It is completely my honor to be recently chosen to participate in an Artist Residency in Aotearoa, which is the Māori name for New Zealand. It is a month-long artist residency that was sponsored and organized via a partnership between Te Waka Toi/Creative New Zealand and the Longhouse Education and Cultural Center, The House of Welcome at Evergreen College.
I am very excited at the idea of participating in this international indigenous cultural exchange! I would like to thank all of the people at Te Waka Toi and the Evergreen Longhouse for their confidence in my ability to fulfill the ideals of this residency. Tina Kuckkahn, the Director of the Longhouse and Puawai Cairns, the Policy and Projects Adviser at Māori Arts have been my primary contact people with the logistical planning, which has been quite substantial. There were so many people behind the scenes who had critical input into the residencies, like Sandy Adsett, and so many others. Please excuse me if I don't name them all here. I'll be posting more information later. Thank you Te Waka Toi and the Longhouse for your very kind generosity and insightful planning with this residency, it is sincerely appreciated.
On my end, it was a true group effort that propelled me on my way, starting with my wife Debi, who is always so supportive of everything I do, including releasing me from my responsibilities as a father and husband for a month! My sisters Helen and Patty made me a beautiful Dakl’aweidi tunic with wonderful Keet designs, and my nice Jessica (a Freshman in college who is very good at speaking the Tlingit language) helped with the Dakl’aweidi songs. We believe that our songs are important too, because they are a living manifestation of our ancient history and ancestors.
I am looking forward to what promises to be creative, challenging and a great learning experience. Not to mention fun. I really love the idea that art drives just about everything associated with this residency and that there is a powerful indigenous component from both the hosts and guest artists.
Gunalsheesh, Thank you everyone.
About the Residency
Te Waka Toi, the Māori arts board of Creative New Zealand, is responsible for developing Māori arts and artists. It develops initiatives and delivers tailored programs and is the branch of the New Zealand government that supports Māori art and culture
The Longhouse has enjoyed a successful partnership with Te Waka Toi /Creative New Zealand for the past several years. They began a three-year pilot project in which Te Waka Toi sent a Māori artist to spend ten weeks in residence at the Longhouse during Spring Quarter of each year. They had been very honored to host artists of extremely high caliber from Aotearoa: Christina (Tina) Wirihana (2006), Takirirangi Smith (2007) and June Northcroft Grant (2008).
Te Waka Toi wishes to reciprocate the hospitality that the Longhouse’s community of artists has demonstrated toward the Māori people by inviting a Native artist from the Longhouse’s community to participate in the residency in New Zealand.
Criteria
Both Te Waka Toi and the Longhouse expressed an interest in hosting an established artist who can represent him or herself artistically and culturally in a variety of cultural and academic (higher education) settings. They also mentioned that if the artist were able to bring new techniques or explore new types of media with Māori artists, it would be particularly well received.
The Longhouse Advisory Board has added the following criteria for a successful candidate’s application:
The artist will be an ambassador on behalf of the Longhouse’s community, as well as the artist’s own unique heritage; therefore, it is important that the artist be able to represent his/her cultural heritage through appropriate protocol, while at the same time representing the diverse community of the Longhouse. For example, the exchange of wiata, or tribal songs, is an important aspect of Māori culture.
The artist will be asked to interact within a variety of tribal and academic environments. Flexibility, a willingness to work with teams of artists and groups, and an open, diplomatic personality will be keys to a successful residency.
Although the artist need not be a faculty member, the artist should have the ability to lecture in academic settings and can support their thesis through the work.
All of the Māori artists who have been hosted by the Longhouse have been of national stature and the Longhouse wished to reciprocate at a similar level of artistic excellence.
The artist should be able to produce a body of work within the time frame of the residency.
The artist will be representing many people on their journey and the Longhouse community will want to be connected with what is happening; therefore, they asked that the artist be technologically literate and keep the community informed through travel blogs or other means of documentation for sharing across the miles. Upon their return, the artist will be asked to present in various settings (Longhouse community dinner, tribal and urban settings, etc). It will be important to document and share the experiences of this historic exchange (I am writing this at the airport just prior to my departure, so I am starting my part of this residency now!).
I applied to the Longhouse for the Residency and my application was then forwarded to Te Waka Toi, where they did a jurying process too.
When I was growing up in Juneau, early spring meant Gold Medal Basketball. This was one of our serious events that nobody would dare trifle with. Nobody. It was a force of nature, like the herring coming back to spawn.
