the center of attention, and my very large and conspicuous camera always leads to lots of curious people staring at me. Secondly, I don't like making people feel uncomfortable, which tends to happen when I take their picture without their approval. (The good thing is that I don't think I look like a creepy person, which really works to my advantage.)

But I think today was a success. I took lots of pictures, and a lot of people stared at me, and I just blocked it out. If I want to be a real photojournalist someday, National-Geographic-style, I can't be so worried about these things. And in general (and this applies to all aspects of my life), I need to stop caring so much about what other people think of me. What good does that possible do?

Ok, done rambling.

The main centerpiece of the festival was the live Irish music and various dancing groups. The little girls with the curly Marie-Antoinette wigs were adorable, and I've decided that they are wearing such crazy wigs primarily because the curls fly all over the place and create a striking visual effect when they dance.

Another fun event were the battles put on by a local Live Action Role Playing (LARP) group. They dressed up as medieval knights and jousted, and it was very entertaining. I guess this is related to Celtic heritage somehow.

My favorite image is of the little girl in white, dancing with her mother. Doesn't get any cuter than that. :)

2009-03-12T21:02:00.001-07:00

So I've discovered that my parents' Miniature Schnauzer, Liebe, doesn't like cameras. Or binoculars, gardening trowels, or the T.V. remote control, for that matter. My latest attempt at capturing an adorable picture of her (while she was asleep on the Lazy Boy), had her awake and darting across the room in 2 seconds, shivering behind my dad's legs while giving me the glare of death. That didn't work.

Cuddles Cat, who is big and fluffy and cuddly to an annoying degree, is in fact so cuddly that she won't sit still for the camera - she'll head-butt it. And then wipe her boogers all over the lens.

But Corky Cat is a born model. When she knows I'm taking a picture of her, she tends to flash sultry, big-eyed looks at the camera, or gaze off wistfully into the distance like Catherine Deneuve looking like she does in all her movies. Basically, this is the "I'm going to pretend I don't know how beautiful I am" pose.

Behold:

And this one kind of reminds me of a George Hurrell portrait. This is as old-Hollywood-glamorous as a cat can get. Compare Corky...

... to Norma Shearer.

Just me, huh?

2009-03-05T22:45:00.001-07:00

Some more amazing photos found through Google's new LIFE Magazine photo archive: http://images.google.com/hosted/life.

I've been pretty apathetic about my photography lately (hence the long delay between posts, and then the somewhat lame fire pictures), but these have inspired me to get out of my funk and go out and capture some amazing images.

Of course, that might be easier to do if I were in picturesque Italy or Spain, or Vietnam during a war. But Arizona has a unique beauty and lots of interesting culture that I should really stop taking for granted.

Spanish peasant using ancient methods to spin flax into thread.
Location: Deleitosa, Spain
Date taken: 1951
Photographer: W. Eugene Smith

Steel mill in Dusseldorf, German steel workers bicycling home from work.
Location: Dusseldorf, Germany
Date taken: December 1953
Photographer: Ralph Crane

US 1st Air Cavalry helicopter airlifting ammo. into Marine outpost during Cavalry-assisted defense against persistant N. Vietnamese attack.
Location: Khe Sanh, Vietnam
Date taken: April 1968
Photographer: Larry Burrows

Cellist Pablo Casals at the piano studying a musical score & smoking pipe.
Location: Puerto Rico
Date taken: 1966
Photographer: Gjon Mili

Italian man combing his girlfriend's hair.
Location: Italy
Date taken: 1963
Photographer: Paul Schutzer

2009-03-05T21:38:00.001-07:00

These pictures of a controlled burn in Green Valley were taken with my trusty zoom lens. Though I kind of wish it was a real fire, as heartless as that may sound, it was good practice for me.

It's hard to get close during an actual emergency without 1) actually putting myself in danger or 2) getting yelled at. So I'm happy to know I can still get a decent shot from a great distance.

2009-01-31T19:19:00.000-07:00

I think I like black and white photography more than I do color photography.

Color can be distracting. But a real quality photograph, with the right composition and contrast, looks great in just gray tones.

And it gives the image a timeless quality I love. A few of these look like they could have been taken in the 1960's or 1970's. (The girls in costume on the Homecoming float, the man in front of an old gas station...)

These were all taken over the past few months for the GV News and Tucson Green Times.

2009-01-31T18:29:00.001-07:00

Just off 4th Avenue...

2008-12-21T16:04:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas!!

2008-11-27T13:34:00.000-07:00

A few older pictures I have rediscovered and revamped. From Jerome, Bisbee and Tucson.

2008-11-23T15:15:00.001-07:00

Good news, photography lovers. Ten million LIFE Magazine photos, most of them never-before-published, can now be found in an online archive hosted by Google Search.

Check it out here: http://images.google.com/hosted/life.

Holy cow, I'm in heaven.

