21 September, 2011
Keeneland Horse Sales. I had rented a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens with image stabilizer, reputed to be of stellar quality. It turned out to be a dud. All images were unsharp off-center. Luckily, that's what I wanted in this image anyway. Maybe the image stabilizer was out of whack. But the lens didn't look or feel damaged. This is the fifth out of five "pro" zoom lenses I have tried over the last two years and found unacceptable.
28 August, 2011
Ask the Ethicist. This picture begged to be taken. It is undeniably representative of US popular culture in 2011. It does not embarrass anyone in particular, but it does poke fun at endemic eating habits. Does that discredit it morally? (Aside: I am always puzzled by the familiar insinuation that the taking of a picture is revealed, by language itself, as an illegitimate act of expropriation. What, then, are we to make of locutions such as taking a break, a shower, or a p*ss?)
28 August, 2011
Kentucky Coal Rollers, it says so on the tail gate. According to the license plate, this is a tax subsidized farm truck. Other decals read Diesel Performance, Watchin' Airplanes, and Kentucky Proud. Indeed. I'd love to see what goes on that hypertrophied hitch.
23 July, 2011
No Tent Revival, This. Dutch planner Henk Ovink announces, in 96 degree heat from the deck of a party barge moored in Henderson, that the University of Kentucky's College of Design will show their work on Ohio river cities at next year's architecture biennale in Rotterdam. He was made a Kentucky Colonel on the occasion. It is rumored that my power plant pictures will also be featured in Rotterdam.
24 May, 2011
Cave Dwelling. A view from the Kentucky underground. If one didn't have to resurface at some point, this would be the place to wait out WWIII.
29 April, 2011
Anatomy. I did not dare rearrange anything here because everything was covered in grease and metal filings. This is an example where the irony in the picture probably doesn't save it. The subject just isn't strong enough.
11 January, 2011
Revenue Cabinet. The question of whether to allow slot machines at the race track is a subject again in this year's gubernatorial campaign. The additional gambling revenue would benefit the horse industry by allowing larger purses, and it would improve Kentucky's dire budget situation.
12 December, 2010
Sweet Dreams I. My friend Joel Feldman and I had been talking for some time about photographing home-made sets in lieu of real places, a bit in the vein of Joel’s Annotated Landscapes, but different. Ever the real-world chronicler, I had been dragging my feet. One cold and dark December afternoon, we found ourselves in Joel's studio with several dozen jars of strawberry and blackberry jam that were left over from an advertising shoot. We played with both kinds, but the blackberry jam didn't photograph very well. The beach scene must be a response to the dreary weather outside.
12 December, 2010
Sweet Dreams II. One reason for blurring the fly was that it looks more ominous that way. When it is in focus, the cigarette lighter in its head is clearly discernible and distroys the mood.
12 December, 2010
Sweet Dreams III. Another attempt at communicating the jam's seductiveness (and abundance). We tried to slip these photos into the ad campaign, but they were deemed unsuitable. Which may be just as well, because we would have had a headache trying to secure the usage rights for the little action figures.
10 November, 2010
Recessionary Times. This is for an ad for a construction company that caters mainly to the horse business. The tagline reads: Our Industries May Be In the Crapper, but Don't Forget: We've Got Your Back.
22 October, 2010
Spoils of War. There are acres upon acres of decommissioned military equipment in Kentucky. Access is of course restricted, and it is hard to tell from the outside whether it would be worth the trouble trying to get in.
5 May, 2010
Death on the Sidewalk. This poor fellow was completely mummified after a long winter and flat enough to evade a commercial lawn mower's blades. I found him on a sidewalk where the mower's air stream apparently had blown him.
10 October, 2008
Foreclosure. Every so often I think I should get into the greeting card business. But then I trip over my provincial jokes -- like the reference to Kentucky car license plates in this case.
10 October, 2008
Bluegrass. Nobody ever believes me that what looks like a typo is intentional, least of all my wife. This is the bane of the non-native.
7 August, 2008
Life on the Sidewalk. Beetles gorging themselves on a dropped peach. There were so many peaches and beetles around that one could easily hear the latter gnaw at the former. What the beetles didn't consume in time, I made into preserve.