Back in the early 1960's when I was a wee lad, my grandma Mary Brown Betts brought my little brother and I to one of the finals. She dressed us in proper white shirts and ties and we pretended to be gentlemen for the evening. After all, this was Gold Medal basketball, folks. No messing around with that.
Anyway, it did my heart well that when I was in Juneau recently, I was asked to shoot a Gold Medal photo for Sealaska. This was a fun thing on the side that Dixie asked me to do while in the midst of the other stuff. We went up on the roof of the Sealaska building to photograph Anthony with a basketball and the mountains in the background. Of course, he HAD to be wearing cool shades, because after all, this was for Gold Medal, man. Nothing to be trifled with and all.
The C.N. Gorman Museum is proud to present VISUAL SOVEREIGNTY, our second International Indigenous Photography conference and exhibit. Thirty indigenous photographers from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US will come together for panel discussions April 4-5. The accompanying exhibition will be on view starting Friday April 3.
Schedule of Events: ============
Welcoming and Exhibition Opening Reception Potluck Style-- Guests are encouraged to bring a dish to share. The Native American Student Union will be serving Indian Tacos. Friday April 3, 2009, 5-8pm CN Gorman Museum
I hardly feel more connected to any group of people outside of my own family, Tlingit Nation, school where I teach, or friends. I have known many of these photographers for just about my entire career, so YES, I will be there. To listen. To See. To share. Like our honored elders say, "If they can't make it, we'll just have to have fun without them..."
CHEAP SHADES CONTEST! ENTER NOW! Make a photo of yourself with the cheapest shades you can find at the cheesiest store in town. Winner gets $7.95 -- Start your climb to critical acclaim & fame.
POST YOUR PHOTO on Facebook, and the winner will judged by popular vote. DEADLINE IS APRIL 11th!
This is an online event! The place is right there at your computer, man. Maybe we can bum a Lear Jet from GM to Cairo for some shots...
______________________________ Since it's a Facebook event, you need to log onto Facebook and navigate to the bottom of their page and click on the "Events" link.
_______________________________ It may have it's own heading; you can click on that link too. _______________________________
My work with Sealaska has always been very challenging from a creative standpoint, because we're both very ambitious about our collaborative work. It is very fulfilling, because we're both fully engaged with the communities in Southeast Alaska. Since it's a work-in progress, I can't really say more about it except it has literally consumed almost my entire time for more than a month and it is very socially relevant art. After Sealaska publishes the work, I can say more about it. All I can really say is that it has been a grerat honor working with them again and I can't wait to see it in print.
It was quite the task to travel to Juneau, Ketchikan and Anchorage in late February; they were having blizzards in each place, yet I had to go to each place to make specific photographs. As if that were not enough, I lugged along my portable studio strobes and bag of photographic tricks. My high-end Apple laptop was also an essential tool for the project, using CS4 and Lightroom 2 was critical for both technical and creative work. Especially on-the-fly in hotel rooms, like in this photo at the Goldbelt in Juneau. Notice the driving snow out the window!
What was really cool is that much of the new work was shot using the new Canon 5D MKII 21 megapixel camera. I had a chance to run it through some very rugged paces and I must say, it did a great job of keeping up with my demands. I'm very impressed with it. When I get a break from everything, I'll make an entry about the new 5D.
My iPhone really came through in a pinch on the road. I could not find a friend's house, so I entered her address into iPhone, and it took me right to her front door in the snowstorm. Cool.
All this work is a basic reason why I haven't been able to post anything lately. Anyway, back to the art...
Frozen River was produced by Heather Rae, a very gifted filmmaker in her own right. Her bio at Appaloosa Pictures bears this out. Last year, Heather was kind enough to participate in our Boise State University First Nations Conference and screened her feature film documentary (which was then in progress), Family: The First Circle.
It seems that Heather is quite adept at making films that address difficult issues and does them with a rarefied finesse that is seemingly earned from an intimate knowledge of the subject matter. How else could she get such heartfelt and down-to earth scenes in all of her films? Whatever she's doing, she's sure doing it right, especially if you pay attention to all of the awards her work has been racking up in recent years. It has culminated in two Academy Award nominations this year for Frozen River; one for Melissa Leo, Best Actress in the role of Ray Eddy, and Original Screenplay, by Courtney Hunt.
It seems that the power behind the films she collaborates with may have to do with taking a long unflinching look at the flip-side of our culture that is simply not discussed in polite company. Why should we care about a desperate White woman who is driven to the edge and actually starts smuggling illegal aliens into the country with an Indigenous woman (Misty Upham, as Lila)?
