graeme mitchell

I’ve posted a number portraits of the painter, Alex Steckly over the years, and will continue to do so. Like Julian in the last post, Alex is someone who I try to take a portrait of when the opportunity arises.  There’s an old writing saying that goes, “write what you know.”  I believe in this for photography too.

photo: Alex Steckly in his studio, Portland OR, 2009. ©Graeme Mitchell

Julian is someone I have the pleasure to photograph whenever our schedules allow.  It is always a great pleasure.

photo: Julian in my basement, NYC, 2009. ©Graeme Mitchell

He is a friend, a musician, and a wonderful mind.

Here is a song:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

song: Dolls Aren’t Supposed to Bite by Julian Tulip’s Licorice

And – peelug -  he also did the music for the Unreal City Slideshow.

I was having a super late post-party supper with a group from Tank while in London and the fash ed started talking about this really far out stuff and, as you’d guess, my interest piqued. It was a film. I won’t belabor the specifics here, but will only repeat what she said, it is amaaaaazing, then said again after a dramatic pause to assure my full attention, amaaaaazing. So I watched it.  It’s called The Holy Mountain, by Alejandro Jodorowsky, and, I agree, it is most certainly incredible, but…wow.

video: trailer to The Holy Mountain

Nearly makes Barney’s Creamaster Cycle seem par for, er, normal.

video: Trailer for Matthew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle.

On a completely different note, standing applause for Visionaires #56 solar-powered book. Putting up a good fight for why the printed magazine/book will always have it’s place.

photo: from Visionaire 56, ©Richard Burbridge

photo: from Visionaire 56, ©David Sims

More a regurgitation of a conversation, but after all, it’s a blog: so: while having lunch in Tompkins Sq. yesterday with photo-friend, Aaron Binaco he gave me some, how should I put it, neat shit. My first sun-drunk-enthusiasm was for that by now well known moment when Avedon went to take Freidlander’s portrait at his home, and how Freidlander, being a really real photographer (see note), also took Avedon’s portrait. I said I could find the Avedon picture, but have yet to be able to find the Friedlander. Well, Aaron found it and sent it to me. I imagine a sort of stand-off of great personalities, great wills face to face, and even if they were cordial and kind on some level it must have been profound-intense. Either as a matter of attrition of neither ever giving in, or maybe rather of two old masters being able to wink and nod, knowingly.

photo: from Aperture #188, Lee Friedlander by Richard Avedon (left) and Richard Avedon by Lee Friedlander (right)

Both Aaron and I grew up racing bicycles, so then he started on about this Scottish trials rider, saying, “he’d ride up that tree over there and just chill out,” while pointing at this giant bloody elm that a cat could maybe climb. I called, hyperbole!, but then he emailed me this link and jesusmurphy…if you’ve ever ridden a bike you should be able to appreciate this video:

And, yes, I am in fact posting on extreme sports youtube video…sigh, probably a slippery slope, so I’ll post this to balance it out:

photo: Corvette I saw in soho which I voted best possible prop of the day and sent it to a fashion editor with a synopsis of a story involving Death Valley, Bottega heels, and a Camio by Dennis Hopper (as eminence grise, naturally). Fashion editor responded, I weep.

Note: “real photograher”: I was shooting on 5th ave by Tiffany’s on Saturday morning, and I saw this old timer shooting people fast with an old Nikon. I guessed maybe he was part of the old-Magnum-guard. I said, hello, asked his name, he said, Bill Cunningham, didn’t ring a bell. I asked him if shot there much, if he’d seen Bruce Gilden out, he’s always shooting on this corner. He said, I have seen him in the afternoon; how is Bruce? I said, I’ve no idea, I just see him, can’t catch him. He said, now that’s a real photographer. I liked that. Since there was truth in it. We chatted a bit more, then he took off after this super chic blonde to photograph. I thought, huh, mildly-licentious, but, yeah! It wasn’t until I mentioned it later in the day in passing that someone explained to me who Bill is. Love it. Before he ran of he waved and said, keep snapping kid. I offer the same good-bye, keep snapping, Bill!

