Photos from the Exhibition Opening at Hamline

A few days before the opening reception, I saw the show for the first time and Instagrammed this photo:

"The show's up! Opening reception (with free food and free booze) is Thursday,
4:30-7:30 in the Drew Fine Arts Center at Hamline University. Stop by and say hi!"

Here are a few iPhone shots from the opening last Thursday:

A group of students I caught looking at my work. And then I was caught by one of them.






Another photo from Instagram: "Decent turn out at the show opening at Hamline."

The show's up for a few more weeks. Stop by and check it out.

Has Photoshop Gone Too Far?...

This isn't what you think. It's worth a watch:

Amazing. Personally, I don't think Photoshop has gone far enough. I need a burrito.

Framing an Image

To quote out of context is the essence of the photographer's craft. His central problem is a simple one: what shall he include, what shall he reject? The line of decision between in and out is the picture's edge. While the draughtsman starts with the middle of the sheet, the photographer starts with the frame.

The photograph's edge defines content.

It isolates unexpected juxtapositions. By surrounding two facts, it creates a relationship.

The edge of the photograph dissects familiar forms, and shows their unfamiliar fragment.

It creates the shapes that surround objects.

The photographer edits the meanings and patterns of the world through an imaginary frame. This frame is the beginning of his picture's geometry. It is to the photograph as the cushion is to the billiard table.

- John Szarkowski's words to open the chapter titled "The Frame" in "The Photographer's Eye."
(This was the catalog for an exhibition at the MoMA in 1964.)

My Work in an Upcoming Exhibition

I'm in an upcoming 6-person Faculty Show at the Soeffker Gallery at Hamline University. I just saw the postcards two days ago - here's the front and back:

Here's some info from the Soeffker Gallery website:

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March 3 - March 28, Seoffker Gallery

Krista Walsh
Dave Ryan
Andrew Wykes
Kate Fisher
Steve Stenzel
John-Mark Schlink

OPENING EVENT
Thursday, March 6, 2014
4:30 - 7:30 pm
* Free and open to the public

GALLERY HOURS
10:00 - 4:00 Monday - Friday

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Hope to se you on the 6th!

Art-Related Valentine's Day Candy Hearts

Typology of “Sweet Arts” from MFA, Boston:

Holga Photos from Israel

Last month, I was sent to Israel by Kinetis. I brought my Holga and shot a few rolls on the trip:

Jerusalem's "Old City."


Church of the Holy Sepulchre.


Wall around Jerusalem's "Old City."




Near the site of the Last Supper.


Wall around Jerusalem's "Old City."


Spring-fed pond in the middle of the desert.


Mountains at Timna National Park.


Timna: people hiking back from exploring the oldest copper mines in the world.


North shore of the Red Sea.


The Mediterranean Sea from Tel Aviv.

Thanks for sending me Kinetis! I did the Israman half iron distance triathlon as a relay while I was there - click here to read my race report from the Red Sea on my "triathlon blog."

Four February Photo Links

• 1: "Indulgd" recently showed 36 Realistically Colorized Historical Photos. The color images seem to make the past not seem that long ago.

Old Gold Country store, 1939


Washington D. C., 1921


Abraham Lincoln, 1865


Mark Twain, circa 1900

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• 2: Philip Gefter from The New York Times recently wrote an article called "With Cameras Optional, New Directions in Photography."

Here's a bit from the article:

The shift of focus from fact to fiction, and all the gradations in between, is perhaps the largest issue in the current soul-searching underway in photography circles. Questions swirl: Can the “captured” image (taken on the street — think of the documentary work of Henri Cartier-Bresson) maintain equal footing with the “constructed” image (made in the studio or on the computer, often with ideological intention)?

Museums, for their part, are debating whether photography should remain an autonomous medium or be incorporated into a mash-up of disciplines in contemporary art. And photography curators, too, are questioning the quality and validity of new practices, as the ever-morphing ubiquity of social media challenges the singularity of the photographic image.

“The biggest problem facing curators and historians of photography,” Mr. Bajac said, “is the overflow of images.”

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• 3: There's a new product on the market for cleaning your dSLR sensor that claims it "is used professionally by many service centers, including Leica’s." I just ordered the "Sensor Gel Stick," and I'll report back when I try it:

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• 4: Finally, for some fun, there's a website called Photographs Rendered in Play-Doh. It contains, well, you know...

The Butterfly Boy, New York 1949 by Jerome Liebling




Throwing Three Balls into the Air to Get a Straight Line (Best of Thirty-Six Attempts) by John Baldesseri

New Digital Media Lab at Hamline

No, I don't have a new classroom, but there's a lab that's just a few months old that is a fantastic place for my students to work. I had a meeting in this lab yesterday, and it's primarily a video and animation classroom. This is in the basement of the Bush Library on campus:

There are 5 "stations" like this that have 4 computers each, and all have a large Sharp Aquos screen above it that mirrors what's on the instructors screen. Or the instructor can hit a button to have those screen display any 1 of the 20 student computers to show the class what they are working on.

Pretty nice for a basement classroom.


A regal view of "Old Main" out the windows and across the quad.