I'm sure that the audience was a bit squeamish at the prospect of an unlikely pair of desperate women smuggling what could just as well be terrorists into the country for a few hundred dollars. Especially when you think about what a pain in the ass it is to go through airport security all the time. What the heck? We have to go through all that crap just so someone can smuggle anyone into the country via some podunk backroad on a Rez?
The irony is that the women are driven to an emotional breaking point in order to try and save their own little families, and are sharply aware of putting not only themselves in mortal danger, but nearly everyone else too. That is one essential reason that the film has you sitting on edge; if things go bad, they can spiral into something quite insane and have you in potential danger too; you don't feel like a passive viewer. Or at least I sure didn't. In this sense, the film was also about the harsh reality of an economic downturn from hell. There is no economic bailout here; people are left to their own devices, which in this case, involves guns, crazed smugglers, and seemingly innocent women driven to do things that would seem unconscionable in normal times.
Oops, I forgot I'm not a film critic. I do have an appreciation for good storytelling, however, and can easily recognize one told with passion, relevance and just enough believability to get me involved too. I liked it that everyone involved in the production avoided the usual stupid stereotypes that nearly always renders stories a bit didactic and therefore dumbs them down to something laughable. It was refreshing that they had an appreciation for the viewer's intelligence, and I got the distinct impression that the creative decisions were not done by committee and there was a decisive vision driving everything.
I met Jeff Curto at the PhotoPlus Expo in New York recently. This is the fun part of these Photo Conferences and Expo events. Many of them are really a bit overwhelming and it's nice to find great people amongst what is sometimes information overload.
Jeff is a Professor of Photography and also teaches The History of Photography at the College of DuPage in Illinois. Check out the above link for some really great large format photography.
His The Italian Portfolio: Evidence of Hands on Stone is quite nice and I hope you take the time to visit his portfolio site.
Jeff was on a panel in New York and he spoke about making Podcasts for students who missed his lectures and how he posted them on the iTunes site. The Podcasts took on a life of their own and now has a sizable audience. I am hoping that my own students will visit his History of Photography Podcasts site, because many of them have not yet had the opportunity to take the class here yet, and they definitely need to be more aware of what other photographers have been doing with their work. Jeff was interviewed at his own site too, which is worth a listen, because he talks about photography pedagogy, which is great for anyone who is a student of photography, or wants to learn more about the creative process. Hey, that is us, man; we're always wrestling with the creative process.
As if this were not enough, he has yet another site called Jeff Curto's Camera Position Podcasts, where he talks about the creative aspects of photography. The thing that really strikes me about Jeff is how he freely shares all of his knowledge and posts a lot of his resources on how he goes about doing what he does. For an example, just one of his many links had to do with Podcasting resources that he spoke about on his panel at the PhotoPlus Expo. It is easily one of the best single pages for how to make Podcasts that I've seen anywhere. Jeff is really, really good at this stuff.
Here's to you Jeff, and thank you for sharing so much information about photography, including the art aspect, which is likely the most slippery part of learning photography. It is all very inspiring and I find myself listening to his Podcasts at all three sites.
One of my friends just changed his tires on his commuter bike to a more knobby version for better traction in the snow. In Alaska they have a winter bike race and they even put studs on their winter tires. Go dogs go! It's called the Iditarod Trail Invitational. It's for the serious winter bike rider. There is even a place called the Winter Bike School that you may find interesting if you're an avid winter bike rider.
Unlike the above, this entry is more for us city folks riding our bikes to work in the winter. If I get sick in the winter, I'll just drive my car for a few days, until I recover. Same with really feirce storms. Most of the time it is really nice to ride your bike in the winter as long as you dress properly.
Ok, ok, I'm already off the subject, so what does the movie The Perfect Storm have to do with winter bike riding? Easy- you have to stay warm and dry wearing specific gear while being athletic for long spans in bad weather.
I thought that Junger and the filmmakers did a pretty good job with both writing the story and making The Perfect Storm authentic to what it means to be a commercial fisherman on the high seas, hair raising weather and all. Their manner of dress was authentic, especially the layering. All my fishermen friends in Alaska gave it a hearty thumbs up, over beer of course- especially us longliners who have paid our dues as they say, out on the ocean at places like the Aleutians, where a lot of Pacific storms originate. Junger and George can sit at our table anytime, they just have to leave their fancy- pants hollywood friends at home (Like thousands of generations of our Alaskan indigenous fishermen and women, for that matter, I made a living as a fisherman for years all over Alaska. We caught king crab, dungeness crab, halibut, black cod, all kinds of salmon, herring, etc. When we fished halibut we had to go out no matter what the weather was like and sometimes we hit some pretty heavy weather with mountainous waves and winds fierce enough to blow your ass right out of your pants. Now that was a sight to see).