For those of you who didn’t hear, Helen Levitt passed away last week.  She was a slightly lesser known but no less wonderful NYC street photographer who did a lot of work circa 1950s.  Her person and career gives me a heartfelt grin, since photography, and especially street photography, is so much a boy’s club, that I love that a women came and conquered her own place in it.  There’s a NPR interview with Levitt, here.

That last picture made me think of this phenomenal film I saw while away, Killer of Sheep.  Really really turned my mind around in a way that I didn’t expect, and it was so remarkably shot that I went back and watched a lot of it again w/o sound.  The phrase, far out, describes that quite perfectly.  Try it…if you want.

It makes me want to begin to shoot motion.

BTW, I’m back, and while I don’t expect you to be excited, after having been traveling the last 6 of 7 weeks for work I’m glowing to be home and to get back to life here.  I’ve been shooting for Adidas, Interview, Dazed.  I can’t share anything ’til stuff goes to print.   Mostly I’m excited to be back to get personal projects going and some fashion stories.

Oh, and on the topic of fashion, I want to point to the story Sebastian Kim did for Numero in this month’s architecture issue.  Excellent.  I enjoy his work b/c it’s rare to see heavily conceptual work done so, well, uh, well…or with such taste.  (There’s actually an older interview with him, here, which is worth reading if you’re starting as a photographer b/c he had a rather unique start to his career having assisted both Avedon and Meisel for extended periods.)

The author, Haven Kimmel had written this poem during the first chapter of a sprawling and inspiring email conversation I had and remain to have w/ her.  Last week for some reason I was possessed by the notion of hearing her read it, for my own pleasure, but also with it in mind to put up here, so I wrote and asked her to record and send.   And she obliged!

So, lay back and close your eyes, b/c I doubt you’re going to find this anyplace else.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

“The Holy Dove Was Moving Too,” written and read by Haven Kimmel.

Haven has a number of bestsellers riddling the shelf.  Go and seek out.

[Change of topic]

Note: my posting here has been pretty thin lately.  I’ve been busy.  I’ve been busy working on things I’m not in a hurry to go on about here.  It’s not my intention to talk work work on this site, at least not in depth.  Yes, I’ll drop a post updating the occasional happenings, but only so things don’t wilt here.  I suspect these are the thinnest posts.  You see, the original purpose of this site was to share the NYC Journal and other work I do that would be otherwise homeless, and also to talk about photography in the most whimsical sense of an art and of what lights the fires in my head and heart.  I have no interest in using this site as a marketing tool.  Why am I bringing this up?  B/c I’ve realized, as I’ve become busier, how the original intent of this blog was very time intensive.  The NYC Journal alone is something that I used to spend days on a week, while right now it’s lucky to get a handful of hours in the week.  But I’m not complaining, only letting you know I’m learning and making adjustments to keep things going here.   Note concluded.

On that note,,,

[Change of topic yet again]

a few random pics:

photo: London, 2009. ©Graeme Mitchell.

photo: London, 2009. ©Graeme Mitchell.

photo: London, 2009. ©Graeme Mitchell.

photo: London, 2009. ©Graeme Mitchell.

photo: London, 2009. ©Graeme Mitchell.

photo: London, 2009. ©Graeme Mitchell.

photo: London, 2009. ©Graeme Mitchell.

photo: London, 2009. ©Graeme Mitchell.

So been in Portland, just now wrapping up this commercial job, and as usual I’m crashing with my good friend, Benjamin. He and I have been geeking on a few things, one being dubstep, which seems to be the electronic hype right now.  We went to a Pendelum show and this canuck, DJ Excision opened up w/ a gut shaking dubstep set.   Rocked my mind…jams you’d never usually hear outside of the hippest sort of party in London or Paris, deep, dark, dirty, apocalyptic, universe-ending beats, and I mean deep and dirty.

You can check his FB page and tour dates, here, or download one of his mixes, here.