LA Mayor C. Norris Paulson looking over his agenda while riding in the backseat of a car along Hollywood Boulevard.
Location: Los Angeles, CA, US
Date taken: 1959
Photographer: Ralph Crane

Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park - ruins of ancient Native American Indian cliff dwellings.
Location: Mesa Verde, CO, US
Date taken: 1941
Photographer: Ansel Adams

Actress Ingrid Bergman, during the filming of the movie "Stromboli".
Location: Italy
Date taken: May 1949
Photographer: Gordon Parks

Cowboy at the Matador ranch in Texas swinging his lasso.
Location: TX, US
Date taken: 1940
Photographer: Hansel Mieth

Actors Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood at the Cannes Film Festival.
Location: Cannes, France
Date taken: May 1962
Photographer: Paul Schutzer

Disneyland Amusement Parks
Location: Anaheim, CA
Photographer: Ralph Crane

Pair of trees rising from a snow covered landscape.
Location: St. Moritz, Switzerland
Date taken: 1947
Photographer: Alfred Eisenstaedt

2008-11-14T22:20:00.001-07:00

Supporters of Tucson's LGBT community came out this week to march and rally against the passage of Proposition 102, which amends the Arizona Constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman.

It was an important event, and I met a lot of nice people there. I'm glad I could be a part of it.

2008-11-14T22:17:00.001-07:00

Veterans Day in Green Valley...

2008-11-08T12:46:00.000-07:00

My photo shoot with Tucson band The Gallery

2008-11-08T12:39:00.001-07:00

Kids are always cute, but add pumpkins and the whole scene is just adorable.

Sahuarita Primary School students spend the day at the Agua Linda Farm pumpkin patch in Amado, AZ...

Students at Sahuarita Intermediate School have fun with a seasonally-appropriate math experiment...

2008-10-08T18:59:00.000-07:00

All in a day's work ...

Barack Obama's great-uncle ( ! ), second from right, at a local rally.

Green Valley firefighters hang out with the Up With People kids, who were in town for a benefit concert.

A baby Sand Snake!

A budget increase helps bring technology into the classroom at Anza Trail School in Sahuarita.

A local Wyatt Earp expert with his collection of research.

Taken for a Tucson Green Times article on the upcoming Tucson Wool Festival.

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

2008-09-20T20:26:00.000-07:00

Downtown Tucson on a lazy Saturday ...

"Waste your life - become an artist!"

2008-09-13T12:50:00.000-07:00

A Patriot's Day school assembly in Green Valley...

2008-09-03T19:37:00.000-07:00

Under the falling sky...

2008-08-18T21:15:00.001-07:00

Ranchers and environmentalists met last month at Empire Ranch in Sonoita, Ariz., to discuss an initiative that would ensure the conservation of 570,000 acres of state trust land.

This first picture is one of the photographs I'm most proud of.

2008-08-10T01:41:00.001-07:00

It's caterpillar time!

The larva of the White-lined Sphinx Moth come out in droves each summer during monsoon season in the Sonoran Desert.

2008-07-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

A few photos taken for The Green Valley News; public figures and various portraits...

A Sahuarita Primary School student starts his first day of Kindergarten, as his proud mother watches on.

A Green Valley resident and recipient of the President's Volunteer Service Award met with President Bush during his visit to Tucson in July.

Lt. Sandy Rosenthal began his term at the Pima County Sheriff's Department's Green Valley station in August.

The owner of Hickey Automotive, pictured here with his two sons, was honored with the AAA Top Shop of Arizona award for the seventh year in a row.

The new owner of Undertones, "The Bra Shop."

President Bush greets servicemen and their families at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base during his July visit to Tucson.

Shaquille O'Neil greets students at Hiaki High School on the Pascua Yaqui Reservation, south of Tucson, where he was promoting an internet safety program for children.

2008-07-08T21:52:00.000-07:00

From my July 2008 trip to Nashville...

The Hermitage - Andrew Jackson's plantation

Legends Bar on Broadway Blvd., downtown Nashville

The Yazoo Brewery, housed in a dilapidating (and very photogenic) car parts factory

Franklin, Tennessee ....

2008-07-08T16:17:00.001-07:00

Taken on an Easter trip home to Yucaipa, California. (Featuring Corky the Cat)

2008-06-28T14:43:00.001-07:00

Downtown Tucson, man at The Buffet bar

Saguaros in Gates Pass...

2008-03-09T16:05:00.000-07:00

Photos taken for the Tucson Green Times...

2007-09-04T23:14:00.000-07:00

A beautiful day in Tucson Mountain Park....

2007-06-24T00:19:00.000-07:00

Sunday on historic Meyer Street.

2007-06-21T16:30:00.000-07:00

The Sonoran Desert: photos from 2005 - 2007

2007-06-21T15:32:00.000-07:00

Miscellaneous Portraits - Friends and Strangers

2007-06-21T15:28:00.000-07:00

England - Fall 2006

2007-06-21T15:11:00.001-07:00

More photos from various Downtown excursions...