I always thought that the simple, yet rugged oilskins you wear layered with various fabrics underneath was pretty amazing, because even in the worst storms, we'd be dry and warm wile doing extreme workouts on deck hauling our gear out of the ocean. It was important to be comfortable, because of how brutal and difficult the conditions could be. Besides, if you started sniveling on our decks, we'd throw you overboard (What happened to Dave? Have you seen that sniveling wimp? Uh, I haven't seen him anywhere capt'n... aren't the clouds purty this mornin'?).
This was made earlier this year (for my mom, actually). Riding in the snow can indeed be comfortable. Notice the layered fleece and outer shell (and the doggies who wanted to go with me to school). The Tee Harbor Jackson Bikeway.
Layers
Layering your clothing with specific fabrics and materials to stay warm & dry in bad weather is nothing new. Humans have been doing it for thousands of years, sometimes very ingeniously. You should see the waterproof shells that the Aleut and Yupik people had for their ocean-going kayaks. Man, talk about being greener than green (NO carbon footprint or toxic materials) with biodegradable materials that didn't leave a toxic mess behind. Not only that, the jacket had to perform just as good or better than man-made materials, because the weather can be fierce there, even in summer.
The Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak had this example of the waterproof jacket. Hey man, do you really want to stay warm in the winter elements? You have to change your diet too. Try seal oil as a part of your diet instead of that fancy pants high tech stuff.
These days we have man-made materials like the waterproof, windproof, breathable 3-layer polyurethane-laminated nylon (for durable, comfortable protection) used in some of the higher-end outer shell jackets. We've gone high tech for some stuff, while still holding on to more time honored materials, such as wool for our layering philosophy.
You essentially need at least three basic layers that all do different things. Bundling up in heavy clothing won't work, and using the wrong materials may leave you both cold and wet, a potentially dangerous situation (nearly as dangerous as being a sniveling deckhand on our boat). You essentially need an outer shell, a middle layer and an inner layer for next to your skin. This is advice for the kind of weather we have in Idaho where we have cold rain and light snow in the winter. If you were in Alaska where I'm from, you'd need much heavier layers.
1. Outer Shell: You need a lightweight, yet durable shell that is both waterproof and windproof. There are actual designations that manufacturers have to follow in order to claim that their materials are wind or water proof. Many are just wind or water resistant, which is a huge difference in performance. Read all the labels carefully prior to buying anything so you don't have any unpleasant surprises on the road (What you don't want to realize miles from home on your bike: HEY!! I'm cold and wet!)
After doing a bit of research, I found that REI has one of the best outer shells out there. Well, next to the Aleut version that is. It is called the Novara Statos Bike jacket. It is ruggedly made, yet has an athletic streamlined fit, with features designed for a bike rider, like underarm zippers for venting sweat, a long back so that it gives good coverage, a roomy pocket in the back, a breathable yet waterproof fabric (how in the heck did they do that?), adjustable cuffs to keep out the elements, and so on. It has lots of stuff that only a bike rider goofy enough to ride in the rain or snow would appreciate.
You can't wear this shell by itself in the cold rain or snow; you'll freeze. It is designed to be worn with other layers. Part of the philosophy of layering is that you get air circulating between the layers, and this acts to both offer better insulation, and to wick away moisture from sweat. There are dozens of outer shells to pick from; just make sure that the shell you select has the features you need to be safe on your winter bike rides.
Holy crap! It's expensive! Oh well, shop around, I'm sure you can get a good deal these days. I looked at it as an investment to get me away from using a car, so you will be saving money in the long run. I've saved hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in automobile expenses this year because I drove my car dramatically less.
2. Middle Layer: This layer is generally fleece and varies in weight depending on how cold it is out there. Heavy if it's cold and lighter if it's warmer. You need to figure this one out for yourself, depending on where you live. Some are more windproof than others and perform differently with their moisture wicking ability (the more expesnive ones are higher performing). If you have a long ride, you'll likely sweat more and need a better wicking material than others.
You'll find prices all over the place and I am never surprised at how expensive these fleece jackets can be. Shop around and find the one(s) that meet your needs. I have a sneaking suspicion that they're really more alike than we think. I find that on cold days, I just put on a heavy one that I got cheap at Fred Meyer and it works great.
