Light on Surface

Boris Savelev and the Secret City

2008-08-20T11:12:00.000-07:00

I recently bought a book by a previously unfamiliar Russian photographer. His name is Boris Savelev and the book is SECRET CITY. It was published in 1988 by Thames and Hudson. The photographs are all in color, but the format varies. In the book's preface, Savelev states that he uses a Leica III and a 6 X 6 Iskra. Nevertheless, there's a cohesiveness...and a haiku-like quality to them all. The photographs are not about Leningrad or Moscow, where I presume most of them were made. The "Secret City" exists, I think, inside Savelev's head. The pictures are about the process of wandering and the joys of looking. At least for me. I came across this book accidentally. It was a great find and highly recommended. Here's a link to his very fine website, which I managed to find after the book and am still perusing: http://www.b-savelev.com/

MOMA X 4

2008-08-01T09:42:00.000-07:00

A quick blast through The Museum of Modern Art in NYC, just before closing:

At first glance, I wasn't sure where she ended and the painting began or vice versa.

Man reflected.

Henry conking out.

Me and Mayakovsky in a photo by Rodchenko.

Geary Boulevard

2008-06-15T08:58:00.001-07:00

Post Street - Japantown

2008-06-15T08:57:00.001-07:00

Sacramento Street

2008-06-15T08:55:00.000-07:00

San Francisco (Shadows)

2008-04-23T12:10:00.001-07:00

Post Street

San Francisco (Bus)

2008-04-23T12:08:00.000-07:00

Geary Blvd.

San Francisco (Kearny)

2008-04-22T16:12:00.000-07:00

DeBeers, again

San Francisco (Couple)

2008-04-22T16:11:00.000-07:00

Market Street

San Francisco - Hailing a Cab

2008-04-16T13:48:00.000-07:00

Post at Powell.

San Francisco - Richard Pryor

2008-04-16T13:47:00.000-07:00

From the 38 Geary bus.

San Francisco - Tight Squeeze

2008-04-16T13:44:00.000-07:00

Buses bussing at Sutter and Divisadero

Fecundity

2008-04-11T05:51:00.000-07:00

"The photographer is like the cod, which produces a million eggs in order that one may reach maturity." -- George Bernard Shaw

From THE PORTABLE CURMUDGEON - Compiled and edited by Jon Winokur

I wonder if old Shaw realized that there's pleasure in the process, I'm guessing for the cod, as well. Then there's the question of what to do with all those eggs under the bed.

Closed

2008-04-10T17:02:00.001-07:00

Oakland, MacArthur Boulevard

Open

2008-04-10T17:01:00.001-07:00

San Francisco, Geary Boulevard

Closed

2008-04-10T17:00:00.001-07:00

San Francisco, Post Street

San Francisco

2008-04-08T11:31:00.001-07:00

Construction worker with claw.

Oakland

2008-04-08T11:29:00.000-07:00

MacArthur Boulevard

San Francisco

2008-04-07T12:16:00.001-07:00

Market Street

San Francisco (Geary at Stockton)

2008-04-01T10:59:00.000-07:00

San Francisco (Maiden Lane)

2008-04-01T10:56:00.000-07:00

Down the street from the only Frank Lloyd Wright building in San Francisco.

San Francisco (Market Street)

2008-03-27T10:08:00.000-07:00

Woman with arms crossed.

San Francisco (Market Street)

2008-03-27T10:04:00.000-07:00

Woman at entrance to BART station.

San Francisco (Post Street)

2008-03-27T10:03:00.000-07:00

Woman with beret.

San Francisco (Market Street)

2008-03-25T15:12:00.000-07:00

A picture in response to the previous picture.

Oakland (Chinatown)

2008-03-25T09:40:00.000-07:00

Not sure if this one works, but it's got a pink bag, a contrail, some solar flare, a woman walking with a bag over her head and a truncated tree. So for that alone, I'm posting it.

San Francisco

2008-03-24T10:49:00.001-07:00

Scott Street

San Francisco

2008-03-24T10:47:00.000-07:00

California Street

But He Had to Look

2008-03-22T13:50:00.000-07:00

"Tha's a nice camera you have."
"Thanks. How about if I take a picture of you."
"No, tha's okay."
"I like to get shots of the natives."
"Man, you think I'm a native?"
"I mean the people that live here, in Florida."
The Cuban-looking guy said, "Tha's an expensive camera, uh?" He hadn't taken his eyes from it.
"With the lens it runs about seven and a quarter."
"Seven hundred dollars?"
"The camera cost me five hundred"
"Oh, man, is a nice one, uh? You let me see it?"
"If you're careful." LaBrava had to take his hat off to lift the strap over his head.
"No, I won't drop it. Is heavy, un?"
"Hang it around your neck"
"Yeah, tha's better."
LaBrava watched him raise the camera, almost as though the knew what he was doing, and sight toward the ocean, the breeze moving strands of the guy's raven hair.
Lowering the camera, looking at it, the guy said, "Yeah, I like it. I think I'll take it."
LaBrava watched the guy turn and walk off. Watched the easy, insolent movement of his hips.
Watched him take four, five, six strides, almost another one before he stopped--knowing the guy was going to stop, because the guy would be thinking by now, Why isn't he yelling at me? Now the guy would be wondering whether or not he should turn around, wondering if he had missed something he should have noticed. LaBrava saw the guy's shoulders begin to hunch. Turn around and look--the guy would be thinking--or take off.
But he had to look.