Turn this up:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

mix: “Shambhala 2008″ by DJ Excision

What does this have to do w/ photography…well, sort of a lot, b/c music is SO key on the set.  Some traditional favs of mine are Sigor Ros and the Stones for portraits; for fashion it depends entirely on the vibe, but when a shoot goes to that hard electronica place, for me that means things are going right.  And I almost never shoot street stuff sans headphones unless batteries run out, and there it is usually one of two extremes: something like Chopin/Schubert/Verdi or some crackin Breakbeats.

Schubert:

Breakbeats, (Plump DJs):

What do you listen to to set your work off?

The actress, Emily VanCamp.

photo: Emily VanCamp, St. Barts, Feb 09. © Graeme Mitchell.

This was the email I received this morning from a remarkable women’s wear designer I’m friends with:

Ahhh, well, since you asked.

It’s funny you ask, b/c the author Haven Kimmel and I recently had a e-mail conversation that touched on, amongst many things, Avedon, specifically his portrait of Ezra Pound.

Avedon was a great photographer who “got it,” who worked day in and out, and who was able to doing something authentic.  I suppose one could offer that any sort of originality is genius in a way, which I wouldn’t necessarily debate, but I see that great thing in a body of work as more as a confluence of part man and part fate/histories momentum part…you get the idea; I see it was something much more complex than one’s inspirations and capabilities.  Regardless, I’ll leave that up to you, not the point anyway, but the key is Avedon did something original in his career, singular and completely authentic.  Yes, he was inspired by Sander and others, and some argue by his own history as a military photographer, but still he came to his own conclusion.  In the spirit of Ginsberg speaking to Whitman beyond the grave, you could say Sander fell the tree and Avedon carved it. At his apogee, and I believe Avedon’s crowning moment ,his pique his quintessence, was the American West series, he made one of the great photographic moves, and it stands as such still.  Something people will mimic and mimic but something that there will only ever be one of.  He did it first and did it best.

Foremost, and he said it more eloquently if you dig in his essays and quotes, Avedon’s pictures are certainly about himself, or about his idea.  Idea, I think, is the key term here, since it’s what Avedon reduced things too: a philosophy.  He along with the rest of his generation was influenced a great deal by Beckett and the sensibilities and ideas of Existentialism from that generation, that white void that Molloy limps through became Avedon’s white seamless.  Yet, don’t let the starkness of this mislead you; I do believe Avedon was an optimistic, a humanist, b/c when I look at the American West series, I see royalty.  Just like Arbus made the freaks into kings and queens, Avedon made the common people something that transcended.  Avedon would have had Louis Vuitton luggage and been wearing loafers suited for the UWS while shooting that work, and his time with the subject was, I’d gather, fleeting – it was not his world at all and he didn’t pretend it to be -  but all the same he was human and they were human and I see in his work a general love for that ubiquitous suffering and struggle that affronts us all despite our best efforts, that “nakedness of man faced with the absurd” to go to Camus.

On top of this, more generally to discuss his commercial and editorial (non-fine-art) work, he was technically outstanding, not tricky or fancy or conceptual, but more like the Rolls Royce of technique, beautiful and classic and smart.  Using things as simple as notan, to reference Mr. Cardwell, to draw you in and control composition and rythm.  And in the portraits he did editorially he knew the balance between that aesthetic in technique and balancing that with a ruthless display and adjustmentoft the sitters persona (in the Jungian sense).  I imagine Avedon was kind, liked and very smart, but I also suspect that when he photographed his great portraits he was at war with his sitters, b/c the moments seem both terrifying and sublime…which is, as Haven had pointed out to me, the same thing according to Kant.

Finally, it’d be a mistake to underestimate the commerce involved with the photography, and Avedon knew it.  Luckily for Avedon, the look he explored personally also turned out to be very very effective and easy to translate to the commercial realm.  Or maybe it was the other way around.  Either way, it’s a rarity as far as I’ve seen.

Anyway…I’m rambling.  I admire his work obviously.  I don’t deify him or think he didn’t take mediocre photos too.  And there’s a lot he didn’t do.  But what he did do right, he did tremendously.