3. Inner Layer: Your innermost layer is just as critical as the shell, in my opinion. This is because you perspire when you exert yourself more, and this moisture can be bad if you're trying to stay warm. This means you need some kind of wicking material that draws the moisture from your skin and evaporates it. In my opinion, wool still does this better than any other material.
I've tried lots of made-made materials that are supposedly high tech with their wicking ability, and none perfrom as well as good old Merlino wool. The artificial materials tend to be cold, stinky and leave an uncomfortable residue that leaves the material kind of just plain weird feeling. They don't wick the moisture as well as wool either. You'll find that a lot of the artificial wicking materials have zero insulating abilities. This is not good for winter riding; you don't want to be rode hard and put away wet...
Merlino is really nice because it's soft and insulates exceptionally well while wicking moisture just as good or better than any of the artificial stuff. I'd suggest a version with a zipper; it turns into a heat exhaust that wicks away more heat and moisture depending on how open or closed you have it. These wool undershirts are pricier than most; I found some for around $30.00 at the Sierra Trading Post and got a few of them. They're more commonly priced at double that.
Misc. Cold Weather Stuff
You need good gloves and something to keep your ears warm. There are so many to pick from, you just have to find the ones that fit the temperature: Dang cold: heavier gloves. Plain cold: medium gloves. Chilly: lightweight gloves. Not cold at all: No gloves at all, man. Make your hands go nekked.
You still need to keep hydrated in chilly weather. This is where that insulated bike bottle is excellent. I'll keep warm water in it for those chilly days and it'll still be warm when I get to school. Your performance drops if you don't keep yourself hydrated, especially in the cold.
I find that my bike chain gets grungier in the winter, so I clean it every once in a while and put new lubricant on it. Don't forget your tail and head lights; of course we have less daylight in the winter. I keep a paper towel in my jacket pocket for those runny noses. I really love riding my bike to work in the winter; it's invigorating, fun and non-fanatical, you don't have to be a nutbucket about it.
Winter Light & Photography
I've been finding that the winter light is pretty cool at around dusk, so I'll bring my camera with me. This winter light is different than other times of the year and I find that I make more photographs on my bike commute in the winter than in summer. I guess this is a good subject for the next entry...
I just mailed off this new edition of prints to Melanie Yazzie as part of the print exchange, "As You Wish." Melanie is an ex-colleague and good friend who has an incredible energy and passion for organizing the most wonderful print exchanges. Whenever Melanie does a call for artists, her list fills up almost instantly. She's definitely way cool, and artists want to be a part of her stuff; thank you Melanie! Gunalsheesh.
At any rate, this latest As You Wish print exchange had me a bit perplexed and I had no idea what to make my edition about. I had just gotten off the phone with my 86-year old dad up in Juneau and he was so delighted. He had just gotten one of those big screen TV's (with the help of my sister Patty) and was watching the NBA, one of his favorite pastimes. Dad bought it with some of the money he'd received from the Canadian government's "Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement." This seemed like a bit of poetic justice; he was truely enjoying himself while his oppressors were long-dead. Not only that, his indigenous identity is intact.
His Nisgaá name is Sim-o-get (Cheif's designation, or most relied upon person) Axhathaatkw and is from the Laxsgiik (Eagle) House. Dad's English name is Chris McNeil Sr., and he is an Elder Nisgaá Hereditary Chief from Gingolx. I made a print about him titled simply Dad a few years ago.
To make a long story short, dad was a part of the Indian Residential Schools program when he was a young boy. He was taken from his family and placed in one of the Indian boarding schools. When he arrived he spoke only Nisgaá and was a complete innocent. Without going into nasty detail, the boarding schools were plain awful and were little more than labor camps for children, where christians essentially tried to beat their identiy out of them. Many indigenous children did not survive the abuse.
Anyway, when Melanie asked me to join her print exchange, I was thinking that if I had my wish, none of the residential school experiences would have ever happened in the first place. It's explained better in the artist's statement below. This one's for you, dad.
The New Sheriff Artist's Statement
Tonto’s TV Script Revision had Tonto in the midst of arresting the criminal child abuser Richard Pratt in a TV scene. With this print we have our hero as the new sheriff, about ready to ride off to round up more criminals. This time the criminals are members of the christian church; members who abused indigenous children at the Indian boarding schools.
With The New Sheriff, Tonto is getting ready to execute a long list of arrest warrants, and he needs his trusty sidekick, the lone ranger to ride with him. If there were such as thing as blind justice in the world, this would have happened in real life. Instead, we have entire generations of child abusers who never had to answer for their crimes (not on this world anyway) at the Indian boarding schools. People not informed about the issue think that all this happened hundreds of years ago, and why should we care about ancient history? Well, because it extended into this generation with indigenous families today, right this moment. Thousands of families are still trying to heal from the decades of abuse.
