Blog About Photography

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© Brad Troemel

I don’t know much about him, but Brad Troemel is a 20 and I guess probably in school somewhere. I’ve followed his work on Flickr for a while now; it captured my interest right away because of its social themes and snapshot aesthetic. His magazine-like website is so packed with projects and images it suggests he’s constantly working and thinking about photography.

All of a sudden he’s all over the photosphere. On his blog Very Young Millionaire, Brad has started asking other photographers to write 100 words about a photograph of theirs he posts in an effort to encourage some discussion from what he sees as a prolific but largely silent generation of photographers. He is included in the sprawling Fjord project spearheaded by Grant Willing and Alana Celii, and he just posted an extensive interview with them on VYM about Fjord and a host of other topics.

Anyway, I guess my point is he’s advancing the cause, and I think that’s pretty rad.

Since I moved to New York, most of what I’ve been doing has nothing to do with photography, which has been sort of lame. That’s not really a complaint though, so much as an observation. I’m working enough to live pretty comfortably and there’s nothing wrong with that.  I also spent a lot of time hanging out with a girl I won’t be seeing any more of and I suppose there’s nothing wrong with that, either.

The past couple of days at work have been relaxing and a nice change. My boss asked me to photograph her entire house, room by room. It’s a beautiful place, a four story brownstone in Carroll Gardens, with loads of light spilling in, all freshly rennovated. Since she has this home and gardening show, all the furniture, appliances, paint, bathtubs, pots, pans, everything, were all donated by her sponsors–it’s pretty unreal. So I’ve just spent 3 days with my headphones in, behind my camera working my way from the top floor down.

My love of podcasts has been rekindled. I listen to hours of public radio. But looking through arts related podcasts to enrich the brain as I work I discovered a photo history podcast by a community college professor in Illinois (I think). His entire spring semester is there, and I’m pretty into it. It’s really fun to take in a class on a familiar subject while I’m working. The best part of it: since it’s the recording of the actual class sessions, you get to be as frustrated with the, er, denser students as you were when you were actually in school! What more could a working person want?

© Greg Wasserstrom

In today’s New York Times SundayStyles section, there is a pretty interesting article about two teenage boys (14 and 15) who work as paparazzi in Los Angeles. When I was 15, I started working part time at a record store, and that was viewed by my mother and her friends as being highly ambitious. These kids are are amazing.

His fellow photographers had barely taken notice of Lady Victoria Hervey, a British socialite and staple of the English press, when Blaine dashed out in front, getting the shot. And unlike the other paparazzi, he didn’t have to shout her name to get her attention.

“You are so young!” Lady Victoria exclaimed amid the barrage of flashing strobes. “You should be in bed. Where are your parents?”

It’s people like these that cause me to wonder if, at 22, I’m completely passed my prime? Has my ship sailed? Has my train left it’s metaphorical station?

I’m facebooking these guys, and next time I’m out in LA, I’m gonna roll out with them. And not because I have any desire to do what they do - or at least, the way that they do it. If you’ve ever read one of my artist statements (Why would you have? I never post them on the site because I sort of hate artist statements), you know that I’m obsessed with pop culture. Not in a Cult of Celebrity kind of way, but like a Cult of Cult of Celebtrity kind of way: I’m fascinated by the people and instituions that exist to worship celebrity (or politics, or high society, or whatever).

The fact that some entrepreneurial-minded kiddos saw an opportunity as paprazzi instead of, say, dogwalkers or landscapers or something says loads about Amuhrica. What a country!

© Greg Wasserstrom

© Greg Wasserstrom

I’ve finally gotten my selection for Fjord straightened out, I think. Go check out the project if you haven’t looked in a while - it gets better with every update. I was really giving it all an in depth look the other night and was reminded of what a wonderful project it is. It’s really, really rad to have all these people grouped together in one place; Fjord really provides a snapshot of this moment in the development of fine art photography. Priceless!

Jason Schwartzman in Wes Anderson’s Hotel Chavalier

Wes Anderson’s 13-minute film Hotel Chavalier was made available exsclusively though iTunes over the weekend, which I only know about because Shane linked to it. Apparently, it serves as prologue to Wes Anderson’s upcoming film, The Darjeeling Limited. It’s a free download, and, obviously, is worth a watch.

Prologue is Anderson’s word for what this is and I don’t think that’s very accurate. Insofar as the piece relates to the upcoming film, it functions more as a teaser. (More questions are raised than answered, unless you’re question is “What does Natalie Portman’s ass look like with a huge bruise on it?”). The prominent placement of familiar Apple products - sort of startling in the context of Anderson’s universe - reveals the intention of the piece: Hotel Chavalier is a clever ad for for Apple. I’m sure Apple wanted to tie themselves to Anderson’s “brand;” they’re fans probably overlap a whole lot.

This doesn’t necessarily make this any less valuable. I loved Anderson’s American Express commercial from a couple of years ago, and I think there can be significant crossover between artistic and commercial endeavors. My point: just saying this is a piece of marketing. I think that’s pretty clear.