Hope that helps.

xo

photo: from Avedon at Work in the American West. ©Laura Wilson.

And I wasn’t joking about the loafers, probably ferragamos, and the vintage Louis Vuitton Luggage (↓) either.

photo: from Avedon at Work in the American West. ©Laura Wilson.

Damn fancy, Dick!

Vuitton could inspire a campaign around that photo.

Sneak peak at Covet Spring 09.

photo: Covet S09, ©Graeme Mitchell 2008.

photo: Covet S09, ©Graeme Mitchell 2008.

photo: Covet S09, ©Graeme Mitchell 2008.

photo: Covet S09, ©Graeme Mitchell 2008.

Shot at East Coast Studio
Models: Ilona w/ Major and Dylan w/ Next
Stylist: Sara Dunn
Hair: Sarah Potempa (w/ Wall Group)
M.U.: Meredith Baraf (w/ Wall Group)
Photo Assistant: Nyra Lang

And while on the topic, I was recently emailed this picture of, Tara St. James, the creative director of Covet and I at an opening.  Tara said, “we look scared!”  I said, “no, just very sober.”

photo: Tara St. James and I at the Aperture Gallery, Chelsea, NYC, Nov 2008.

Children’s book author, Katie Van Camp.

photo: Katie Van Camp, NYC, 2008.  ©Graeme Mitchell.

photo: Garett Stenson, Sept 2008. © Graeme Mitchell.

photo: Garett Stenson, Sept 2008. © Graeme Mitchell.

Painter, Alex Steckly, who you’ll be able to catch at the Dietch Gallery in Art Basil Miami come December.

photo: Alex Steckly, at his studio, Sept 2008. © Graeme Mitchell.

photo: Alex Steckly, at his studio, Sept 2008. © Graeme Mitchell.

photo: Alex Steckly, at his studio, Sept 2008. © Graeme Mitchell.

photo: Alex Steckly, at his studio, Sept 2008. © Graeme Mitchell.

While away for work over the last few weeks I crashed with my close friend, Benjamin, on his couch to be precise, b/c there’s hotel rooms in life and there’s friends in life – and I choose the later.  For work Benjamin is a web director/strategist (i.e. he uses the internet to make people $).  While staying with him, he and I worked together on his new resume/portfolio.  I’m mentioning this for two reasons:  first, simply to help get the word out that he’s on the professional market, so to speak; secondly, and moreover, I bring it up b/c of the strong, dare I say ingenious, use of photography on his site: the utilization of mainstream-culture’s web disseminated imagery (i.e. our generation’s visual idioms) as the backdrop for his portfolio is progressive.  Not progressive like walking to work, not progressive in a clever manner, but progressive in a critical and thoughtful manner that at at the same time gets in your face as it sneaks up behind you.  Furthermore, it’s not often to see a site that’s not photography related at all yet hinges on the very medium.  Benjamin is resituating these images, rewriting them into completely different texts than they were initially intended, and in doing so he speaks much louder and clearer than any amount of copy could.

The people who get it, are really going to get it, and in doing so are going to get the author in a big way.

Smart work, friend.

Check it, here.

Photo: screenshot from www.benjamindiggles.com

Photo: screenshot from www.benjamindiggles.com

My good friend and web addict, Mr. Diggles shot me a link to this girls fashion/style blog in an e-mail.  He wrote, “check out this girls site – like dig through her archives and read her shit.  It kept me up last night thinking about how wonderful it is. She is like 13  and represents a freedom that both you and I will never have again[...]Fantastic.”  Well…I can’t agree more.  And it’s bloody inspiring to see the new generations do effortlessly and perfectly with the medium of the internet what my generation and those before had to grit teeth and rewire already shot-to-shit neuron paths to do only half-assedly.

Check out her blog here.

photo: screenshot from the style rookie’s blog.

Keep it up kid-o.  For the time being you’re my blog idol.

——–

(And as a pointless except-for-a-smile follow up, a correspondence thanking Diggles for the link.

Quote.

Unquote.)