If I had my choice, I’d sure as hell hire a sheriff and start rounding up the criminals that are still here today. This boarding school scenario happened in Canada and Australia too. Both countries have issued formal apologies to the indigenous people of their respective lands, and Canada has paid repatriations to the people that were subjected to the abuse. America is alone in their denial that any problem exists. This is ironic, because Americans initiated the boarding school horrors. More specifically, by Richard Pratt at the Carlisle Indian School. Pratt was nothing less than evil, especially with the predatory practices he initiated with the boarding schools where untold thousands of indigenous children were not only kidnapped, but also abused and murdered. I wish that there was healing with this and I wish that there was justice. America is not the knight in shinning armor that she wishes to project and has a lot of conciliation to take care of before being able to truly move on in a good way.
It is interesting that comic book heroes (such as Superman) were started by Jewish men who felt the need for empowerment and justice via their comic books in the early 20th century. Superman won’t cut it here; we need an indigenous hero. There are indeed a lot of sorry asses to round up and bring to justice.
(This print was made to accompany the photograph Tonto's TV Script Revision, which is also about the Indian Boarding School experience.)
iPhone has an app called CameraBag (on your iPhone go to App Store - Categories - Photography) that turns your iPhone snapshots into a 'Holga look.' It simulates the look of a Holga, or at least tries to (as does toycamera). Both of them are ambitious and kind of cool, but in reality, don't really work that well. Unless you want to stand there and take five minutes per photo and have your iPhone crash on you half of the time. This lackluster performance places the apps in the 'Sucks' category. Not only that, the contrast adjustment is arbitrary and off target 90% of the time with blown highlights. Not cool, man.
However, all is not lost! You can still get this Holga look via Photoshop in a few easy steps. Here is a tutorial that will make your snapshots look just like a Holga photo. How cool is that?
I teach a black & white photography course (in addition to my digtial photography courses) where one of our assignments is to use a Holga to make great photographs. A Holga is a little toy plastic camera that uses 120 film (yes, Film!), has a plastic lens that gives a look that has distinctive blurred parts (or Bokeh, a Japanese term for blurry; they take this look to a high art) and a somewhat sharp focal point. It also has darkened corners, which is called a vignette (pronounced vinyet). If you have to have someone tell you how to pronounce a photographic term, this automatically places it in the intellectual category, which means that nobody can question its artistic value, so therefore, it must be art, right?
At any rate, Holgas have kind of a cult following in photography. If you've ever used one, you either hate it or love it; there isn't much gray area here.
Here Goes:
Step 1: Open up your image in Photoshop and change the resolution to 150dpi without resampling it. On your menu bar it is Image- Image Size. Make sure that your file size doesn't get bigger.
Step 2: Crop your image so that it is square. Holgas have square images, man. This is part of the look.
Step 3: Make the image larger by increasing its size by 110% in the height & width in Image Size. Change the inches to percent, as shown. Check the Resample Image box to allow the file to get bigger. Do this multiple times to make the photo larger (this is called Stair-step Interpolation). If you just jump to a larger size in one step, you get image degradation, so don't even think of doing this.
Step 4: Change it to black & white by going to the menu bar, Image- Image Adjustments- Hue/Saturation. Set the saturation to -100; this will change it to black & white while keeping it an RGB file. This is part of the coolness factor; b&w rules, man. Optional: Do any image editing here. I thought that the lights were kind of distracting, so I just waved my magic wand and got rid of them. Cool.
Step 5: Make the surrounding area soft focus. This is a very subjective step and you can go whereever you want with your settings. Like, whatever, man. Here is my before and after. Just select the area you want to keep sharp with the Ellptical Marquee tool. The circular one. I just selected Jesse, inverted the selection and feathered it by around 55 pixels to give it a soft edge. 55 is my lucky number today. Then you go to the menu for Filter- Blur- Gaussian Blur. Mess around with various settings until it looks the way you want. An understanding of the poetic photographic nature of bokeh would be good here.
Hey, you're almost there. It's square, b&w and soft focus around the edges. Cool.
Step 6: Add the vignette; this is subjective too and can be played around with. Make a selection using the Elliptical Marquee tool again and make a circular selection that it looks kind of like this: Do Select- Inverse so that the selection is inverted; just the corners will be selected. Feather it by at least 25 pixels- just enough so that the left, right, top & bottom are still selected.