-- From LaBrava by Elmore Leonard (1983)

San Francisco

2008-03-20T16:39:00.000-07:00

At a bus stop, Geary Boulevard. Wondering which will arrive first, the foot or the bus.

San Francisco

2008-03-20T12:03:00.000-07:00

Along Geary Boulevard.

San Francisco

2008-03-20T11:58:00.001-07:00

Man on a blanket, in a park off Geary Boulevard.

San Francisco

2008-03-18T10:05:00.001-07:00

Market Street

Market Street

San Francisco

2008-03-18T09:29:00.001-07:00

Montgomery at Market

Oakland

2008-03-17T13:04:00.002-07:00

Oakland

2008-03-17T13:04:00.001-07:00

Richmond

2008-03-17T13:03:00.001-07:00

WALKER EVANS (1971)

2008-03-15T15:01:00.000-07:00

LESLIE KATZ: You're a collector; you collect postcards, and found objects. Is there any relation between your collecting and your work?

WALKER EVANS: A great deal. It's almost the same thing. A collector becomes excessively conscious of a certain kind of object, falls in love with it, then pursues it. I notice that in my work for a certain time I'm interested in nothing but a certain kind of face or type of person. You start selecting people with the camera. It's compulsive and you can hardly stop. I think all artists are collectors of images.

Excerpt from an Interview [ART IN AMERICA, March-April 1971]

San Francisco

2008-03-13T11:40:00.001-07:00

San Francisco

2008-03-13T11:39:00.001-07:00

Louise Welsh

2008-03-13T10:09:00.000-07:00

"It was an envelope. Just a buff-coloured, thick-papered, document envelope. Straight away I knew it held photographs. I could feel them, the weight, the uniform size, photos not good enough for an album. Two thick rubber bands secured the folds, one pink, one blue. Pink for a girl. Blue for a boy. I pulled the bands off, slipping them tight round my wrist, they caught in the hairs of my arm, swift visions of mad nights. I kept them there, a taut reminder, and slid the photographs into my hand." -- From THE CUTTING ROOM by Louise Welsh (2002)

San Francisco

2008-03-10T10:52:00.000-07:00

Oakland

2008-03-10T10:49:00.000-07:00

San Francisco

2008-03-10T10:47:00.000-07:00

Dreaming in Pictures

2008-03-07T14:18:00.000-08:00

"I went to bed full of whiskey and frustration and dreamed about a man in a bloody Chinese coat who chased a naked girl with long jade earrings while I ran after them and tried to take a photograph with an empty camera." -- From THE BIG SLEEP by Raymond Chandler (1939)

Oakland

2008-03-07T12:08:00.001-08:00

Oakland

2008-03-07T12:07:00.000-08:00

San Francisco

2008-03-06T10:54:00.000-08:00

Oakland

2008-03-06T10:53:00.000-08:00

San Francisco

2008-03-03T15:42:00.001-08:00

Tokyo

2008-03-03T15:39:00.000-08:00

Oakland

2008-03-03T11:08:00.001-08:00

Context is Everything

2008-03-03T11:06:00.000-08:00

"When you put a frame around things, you intensify them. Experience without that frame is banal."
Jack Angstreich - from the documentary, Cinemania (2002)

Synergy, Maybe

2008-02-29T14:57:00.001-08:00

I'm, a big fan of soundtracks. So in an attempt at synergy, for the three pictures below and maybe for subsequent ones, I've included the titles of possible musical accompaniments. At any rate, it's stuff I like to listen to and you might too.

Oakland

2008-02-29T14:38:00.000-08:00

Jackie Gleason - Melancholy Serenade

Oakland

2008-02-29T14:37:00.001-08:00

Gnac - Winter Circus

Oakland

2008-02-29T14:36:00.001-08:00

Erik Satie - Pieces Froides {#2, Danses De Travers}

Tokyo

2008-02-27T13:07:00.001-08:00

Tokyo

2008-02-27T13:06:00.000-08:00

Tokyo

2008-02-27T12:58:00.001-08:00

Tokyo

2008-02-27T10:20:00.001-08:00

Secrets

2008-02-26T11:32:00.000-08:00

I've always liked to watch Polaroids as they develop. It's like a secret slowly being revealed, which makes me think of that Diane Arbus quote, “A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know." I read that Polaroid will be discontinuing production of all instant film by the end of this year. It will be the end of an era for secrets about secrets, slowly revealed. There's still the darkroom, though. But that's not quite the same thing as having a Polaroid in hand with your subject nearby and wondering how the two match up.

San Francisco

2008-02-25T12:56:00.000-08:00

Oakland

2008-02-25T12:54:00.000-08:00

Hakodate

2008-02-25T09:54:00.000-08:00

A Quote from Winogrand

2008-02-24T10:52:00.000-08:00

It always fascinates me - it bolloxes my mind, I mean, when people talk about photographs in depth, and what not, you know, when all a photograph does is describe light on surface. That’s all there is. And that’s all we ever know about anybody. You know, what we see. I mean, I think we are our faces and whatever, you know? That’s all there is, is light on surface.

- Gary Winogrand (in an interview with Bill Moyers)