On the menu bar got to Image- Adjustments- Levels. Move the black triangle to the right to around 75 or so. This will make the corners darker. Cool.
Optional Step: Make the corner selection area larger with the feathering, soften it more than the previous step and make the level selection lighter. This will give you a graduated, larger vignette. You may also use the paint brush tool with a very large & feathered edge to burn in any part of the corners that may need to be made even darker. Adjust the opacity of the brush to make the burn look natural and not distracting.
Step 7: Deselect the image, then do a select all. Pump up the contrast for the entire image using the levels. You'll likely find that the entire image is a bit gray and needs some better blacks. This is subjective, do your best.
Optional Step: You may be finished now, unless you're a former lab rat and have preferences for various b&w papers. Personally, I've always had a preference for Agfa Portriga paper because it had rich brownish black tonal values (not sepia). I have a photoshop action that adds this Portriga tone; another wave of my magic wand and voilá! There it is. So why bother with a Holga & film if you can replicate the look using just an iPhone & Photoshop? Well, there is the intangible look you get from using various films, chemicals & darkroom papers. How your negative is both exposed and processed will give you a specific look that would be difficult to replicate in Photoshop. Throw in how this negative is printed onto enlarging paper and you have your second intangible; throw in the skills and artistry of the photographer and you have your third intangible. The easy answer? Artistry. It is as simple as that. Some photographers have a very specific look that they're able to squeeze out of the camera, film, enlarging paper and generally how they see the world. This is good enough for me.
On the other hand, it sure is fun to use the iPhone camera and play around with the images. The bottom line will always have to do with your visual aesthetic; that should drive all your choices. Have fun regardless.
(By the way, this is Jesse Cooday, my cousin who lives in NY. We had way too much fun there during our opening for the Identities exhibition that is still open at the Alaska House in SoHo.)
When I was in New York recently, I was on the National Geographic panel for world indigenous photographers with the All Roads Photography program. Afterwards, I met with Miriam Roamais from the photography organization En Foco and she asked if Todd Wemmer could interview me. Todd has a really great site called photosdie.com where it "features audio interviews and field recordings related to photography. I use the term 'related' loosely. I might say that eeryting is about photography. Or photography is about everything..."
It was a fun interview; Todd is obviously very good at bringing forth dialogues with photographers. Todd recorded the interview for a podcast to be found at the En Foco blog site. Just to make it easier, the link to the podcast can be found here.
Todd's interviews are really inspiring. It's cool to hear all the people he's interviewed. Thanks Todd, and here's to you and your recorder (imagine my raised beer glass here).
Mick Gidley asked if he could use my photograph Yéil for the cover of Stand Magazine, a literary journal in the UK. Mick and I have a friendly banter going on regarding Edward Curtis. Eddy is clearly one of Mick's heroes, and uh, well, you know how I feel about Curtis. He is a Too'x (That's a very stinky Tlingit cuss word. Ha ha).
Mick is an Emeritus Professor of American Literature & Culture at the University of Leeds. As scholars, we can agree to disagree about Curtis. I was happy to let him use this photograph, for a lot of the same reasons I let Permafrost use another of my photographs for their journal. I do have an affinity for literature, and still like the idea of sharing art for their covers.
Their designer tried to get cute with the art and changed some of it to blue. What the heck? Mick was appropriately horrified and had them change it back to how it was supposed to be and had them print another edition, as I recall.
The other publication that fucked up (sorry, but this is the most accurate term for it) my art was the Indian Humor catalog from 1995. They got heavy handed with their cropping, and I'd like to take that designer and crop his ass right off the face of this earth. Moron.
Needless to say, it was a peculiar experience. So much for good will gestures. I'm not soured on publishing, just moronic designers who don't have much between their ears besides earwax.
Jamison Klagmann, the senior editor at the Literary Journal 'Permafrost' asked if they could use my "Real Indians" photograph for their cover recently.
When Jamison called, I asked for a sample copy before I gave them an answer. What if they were mediocre slackers? That would never do. Last year's version came in the mail about a week later, and I read a few passages to my son at breakfast one morning. I picked a poem at random, which turned out to be 'To Build a Fire' by Dan Pinkerton. I remember reading the story of the same title by Jack London in high school and how intense it was. Pinkerton's version was funny and made my son and I laugh.
That was all I needed, so I emailed them and told them, 'Sure, it would make perfect sense to use my photograph for your literary journal.' Permafrost is published by the Department of English at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, and is the farthest North literary journal for writing and the arts. It is run by volunteer graduate students in the creative writing program. This was too cool, especially in light of my own art living on the proverbial edge. How could I refuse?
What clinched the deal was shameless name-dropping. They mentioned that one of their students knew me, Lance Twitchell. Lance is a very bright young man who my son really connected to when he was a little boy. He'd follow Lance around like a little shadow, and Lance was always patient and nice to him.
I asked Jamison whether I could submit my own small written piece for the journal, kind of like an afterword or something, in lieu of their regular payment. Was this a bribe? Oops. Pretend you didn't read that part. What the heck, it was just a small blurb, and after all, it was about writing. Here is what it said:
It is an honor to have my photograph 'Real Indians' accompany this literary journal. My first passion in life was writing. I still have a few parts of journals from when I was a teenager, and it is nice to see that even at that age I had flashes of my own future style embedded in the writing. It is notable that Jamison asked to use this photograph in conjunction with 'Permafrost,' because I view the photograph as being done by a writer photographer. My affinity with words is readily apparent and the photograph was a conscious effort to use words in a photograph without being didactic or preachy while simultaneously injecting my own brand of subtle humor that was a characteristic of my writing style. Almost all of my current art has stories, language, words or whatever you want to call it as a notable part of my art. Some of the journal entries could be interpreted as poems, although I'd never say that publicly because I never took any poetry classes. On the other hand, I've read a lot of poetry and really love various writers, and some of them have even inspired my own work. Joy Harjo, Simon Ortiz, Paula Allen Gunn, Nora Dauenhauer, Wendy Rose, Janet Campbell Hale, Leslie Marmon Silko and others are not only powerful influences, but some are good friends. My studio has photocopied poems on the wall from various books. So here's to you from a wannabe poet. It Tlingit we say Gunalsheesh, Thank you.
I was recently asked to write the short essay, "Industry Perspectives: See You at MoMa" for the journal "Art Business News." It was good, because a lot of people ask about what it takes to become a successful artist, and I wanted to offer something easy for them to digest, yet still had enough substance to be relevant.
I like what Ben Sidran had to say about making it as a jazz musician. According to him, you need a good travel agent, and Louis Armstong had a FANTASTIC travel agent (paraphrased from his song, A Good Travel Agent).
So I guess making it as an artist is similar to making it as a jazz musician; you need a good travel agent. And seafood.
Paul Weidman at Pasatiempo (the arts magazine from the Santa Fe New Mexican) did an interview with me when I was in Santa Fe last month. I had some work showing at the Andrew Smith Gallery and kind of blew through town to help judge the print category at Indian Market for SWAIA. It was great fun, and very cool to have one of my favorite images on the cover of their art magazine for Indian Market. SWAIA and Andrew Smith lobbied to put more emphasis on Photography as a medium unto itself as a print category. They invited Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie and myself as judges to add a bit more significance to their endeavor.
He titled the intverview, "Hi-yo, gelatin silver, away!" I suspected it would be cool when I saw the clever title. Nice. Check it out and see what the All-American bird really is. Paul was pretty good in the sense that he asked some very insightful questions about not only my own art, but art in general; more specifically, Art Photography.
Every art historian worth their weight in books knows that New Mexico has a very special place in the history of photography, starting almost from the inception of photography. Since I earned my Master of Fine Arts degree in Photography right down the road in Albuquerque, I feel like I paid my dues to be a part of that history in a small way, but a participant nonetheless. At any rate, it is a place that honors photography, so I've always felt very at home there with lots of kindred spirits, and it was pretty cool to talk about things like film and whether it is still relevant with photography. Put an emphatic YES! here.
I usually don't care for how various publications crop my art, but this version was nicely done. The image is titled, "Rez Net 3076-2" and is described more in detail on my art website. It was made as part of a print exchange organized by Melanie Yazzie, titled appropriately enough, "Pocahontas meets Hello Kitty."
Kéet Gooshi Hít (Killerwhale Fin House) of the Chilkat Tlingit Nation, Alaska, British Columbia in Canada, California, New Mexico, Idaho, United States
Bio:
Larry McNeil is both an artist and a scholar with the rank of Full Professor of Photography. McNeil has helped set up the digital photography curriculum at two schools. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of New Mexico with an emphasis in photography and is the recipient of numerous recent national awards, including the Eiteljorg Arts Fellowship, a National Geographic All Roads Photography award and a New Works award from En Foco. He exhibits his art at many national museums and galleries, and dedicates time developing his own website at http://larrymcneil.com and this blog so he can share his art with people around the world. Thank you liveBooks for the awesome website, by the way.
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